Exemplar Business Plan –CIPS study centre applications

Please note: this plan is for guidance only, and should be adapted to suit your organisation and its context. Section 1 may not be needed, unless CIPS programmes are part of a wider offering within your organisation.

  1. Relationship with Master Business Plan and Strategies

The detail below is designed to fit in with, and support, the main strands of strategic planning and operational activity that we maintain and enhance continuously.

If accepted as a CIPS Study Centre, we would integrate the following actions and strategies into our mainstream planning activity, and ensure the CIPS courses are given equal priority as our other main qualifications, such as ......

Our view is that becoming a CIPS Study Centre will be a major asset to our business, and as well as becoming a high profile sector of our portfolio in itself, it will also enhance the credibility of the portfolio.

We will, as a matter of course, continuously and regularly liaise with CIPS representatives to ensure that CIPS remains a prominent element of our portfolio.

  1. Situation Analysis

In support of the information contained in this document, a situation analysis is shown here.

Strengths

  • Our organisation is an established and very experienced specialist in delivering professional development qualifications ......
  • Our tutors have, collectively and individually, considerable business experience, relevant academic qualifications, and substantial experience in supporting working professionals......
  • Our Recruitment/Admissions/ Student Support Services/IT systems are ......
  • We have an established and excellent reputation with the Awarding/Accreditation Bodies who provide the UK nationally accredited qualifications that we offer.
  • Our students have confirmed that the qualifications we provide and support add considerable value to their career and professional development progress.
  • Other......

Proposed Actions:

  • Continue to maintain focus on being a specialist distance learning provider.
  • Continue to continuously improving our support systems.
  • ......

Weaknesses

  • Currently not all relevant staff familiar with teaching CIPS qualifications.
  • Currently no relationships with CIPS branches.
  • ......

Proposed Actions:

  • Gather information on CIPS qualifications, and arrangecomprehensive briefing for CIPS Tutor Team/ Admissions/Student Services representatives.
  • Explore ways to create relationships with CIPS branches, in the UK and Overseas.
  • ......

Threats

  • Potential medium/long-term competition from......
  • Potential long-term impact of downturn in UK economy, leading to organisations withdrawing from releasing staff to attend classroom/workshop courses
  • Potential impact of reduced demand due to ......

Proposed Actions:

  • Include/take into consideration CIPS factors in our regular external environment scanning activity.
  • Maintain awareness of developments in other providers of CIPS qualifications
  • ......

Opportunities

  • Substantial enrolments appear possible, judging from the enquiries received recently, and confirmed by our research into demand generally for SCM and related professional qualifications.
  • Opportunities to target organisations – for example with Local Authorities/Municipalities and larger companies operating nationally or internationally.
  • To become a major provider of CIPS qualification courses.
  • Once firmly established as a Study Centre, to become an Examination Centre for CIPS qualifications.
  • ......

Proposed Actions:

  • Explore interest for CIPS qualifications in UK/internationally.
  • Market the CIPS portfolio in a focused, but aggressive manner.
  • Liaise with CIPS to develop maximum knowledge and expertise in CIPS qualifications.
  • Discuss with CIPS the possibility of becoming an Examination Centre.
  • ......
  1. Marketing

Identifying Demand

The majority of our marketing is carried out online, where research has shown that our potential students (mature, working professionals) search for courses and qualification providers.

The main channels are:

  • Website optimisation – natural rankings on Google, Yahoo, and Bing
  • Online Advertising – mainly through Google Adboxes
  • Entries in online Directories – UK and International (such as REED and CEED)
  • Social Media – LinkedIn, Google +, Twitter, and Facebook

These are very successful, as our target market is made up of working professionals who are seeking courses and qualifications to support their career and professional development activity.

Over the last year we have become increasingly aware of rising interest in supply chain management professional qualifications from our current and potential students (see below for profile).

This interest is displayed in:

  • enquiries from students who, on completion of other courses, ask for information on professional association/institute qualifications in this field
  • enquiries from potential students asking for information on professional association/institute qualifications in the SCM field

These enquiries are from individuals working in a wide range of business sectors and organisational types and sizes, public and private, in the UK and overseas regions such as the Middle East and Africa, with noticeable interest also from India and China.

Reasons for Demand

We believe this increased interest is due to a combination of the now well established and high profile requirement for professionals to show evidence of relevant qualifications and recent professional development, the uncertainty of job security in the UK and Europe, and the rapid economic growth that is taking place in certain regions of the world, for example in Africa and Asia.

Customers – Our Students

We expect our CIPS student profile to be similar to the existing profile of our students.

Our “students” are …………………………..[all working professionals, aged from 21 to 60+, in public and private sector organisations, currently located in ……..different countries, studying in English, with the objective of obtaining internationally recognised qualifications to enhance their career and professional development.]

Currently, ………% of our students are located in the UK, …….% in small groups in the other countries.

However, we forecast that alarger percentage of our CIPS students will be located in the UK, with the remainder likely to be expatriates or indigenous professionals working for UK based or Europe based organisations.

Forecast Enrolments

Year 1 February to December 2013

Level 4**

Level 5**

Level 6**

Year 2January to December 2014

We expect to increase the 2013 figures by 20%, though the spread across the Levels is more difficult to predict at this pre-launch stage

Budget Commitment

Our projected Marketing Budget for the CIPS qualifications is:

Year 1£***** February to December 2013

This will fund approximately £*** per month for Google advertising, with the remainder allocated to monthly online directory entries.SEO and Social Media marketing will not require an allocated budget as CIPS marketing will be integrated seamlessly and at virtually zero cost.

Year 2 and onwards will depend on performance, but is forecast to rise in line with our recent year-on-year increase of ...... %.

Courses Information

Comprehensive information on CIPS courseswill be displayed on ourmarketing website, as will links to CIPS itself. Specific course/qualification information and study materials for enrolled students will be available on our student portal......

Employer Relationships

As we provide study courses for individuals only, our relationships with employers is restricted to the employer of the individual student. However, those relationships are important to us, and, particularly through our Personal Tutors, we endeavour to create and maintain positive relationships with them.

CIPS Branch Relationships

We are committed to making contact with and building relationships with relevant CIPS branches, and will also strongly advise our students – who will be required to become CIPS members on enrolment with us –to make contact with their local CIPS branch and participate actively.

Competition

We have analysed potential competition in our local area/amongst other distance learning providers, and have identified ...... as competitors. However we are in a very positive position, whereby although on the surface it appears that we have many competitors, many of those are not in direct competition with us.

To explain:

  • firstly, as we specialise in providing qualification and development courses for mature, working professionals, we are not in competition with the majority of colleges and universities, in the UK or overseas,because......
  • secondly, as we specialise in online distance learning, we are not in direct competition with most mature-student classroom/workshop providers, as they usually recruit from relatively local areas, and, in addition, due to the negative effects of the economic recession, in the UK and Western Europe particularly, employers are increasingly reluctant to allow individuals to take time off from the workplace to attend workshops or classroom based courses.

OR

  • secondly, as we specialise in classroom/workshop-based provision, we are not in direct competition with other local providers because of our unique selling point, which is......
  • thirdly, ......
  1. Financial Stability

Overall Financial Status

Our organisation is financially healthyand growing steadily. Please see Annual Accounts, attached.

Funding of Courses

We do not receive, nor seek, any funding for any of our courses. All our courses are aimed at mature, working professionals, 21+, with course fees paid for either personally by the individual student or by their employer.

Course Fees

After researching a range ofprovider fee levels, we are planning to set course fees for 2013 at:

Level 4 Full £**** per Unit £***

Level 5 Full £**** per Unit £***

Level 6 Full £**** per Unit £***

These will be inclusive/exclusive of study materials (books & supplementary materials, study advice documents)/student portal/personal tutor support, but exclusive of CIPS examination fees.

However, the fee amounts may be amended once marketing is underway and responses are received from potential students.

Resources

Budget funding for the CIPS courses will come from ......

We will provide the following student resources......

Staffing

We have a team of qualified tutors in place (see Application Form and Tutor CVs in the Appendix).

  1. Commitment to CIPS

We are totally committed to providing a first class service to students of CIPS qualifications, in the ways described above and in the other Application documents.

To support this wecommit to:

  • each member of the CIPS tutor team, and a representative of the management team, becoming CIPS Members
  • releasing staff to attend annual CIPS tutor workshops and other relevant workshops
  1. Signature

Name of authorised person: *******************

Role or job title:

Date: