course project ryan allen week8 final

COMPUTER MANIACES E-COMMERCE BUSINESS PLAN

Computer Maniacs

E-commerce Business Plan

Ryan Allen

5/18/2015Web 320

Professor Scott Morrissette

1COMPUTER MANIACES E-COMMERCE BUSINESS PLAN

Table of ContentsBusiness Profile...........................................................................................................................................2

1.0 Executive Summary...........................................................................................................................2

2.0 Company Profile................................................................................................................................2

3.0 Market Analysis and Strategy............................................................................................................4

3.1 Competitive environment..............................................................................................................4

3.2 Market opportunity.......................................................................................................................4

3.3 Target market................................................................................................................................5

3.4 Competitive advantage..................................................................................................................5

3.5 Revenue model..............................................................................................................................5

Payment System Plan..................................................................................................................................6

1.0 Merchant Account/Payment Gateway..............................................................................................6

2.0 Shopping Cart System and Payment Transaction Software...............................................................6

3.0 Payment Transaction Software..........................................................................................................7

4.0 Secure Connection Method Selection................................................................................................7

Marketing Plan............................................................................................................................................7

1.0 Plan Objectives............................................................................................................................7

2.0 Market Summary.........................................................................................................................7

3.0 Website........................................................................................................................................7

4.0 E-mail...........................................................................................................................................8

5.0 Mobile Media....................................................................................................................................8

6.0 Social Media......................................................................................................................................8

7.0 Offline Media.....................................................................................................................................9

Security Plan..............................................................................................................................................10

1.0 Risk assessment.........................................................................................................................10

2.0 Security policy............................................................................................................................12

3.0 Implementation plan.......................................................................................................................14

4.0 Security organization.......................................................................................................................14

5.0 Security audit schedule..............................................................................................................14


Business Profile

1.0 Executive SummaryComputers these days are slowly being taken over by smart phones to do the usually day to day duties a desktop would do, but even with the bloom of smart phones we still need desktops and laptops. That’s where the crazy happy guys and gals at computer maniacs come into play based in New York City, NY there a large and wildly talented group that assist customers in PC questions, PC build suggestions, PC building, and even well made tutorial videos to aid in the do it yourself process for your PC. The company started three years ago and is popular with the computer world for its unique service along with the best customer service anybody could love, with this in mind Computer maniacs is already setting their eyes into the E-commerce world and expanding there know how to the world along with the help of other computer websites.

The mission of computer maniacs is to provide the best service to our customers with the best do it yourself help guides made by our own technicians, build the clients computer with the parts there provide us (with just the assembly fee to pay) or source the parts and build the computer for them based off what they want, and superb customer service on top of it all.

So far Computer Maniacs custom make their own Desktop cases, Ram chips, Keyboards, and mouse’s but are looking into adding more computer components to their line in the next 4 years. With the addition of the mother board, power supply, video cards, sound cards, and cooling units Computer Maniacs should see a 40% boast to sales.

For the idea for this company to succeed in the E-commerce world we would need

Targeted Advertising in the computer world Working with other online sites to sell our custom products like Newegg, Amazon, EBay,

etc… The best customer service with a grantee chance of repeat business Working with YouTube to post up our custom tutorial video’s

2.0 Company ProfileComputer Maniacs is a small company based in New York City, NY. Since 2013 the company has provided expert service to building the PC customers ask for along with helpful advice on how to put your PC together or troubleshoot any problems. The company also sells the right tools and parts you would need to maintain your dream PC along with a buy with confidence thanks to our good deals. The company also designs and makes their own custom desktop cases too along with Ram chips, Keyboards,


and mouse’s, so the customer has the option between our line of custom parts ad a reduce cost or what the customer provides.

Customer service is really important to us and we value every bit of feedback and suggestions, we want to be the first people customers call for a problem and always leave them happy. For the PC building process we ask five important easy questions

What Kind of PC you want (gaming, power, basic, or cheap)? By knowing what kind of PC you need we can find the list of parts needed to put it together or supply you the parts if you want to do it yourself.

What’s your budget? If you can’t spend more than a certain amount we can still help you find the parts within the budget.

Would you like for us to assemble the PC? If you would love for us to put together you’re PC. Would you like for us to assemble the PC with the parts you found? If you would love for us to

put together the PC with parts you’ve found. Or would you like to assemble the PC yourself with a helpful step by step Tutorial video? If you

want to do it yourself we would still send you a custom video making it as simple as possible for you.

Another feature we do too is selling parts, if you need a new Terabyte sold state drive we’ll have it for you at a good price along with a really good return or replacement policy and optional step by step video instructions to help install the new part to your PC and our technicians are also available on the phone if you have a question we would love to answer. Computer maniacs can be summarized into these words

Customer Service - we do everything we can to leave the customer satisfied and willing to come back for repeat business.

Perfect service – we want the customer to be 100% happy with their PC and have them come back for another one or parts.

Flexibly – we want to work with you, your needs, and your budget, if you need a cheap gaming computer we’ll work with you.

No middle man – with most of the parts (and more coming soon) created by us we try to cut out the middle man as much as possible allowing us to give you the best price.

The management behind this company Computer maniacs is pretty simple but strong which consists of

Mark Sheppard, CEO who has a master’s degree in Computer Science from Devry university, he also is a professional with computer hardware and used to work in a retail environment when he was in his teens.

Mary Cummings, CIO who also has a master’s degree in Computer Science from Devry university, she has a great understanding with computer hardware, software and has a great


understanding in the e-commerce field along with and other media, She also leads the IT department.

Hélène Pat, CFO, Certified Accountant Marco Poll, who has a Master’s degree in computer engineering from New York university and

the brains behind the custom hardware for the Ram chips, keyboards, and mouse’s, and future projects.

Jack Slate, Artist, The man behind the custom made cases for the desktop towers, keyboards, and mouse’s, a master fabricator, graphic artist and also familiar with PC’s.

3.0 Market Analysis and Strategy

3.1 Competitive environmentOne of the biggest challenges to this day still is finding that PC for you there’s many different manufactures to choose from along with the prices they come with, for a Gaming desktop they could range from $600 to around $5,000.00 depending on the power you want. Most of these manufactures do offer some customizing options like how much memory you would like for your computer, what kind of processor and more, along with great customer service.

The market for PC building is pretty competitive With Hewlett-Packard Co with 25.9%, Dell Inc. at 22.5%, Apple Inc. at 11.4%, Lenovo Group Ltd. at 8%, Acer Group With 7.9%, and other manufactures at 24.4%.

25.9

22.5

11.4

8

7.9

24.4Market Share of Computer Manufactures

Hewlett-Packard Co Dell IncApple IncLenovo Group LtdAcer Groupother manufactures

Figure 1. U.S. market share of Computer Manufactures.

3.2 Market opportunityA lot of people in the world today don’t know nothing about building PC’s and end up buying one from a retailer like best buy, but our objective is to make the PC building process easy by ether having us doing it for you with ease on you and your wallet or giving you the chance to build it yourself with the full help


from us. If you need a part replaced or upgraded we can also sell the parts needed along with the most detailed instructions on how to replace it so you can be a pro too.

3.3 Target marketThe target market for Computer maniacs would be for about anyone that wants a custom built PC but would be more focused on young adults in their early 20s to older adults in their late 40s, but mostly anyone with a fascination in computer hardware.

3.4 Competitive advantageWhile there are computer companies that have the option to change and alter certain things for your Desktop like Ram size or Hard Drive size, we have the full options to build the desktop from the ground up from the case to the motherboard you can have the PC of your dreams. By answering a few easy questions we can find the computer that would be right for you easily, you want a basic desktop but with a big solid state hard drive and 8 GB of Ram and for a cheap price we’ll find the right parts that could work with your price range since we custom make most of the components needed to build your PC.

3.5 Revenue modelComputer maniacs would have a booth showcasing custom made gaming towers along with our nice line of custom made desktop cases , computer parts and asseseries at gaming and electronic conventions like E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) and by showcasing the simple process we do along with the inventory of what we sell would boost our sales for gaming equipment . We would also showcase our goods and simple process at other tech conventions too.


Payment System PlanFor a custom PC building company like computer maniacs having a solid payment system is really important, fortunately I’ve done some looking around and found the perfect system for this company which would be BigCommerce. After looking through the website for BigCommerce I’m happy to use this e commerce platform for computer maniacs, and another thing to add about BigCommerce would be the price there are three different packages which is standard priced at $10.00 a month (was originally priced at $29.95 a month) and comes with the basics, Plus priced at $79.95 a month and comes with what you would get in standard but with more features, and Enterprise which is the highest package out of them all with a custom price tag to fit your business along with everything Bigcommece has to offer. Since this company is entering the E-commence world for the first time the standard package would be enough which would include

Unlimited Bandwidth Unlimited Storage Accept Credit Cards & PayPal Social media integrations Built-in blog Gallery of product images and videos Sell on Facebook with socialshop Amazon integrations supported Real-time carrier shipping quotes And Marketing & Sales tools

1.0 Merchant Account/Payment Gateway Vendor: PayPal powered by Braintree Justification: This was the recommended payment gateway BigCommerce suggests to use, and

is pretty simple to use along with these features o authorize-only/delayed captureo Fast transaction processing o 2-5 days for funds to appear in your accounto Can view both PayPal and Braintree orders o Fraud Protection

2.0 Shopping Cart System and Payment Transaction Software

Vendor: BigCommerce Justification: Full integration with PayPal powered by Braintree and since its PayPal it would be

familiar with anyone used to using PayPal from other sources.


3.0 Payment Transaction Software

Vendor: BigCommerce Justification: Works with the payment gateway with ease and takes credit cards as well as quick

setup in less than five minutes.

4.0 Secure Connection Method Selection

Method: BigCommerce uses a shared SSL by default

Justification: is the default method that’s used by BigCommerce which is encrypted and secure, but can have the option to purchases a dedicated SSL from BigCommerce.

Marketing Plan

1.0 Plan ObjectivesSo far Computer Maniacs custom make their own Desktop cases, Ram chips, Keyboards, and mouse’s but are looking into adding more computer components to their line in the next 4 years. With the addition of the mother board, power supply, video cards, sound cards, and cooling units Computer Maniacs should see a 40% boast to sales.

2.0 Market SummaryThe target market for Computer maniacs would be for about anyone that wants a custom built PC but would be more focused on young adults in their early 20s to older adults in their late 40s that participates regularly in e-commerce and m-commerce transactions, but mostly anyone with a fascination in computer hardware or the need for a PC.

Based off emarketer.com online Computer and consumer electronics e-commerce should see a 13.3% growth in the year 2016. The reason for this increase is the raise of networking and the need for computers between businesses small and big, and personal use like home computers and laptops. The biggest problem with computer shopping is finding the right one for the best price, between all the computer manufactures there’s a lot of choices to choose from like if you want power for a good price the Dell XPS series is a powerful line to choose from but what if you want a computer with a powerful motherboard, Ram chips, and Hard drive but with the rest being cheap to keep the price as low as possible then that’s where Computer Maniacs comes into play.

3.0 WebsiteThe Main company website, ComputerManics.com, will offer customers the following features:

Online Store


o Already made custom modals based on what you would be doing(gaming, basic, power, etc…), most of them would be available on other sites like eBay, Newegg, Amazon, etc… with the links on our main site

o “Build your PC” choose the kind of PC you want and select the parts recommended for that type of build (basic, gaming, or cheap)

o Shopping cart and secure checkouto “Do it yourself” a section dedicated to help the customer in do it yourself projectso Customer support and FAQ’s

Discountso Discount for first time shoppers of the parts storeo Discount for returning customers of the build your PC feature and memberso A special discount on the total of the PC build if a certain amount of Computer Maniacs

parts are used in the build

4.0 E-mailFor customers who signed up on the main website they would receive weekly emails to inform them of any new products on sale on the website or if there’s going to be a convention near their area with a Computer Maniacs both to try out there products, and at the same time our customers will have an easy way to opt-out of our emails.

5.0 Mobile MediaThe Main website for Computer Maniacs will have a mobile friendly version of the main site which focuses more on the building your PC feature, the do it yourself page with full tutorial videos, and the full list of all the parts they sell.

6.0 Social MediaThe social media strategy is important, to make it work Computer Maniacs would:

Have a Facebook page with the ability to sign into your Computer Maniacs profile with your Facebook account

Having our ads displayed on computer websites or places to buy parts like Amazon.com and Newegg.com

Have a YouTube page with helpful tutorials on computer building or other computer problems Being active in the Facebook newsfeed with new product info, product sales, and any special

events like a convention where a Computer Maniacs booth would be featured. Bigcommerce comes with SEO which we would use to rank highly in search engines like Google,

Yahoo, and Bing along with other features that come with Bigcommerce like o A built in blogo Microdata and reviewso And google shopping integration


7.0 Offline MediaComputer maniacs will continue to have a booth showcasing custom made gaming towers along with our nice line of custom made desktop cases, computer parts and accessories at gaming and electronics conventions like E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo)


Security PlanThe next important thing to talk about would be the security plan for computer maniacs, for starters were going to identify the critical business functions which would impact the daily operations of Computer Maniacs.

Table 1 shows the top critical business functions of Computer maniacs along with how severe it can be and the maximum downtime, and the maximum downtime is the break-even point which would mark how long it would take before that critical business function starts to lose money.

Table 1. Critical Business Functions

Function How important Maximum Downtime Website with database high 4 daysE-mail low 1 weekPayment System high 2 daysProduction of computer components

high 3 days

Shipping and Handling medium 1 week

1.0 Risk assessmentThe three types of risks that are a constant threat to Computer Maniacs ecommerce structure would have to be security risks, payment risks, and fulfillment risks, and to better understand the critical functions and what risk they fall under Table 2 rates them on a three point scale (low, medium, and high) along with more details of the chance of it occurring and the cost of it occurring.

The risk assessment matrix shown in figure 2 shows where each critical business function stands, the red is a high priority, the yellow is a medium priority, and the green is a low priority. The vertical axis represents cost of occurrence, and the horizontal axis is chance of occurrence.


Table 2. Results of Risk Assessment

Risk Critical Business Function

Chance of it happening The cost

(1)SECURITY:Website’s breeched by a hacker or virus, loss of vital customer data

Website with database

high HighLegal trouble while losing a valued customer.

(2)SECURITY:Servers are damaged and need to be replaced

Website with database, Payment System, email

medium HighWebsite functions are down until new servers are operational.

(3)PAYMENT :Payment problems

Payment system low medium

(4)PAYMENT:Fraud

Payment System medium low

(5)FULFILMENT:Problems with the products (not working or the wrong product)

Production of computer Components

medium HighAngered customer due to defective or wrong computer part which could result in the loss of that customer.

(6)FULFILMENT:The order is delayed due to slow production

Production of computer Components

medium medium

(7)FULFILMENT:Problems with shipping, the customer order is delayed or hasn’t arrived.

Shipping and Handling

medium medium


High cost2,5

1

Medium cost3 6,7

Low cost4

Low chance Medium chance High chance

Figure 2. Risk assessment matrix. Risks in green areas are low-priority, those in yellow are medium-priority, and those in red are high-priority.

2.0 Security policyAccording to the risk assessment matrix in Figure 2, Computer Maniacs will accept the risks in the green area (3and 4) the yellow area (6 and 7) and the red area (5) and handle the cases themselves. In the mean time Computer maniacs will mitigate the other risks that weren’t mentioned before (2 and 1).

After reviewing the risks from table 2, the company decided to let the risks 1 through 4 be handled by Bigcommerce, with its use of hacker deterrent security provisioning, three redundant network architectures, hardware firewalls and the extra measures in place to help with fraud.

Table 3 shows off the risks, the priority, the decision to mitigate or accept the risk, and the measure that would be taken if this risk were to happen.


Table 3. Management of Risks

Risk Risk Priority Decision Measure Taken(1)SECURITYWebsite’s breeched by a hacker or virus, loss of vital customer data

High mitigate Handled by Bigcommerce

(2)SECURITYServers are damaged and need to be replaced

High mitigate Handled by Bigcommerce

(3)PAYMENT Payment problems

low mitigate Handled by Bigcommerce

(4)PAYMENTFraud

low mitigate Handled by Bigcommerce

(5)FULFILMENTProblems with the products (not working or the wrong product)

high accept Send the proper product or a working one by two day shipping for free, and offer a discount the next time they shop on the store.

(6)FULFILMENTThe order is delayed due to slow production

high accept Contact the customer and explain the problem with the order and offer them a discount on their next order.

(7)FULFILMENTProblems with shipping, the customer order is delayed or hasn’t arrived.

medium accept Track the package and inform the customer of the status, if package doesn’t arrive and is reported lost send the customer a new package by two day shipping for free.


3.0 Implementation planFor the risk plan most of the risks would be managed by our dedicated customer service department that’s already used to handle our basic customer issues, but in the case of a major problem the customer service department will get boosted in staff to help with the increase number of customers.

4.0 Security organizationComputer Maniacs at the moment is a small but growing company. With the combined effort of Mary Cummings our CIO and Hélène Pat our CFO they will ensure that the companies IT resources and business remains on track and our financial goals stay on track. Now if our financial goals aren’t meeting the required amount, then our CIO Hélène Pat would have a meeting with Marco Poll and Jack Slate to come up with new computer parts and styles that would bring in more revenue and reach our financial goals.

5.0 Security audit scheduleFor the audit schedule both the IT and financial sectors would be performed quarterly, and social media marketing efficacy will be assessed monthly. By following this security audit schedule Computer Maniacs will grow and branch out into a reliable great computer building company, along with maintaining the security of our company and at the same time our customer’s needs.


References

The Associated Press. (2012, October 3). Top 5 manufacturers of personal computers in 2Q. Retrieved May 2015, from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-5-manufacturers-personal-computers-2q-220442280--finance.html

BigCommerce. (2003). Main Website for BigCommerce explaining the features. Retrieved May 2015, from https://www.bigcommerce.com/pricing/

Ecommerce platforms. (2015). Top Ecommerce Platforms & Shopping Carts. Retrieved May 2015, from http://ecommerce-platforms.com/comparison-chart

eMarketer. (2014, April 11). US Retail Ecommerce Sales Highest for Computers, Consumer Electronics. Retrieved June 2015, from http://www.emarketer.com/Article/US-Retail-Ecommerce-Sales-Highest-Computers-Consumer-Electronics/1010759

http://ecommerce-platforms.com/comparison-chart

https://www.bigcommerce.com/pricing/

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-5-manufacturers-personal-computers-2q-220442280--finance.html

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-5-manufacturers-personal-computers-2q-220442280--finance.html

course project ryan allen week8 final

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