Solved by verified expert :Operations Plan
Product
creation and delivery
EZCar,
as an applications made for both Android and Apple devices, where the
applications will delivered to both two operating system at the same time to
increase customer awareness to the new products which eventually resulted in
high amount of downloads from smartphone users bridged by both Play Store from
Android and Apple Store iTunes. In terms of making the product, the company
will set up a small to medium scale business office to run approximately two
medium size servers, and hiring few staffs from software engineers, network
engineers, and data administrators. Software engineers will be responsible to
deliver the end product as expected and be able to launch updates of the
applications to improve the end user experience. On the other hand, network
engineers will handle the network manners from connection speed from EZCar main
server to customer smartphone and the security of the connection itself to
prevent data theft by third party who is seeking benefit from the action.
Lastly, data administrator will act as someone who keeps all the data in a precise
manner to provide engineers insight to improve the applications and provide
controls and risk management for the company itself. The application will
consist of several features with the target to expand two applications in
agreed period between developers.
1. Real time fuel prices
update and nearest gas station location
Customer will be given a
real time updated frequently fuel price where the fuel price will be gathered
throughout various gas station such as Shell, Caltex, and BP. Furthermore, by
accessing the smartphone GPS, the application will locate the nearest gas
station possible.
2. Car lock from mobile phone
As sometimes car
user forgot whether or not they have locked their car, with the connection made
with Bluetooth between the car and the application, the application will sense
if the car has not been locked yet and can send reminder to user to lock their
car using the application or even the car can be locked using fingerprint
scanner from iPhone 5s and Galaxy S5 where the car application will not allow
the car to be unlocked unless the fingerprint matched. If it requires someone
to open it, then a key access can still able to open, which will override the
fingerprint lock command and the application will send a notification to the
phone as well. This particular feature can be enable because a connection has
been made to the car, the application can remotely control the car using
Bluetooth connection although it is limited to 200M range.
3. Track my car
With the
connected phone and car, when user gets out from the car, by clicking remember
my car location, the phone will remember the last location of the car and the
application can turn on the tracker to see if there is any change to the
location of the car. Furthermore, the application can send notification if the
car has travelled specific kilometers from the last location where user can set
how many kilometers as a limit until the notification sent.
Distribution
Channels
As
an application for cars, EZCar will be distributed online via applications
stores such as Play store (Google) and iTunes (Apple). By using two mediums for
distribution, the company aims to have greater market share in the smart car
applications in mobile phone. Furthermore, as the apps itself will be distributed
through online store where it requires modern car with the latest infotainment
system that has the ability to generate data of the car to the car infotainment
system. Furthermore, it also requires an Internet connection and GPS capability.
Location,
Equipment needs
During
the early stage of the company, EZCar have its office and facilities in Sydney,
where EZCar will buy several high-performance PC as a workspace for software
engineers to work on improving the system and a small to medium size server to
hold all the log and user details of EZCar. Furthermore, the server should also
be able to hold simultaneous access to the data by customer and the company
will also ensure backup provided whether from another server running or through
outsource cloud backup using third party provider. The list below will give
further details on the equipment needed:
1.
2 Server to hold and exchange
data for customer in regards to storing data such as location and gas prices.
Other data will not require server as the exchange of data occur with the
infotainment system of the car and the smartphone itself. In addition, one of
the two servers will be used as a backup in case the other server is not
working.
2.
Internet connection in a
business scale to ensure data transfer occurs in a real time manner.
3.
5 Personal computers to
accommodate software engineers in developing the data and to administrate and
manage the data by data administrator.
As for the office location, EZCar choose
Macquarie Park area, precisely atMacquarie Park, NSW 2113.As the area has been
growing rapidly where many companies are residing in this area, such as Optus
and TPG, it hopes to give certain advantage in day-to-day operations of EZCar.
Furthermore, the office space were chosen also because its spacious and
considered fit for technology business. As the office does not require a wide
spacious space to contain many server or other heavy equipments, EZCar will
consider on using office space around 300-500 sqm2 with the
approximate cost around $250 per sqm2.
Labour
In terms of hiring people, as EZCar is an
online applications that requires minimal number of staff, the company will
keep a small intimate hiring staff where it consists of maximum 4 software
engineers who have the same passion to improving car applications and helping
out people to maximize their relationship with their car, 1 or 2 data
administrators who has the responsibility to overlook all data exchange and
manage all updates necessary on data being accessed by customer. Lastly, the
company will hire one external network engineers who will regularly come to the
site office to do routine maintenance and diagnostics of the company network.
In addition, the network engineer is also expected to come in an emergency
situation where his/her expertise is required to solve the problem company face.
Contractors
Requirements
To fully use the applications, the company
requires at least a Bluetooth connection to the car or even an Internet
connection from the car itself to communicate with the application.
Furthermore, it also needs a GPS device to enable the tracking program within
the application. In contrast, the mobile phone installed should have the same
requirements with the car to be able to access information provided by EZCar
about fuel prices and other features. Bluetooth is required to manipulate car
functionality within the smartphone. In addition, GPS is required to determine
the location of the smartphone and to triangulate the exact distance of the
smartphone and the car.
Risks
at each level and how best to mitigate these risks
In terms of developing new software, there
are several risks that have the likelihood to occur if not being handled
properly. The table below will list all the risks and the ideas or suggestions
to tackle the coming risks.
Risks
Control Procedure(s)
Security breach on server that can pull
out users data or manipulate information data being distributed to users
Ensuring that all server being encrypted
with high-level security. Network being used also implements high level of
security system. In addition, limitation on number of staffs that has the
access to the data can also reduce data theft.
On overall
operations plan, EZCar will increase its operations as the business grow larger
and have able to acquire more end customer through agreement with car
manufacturers or third party supplier. As the technology sector have a high
level of change in one year, the company will have regular feasibility study of
the current system which company executives and engineers can hand in hand
increase the system capabilities by adding extra equipment that can handle more
data. Upon designing and choosing all
the equipment, the company opts out to have its own dedicated server instead of
using third party cloud server database system, as using third party database
can increase the likelihood of security breach of data.
Reference(s):
http://www.realcommercial.com.au/property-offices-nsw-macquarie+park-501154259
