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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- Internet connection in a business scale to ensure data transfer occurs in a real time manner.
- 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 at Macquarie 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.
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