By:Group 4 DEBRA MARKOS UNIVERSITY
1. Introduction Advancements in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have completely transformed our life. Internet has become a technology without which it is difficult to survive now. Internet is also used to share information and communicate with people who are geographically apart. This is why we are motivated to develop educational platform that helps students to study their class without attending to classrooms. There are many applications of (ICT) technologies in education. Technologies and services under this categories include e-learning, digital learning, simulation software, Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Competency Management Systems (CMS). All these technologies together make the process of providing quality education much easier and faster. LMS is usually deployed in educational institutes where it can facilitate the interactions between teachers and students more efficient. With the help of this technology, teachers can share coursework related information with their students, upload course documents, homework assignments and initiate online discussions. On the other hand, students can create their own study groups, post questions and comments in discussion forums and upload/submit assignments/homework. Teachers can track the progress of a student online. All these facilities improve the quality of communication and in turn education. This also reduces a lot of administrative overhead since all the information is stored online. CMS is similar in concept to LMS but it is mostly deployed by businesses. Many businesses, especially the consulting firms whose business model depends upon knowledge workers and their skills, need to manage the competency of their employees. Usually such businesses promote advanced learning and skills development among their employees by integrating learning and development as the part of their performance management systems. Next we will discuss the details of our organization which we are going to develop a business plan.
1.1 Company Name The Company will be named “Bright -Educators Inc.”. As its name refers the company would be a private corporation company with limited shares. The capital of the company would be get from bank loan, private shares and partner’s funds.
1.2 The name and Address of partners List of Members who have participating in developing the Business plan and Formulation (creating) this new Organization are listed below. Name of Entrepreneur
Address
PhoneNumber
1. Tsegaye Andargie__________DMu____0921574409 2.Yeshiwas Mekonnen________DMU____09184569844 3.Gelila Zeleke______________DMU_____0900000000 4.Hululanch Abenet__________DMU______0000000000 5.Alemnesh Enyew__________DMU_______2345645545 We all as a team will work together hard to make this company the most leading Educator in Ethiopia.
1.3 Nature of Business Bright-Educators would primarily focus on providing educational technologies, specializing in management software like LMS (learning management system) and CMS (competency management system) to schools and universities and businesses in Ethiopia. At the same time, Bright-Educators team would focus on developing web based LMS and CMS applications which can be used by educators to improve the interactions between teachers and students and to improve the operational efficiency. Company Information: “Bright-Educators Inc.” would be privately owned company, with it’s headquarter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The company will be a virtual organization and all the associates of the company would function in a virtual team format, meaning that associates would work from geographically different (because it is web based). Company’s Mission, Vision and Value:
Mission: - Bright-Educators mission is to become Ethiopian number one provider of Information and Communication Technologies to the education industry and be known for providing best in class web application products to increase the efficiency of education institutes. Vision: - Bright-Educators vision is to transform the efficiency of education process in Ethiopia by introducing them to new information and communications technologies. Bright-Educators would help their customers improve the efficiency and quality of education. Value: - Love and respect for students, growth and continuous learning are the principle values in which Bright-Educators strongly believes.
1.4 Financial Statement As we plan the company would be started with a capital of Birr half million (500,000) which will be raised from partners, bank loan, private shares and Sponsors. We the developers as the owner of this company have a responsibility to collect this much capital from the providers before we got started organizing our company. This much money is required for equipment’s such as
Computers Severs Licensed Software’s Build facilities and building of the main Organization Programming tools Hardware facilities for Audio and video Capturing(audio-visual equipment) Testing and Deploying rents which will be paid to Ethiopian Telecommunication. Advertising cost Web based Advertizing – using facebook,and Google which will cost around $20(384 birr) TV and radio Advertizing-using ethiopain television and radio brodcationg agensy which will cost around 5,000 birr. On magazines-on top magazines which are available in Ethiopia.
1.5Confidentiality of the report The document is confidential and proprietor to the developers. It may not be circulated or disclosed in whole or part without the written permission of partners. This system is neither hack-able nor editable without the proper permission of the owners. Anybody which use this system in any electronic retrieval system without proper permission will be asked by Ethiopian Intellectual law of patent. But Plans and projections are subjected to change since the system is always on change and upgrade and anyone who has proper permission can upgrade the system time to time.
2. Executive Summary In order to better understand our business organization we have divide executive summary of the business plan in to the following. The company Mission and Vision are also included in this business plan which are listed above. 2.1 Strategic Goals : Bright-Educators is a startup company. The short term goal of Bright-Educators is to establish itself in the industry with at least 10 stable customers in the first two years of operations and provide a steady cash flow for the company to enter the growth period within 3 years of its operation. Once Bright-Educators has a portfolio of a good number of satisfied customers, approximately 10-15 large coaching universities and colleges and 3 – 4 higher education institutes, it would shift its focus towards gaining the market share by focusing more on marketing and business development. 2.2 Products and Services: Bright-Educators would primarily focus on providing educational technologies, specializing in management software like LMS and CMS to schools and universities and businesses in Ethiopia. Initially, to provide for some cash flow and build the credibility in the market, Bright-Educators would do consulting projects and freelance projects. At the same time, Bright-Educators team would focus on developing web based LMS and CMS applications which can be used by educators to improve the interactions between teachers and students and to improve the operational efficiency. 2.3 Target Customer: Ethiopian education industry is the primary customer of Bright-Educators. Ethiopian education industry is mainly categorized in two markets; formal and informal markets. Formal market is the one that provides
formal education to students i.e. KG-12 and higher education systems. Informal education industry is the one that supports formal education market. This includes pre-schools, coaching classes and vocational training class, ITC in education market and books for education. 2.4 Marketing and Sales strategy : Bright-Educators would primarily target the customers through the owner’s personal contacts. At the same time, BrightEducators would provide access to the trial (testing) version of our software free of cost for first one month trial. Bright-Educators would also provide enrollment of first 30 students free to these customers. This would enable customers to test the product and provide feedback.
We also use Advertising using TV and Radio to announce Ethiopian Educational organizations customers that such a business has already started. 2.5 Competition:- Even though there are many organization which develop some software for may purposes there is no organization who develop application software’s for educational purpose in Ethiopia. 2.6 Company Management : Company’s management team includes experienced, highly focused and dedicated team of professionals, who have proven track record in the ICT industry which is us the owners.
Owners of the Organizations are also managers of the organization since we are ICT professionals. 2.7 Financials: The first few months of the operation would go in development of the product. The company does not expect to sell much in this time, except for consulting services which is not considered as company’s core business. Most of the initial investment brought in would be used by the 8th month of operation. Company would start making positive income by 9th month of its operation when it gets a real paying customer. The company would start making positive profit after completing almost a year of operations. 2.8 Stage of Development: Bright-Educators is still in the conception phase and has not actively started working on this project. Bright-Educators estimates that it would take us six months to come up with viable commercial product in the market. Bright-Educators does not anticipate starting selling before September 2007 Ethiopian calendar.
3. Industry Analysis 3.1 Market Review As mentioned earlier, Bright-Educators would primarily focus on making education delivery easy for educational institutions and businesses through the use of ICT technologies. This section would give more details about the size and attractiveness of market and would define the target market for the business.
3.2 Future Outlook and Trends The introduction of such organization will improve Ethiopian Education one more step from is state. Even though more Ethiopians in urban areas are very close to computers and digital Electronics but they are not using this devices for educational Purpose. Mostly they simply use this devices for entertainment. But after we develop these Educational software’s f uture outlook of Ethiopian education might be improved. Future Outlook of Our Organization If we succeed on in the market and get enough profit we will improve our organization to developing software application for multi-purposes not education only. So our company will be the one and only most trusted education empowering industry in Ethiopia. We will also start producing hardware products which will also improve educational status and life standards of Ethiopians. Industry Size and Trend Ethiopian education industry is the most not invested institutes. The entire industry is not much enough related to the population. In the last 20 years the industry is facing its own growth issues since democratic systems are related to free Education for all by the Ethiopian government.
3.3 Trends in Education Industry: The government regulations is the biggest issue as far as the growth of formal market is concerned. Similarly, scalability is the major concern in informal market. Despite these growth issues in the Educational markets, Ethiopian education industry is showing some positive trends such as adoption of technology is
increasing, online and correspondence courses are rising in vocational education market providers.
3.4 Analysis of competitors As we said above there is no competitive organization in Ethiopia who is developing Educational software Platforms. But they will emerge through time since improving in technology will intern increase the need of digital education. But we will provide best customer care services to be trusted by any organization or Educator in Ethiopia by letting organization to try our services for free for at least one month any they will buy or not as the want. Competitor removal
We will come up with foreign country professional guests to improve our services which increase customer trust on us.
3.5 Market Segmentation The market of this company will be all over the county (Ethiopia) because anybody who have a computer and access to a network can start trying our system. After they try our service the can come to our main office and buy the full software or pay online and buy the software. Although, primary customers are generally categorized as any educational institution, providing education services to their students, this section further classifies customers in various segments as below
Coaching and vocational classes: coaching classes mainly refers to subject based tutoring in schools, universities and colleges. Higher education institute Small/Medium size businesses: Small and medium size businesses is another line of customer which requires their employees to build their competency and map the competency to job descriptions.
4. Size of the Business 4.1 Products and services We develop software’s that empower education that is why we are more interested on services than products. This does not mean we don’t have any product, we have the following products
Learning management System(LMs) Software Competency Management Systems (CMS) software
Services
Providing trial of our software to different organizations Providing online learning website by agreeing with the Ministry education of Ethiopia. Providing special trainings and educational programs for Coaching and vocational classes. Provide simple software that educate employees of a specific Small/Medium size businesses. And so much more as the need of different organizations…
4.2 Size of the Business The business shall be off a small size initially with less than 10 customers in the total organization. Because our system is not a hardware producing company, it only produce a software package for educational purpose only this intern decrease the number of employees. However the company shall be expanded to a medium or large company through time since technology is emerging towards education in this generation.
4.3 Office Equipment and Personnel Equipment’s and personnel that the organization require are listed below on the following table.
*All the prices are listed in Ethiopian birr. No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11
Description Desktop computers Laptop computer Guest chair Server computer Filling cabinet Paper and Storage device cabinet Tables External Hard Disk Flash Drive Paper, pen and elementary staff tools Operating system and D/f software’s
Quantity 4 2 3 1 2 1
Unit Price 5,000 16,000 200 20,000 2,000 1,000
Total Price 20,000 32,000 600 20,000 4,000 1,000
3 1 2 -
200 3,840 200 1000
600 3840 400 1000
6 elements which are d/f
Totally 150
150
Total
83590
Quantity 1 2 4 1
Monthly pay 5,000 800 4,000 4,000
Annual pay 60,000 19,200 192,000 48,000
1
800
9,600
total
27,400
328800
Man Power requirement No 1 2 3 4
5
Description CEO Secretary programmers Software troubleshooter and testing Communicative officer and market searcher
4.4 Background of the Entrepreneur
