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Business Plan
MECB/MECT 2007 Business Plan 2007 ‐ 2010 MSc in E‐commerce Dublin City University Practicum Report and Web‐Based Service by Daragh Barrett Aidan Proctor Fitzsimons David Strobel Ting Zeng 06/08/2007 Declaration: We the undersigned declare that the project material, which we now submit, is our own work. Any assistance received by way of borrowing from the work of others has been cited and acknowledged within the work. We make this declaration in the knowledge that a breach of the rules pertaining to project submission may carry serious consequences. Acknowledgements We have been very fortunate to receive the help and advice of so many during the time we prepared this business plan. In particular Dr. Theo Lynn our supervisor who gave his time, energy and valuable advice. Also Dr. Cathal Gurrin our technical supervisor. Especially, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our families ‐ committed and loving mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers ‐ and friends. We are very grateful to you for giving support and making the rich experiences and academic achievements of the last years possible. We love you very much. We would like also to thank Prof. Darach Turley ‐ DCU, Prof. Alan Smeaton ‐ DCU, Fingal County Council, Mervyn Colville ‐ Glasnevin Cemetery, David Fanagan ‐ Fanagan Funeral Directors, Bernadette Marks ‐ Swords Heritage Centre, Dympna Coleman ‐ Director of RIP.ie, Brian Donovan ‐ Eneclann, Elaine Collins ‐ Findmypast.com ‐ 2 ‐ Contents CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................................... 3 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF APPENDICES ..................................................................................................................................... 5 SECTION 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 7 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 7 PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ............................................................................................................................ 7 THE MARKET ............................................................................................................................................. 8 OUR STRATEGY .......................................................................................................................................... 9 STAFFING.................................................................................................................................................. 9 FINANCIAL SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 10 SECTION 2 INDUSTRY OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................ 11 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 11 MARKET FOR DIGITISATION AND ARCHIVING IN CEMETERIES ............................................................................. 12 MARKET FOR GENEALOGY RESEARCH AND ANCESTRY INFORMATION SERVICES ..................................................... 15 MARKET FOR ON‐DEMAND SOFTWARE ........................................................................................................ 17 MARKET FOR WEB SERVICES ...................................................................................................................... 19 OFF‐SHORE DATA ENTRY ........................................................................................................................... 20 MARKET TRENDS ..................................................................................................................................... 21 MARKET OPPORTUNITY ............................................................................................................................. 22 LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT SOLUTIONS ......................................................................................................... 22 GENICONNECT’S INTEGRATED APPROACH ..................................................................................................... 26 ADOPTION BENEFITS ................................................................................................................................. 27 POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS OF THE CONTENT SYNDICATION PROGRAMME .............................................................. 30 KEY IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES ............................................................................................................ 32 SECTION 3 PRODUCTS AND SERVICE OVERVIEW ...................................................................................... 33 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 33 DIGITISATION AND ARCHIVING SERVICES ....................................................................................................... 34 ON‐DEMAND CEMETERY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE ...................................................................................... 36 CONTENT SYNDICATION PROGRAMME ......................................................................................................... 38 PREMIUM SERVICES .................................................................................................................................. 40 SECTION 4 BUSINESS STRATEGY .............................................................................................................. 41 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 VISION ................................................................................................................................................... 41 OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................................................. 41 CORE COMPETENCIES................................................................................................................................ 41 STRATEGIC MODEL ................................................................................................................................... 41 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS ........................................................................................................................ 42 STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS ......................................................................................................................... 43 BUSINESS MODEL .................................................................................................................................... 43 SECTION 5 SALES AND MARKETING ......................................................................................................... 44 5.1 5.2 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 44 ROUTES TO MARKET ................................................................................................................................. 45 ‐ 3 ‐ 5.3 5.4 NUMBER OF SALES ................................................................................................................................... 46 COMPETITOR PROFILES ............................................................................................................................. 48 SECTION 6 TECHNOLOGY ........................................................................................................................ 52 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 OVERVIEW IT INFRASTRUCTURE .................................................................................................................. 52 SCOPE .................................................................................................................................................... 52 SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE ............................................................................................................................. 53 KEY FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY ............................................................................................................. 57 SYSTEM COMPONENTS .............................................................................................................................. 58 IT‐INFRASTRUCTURE CAPACITY ................................................................................................................... 59 RECORD DIGITISATION .............................................................................................................................. 62 BENEFITS OF SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE IT‐INFRASTRUCTURE .............................................................................. 65 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................................... 65 SECTION 7 MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATION ..................................................................................... 67 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................................................ 67 BOARD OF DIRECTORS ............................................................................................................................... 67 LEGAL .................................................................................................................................................... 68 STAFFING................................................................................................................................................ 68 OFFICES ................................................................................................................................................. 69 SECTION 8 FINANCIAL OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................... 70 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 70 FUNDING ................................................................................................................................................ 70 REVENUES .............................................................................................................................................. 72 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ............................................................................................................................ 74 SECTION 9 APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................... 77 List of Figures FIGURE 1 – NUMBER OF ICT INITIATIVES IN IRELAND ........................................................................................................ 13 FIGURE 2 – OVERVIEW OF CEMETERY FUNDING .............................................................................................................. 14 FIGURE 3 – PAGE VIEWS OF GENEALOGICAL RELATED INFORMATION SERVICES ...................................................................... 17 FIGURE 4 – OVERVIEW SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE INDUSTRY ............................................................................................... 19 FIGURE 5 – TRADITIONAL DIGITISATION AND ARCHIVING ................................................................................................... 22 FIGURE 6 – TRADITIONAL CEMETERY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE ........................................................................................ 23 FIGURE 7 – TRADITIONAL RECORD SYNDICATION ............................................................................................................. 24 FIGURE 8 – FINDMYPAST.COM RECORD ACQUISITION CRITERIA ........................................................................................... 26 FIGURE 9 – CENTRAL INDUSTRY POSITION OF GENICONNECT ............................................................................................. 26 FIGURE 10 – OPERATIONAL BENEFITS OF ON‐DEMAND CEMETERY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE ................................................ 29 FIGURE 11 – POTENTIAL USER S OF RECORD WEB SERVICES .............................................................................................. 30 FIGURE 12 – DIGITISATION PROCESS ............................................................................................................................. 34 FIGURE 13 – CONTENT SYNDICATION THROUGH WEB SERVICES ......................................................................................... 38 FIGURE 14 – OVERVIEW MARKETING SPENDING ............................................................................................................. 44 FIGURE 15 – SAMPLE PAYOFF CALCULATION FOR CEMETERY CUSTOMER ............................................................................. 45 FIGURE 16 – GROWTH OF DATA PROVIDER AND DATA SUBSCRIBER VOLUME ....................................................................... 47 FIGURE 17 – GROWTH OF RECORD VOLUME .................................................................................................................. 47 FIGURE 18 – PROFILES OF DIGITISATION AND ARCHIVING COMPETITORS .............................................................................. 48 ‐ 4 ‐ FIGURE 19 – PROFILES OF CEMETERY SOFTWARE PROVIDERS ............................................................................................. 49 FIGURE 20 – CONCEPTUAL ARCHITECTURE ..................................................................................................................... 53 FIGURE 21 – RECORD MANAGEMENT THROUGH WEB SERVICES ......................................................................................... 53 FIGURE 22 – SYNDICATION OF RECORDS THROUGH WEB SERVICES ..................................................................................... 54 FIGURE 23 – DATABASE MODEL ................................................................................................................................... 56 FIGURE 24 – ON‐DEMAND CEMETERY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FUNCTIONS ..................................................................... 57 FIGURE 25 – SERVER BENCHMARK SPECWEB2005 ......................................................................................................... 59 FIGURE 26 – SERVER BENCHMARK SAP SD 2‐TIER .......................................................................................................... 59 FIGURE 27 – IT‐CAPACITY ........................................................................................................................................... 60 FIGURE 28 – PREDICTED DEVELOPMENT OF DATA TRANSFER ............................................................................................. 61 FIGURE 29 – RECORD DIGITIZATION .............................................................................................................................. 62 FIGURE 30 – PRODUCTIVITY ATIZ BOOK DRIVE ............................................................................................................... 63 FIGURE 31 – COSTS OF SCANNING PER CEMETERY ........................................................................................................... 63 FIGURE 32 – OFFSHORE DATA ENTRY PROVIDERS ............................................................................................................ 64 FIGURE 33 – COSTS OF DATA ENTRY PER CEMETERY ........................................................................................................ 64 FIGURE 34 – ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE ................................................................................................................... 67 FIGURE 35 – DEVELOPMENT NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES ...................................................................................................... 69 FIGURE 36 – FUNDING OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................ 70 FIGURE 37 – DEVELOPMENT REVENUES BY SERVICE CATEGORY .......................................................................................... 72 FIGURE 38 – DISTRIBUTION OF SALES BY SERVICE CATEGORY ............................................................................................. 72 FIGURE 39 – DEVELOPMENT REVENUES PER DATA PROVIDER ............................................................................................ 73 FIGURE 40 – PROFIT AND LOSSES ACCOUNT ................................................................................................................... 74 FIGURE 41 – CASH FLOW STATEMENT ........................................................................................................................... 75 FIGURE 42 – BALANCE SHEET ...................................................................................................................................... 76 List of Appendices APPENDIX 1 – SEARCH VOLUME AND NEWS REFERENCE VOLUME ....................................................................................... 77 APPENDIX 2 – GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGINATION OF GOOGLE QUERIES ..................................................................................... 77 APPENDIX 3 – NUMBER OF CEMETERIES IN IRELAND ......................................................................................................... 78 APPENDIX 4 – ITIF BROADBAND RANKINGS – TOP 20 OECD COUNTRIES ............................................................................ 79 APPENDIX 5 – COST OF DIGITISATION ............................................................................................................................ 79 APPENDIX 6 ‐ LIST OF DIGITISATION PROJECTS ................................................................................................................ 80 APPENDIX 7 ‐ LIST OF ONLINE MEMORIAL AND GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION WEB SITES ....................................................... 82 APPENDIX 8 ‐ LIST OF FUNERAL SOFTWARE SERVICES ....................................................................................................... 85 APPENDIX 9 ‐ LIST OF POTENTIAL CHANNEL PARTNERS ..................................................................................................... 87 APPENDIX 10 – PROJECTED PROFIT AND LOSSES BY MONTH .............................................................................................. 88 APPENDIX 11 – PROJECTED CASH FLOWS BY MONTH ....................................................................................................... 91 APPENDIX 12 – PROJECTED COST OF SALES .................................................................................................................... 93 APPENDIX 13 – PROJECTED DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER NUMBERS ................................................................................. 94 APPENDIX 14 – PROJECTED COSTS OF RENT ................................................................................................................... 96 APPENDIX 15 – PROJECTED OFFICE COSTS ..................................................................................................................... 97 APPENDIX 16 – PROJECTED FIXED ASSETS ...................................................................................................................... 98 APPENDIX 17 – PROJECTED BALANCE SHEET BY MONTH ................................................................................................. 101 APPENDIX 18 – FINANCIAL STATISTICS OF SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE COMPANIES .................................................................. 104 APPENDIX 19 – US DEATH PROJECTIONS BY STATE ........................................................................................................ 105 APPENDIX 20 – PRICING OF FUNERAL SERVICES ............................................................................................................. 106 APPENDIX 21 – ONLINE MEMORIAL SERVICES............................................................................................................... 107 ‐ 5 ‐ APPENDIX 22 – OVERVIEW IT AND OFFICE COSTS .......................................................................................................... 108 APPENDIX 23 – ARTICLE TECHNOLOGY IN FUNERAL HOMES ............................................................................................. 109 APPENDIX 24 – ARTICLE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS IN THE FUNERAL INDUSTRY ........................................................................ 112 ‐ 6 ‐ Section 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Introduction GeniConnect is an Irish company based in Dublin. GeniConnect develops and markets a full digital workflow solution for cemeteries. This process will involve digitisation of current burial records, inputting their records into our cemetery management software and monetizing the records through our content syndication programme with external third parties in particular genealogy websites. GeniConnect will initially concentrate on promoting and marketing our services in the UK and Ireland. Each new customer adds significant value to our business model, as the size of the record database and its quality increases concurrently. 1.2 Products and Services GeniConnect develops and markets digital workflow solutions for cemeteries. In order to acquire death records, the company offers web based software services to cemeteries, which allow its users to administrate, organise, store and edit data about customer relations, death records and contractors through a Software as a Service oriented architecture. Revenues are generated through a combination of digitisation and archiving fees from record providers and monetizing the digital records through licensing the data to third parties. Products and services are separated into three main categories. • Digitisation and Archiving Services Our digitisation and archiving service will provide cemeteries with the ability to digitise their current burial registers. We will use the latest in digital scanning technology to digitise current paper based burial registers. Our professional service will insure the preservation of the documents. This service can be carried out on location or off‐shore. We will provide a data entry service so the digitised archives can then be inputted into our On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software. • OnDemand Cemetery Management Software GeniConnect will operate Software as a Service based web applications for cemeteries. Through this secure digital online application, our initial market offering will allow service providers in cemeteries to store, edit and upload digital archived records. Future development of the service will provide management functions such as CRM and accounting solutions. This service will be offered for free to customers participating in our content syndication programme. • Content Syndication Programme A subscription based service, which allows cemetery service providers to interact in new ways with external information service providers. GeniConnect will offer a secure online content syndication programme to licence data sources to external information service providers. As part of our content syndication programme cemeteries will have the option to be a content supplier and share in the ‐ 7 ‐ revenues generated from it. Our research suggests high interest exists for such data by genealogical information service providers, governmental institutions (electoral registrars) and service providers dependent on death records (financial institutions and Marketing companies). “Newspapers, books, manuscripts and archives have for decades been filmed at public expense, in order to protect them from the endogenous deterioration of paper, or from other causes of damage which threaten books and archive material, and to ensure the permanence of the information they contain” European Commission on Preservation and Access GeniConnect’s Digital Workflow Process GENIP RESERVATION GENIO ND EMAND GENINETWORK 1.3 The Market There are currently in excess of 2,000 cemeteries In Ireland, the majority of those keep records in paper based burial registers. In the U.K. there are in excess of 20,000 burial authorities and similar to Ireland burial records are kept in paper‐based registers. Market Number of Cemeteries in UK & Ireland Approx. 22,500 Average No. of Records per cemetery Total Number of records Approx. 20,000 440,000,000 ‐ 8 ‐ 3 Year Market Penetration Forecast Year 1 2 3 % Target (UK & Ireland) 0.2% 0.7% 1.5% No. of Cemeteries 40 155 330 No. of Records (Content Syndication Programme) 205,000 1,655,000 4,147,500 Genealogy research is experiencing an increasing trend towards the digitisation of death related information. These digitised records have lead to the advent of one of the top internet activities, genealogical research. While, formerly research and records has been undertaken by heritage centres, onsite at cemeteries or in library institutions, ancestry research today is heavily supported by internet services and has reached the status of the most popular hobby in the world. It is estimated that about 4‐5 million people in the U.S. alone are actively tracking their family roots. Current Internet site Legacy.com has 7 million users which they have successfully monetized from providing death record information. Also the Generations Network own both ancestry.com (including ancestry.co.uk) and myfamily.com have annual revenues of over $200 million. The UKs top ranked site genesreunitied.co.uk has 2.5 million registered users and more than 30 million records. In 2004 the number of people visiting UK family history websites increased by 6.6% in the year to January, from 1.5m to 1.6m. UK based sites include Findmypast.com, Thegenealogist.co.uk and Familyrelatives.com (over 400million records). At the same time, cemeteries and heritage centres are experiencing a lack of continuous funding for business resources and are struggling to finance maintenance and operation of their services. 1.4 Our Strategy GeniConnect’s strategy is to penetrate the market and expand its position through the following strategies • Offering a complete digital workflow solution to cemeteries • Develop a comprehensive content syndication programme • Focus on initial market penetration both in Ireland and the UK • Continuous research and development of services to meet market needs 1.5 Staffing The company intends to grow its current management team from 4 employees in 2007 to 17 employees in 2009. We aim to take advantage of the partnership with Arizona State University and DCU Invent centre which will give us access to an office on their campus. We will establish an office in Asia that will oversee our offshore data entry operations, run by Ting Zeng. ‐ 9 ‐ 1.6 Financial Summary This business plan is provided (a) to support the placement of 10% of companies share capital to an investor (b) to apply for funding from the European Commission within the framework for Cooperation Work Programme 2007‐08. A total amount of €350,000 is needed in order to establish the business model and generate profits of €0.58m and overall operational revenues of €2.23 million by year 3 of operation. Financial Overview Revenues Year 1 €48,500 Year 2 €891,000 Year 3 €2,234,750 Cost of Sales €28,777 €360,422 €769,024 Gross Margin €40,87% €59, 55% €65,59% Total Expenditures €269,305 €703, 247 €998,340 Profit and Losses €(224,179) €(99,924) €578,083 Cumulative Profit and Losses €(224,179) €(324,103) €253,980 ‐ 10 ‐ Section 2 Industry Overview 2.1 Introduction As Britain and Ireland have been the primary sources of English speaking, Christian Anglo‐Saxon world migration for the past 300 plus years of history, these countries are the global starting point or final destination in the trace for family history. A huge amount of heritage related information with an enormous depth of recorded history can mostly be found by intensive research in libraries and with the help of local heritage centres. Google Trends show the development of search volume, volume of news references and origination of Genealogy related search terms (Please see Appendix 1 and Appendix 2). One can see that predominantly queries originate from New Zealand, Australia, the U.S, Ireland, Canada, South Africa and the UK the majority, all English speaking countries which trace their ancestral origins to Ireland and the UK. Accordingly cemeteries in England and Ireland are the industry segment with the most valuable record information for our business model. In order to gain access to record data, GeniConnect will offer a full digital workflow solution for cemeteries. This process will involve digitisation of current burial records, inputting their records into our cemetery management software and monetizing the records through our content syndication programme with external third parties in particular genealogy websites. GeniConnect will initially concentrate on promoting and marketing our services in the UK and Ireland. Each new customer adds significant value to our business model, as the size of the record database and its quality increases concurrently. As an overview, the global funerary industry is valued at $16 to $24 billion dollars annually according to a report by the National Funeral Directors Association in 1997. Another research source estimates the amount spent on funeral services and their related expenses at $21.6 billion annually worldwide.1 The U.S. funerary industry includes 15,000 companies that generate about $15 billion of annual revenue from the operation of 16,000 funeral homes and 7,000 crematoriums and cemeteries. 2 The UK funerary industry we estimate to be worth in the region of £stg1 billion3 per year. In comparison the Funerary industry in Ireland is estimated to be worth €200 million annually according to the largest funeral Director Fanagan in based in Dublin. David Fanagan numbers the average costs of a funeral in Ireland at the moment at a price of €6,000.4 1 http://www.casketstores.com/News.htm 2 First Research, Funeral Operations Industry Profile ‐ April 2007 3 No of Deaths per year 512,700*£2048 Average cost of funeral in UK, 2000 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/699435.stm) ‐ 11 ‐ 2.2 Market for Digitisation and Archiving in Cemeteries The case for Digitising and Archiving Burial Record Registers Currently our research suggests that many burial registers in Ireland and the UK are still being updated manually in paper‐based registers. This is an inefficient way to store valuable and important heritage information. The two main reasons why registers should be digitised are preservation and accessibility. I. Digitising burial registers will protect records from theft, loss, fire, destruction and deterioration. A digital archive will provide a back up. This will guarantee the preservation of the records and valuable national heritage information. II. Registers are large; searching through large registers is inefficient. Digitising the records allows them to be easily indexed. Providing easy access to records. III. Digitisation will allow for monetization of the records through web services Irish Market There are three types of cemetery ownership in Ireland, public cemeteries, private cemeteries and cemeteries owned by the church. Public cemeteries are managed by the local authority either city or county council. There is no record of precisely how many cemeteries there are in Ireland due to the fragmented nature of ownership. Ray Bateman (irishgraves.com) estimates there to be 200 cemeteries in the Dublin area (includes both currently in use and no longer in use). Each local authority appoints a caretaker to look after an individual cemetery and its record keeping. From market research we carried out the majority of these caretakers update burial records in a paper‐ based register/ledger. They do not have a database or a software application to manage their data. Our research suggests there are approximately 2,000 cemeteries under local authority management in the Republic of Ireland. UK Market According to the Home Office 2004 report “Cemeteries and their Management”5 there is estimated to be 20,534 burial authorities in the UK. In 2005 there were 512,700 registered deaths in England and Wales6. The breakdown of authorities is similar to Ireland. There are four main types of burial authorities in England and Wales. The Church of England, the Church in Wales, local authorities and private burial authorities. Religious organisations who own their own cemeteries record burial records in a paper‐based register. Many groups archive their records with the County Archive or archives specific to their faith 4 Interview with David Fanagan, Dublin ‐ June 2007 5 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/rdsolr0104.pdf 6 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D9523.xls ‐ 12 ‐ group. A generally responsible attitude toward archiving is said to exist, especially in groups conscious of their historical roots. Estimated Record Volume Number of Cemeteries in UK & Ireland (approx): Average No of Records per cemetery (approx): Total Number of records: 22,500 20,000 440,000,000 Additional Records entered per year Number of deaths in Ireland (2005)7 Number of deaths in England & Wales (2001)8 Total Number of records entered per year 27,441 512,700 540,111 Record management Local Authorities appoint caretakers for cemeteries. Each caretaker is responsible for a cemetery register/ledger which they are required to keep up to date. In some cases such as Fingal County Council and South Tipperary County Council (from 2001 on) the local authority keep a set of their own records. Our research has indicated that the vast majority of records are manually written into a register. Registers are stored in a variety of places including caretakers’ houses, storage facilities, at churches and in temperature controlled strong rooms. Registers can be exposed to damp, cold and inappropriate care. In some cases these registers have been lost due to lack of care. Mr Gerrard McCarthy, a caretaker for St. James's cemetery at Tochar in Co. Cork, told us that he and other colleagues have been requesting a simple computer system to input their records as they still write in each new entry manually which adds to an ever increasing amount of paper work, "We use 19th century technology" he explained.9 Figure 1 – Number of ICT initiatives in Ireland Organisation Fingal County Council Project Outline Currently investigating cemetery software solution for 34 cemeteries under their management Laois County Council Developing an in‐house pilot database project, for Mountmellick cemetery, to store burial records Dublin Cemeteries Committee They manage Glasnevin Cemetery and have spent the last two years developing cemetery management software to record over 1.5 million records. They have received €22.5 million over the next ten years 7 2005 Central Statistics Office Ireland, births deaths and marriages, http://www.cso.ie/statistics/bthsdthsmarriages.htm 8 2001 National Statistics, http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/Nscl.asp?ID=6444&Pos=1&ColRank=1&Rank=166 9 Interview with Mr Gerrard McCarthy, Caretaker for St. James's cemetery, Tochar, Co.Cork ‐ July 2007 ‐ 13 ‐ through the National Development Plan and the Irish Government to restore the cemetery for 2016 (1916 centenary). Included in the restoration plans are the continued digitisation of records.10 Please see Appendix 6 for an overview of current digitisations projects. Figure 2 – Overview of Cemetery Funding Cemetery/Local Authority Fingal County CoCo11 South Dublin CoCo12 Cork City Council13 0Mayo CoCo14 Donegal CoCo15 West Norwood Cemetery UK16 Aberdeenshire Council UK17 Bath and North East Sommerset Council UK18 Total Budget for Cemeteries €1,391,100 €1,620,000 €1,200,100 €572,500 €45,000 £20,000 (spent on digitizing records) £199,350 £158,000 10 Interview with Mr. Mervyn Colville (IT manager) Glasnevin Cemetery – July 2007 11 Fingal CoCo Annual Budget 2007, http://www.fingalcoco.ie/RecentPublications/FileDownload,6078,en.pdf 12 South Dublin CoCo Annual Budget 2007, http://www.sdublincoco.ie/sdcc/departments/housing/publications/pdf/SDCCStatutoryBudget0710012007.pd f 13 Cork City Council, Annual Budget 2006, http://www.corkcity.ie/ourservices/finance/pdf/budget06/managers_report.pdf 14 Mayo CoCo Annual Budget 2007, http://www.mayococo.ie/en/PublicationsandForms/FinancialDocuments/PDFFile,4586,en.pdf 15 Donegal CoCo Annual Budget 2004, http://www.donegal.ie/dcc/budget2005/extract.pdf 16 West Norwood Cemetery Committee 2007, http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/moderngov/Published/C00000318/M00005653/AI00002110/310107WNCSOMmi nsdraft.pdf 17 Aberdeenshire Council Budget 2007, http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees/files_meta/802572870061668E8025729E004F3F48%5CLandsc ape%20Maintenance%20Budget.pdf 18 Bath & North East Sommerset, Budget 2004, http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/Finance/BudgetBook/2003/Resources1.htm ‐ 14 ‐ 2.3 Market for Genealogy Research and Ancestry Information Services Overview According to the Scottish Tourist Board, Ancestral Research is generally considered to be the fastest growing pastime in the Western World. 19 The National Genealogy Society (America) states that "Family history is now the second‐most popular hobby in the United States, after gardening." 20 The percentage of the U.S. population interested in family history has increased from 45% in 1996 to 60% in 2000 according to a marketing report released in 2000. The poll conducted by Maritz Marketing Research Inc. also showed that about 35 million people in the U.S. alone use the Internet for family history research.21 One reason for the increasing interest in genealogical records can be attributed to the general ongoing trend in the digitisation of record data, including death related personal information by public and private institutions and organisations. The Irish General Register Office for example is since 2003 in the process to digitise life event data. Under the modernisation programme a new information support system for civil registration, will standardise, simplify and enhance the registration of life events such as birth and death certificates throughout the country. New electronic registers will replace the existing paper‐based registers, and existing historic data is being captured electronically.22 Market for Ancestry Information Services WordVitalrecords.com in December 2006 had visitors originating from 117 unique countries. In February 2007 the number had grown to 141 unique countries, revealing an increasing trend in the renewed global interest in ethnic and racial heritage. Today, the popularity of family ancestry research is generally recognized globally as the largest leisure activity in the world. The online service Geneology.com further found in a study that 35% of Americans have used the Internet to learn about their family history and almost a third (29%) had created a family tree. 15% of respondents did travel to an ancestral hometown or country and 11% had written a personal or family history. 30% of respondents claimed that they want to learn about themselves and their family heritage. Other reasons mentioned (15%) included creating a legacy to pass on to future generations and still others (14%) were enticed by the excitement of all they could discover.23 19 http://www.ancestortravel.com 20 http://www.ngsgenealogy.org 21 http://www.maritzresearch.com 22 Interview with General Register Office Ireland, http://www.groireland.ie ‐ June 2007 23 MyFamily.com Research Study, Survey Sampling Inc ‐ February 2005 ‐ 15 ‐ On the debut of a web site offering genealogy contents of Ellis Island, 450 million hits were recorded in its first three weeks originating mostly from family researchers who were scanning records of the millions of people who landed on Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924. Market for Online Memorials This online submarket is increasingly finding popularity among Internet users. Multiple providers, ranging from small, with a couple of hundred online memorials, up to large ones with over 10,000 online memorials can be identified. Smaller sites such Gateofrememberance.com and Virtual‐ memorials.com are poorly designed and offer basic services. Large providers such as Legacy.com are better organized and monetize up to 7 million monthly visitors successfully. For Legacy.com the success factor has been the integration of an obituary provider network in partnership with U.S. newspapers. Prices of online Memorial Services are ranging from being free, to $50 for a year subscription and up to $250 for a lifetime subscription. Our research suggests that quality of online memorials is not correlated to price differences. According to Gus Nichols, spokesperson for the Irish Association of Funeral Directors, funeral traditions in Ireland have changed drastically over the last years. In the same manner as other rituals, such as wedding and birth, funerals are also a mirror of changes in society. People are looking into different ways to bury and remember their loved ones. The trend to move to digital forms of remembrance is no surprise at all and is expected by GeniConnect to grow even stronger over the next decade.24 Other services currently finding their way into the online market are innovative product services such as the Memorial Medallion or Vidstone.com. The Memorial Medallion is a handheld device that can be connected digitally to a gravestone to display detailed record information. In close partnership with mostly military graveyards new mobile information services are being offered to visitors to find out more about the departed. Vidstone.com is a U.S. based Internet company which markets a personalized video screen system for headstones. It serves an exclusive and small niche market in the U.S for video headstone remembrance technology.25 24 Rte Television ‐ The Afternoon Show ‐ Changing Trends in Funeral Traditions 25 Interview with Glenn Toothman Junior, Founder of Memory Medallion ‐ June 2007 ‐ 16 ‐ Figure 3 – Page Views of Genealogical related Information Services legacy.com myfamily.com geni.com The development of web traffic to genealogical information services shows that older sites such as legacy or myfamily.com have seen a drop in popularity, whereas new services such as Geni.com are experiencing fast growth in web traffic. There seems to be a shift to sites with new innovative technology and service offerings. Please see Appendix 7 for an overview of genealogical information and online memorial web sites. 2.4 Market for OnDemand Software On‐Demand Software as a Service applications are software applications that run on a hosted server machine by a service provider and made remotely accessible to clients via a browser based user‐ interface. Employing a distributed client/server approach enables users to run processing and capacity intensive applications on their existing web hardware without the need to upgrade or experience performance derogations. Software as a Service architectures (SOA) are mostly realized by using a combination of the standardized extensible Mark‐up Language (XML), Web Service technologies based on the Simple Object Protocol (SOAP) to exchange data and the Hypertext Protocol (HTML) for the presentation in the browser application interface on the user’s computer. Content management and database applications do particularly benefit from using SOA architectures, as their underlying data structures are multifaceted, can exhibit complex relations to multiple service providers at the same time, are acquired in a fragmented fashion and possess a necessity for integrity and secure processing. ‐ 17 ‐ Drivers of adoption Economies of scale to the operation of applications are a main reason to adopt an On‐Demand Software Solution. A hosted SaaS provider can handle functions such as maintaining data integrity, offering stronger security standards and enables multiple user management capabilities with more efficiency than client based software solutions. This results in lower internal IT costs for maintenance, operation, training and development. The wide distribution of browser applications leads to an easy adoption of a hosted solution. Therefore, a lower learning curve is needed to educate and train information workers on the new SaaS system. In addition to cost savings, work tasks can be uniquely distributed to external users such as volunteers and less IT savvy users. The Internet has become a commodity. In the past application licenses were proprietary cost drivers. SaaS enables long‐term reductions in IT costs, complete reliance on one‐fits‐all solutions for all work tasks in the process chain and the provision of an IT infrastructure that can easily be adopted to more sustainable future e‐commerce scenarios. Standardization is advantageous as it is more user friendly. Efforts to centralise combine & integrate data sources among different governmental institutions, service and information providers are being supported. SaaS enables a customized offering to clients, while maintaining the benefits of comprehensiveness in business logic. A hosted application can instantly reach the entire market. Specialization within a vertical market is easily achievable as SaaS providers can often deliver products that meet their markets’ needs more closely than traditional “shrink‐wrap” vendors could. Web systems have reached a degree of reliability and accessibility comparable to offline client systems. Capabilities such as more advanced database management, specialised IT personnel and continuous improvement outweigh traditional providers. The employed security standards are transparent and industry trusted. Technologies such as the Secure Socket layer (SSL) in combination with the Hypertext Protocol (HTML) are widely accepted and enable a way of operating distributed applications without the complexity and burden of end‐ user configurations. Market Growth Following Moore's Law for Processor Speeds, Wide Area Network's bandwidth has grown drastically (more than 100% increase every 24 months) and is about to reach slow local network bandwidths. In addition to network quality and service improvement, this has driven people and companies to access remote applications and locations with low latencies and acceptable speeds. According to IDC, enablement technologies that allow other vendors to quickly build Software as Service applications such as Web Services will be important in driving adoption of SaaS based solutions. ‐ 18 ‐ Industry watchers estimate that annual Application Service Provider (ASP) spending by U.S. organizations by 2003 will range from a low of $2 billion to a high of $22.7 billion. Harvard Business Review author Nick Carr says that the SaaS model adoption has been growing at well over 20% year over year and is expected to grow further.26 A recent report by McKinsey & Co. shows that 61 percent of CIOs at North American companies with sales over $1 billion are already planning to adopt one or more SaaS application. Deutsche Bank projects that the SaaS market will account for half of the application software spend by 2013. 27 Gartner predicts that SaaS will triple in size to $19.3 billion by 2011 from $6.3 billion in 2006. Also Gartner recommends that service providers should prepare as fast as possible for the Software as a Service shift.28 International Technology Consultant Jeff Kaplan states that SaaS adoption is underrated by analysts, reasoning that the success of companies like Salesforce.com should be enough to convince even the most sceptical critics.29 Figure 4 – Overview Software as a Service Industry SaaS Industry Market Size Avg. yearly growth rate Avg. Adoption rate 2006 $6.3 billion 20% 35% E 2011 $19.3 billion 20% 79% 2.5 Market for Web Services Using a Service‐oriented architecture and Web Service technologies to integrate applications, automate processes and data exchange is of high value to any business. While the SOA approach has been already widely embraced as a more flexible and adaptable way to build complex enterprise systems for large companies, small companies have begun to see the benefits for themselves. For smaller businesses, smaller units of functionality can be effectively recombined in different ways, rather than having to rely on fixed functionalities of application packages. The SOA approach allows software written in any language to advertise the services it offers on a network such as the Internet and connect into other software services between business partners. Relying on the standards and specifications for invoking functions on remote computers with messages formatted in XML, and using other Internet technologies, Web Services and SOA have gained acceptance as a way to exchange data previously trapped in legacy systems and isolated databases. The new IT architecture supports the integration of business processes as linked services or repeatable business tasks, helping to make applications and databases available as "Services," and leveraging mechanisms such as extensible Mark‐up Language (XML) to facilitate the sharing of information. 26 http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/11/cio_interest_in.php 27 http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/11/cio_interest_in.php 28 Gartner Press Statement, CRM Directory – March 2007 29 SMB News, SaaS adoption rate by SMBs underrated – March 2007 ‐ 19 ‐ Digital content management and distributed record accessibility is more and more becoming an integral part used at all stages of the value chain of traditional and e‐commerce related businesses. While the first step of data aggregation can be successfully handled by client software applications, increasing demand to reuse data in other applications and to monetize the value of intellectual property suits the characteristics and nature of a service‐oriented architecture. Popularity in Industry According to a survey by a study from Baseline Magazine in May 2006 IT specialists in companies show an extraordinarily high satisfaction rate with Web Services (90%) and SOA (86%).30 They mentioned the facts that these technologies aid process improvement enable process innovation and foster information integration among different providers. In a study by AMR Research released in November 2006, 35% of executives said their companies had implemented one or more projects using SOA.31 Another survey published this February by CIO Insight, found that 79% of 179 technology executives expect their company's technology architecture to be based on Service‐oriented software, Web Services and related technologies within the next five years.32 2.6 OffShore Data Entry According to Agrawal et al (2003), in 2002 business process off shoring was worth approximately $35 billion, it is predicted to have a 30‐40% growth rate, valuing the industry at over $100 billion by 200833. Off‐shore data entry is being used by many companies to take advantage of low cost, high quality services offered in countries such as Cambodia, India and China. There is a continuing trend to outsource data entry operations. Friedman (2006) 34 gives us an example of some of the projects that have been outsourced to Digital Divide a data entry company based in Cambodia. The Harvard Crimson newspaper, Harvard’s undergraduate daily newspaper, digitised their archives to make them available on‐line. The process they used involved converting old articles from microfilm to digital images they then transferred the digital images to Digital Divide by ftp. The data from the digital image was then entered straight onto their system. Workers work in pairs, each typing the same article and a computer system checks for errors. Other organisations such as NGO’s outsource data entry to Digital Divide to get the results of their surveys about health, family and labour conditions digitized. 30 Baseline Magazine, Emerging Technology Study ‐ May 2006 31 AMR Research, SOA Pace Accelerating Into 2007 ‐ November 2006 32 CIO Insight, Survey Shows More Evidence of Trend Toward Online Storage – February 2007 33 Agrawal, V, Farrell D, Remes, J, (2003) Offshoring and Beyond, McKinsey Quarterly, Issue 4, pp24‐35 34 Friedman, T (2006), The World is Flat, The Globalized World in the Twenty‐First Century, pp449‐453, Penguin ‐ 20 ‐ Companies are taking advantage of data entry expertise in countries such as China and India. This allows companies to concentrate on their core competencies while keeping their costs low. Data entry companies provide services such as data extraction from any format including hand‐written copies, scanned images and typed copies. These include also publications of E‐books and E‐zines, handling of medical and telecom billing records, database maintenance and real time data entry. It is widely acknowledged that outsourcing data‐entry operations to off‐shore has many benefits for companies. Lower costs, increased efficiency, access to skilled manpower and high quality technologies increasing productivity.35 2.7 Market Trends GeniConnect aim to capitalize on a number of trends: • The adoption of information technology in cemeteries, including software management systems. • The increase in digitisation of valuable historic documents by cemeteries and heritage agencies. • The increasing improvement of low cost digitisation technologies, specifically scanning technologies. • Low storage costs for digitised data. • Increased funding available for digitisation projects. For example Cooperation Work Programme 2007‐08 initiated by the European Commission.36 • Reliable and low cost offshore data entry services in countries such as China and India. Such services are easily connected into workflow practises taking advantage of network technologies. • The increasing adoption of Software as a Service and the benefits it offers. • The continuing interest, growth and demand in Genealogy over the Internet. • Increasing broadband penetration, adoption of digital media and increasing use of virtual social networking services. (See Appendix 4 – ITIF Broadband Rankings – Top 20 OECD Countries) • The constant need for genealogists to qualify data and reference data back to source documents. • Growing demand for data scrubbing and identity verification services 35 http://www.go4customer.com/data‐entry‐outsourcing.htm 36 European Commission ICT Work Programme 2007‐08, ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/fp7/ict/docs/ict‐wp‐2007‐ 08_en.pdf ‐ 26th February 2007 ‐ 21 ‐ 2.8 Market Opportunity The current opportunities in the market for GeniConnect’s services are made possible because of the underserved cemetery market and the lack of innovative focus. Detailed in this section are the current offerings in the markets place and GeniConnect’s offering detailing benefits of adoption. 2.9 Limitations of Current Solutions Digitisation and Archiving Figure 5 – Traditional Digitisation and Archiving Limitation of Current Digitisation and Archiving Solutions Prohibitive Cost Current Digitisation services are costly to implement especially for cemeteries who traditionally receive little funding. Propriety Rights Digitised projects result in the data being owned solely by data owners, preventing re‐use for monetization purposes Closed Systems System software is not interlinked in order to share digitised documents. Lack of funding The UK market is more developed with some local authorities providing funding to cemeteries for digitisation projects. However the majority of cemeteries still have no back‐up of their paper‐ based registers. Unrealized Potential Monetization possibilities with other third parties are currently ignored. A low incentive to invest in hardware and software for a single cemetery exists as the monetization of a single dataset to a single data provider is of low value and not feasible Limited Preservation Most if not all cemeteries in Ireland have no back‐up of their burial record registers. The registers are subject to deterioration, loss, theft and fire. Neglected market Very few digitisation companies target the cemetery market, due to its unattractive nature. Because digitisation efforts are not standardized within countries, counties or even cities, the process is ‐ 22 ‐ inefficient and costly. Geographically Limited Access to Records Provision of non‐digitised records is restricted, as record providers are reluctant to hand over book archive and ledgers to external providers for scanning. OnDemand Cemetery Management Software Figure 6 – Traditional Cemetery Management Software Limitations of Current Cemetery Management Software High Fragmentation of Software Providers Highly fragmented with localised, small software developers serving customers on a regional level Low Differentiation of Service Offerings Low degree of differentiation of products across the industry. The offered price models are user and computer centred. The software is mostly distributed as a client based database application, comprehensive in functionality but without any notice of customizability. High Costs of Operation Cemeteries lack the funding to adopt costly solutions offered by the market. Once adopted they have no real option to change the system or provider as inputted records are bound to the proprietary application. Functionality Overflow Software packages are “One Fits All” solutions. The application functionality cannot be customized to the needs of individual users. Compartmentalization & Limited‐Data Re‐use Restriction of use for data records within the proprietary software application. Data records cannot be integrated with other applications or service providers. Intellectual Property rights on data are lost, as systems only allow complete binary access to data files. Limited Customer Support Customer support is standardized. Software packages are mostly supported by phone. ‐ 23 ‐ Content Syndication Programme Figure 7 – Traditional Record Syndication Limitations of Syndication for Record Providers Single Subscription Model Short‐term Profit If data has been digitised, access is to the most part licensed exclusively by a single record subscriber. Managing multiple subscribers is complex, as data files are made available without restrictions and usage limits. Selling data records without limitation of usage, restrictions on access control or viewing quota but rather as a one‐time fee, foregoes sustainable revenue opportunity in the future. One‐time licence fees limit the potential for record providers to increase viewer ship of records and interest in genealogy content. Geographically restricted Record Availability Digitised records are to the majority made available by record providers to geographically close record subscribers. These sites tend to provide more specific content, but are also less popular and accessible worldwide. Examples are systems in heritage centres, government institutions and proprietary publishers, all reluctant to promote or make available data to a larger audience. Lack of Funding and IT Capabilities Significant difference in IT capabilities of cemeteries. These range from cemeteries without any existing IT infrastructures to highly advanced and strongly funded ones due to IT modernisation projects in certain areas. Limited Marketing Potential Unaware to the popularity of genealogical related e‐commerce and demand for record data, cemeteries lack the expertise and resources to find valuable partnerships for the syndication and commercialisation of record data. Limitations of Syndication for Record Subscribers No Comprehensive & Central Data Sources GeniConnect’s research shows that the market for genealogical records lacks comprehensive providers for record information. This is due to the fragmentation of record providers, non‐uniform record sources, lack of access to non‐digital data sources, and diverse ‐ 24 ‐ format of data content. Dependence on Voluntary Contribution Services currently rely on voluntarily record contributions by industry insiders and professional or amateur genealogists. Discontinuity of Data Records Record data is limited to certain regions, time periods and is dependent on the diverse offer in record ledger formats, digital file systems and availability. IT Infrastructure Requirement Data Subscribers are forced to increase their server capability as they licence complete data sets. Performance capability of the total database will decrease significantly with each additional record source. Unverified Data Source Data subscribers do not know data integrity of voluntarily contributed records. An Example: Information Service Provider FindmyPast.com The UK based genealogy website Findmypast.com has two main models for acquisition of records37 1. Digitisation projects carried out by the company themselves, for example census list and civil registration projects. A royalty payment is made to the record provider and findmypast.com own the intellectual property rights on the new indexes and transcriptions that they created. 2. Where the digitization or indexing has already been completed by a third party findmypast.com will licence their data for a higher royalty, distributing a share of the revenue directly attributable to views of the dataset concerned. Findmypast.com has also had a complete buy‐out, for example, when they acquired the assets of the site known as the National Archivist. This gave them rights to all the data and images that they had created, but with an ongoing liability to pay a royalty to The National Archives for use of certain Crown Copyright images. Elaine Collins commercial director of findmypast.com states “It is paramount to us to acquire further records that complement our service and meet our customer expectations to allow us to differentiate our service from other competitors” she also expressed interest in our business plan and said they are particularly interested in Irish records. Below is a table of criteria for record acquisition that findmypast.com use. 37 Information provided by Elaine Collins, commercial director of findmypast.com ‐ August 2007 ‐ 25 ‐ Figure 8 – Findmypast.com record acquisition criteria • • • • Number of records Appeal Dates covered Exclusivity • • • • Accessibility Significance of dataset Level of detail Availability of images • • • • • • PR value Customer demand • • Geographical focus Commercial terms • • Cost of and likely return on investment Level of development required Quality of indexing or transcription Whether they are core to a family historian or more esoteric Complimentary to our existing offering Whether the acquisition cements further strategic relationships 2.10 GeniConnect’s Integrated Approach Figure 9 – Central Industry Position of GeniConnect Software for the management of funeral data is offered by various providers. However, the majority of these solutions are system dependent, not standardised, not globally available or distributed and do not offer location independent access. GeniConnect's On‐Demand Software as a Service solution will be the first in the market to let cemeteries in the very small business segment (VMB) and small business segment (SMB) take advantage of service capabilities and financial benefits, companies in bigger industries already enjoy. In addition to the availability of funding for the digitisation of records and the high demand for comprehensive easy to use management software, benefits of the On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software Service are that local authorities can use our service and enable all their caretakers to have access via the web to application services. Current competition only offer a client based on premises installed software version. Since most local authorities do not actually physically ‐ 26 ‐ hold the records it makes more sense for the caretakers to be enabled with software they can access from anywhere. It also reduces the costs for a local authority as expensive software will not have to be purchased for each cemetery. 2.11 Adoption Benefits New Business Propositions of GeniConnect’s Integrated Service Offering Free On‐Demand Management GeniConnect provides the first offering of free On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software. Using their Internet connection, users can access On‐Demand management applications, worth a couple of hundred dollars by competitors, for free. This allows cemeteries to use software services they may have seen previously as too costly to consider. The total operating costs of the On‐ Demand Software Solution is far less expensive than client based solutions currently in the market. Improvement Back Office Management Functions Caretakers can access record data via any web connection. This means that they can work from home and are continuously informed about the volume of record data. Accessibility through search and browsing capabilities are improved significantly in a database application and will help local authorities to access records much more speedily i.e. for numerous genealogical requests they experience. Existing data record sets can be exported more easily. Back Office functionality improves operation efficiency due to lower costs of maintenance and easier search functionality. Digitisation and Archiving By availing of our Digitisation and Archiving Service cemeteries can preserve their valuable heritage information. Paper‐based burial record registers will be preserved digitally. Existing data in digital form can be imported into the On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software. Cemeteries no longer have to worry about paper preservation issues of ledgers a couple of centuries old. Improved Archiving As records are stored securely at a central location, they are no longer subject to loss. Currently cemeteries do not possess the resources, capabilities and planning to account for all records they possess. The archiving process is not documented and depends on the expertise and knowledge of people such as priests or genealogists. GeniConnect’s secure data environment can be administered location independent by more than one user and is available for future staff. New Monetization and Funding Opportunities GeniConnect offers a new revenue source for cemeteries through monetization of death record data to multiple external subscribers. Each time external subscriber accesses record information 50% of ‐ 27 ‐ access fees are shared with the providing cemetery. These revenues are highly needed for support of other operational activities. Increased and Comprehensive Record Access Record subscribers gain easy low cost access to basic genealogical information, which has not yet been digitised and made available elsewhere. GeniConnect’s Content Syndication Programme uniquely gives access to multiple sources of content, without any additional subscription fee or licensing related negotiation efforts. With each additional On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software customer, the volume of accessible and up to date data contents is growing as well. Easier Integration Standardized Web Service technologies enable subscribers to integrate records into existing service offering without any additional need of system development. Extension of Record Use Identity theft costs $48 billion to businesses in the US per year.38 In the UK identity theft is reported to cost the economy £1.3 billion. The UK marketing association estimate over 22 million items of direct mail are sent to deceased persons each year.39 This problem occurs in many different businesses. GeniConnect Content Syndication Programme is diverse and flexible in how record data is re‐used. For example it can provide a reference for businesses needing to check if a person is deceased. 38 Franchise Tax Board, State of California, http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/id_theft.html 39 Equifax Press Statement, Id Fraudsters Don’t Have Feelings – April 2005 Funeralwire.com, Making Technology Profitable, Todd Abram and Duane Goodnight – April 2002 ‐ 28 ‐ Figure 10 – Operational Benefits of On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software Operational Benefits of On‐Demand vs. Client Based Software Lower Software Distribution and Deployment Costs Software can be acquired with no up‐front fee. SaaS reduces support costs by eliminating the need for in‐house expertise and 24x7 monitoring. No Client/ Server Software Installation or Maintenance No need to maintain and update IT infrastructure locally, which results in cost savings for external IT personnel as deployment, provisioning, operations, and maintenance are delegated to expert staff. Rapid and Centralized Deployment Zero or very short deployment time allows clients to respond to market changes faster. Global Availability Possibility to extend services to multiple users without physical access to data and IT infrastructures. Service Level Agreement (SLA) Adherence Agreement with SaaS provider ensures ongoing uptime of servers and improves data availability. Bottlenecks of operation are being accounted for in the service provision agreement. Software is hosted in a data centre which is free from Internet and power interruptions. Constant, Smaller, Upgrades Consistent, universal and rapid addition of advanced security standards and improved functionalities. Simplified IT Process Management SaaS providers ensure high availability, scalability, storage management, integrity of systems and resource independence when sharing data with external providers. Redistribution of IT Budget Realizing cost savings in infrastructure requirements and IT personnel knowledge requirements enables the customer to focus on core competencies and to reallocate finances into other productivity enhancing services. ‐ 29 ‐ 2.12 Potential Customers of the Content Syndication Programme Figure 11 – Potential User s of Record Web Services Genealogy Information Services The genealogy network operates multiple online services related to online ancestry research. It owns, partners and connects multiple databases around the world and engages actively in making family tree related software services accessible to its users. In 2002 its subsidiary sites Ancestry.com and MyFamily.com were able to add 100,000 new subscriptions to their fee‐based ancestry look‐up services within a time period of only 100 Days. It reached 600,000 paid subscription in total. Prior, according to Wikipedia the MyFamily.com website (with free sites beginning in March 1999) obtained 1 million registered users within its first 140 days since its launch in December 1998. The network includes a publishing division of genealogy contents and has currently annual revenues of $200m a year. http://www.myfamilyinc.com Legacy.com is the leading provider of online obituary solutions for the newspaper industry. It offers functions next to obituaries such as guest books, funeral home information, online memorials ($50) and florist links. Visited by more than 7 million users each month, Legacy.com provides links to obituaries published by the company’s network of 400 newspaper affiliates. Through this network, Legacy.com posts obituaries and Guest Books for one in two people who die in the U.S. each day. In addition it publishes death notices submitted by funeral homes. Founded in 1998, the company is backed by several investors, including Tribune Company, a leading media company with businesses in 23 major U.S. markets http://www.legacy.com ‐ 30 ‐ The Irish Family History Foundation The co‐ordinating body for a network of government approved genealogical research centres in Ireland. They have computerized tens of millions of Irish ancestral records of different types www.Irish‐roots.net Governmental institutions Electoral Register Many dead people are included on the electoral register in Ireland. Local authorities use inefficient practices such as referencing obituaries to update their records. It is estimated that there are 800,000 name errors on the Irish electoral register, tens of thousands of these names are people who are dead.40 Our Content Syndication Programme would provide an accurate reference for local authorities to update their records. Saves time and expense. Private Organisations Utility providers (Electricity, Phone companies etc) Our Content Syndication Programme can provide a reference for utility providers to update their records. Saving them time and expense improving their efficiency with customer record data. Funeral Services (i.e. monumental sculptors) Web record services can provide information to funeral service providers. Giving them access to new potential business Marketing Companies Marketing companies that engage in direct mail campaigns can use our records to reference against their mailing list. They will not have to waste money sending mail to people who have passed away. The UK marketing association estimate over 22 million items of direct mail are sent to deceased persons each year. 40 Parliamentary Debate Irish Government, Seanad Eireann – 5 December 2006 ‐ 31 ‐ 2.13 Key Implementation Challenges 1. Resistance to change of cemeteries At the moment, software solutions employed in the cemetery market such as ledgers and personal created documents are suboptimal. Users need to adjust to self‐service. Our marketing efforts emphasize to potential customers the benefits of using Software as a Service solutions for the management of their data. The opportunity to immediately gain substantial return on investments through offering a Content Syndication Programme to external providers. Further, they are able to take advantage of a free, hardware and location independent and comprehensive management solution, which allows them to gain long‐term forecasting capabilities, and to simplify their IT operations. 2. Security concerns regarding external hosting have to be aligned GeniConnect as a data hosting and content syndication providing service company will make investments that ensure its customers reliable, secure IT infrastructure and comprehensive risk management procedures to protect sensitive data. The compliance with the data protection act will be part of company policy. 3. Customizability is an essential product feature GeniConnect’s applications need to be customizable as each small business thinks of their business as unique. Customizability will lead cemeteries to have to manage only those product functionalities they do want and need. Simple ease of system use, as well as the immediate upgradeability is advantageous in this market segment. An infrastructure that allows quick integration of new services, supports fast and fully automatic service provisioning, and allows SLA‐driven operation will be developed. 4. Service and Support Agreements GeniConnect will need to deliver initial support required by small businesses. Enabling businesses to take advantage of IT expertise will help them to be set up for success and will create significant valuable business opportunities. In order to help to realize the benefits GeniConnect offers to its customer’s a comprehensive premium service offering which includes implementation planning, consultancy and partner management will be available. 5. Offshore Data Entry Cemeteries might be reluctant to share data with GeniConnect and to take part in the Content Syndication Programme due to the nature of off‐shore data entry. GeniConnect will ensure strict quality controls over its data entry partners and implement strong security measures for data transfer, input and access. 6. Commercialising Death Cemeteries might be reluctant to share data with GeniConnect and to take part in the Content Syndication Programme due to the sensitive nature of the data. GeniConnect needs to market its business model in terms of emphasising the large opportunities for cemeteries. Customers’ understanding has to be improved regarding technology benefits and digitisation trends. ‐ 32 ‐ Section 3 Products and Service Overview 3.1 Introduction Revenues are generated through a combination of digitisation and archiving fees from record providers and monetizing the digital records through licensing the data to third parties. Products and services are separated into three main categories. Digitisation and Archiving Services Our digitisation and archiving service will provide cemeteries with the ability to digitise their current burial registers. We will use the latest in digital scanning technology to digitise current paper based burial registers. Our professional service will insure the protection of the documents. This service can be carried out on location. We will provide an offshore data entry service so the Digitized archives can then be inputted into our On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software. OnDemand Cemetery Management Software GeniConnect will operate Software as a Service based web applications for cemeteries. Through this secure digital online application service providers in cemeteries can store, edit and upload digital archived records. Future development of the service will provide management functions such as CRM and accounting solutions. This service will be offered for free to customers partaking in our content syndication programme. Content Syndication Programme A subscription based service, which allows cemetery service providers to interact in new ways with external information service providers. GeniConnect will offer a secure online content syndication programme to licence data sources to external information service providers. As part of our content syndication programme cemeteries will have the option to be a content supplier and share in the revenues generated from it. Our research suggests high interest exists for such data by genealogical information service providers, governmental institutions (electoral registrars) and service providers dependent on death records (financial institutions and Marketing companies). ‐ 33 ‐ 3.2 Digitisation and Archiving Services Digitisation and Archiving services will provide cemeteries with the ability to preserve current burial registers in digital format and make the records accessible online. GeniConnect’s Digitisation and Archiving will have two main processes. • Professional scanning service, adhering to current standards and practises. Both on‐site and off‐ site scanning available. • Outsourced data entry of scanned documents into our On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software Figure 12 – Digitisation Process Digitisation and Archiving Services Description Digitisation service to scan documents and preserve them in digital format. Migrating data on to On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software for archiving purposes. Target Market Competitive Strength Local government authorities, privately owned cemeteries and religious organisations • • • • • State of the art and innovative scanning solutions Professional expertise in document handling On location service Low cost data entry services Integration of data with On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software Key Service • Scanning, digitisation and archiving of record data Features Key Technology Digital migration of records into database store, OCR and Image Processing, Image Improvement and Compression, Encryption of Communication, Automatic Features and Manual Page turning mechanism, ‐ 34 ‐ Revenue Model • Customers who agree to participate in our content syndication programme will receive the digitisation service at no cost. Customers who do not wish to participate will be charged the full price for the service. Benefits for clients • • • • Provide secure digital archive for valuable documents Easier access through searchable digital database Records migrated onto On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software Channel to monetize previously inaccessible information Competition Digitisation and Archiving solution providers, Cemetery Software solution providers. ‐ 35 ‐ 3.3 OnDemand Cemetery Management Software GeniConnect operates a Software as a Service business model to deliver access to records and administrative software applications to customers remotely. Customers such as Cemeteries have continuous, reliable and unlimited access to externally hosted data via their Internet Browser. Software as a Service enables customers with the right user credentials to read and edit information from any location, while maintaining multiple simultaneous connections. GeniConnect manages a three tiered IT infrastructure for multiple customers at the same time, consisting of web servers, middle ware application server and connection services, and backend databases. This enables a multi‐tenant delivery model, sharing IT infrastructure among all clients, and so avoiding larger implementation and integration costs. In addition to the continuous development of software functionality, security patching and hardware maintenance, this model ensures customers a specified level of performance and IT availability that they would not be able to gain access to in their client based IT scenario. Customers can exhibit through this model lower and more predictable cash outflows, productivity boosts in IT unrelated activities through resource redistribution, risks minimisation of single sourced systems, seamless product updates, and customization of software functionalities as well as a continuous personalized support directly on the system by IT support specialists. On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software Description On‐Demand Customer relations and Record Management Software Services accessible through a web‐based interface. The data management solution includes hosting & maintenance. Target Market Competitive Strength Small to large cemeteries, Religious organisations, local government authorities • • • • • • • • • Key Service Features • • First free Software as a Service product in this niche market Matches high demand for simple, low‐cost and comprehensive software solution Advantageous market momentum due to growth of demand for digital record data sources in this segment Constant funding due to recession proof nature of funeral industry, institutional and private funding of cemeteries Long‐term partnership engagement with clients System scalability due to reliance on three tier model Low cost of maintenance and rapid development of customization needs of customers Easy adoption of functionalities to extend to more market segments Possibility to gain intellectual property on restricted information sources enables valuable product differentiation Customized customer website, offering cemetery, contractor, burial, grave stone and time management functions Organizations can control and manage large volumes of unstructured ‐ 36 ‐ content such as burial records, contractor relations and headstone images in a centralized repository that is easy to access and maintain • A Service level agreement covers application functionalities, including hosting, information retrieval, reporting and search functions • Guaranteed (99%) uptime of stored data server infrastructure • Automatic backup and data integrity maintenance of external servers • Browser independent user access • Secure online platform with redundancy check and user logging Key Technology User Authentication, Rights and Permission Management, Time Management and Reminder functions, Usage Statistics, Image Capabilities, Location and Features Mapping Functionality, Record Management, Comprehensive XML Support, Secure Backup Revenue Model • Provided free of charge to cemeteries who participate in our content syndication programme. Benefits for clients Competition • • • • Lower administration cost Easy to use and comprehensive IT solution Centralized Information access Provides ability to use Web Services to make data available to other service providers and creates an additional revenue stream Investment that promotes cultural heritage Supports and extends IT capabilities of current personnel Security, hosting and maintenance issues are accounted for Service free of charge • • • • Traditional Client Based Accounting Software Vendors, Cemetery Software Vendors, Funeral Consultancies ‐ 37 ‐ 3.4 Content Syndication Programme Offering our product Content Syndication Programme, based on XML and a Service‐oriented architecture (SOA) with the industry wide accepted Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), is a key premise to enable sustainability of customers’ IT solutions in the long‐run and their interconnect‐ ability with external service providers. This service provides a unique business proposition, as day to day input of burial registrations, grave records and related media contents cannot only be managed and stored within a single application, but also can be combined, licensed and monetized for other information services such as genealogy databases. GeniConnect has identified a premium value of such information in a variety of markets. Through the integration of Web Services, revenues from data access can make up a substantial additional revenue stream that can be used to pay for further investment into the digitisation of records or the operation of cemeteries. Figure 13 – Content Syndication through Web Services Record Web Services Description Ready‐to‐use Web services to seamlessly integrate record content management capabilities into business processes of external companies. Contents can be licensed to external record providers. Target Market Competitive Strength Small to large cemeteries, Online & Offline Genealogy Service Providers, Governmental Organisations • • • • • • • • First to market with integrated syndication solution 2‐sided revenue opportunity gives incentive to cemeteries to adopt On‐ Demand Cemetery Management Software Solutions Access to multiple global data sources without additional need of licence negotiation Continuously growing volume of record database Sustainable revenue stream with diverse industry partners Combination of hardware for on‐demand, syndication and online services Re‐use of data contents increases potential reach to customer base Maintenance of intellectual property on records through secured syndication service ‐ 38 ‐ Key Service Features • • Growing market for digital record syndication Private and government backed niche market • Provision of web service technologies, data transfer and management application to enable data access by external information providers Access can be monitored and controlled based on usage quotas, user roles and data types • Key Technology Interoperable Web APIs, XML and SOAP based transmission Features Revenue Model • • • • Basic Record Web Services (name, cemetery location, date of death) can be accessed at a monthly subscription fee of €3,000 Advanced Record Web Services external providers are charged a €5 Pay– per‐View fee for more detailed record information Pay‐per‐View Revenues are shared with data record providers at 50% of the retail price All prices are quoted excluding tax Benefits for clients Record Subscribers: • Lower Integration costs into existing business models, which deal with ancestry, cemetery and mapping contents • Source to intellectual property content • Value adding services to centralisation efforts of governmental institutions • Unified platform providing seamless integration across content management applications • Enhancement of service quality and service offering • Improvement of data integrity through verification, matching and possibility of data scrubbing of existing records • Only pay for records that are sold further along the value chain • Approved and unique data contents Record Providers • Leverages multiple sales channels with same data contents • Generation of constant revenue stream • No additional costs of maintenance and operation • Business opportunity to monetize intellectual property on record information • Unique opportunity to promote cultural heritage • Free up resources of traditional manual research processes for other activities Competition Proprietary genealogical databases, Obituary Providers, IT companies engaged in the digitisation effort by public institutions, Census Databases ‐ 39 ‐ 3.5 Premium Services In order to realize operation potential premium services are offered, which encompass any additional business consultancy needed by customers in relation to the product categories On‐ Demand Cemetery Management Software and Record Web Services. Prices vary depending on service required. This may services such as: • Implementation Planning – A business process review is undertaken, including the estimation of ROI for clients, product planning and workflow optimisation recommendations. • Data Migration – Extensive import functions are implemented in the software version available to customers. If customers do possess legacy data formats, GeniConnect can help to import records into the new system. • Training – Software Training can be acquired onsite or online. • Customer Support Services – General user support will be available ongoing and for free. Advanced services such as specific customisation preferences will be available on request and help to align business needs and optimal performance potential. ‐ 40 ‐ Section 4 Business Strategy 4.1 Vision "To be the leading provider of digital workflow solutions for cemeteries” 4.2 Objectives GeniConnect’s main objectives are • To maximize shareholder value. • To develop high level skills and expertise in document digitization and archiving. • To develop a cemetery management software system delivered via the web. • To be first to market with free on‐Demand cemetery management software. • To establish a high quality, low cost offshore data entry service partner. • To monetize death records through our content syndication programme with cemeteries and selling to third parties primarily in the genealogical industry and other data registrars for data scrubbing purposes. • To focus initially on achieving market penetration in the UK & Ireland. 4.3 Core Competencies GeniConnect’s core competencies include • Low cost, high quality digitisation and data entry process • State of the art data syndication system • Lower cost of operation in product and services as necessary hardware infrastructure and development capacities are shared across multiple product categories 4.4 Strategic Model GeniConnect will gain competitive advantage in the market for genealogical data as a new unique comprehensive access channel to death record information is created. Competitors are currently relying on individual partnerships with genealogical researchers to make content available to a larger audience. GeniConnect allows genealogical information services to integrate contents from multiple data sources through the content syndication programme at the same time. Short Term Goals • Secure Funding and establish a base of operation in Dublin at DCU invent centre and Asia in 2008 ‐ 41 ‐ • Procure hardware needs • Research and Develop software for cemeteries and web services • Train staff in digitization techniques and best practices. • Trial our business process workflow with participating partners. Test systems and integration. • Identify local cemeteries to target by offering digitization services • Establish a consortium of stakeholders for a large‐scale digitisation project. Apply for funding under the European Commission ICT Seventh Framework Program 2007‐13, Challenge 4 (Digital libraries and Content)41 Medium Term Goals • Release our core services: Digitization and Archiving & On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software. Targeting cemeteries that currently have no digitised archives and/or software management system or lack financing for such a system due to prohibitive cost. • Develop marketing and sales campaign exploring all opportunities through various channels • Establish trial user of syndication service • Achieve 0.2% market penetration in first year of operation increasing to 1.5% in the second year • Year 2 Secure 15 license agreements with information service providers Long Term Goals • Develop additional functionality to Cemetery Software Management including GIS and capacity management planning • Enter new markets including US, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand 4.5 Customer Relationships Our customer service will focus on delivering high satisfaction and guarantee security of information. We aim to develop close links with our customers to learn how we can improve our product offering as well as being responsive to their needs. Strategic activities will include: • Monitoring and responding to key customer issues • Using customer consultation as input to product improvement 41 ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/fp7/ict/docs/ict‐wp‐2007‐08_en.pdf ‐ 42 ‐ • Offering training, online support and after sales services 4.6 Strategic Relationships Offshore data entry specialists – Developing a close relationship with an offshore data entry partner is key to our development. The right partner who can guarantee quality and data integrity will provide GeniConnect with a competitive advantage through operational efficiencies. DCU – Digitisation expertise ‐ Prof. Smeaton and his team were involved in digitising historical manuscripts for the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. The project (Irish Script on Screen) involved scanning manuscripts to make available on the web. Prof. Smeaton has also developed technology in partnership with Google that allows for indexing of handwritten scanned images. DCU are therefore a key partner to avail of expertise, knowledge and innovative technologies. 4.7 Business Model Revenue is generated from • Digitisation and Archiving • Content Syndication Programme • Consultancy Fees Digitisation and Archiving Revenue will be generated from GeniConnect’s digitising and archiving services. Content Syndication Programme members will receive digitisation for no cost. Non‐members will be charged at cost plus 20%. Content Syndication Programme Cemeteries (record providers) who wish to participate in our content syndication programme will receive digitisation and archiving services at no cost and a 50% share of the revenue directly attributable to views of their dataset. By offering the service for free and a new source of revenue generation we hope it will encourage cemeteries to participate in our programme. Revenue will be generated through licensing record providers content to information service providers (record subscribers). Subscribers will gain limited access to content, access rights to basic record data. An additional premium pay‐per view charge of €5 per record gives the subscriber premium access rights to additional record information, including a source document image. Consultancy fees Revenue will be generated from providing extra premium services such as implementation planning, Data Migrations services, training and customisation services. ‐ 43 ‐ Section 5 Sales and Marketing 5.1 Introduction This section outlines our strategy and objectives for generating sales and marketing for our service to different market segments. In the first phase GeniConnect will focus its attention on the UK, Ireland and selected geographic markets with cemeteries that (a) are large, (b) contain a high non‐digitized record volume, (c) are very likely to adopt our services (d) or already are planning the digitization of record information. In the second phase GeniConnect will expand its marketing efforts to geographic markets with high interest in record data. These include Australia, New Zealand and the USA. The participative involvement of governmental institutions is a key success factor for the project as it provides increased funding resources, public awareness, usage intensification and access to decision‐makers and influencers. Strong partnerships with funerary related industry associations, digitisation and preservation bodies and genealogy related research initiatives will also be a key success factor. Marketing efforts are concentrated on direct sales channels such as funeral industry exhibitions and conferences in order to gain industry partnerships and indirect sales channels. In order to gain the attention of cemeteries, a focussed marketing campaign will start in year 1 of operation. Using direct mail, print and telemarketing, potential customers will be informed about our unique digital workflow service offering including Digitisation, Record Management and Syndication Services. Figure 14 – Overview Marketing Spending The market for record syndication is expected to grow heavily in the next 1‐3 years. A long sales cycle of Cemetery Software and Record Digitisation Services is being shortened by offering low cost, On‐Demand solutions with high value monetization benefits to customers. It is expected that the ‐ 44 ‐ next general elections held in Ireland in 2012 and in the UK in 2010, will increase the demand for updated record information services. Further seasonality of governmental budgets is being accounted for. Sales are expected to increase in the month of January, February and March each year, as these correspondents to the time period were most governmental investments are decided on. Our anticipated order gestation period is 6 month. This corresponds with the anticipated launch for clients in June 2009 ‐ 6 month after Company incorporation. Cemeteries will be targeted directly particularly emphasising monetizing benefits of offering records through our Syndication Services. Revenues generated through Pay‐Per‐View for fees would generate for a small average cemetery a yearly income of €3,000 (100 monthly views) or €6,000 (200 monthly views). Considering the record volume of larger cemeteries such as Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin (1.2m), monthly page views would generate an accordingly higher profit. Figure 15 – Sample Payoff Calculation for Cemetery Customer Projected Payoff of Web Services for Cemeteries Record Web Services Avg. Number of Monthly Views Monthly Revenue End of Year Profit Year 1 100 €250 €3,000 Year 2 200 €500 €6,000 5.2 Routes to Market To generate sales on a global level we have identified a number of industry associations in the UK, US and Australia that we can partner with to reach our market (For detailed list of potential partners please see Appendix 9 ‐ List of Potential Channel Partners). • Industry Associations (e.g. ICCFA ‐ International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association) OnDemand Cemetery Management Software In the geographic markets UK and Ireland we can actively engage in direct sales with • Funeral Directors • Private Cemeteries • Local Authorities/Government (who take charge of public cemeteries) • Religious Organisations • Website services ‐ 45 ‐ Sales partners will get a commission for referrals of product users of 15% of the initial service price giving us direct access to customers leveraging an incentive for sales partners to actively promote our services. Content Syndication Programme Our main route to market will involve establishing customer relations with • Online genealogical websites • Genealogical societies • Heritage centres • Other possible interested parties (utility companies, newspapers, financial institutions, electoral registrars) Again our sales partners will get a commission for referrals of new record subscribers of 15% of the initial service price (first monthly subscription fee) and help to grow the number of record subscribers faster. 5.3 Number of Sales GeniConnect expects its low cost and high value On‐Demand Cemetery Software solution to be in use by 40 cemeteries worldwide by the end of year one of operation, adding on average 5 new cemeteries each month. With an estimated market size of about 20,000 burial institutions in the UK and more than 2,000 cemeteries in Ireland, this corresponds to a sales target of 0.2% of all cemeteries in these two markets. A similar number of crematories are expected to adopt the On‐ Demand Software Application within the same time period. By Year 3 we expect to be able to add 15 new cemeteries and 15 new crematories monthly. The number of cemeteries is expected to have increased to a total of 330 which corresponds to a market share of 1.5% in relation to the total size of Irish and English markets. Due to an extension of our services worldwide this seems to us a plausible sales estimate. Accordingly to growth in the number of record providers, the number of record subscribers to the Syndication Services is expected to steadily increase starting with the launch of the service in the second year of operation to a number of 15 in total. Due to the variety and wide range of possible usage scenarios this estimate is pessimistic and will most likely increase by a multiple fold. ‐ 46 ‐ Figure 16 – Growth of Data Provider and Data Subscriber Volume The initial record volume at launch will be around 205,000 individual records. This is based on the assumption that on average each cemetery (assuming a Service participation rate of 50% for Digitisation and Archiving) adds 20,000 records. Further each active On‐Demand customer is on average estimated to input 60 new records per month. In Year 3 of operation the record volume will have increased to 4.1 million individual records. This will be around 4 times the volume of the current record offering by one of the biggest Irish based genealogy information providers the Origins Network42 which offers according to our research currently around 500,000 to 800,000 individual Irish records. Figure 17 – Growth of Record Volume 42 http://www.originsnetwork.com ‐ 47 ‐ 5.4 Competitor Profiles Digitisation and Archiving Digitisation and Archiving Services is a growing industry due to the amount of material worldwide that needs to be preserved and the increasing improvements in technologies. There are established companies both in Ireland and the UK. Due to GeniConnect’s innovative business model it will be the first to offer these services at no cost to cemeteries making our proposition extremely competitive. Figure 18 – Profiles of Digitisation and Archiving Competitors Digitisation and Archiving Competitors Datafind Services Ltd is a UK based company. They specialise in intelligent archiving solutions targeting cemeteries. Services Offered map scanning, book scanning, burial map scanning, burial register scanning, document management, document archiving, back data entry, websites, online databases, printing, encapsulation and laminating. http://www.datafind.co.uk/ ManuscrIpti is a UK based company specialising in scanning and content supply solutions. Target markets: Local Authorities, Libraries and Museums Solutions: Digitising and imaging preservation, Content Management Systems http://www.manuscripti.com/ Eneclann is an Irish Company based in Trinity College’s enterprise centre. They claim to be Irelands largest archival and records management consultancy. Services • • • Historical Research – House Histories and Genealogical Research E‐ Publishing & Digitisation Records & Archive Management ‐ 48 ‐ Partnerships They are also partnered with irishorigins.net providing genealogy services for a fee over the net http://www.eneclann.ie/ Cemetery Software Providers Cemeteries are not well funded. Many cemeteries do not have an IT system and as a result records are entered in ledgers. Individual caretakers are in charge of record management they may not have a computer at their cemetery, so access to an On‐Demand solution enables them to update records at any Internet connected computer. Current competitors charge restrictive fees, offer a closed client software solution and do not integrate with information record services. In Ireland there is one company Advance Systems that provides cemetery software solutions. It operates in the North of Ireland and currently is in talks with Fingal County Council in the south to become their first customer in the Republic. In the US there are many providers offering cemetery software solutions. Figure 19 – Profiles of Cemetery Software Providers Cemetery Software Providers The U.S. based company HMIS offers with HMIS Advantage a web‐based software solution for the management of cemetery, mortuary and crematory. The offer includes a single, secure database solution which includes multi‐location, multi‐user capability. Users can choose between hosting HMIS Advantage at a Customer’s Location or an HMIS ASP Location. Recognized as the Best Management Software Solution in the Industry this provider is GeniConnect’s major competitor. Other services offered are Implementation Planning, Data Conversion, Configuration and Training and Electronic Customer Support. Pricing information is not standardized and only published on request of cemeteries. http://www.hmisinc.com/ CIMS Cemetery Software combines GIS cemetery mapping technology with QuickBooks Accounting software for cemetery management. This cemetery mapping software package is Windows client based and can be customized to individual cemeteries, as it allows to link cemetery data to computerized maps of the cemetery. On individual price ‐ 49 ‐ request users additionally can licence training and support. The company operates mainly in the U.S. market. Currently the following products are offered: • • • Cims Cims Light (excludes mapping) e‐Cims (web version) • QuickBooks Module (Interchange with QuickBooks Accounting Software) http://www.cimscemeterysoftware.com/ CSR Consultants U.S. company CSR Consultants offers two client based software packages running on Windows. • • Cemetery Management SC – Used to record ownership and interred. It can be customized. Cemetery Management Max ‐ A more advanced version used to manage multiple cemeteries. Both Versions are priced per user licence. The basic version costs $450 + $100 per additional user licence. A networked version starts at $750 The advanced version which is similar to GeniConnects product offering in its functionality is priced at $500 for a single user. A version for the management of multiple cemeteries is priced at $600 and the Network version at $1000 + $200 per additional user licence. Other product features offered are data import ($100) and mapping ($250). http://www.cemeterydatabase.com Its UK product Cemetery Pro is a database application for windows systems, which is able to handle functions for Cemeteries, Burials, Deeds / Registrations, Memorials, Contractors, Gravediggers, Burial Dairy, Reporting and Headstone inspections. It has been implemented and is used at various city councils in Northern Ireland and England. http://www.advancesystems.co.uk ‐ 50 ‐ Aldor is the proprietor of the following companies Funeral software management companies: Davidson Software, Fdms Network Memorial Websites: Life files, Timeless Reflections, Memorial cast Industry Websites: FX Directors Solutions, Funeralwire.com, Funeralemployment.com http://www.aldorsolutions.com/ ‐ 51 ‐ Section 6 Technology 6.1 Overview IT Infrastructure The objective of this system is to create a structure that enables cemeteries and funeral related service providers to seamlessly digitise death records and to monetize their intellectual property value through the provision of subscription services to multiple subscribers. GeniConnect’s core business is the development and delivery of a proprietary Web Service Syndication Platform connected to web‐based funeral management software application. As such it will provide software application services based on subscriptions fees, made available through a service level agreement with clients, record providers and record subscribers. The service is delivered from a central data centre via an IP based network to clients’ computer systems. 6.2 Scope Phase Objectives Exit Criteria Phase 1 • • • Definition of User requirements Examples of possible user scenarios Define Security Policies for user roles and data permissions Identify additional functions for On‐ Demand Cemetery Management Software Signoff Documentation by Stakeholders Signoff by Chief Technology Officer • Integration of Offline Data Store capabilities and synchronization management Record Digitalisation process implementation Adoption of Web Services to data subscriber’s requirement Identify and evaluate security issues Develop complete development and deployment plan Identify and evaluate performance issues • • • • • Development of required feature set Quality assurance Documentation Functionality testing Launch Pre‐Development Specification • Phase 2 • Development Investigation • • • • Phase 3 Solution Development and Deployment ‐ 52 ‐ Security and Functionality Issues have been addressed 6.3 System Architecture Figure 20 – Conceptual Architecture GENIP RESERVATION GENIO ND EMAND GENINETWORK The core of GeniConnect’s technology platform is the web‐native On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software Server. This web server will connect user‐requests through a secured layered connection with the backend record data servers. Additionally a pre‐connected layered syndication application server will provide Web Service APIs that allow the rapid integration of record data services into systems of external clients. Figure 21 – Record Management through Web Services The Web Services interaction between the users and the On Demand Cemetery Server operates through SOAP request/responses which are XML based and allow for cross‐platform interaction. All ‐ 53 ‐ database services are handled through the web service functions, so there is no direct interaction between the user’s client machine and the record database store. Figure 22 – Syndication of Records through Web Services GeniConnect has chosen to develop its On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software and Syndication Services using the .NET Framework, as it promises large performance reserves in operation. We expect the number of simultaneous user requests to increase steeply as multiple record subscribers have been added. Advantages of ASP.NET Architecture Powerful database‐driven functionality Microsoft SQL in combination with Microsoft Internet Information Web Server Services 6 is able to handle a large amount of simultaneous user requests, data requests and edits. The advantage of ASP.Net is that it is object‐oriented and has many programming tools that allow for faster development and more functionality. Microsoft’s constant development efforts in the field of Client and Server Computing enable a modern and wide distributed application pool. Simplified Development Efforts The .NET framework has the advantage of offering a consistent programming model to developers. Accessing data with a VB .NET and a C# .NET looks very similar apart from slight syntactical differences. The functionality that the .NET Class Library provides is available to all .NET languages resulting in a consistent object model regardless of the programming language the developer uses. Faster web applications ASP.Net is fast due to two components: compiled code and caching. In contrast to other frameworks code is not any longer interpreted into machine language when accessed by a website visitor. With ASP.Net the code is compiled into ‐ 54 ‐ machine language before the users’ visits, resulting in an increase of user performance. .NET also manages the scripting limitations of COM and DCOM and makes component development easier. .NET provides the core technologies for developing Web services. Direct Support for Security The .NET Framework enables developers and system administrators to specify system level security. It uses industry‐standard protocols such as XML, TCP/IP, SOAP and HTTP to facilitate distributed application communications. This enhances security of distributed computing because .NET developers cooperate with network security devices instead of working around their security limitations. Built in are also memory leak and crash protections, which developers do not have to worry about any longer. Multiple language support Developers are able to write code in more than 25 .Net languages (including C#, VB.Net, and JScript.Net). This allows programmers to develop in the language they know best and has the advantage for GeniConnect to more easily find talented programmers to support the work on our services. Easy Application Deployment and Maintenance The .NET Framework handles the details of loading and locating needed application components. If several versions of the same application exist on the target computer, the framework ensures that all the components the application depends on are available on the computer before the application begins to execute. This minimizes deployment time and user conflicts. Compatibility, Interoperability and A standardized variety of web technologies such as XML, Device Support HTML, CSS and SOAP are being promoted by the framework. All modern browsers are able to view ASP formatted web formats. XML and Web Services communication is standardized within the web industry. Microsoft’s SQL database is widely acknowledged. IT Availability Our research shows that the majority of government institutions, who are an important customer group for the Content Syndication Services, use Windows Server Systems. Our services can be easier, implemented faster and customised for large‐scale operation using .NET. ‐ 55 ‐ Figure 23 – Database Model Database Model Cemetery Management CemeteryAccount PK account_id organisation addr_line1 addr_line2 addr_county addr_country phone email contact_name CemRecords AccountUsers PK uname FK1 pwd person_name access email account_id *...1 PK Cemeteries PK cem_id FK1 cem_name addr_line1 addr_line2 addr_county addr_country account_id added_by religion contact_name contact_phone contact_email *...1 *...1 Events PK *...1 FK1 FK1 event_id FK2 title details start finish account_id owner record_id fname sname address place_of_death date_of_death age religion sex occupation marital_status nearest_kin_names cause_of_death informant informant_address grave_let grave_fig grave_section excavted_to_feet excavted_to_inches certified_by certified_date receipt_no issued_date funeral_datetime grant_number plot_owner relationship_to_deceased additional_info cem_id added_by uname 1...1 RecordImages PK *...1 FK1 FK2 image_id image_url record_id tags cem_id Subscribers Management Subscribers PK uname pwd email organisation address contact_name phone bank_account bank_sort bank_address Bills *...1 PK bill_id FK1 trans_time amount record_id *...1 ‐ 56 ‐ 6.4 Key Features and Functionality Figure 24 – On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software Functions The initial release of our products will include the following features and functions: On–Demand Cemetery Management Software (Release July 2008) • Record Functions ‐ Add, edit and delete burial records, cemetery details, contractor details and subscriber details • Time Management – Schedule burials, funerals, grave maintenance • Reporting – Create and publish financial reports and summary statistics for accounting purposes • Customer Relationship Management – Track customers for marketing and payment purposes Record Web Services (Release January 2009) • Basic Record Service – Unlimited access to GeniConnect’s Web Service APIs to query genealogical database. The database is updated with new contents, as the distribution of On‐ Demand software expands. • Advanced Record Service – Pay per View access to detailed genealogical records. Information includes pictures of gravestone, source document image, geographic position, detailed death ‐ 57 ‐ information (occupation, family relations, cause of death etc.). External subscribers are billed at the start of the month. 6.5 System Components GeniConnect uses the following technologies as the basis for providing its On‐Demand Software and Record Web Service: Type Hardware Operating System Windows Server 2003 (64‐bit Standard Edition) • • • • • On‐Demand Cemetery Application Server Support up to 32 GB of memory Max 4 processors Windows Storage Server 2003 (NAS) Network Load Balancing Firewall Sun Fire T2000 Server • • • • • 4 core 1.0GHz Ultra SPARC T1 processor 8 GB DDR2 memory (16 x 512MB DIMMs) 2 x 73GB 2.5" 10K rpm SAS hard disk drives, 1 DVD‐RO/CD‐RW slim line drive 2 (N+1) power supplies 4 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, 1 serial port, 3 PCI‐E slots, 2 PCI‐X slots Web Server Microsoft Internet Information Services v6 (IIS) Syndication Server Proprietary Relational Database System Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (64‐bit Standard edition) Runtime Environment Microsoft ASP.NET Import / Export Format Excel and XML ‐ 58 ‐ 6.6 ITInfrastructure Capacity Server Hardware GeniConnect will combine IT hardware resources of its different service offerings onto the same hardware in order to leverage cost efficiencies. The initial server setup includes two Sun Fire T2000 Servers, which provides each the capability to handle more than 100 user‐requests per second. These will be financed through a monthly payment with our IT hardware provider Business System International in the UK. The T2000 has been ranked as the best platform for transaction and web services according to the SwaP benchmark. 43 Our chosen server configuration has outperformed competitors in terms of performance, user requests, energy savings and speed of database applications. The high performance capabilities of Sun’s hardware serves the requirements of being able to provide to our clients a service availability of 99.9% throughout each day of the month of the Service Contract. Figure 25 – Server Benchmark SPECweb2005 SPECweb2005 (Web Performance) Sun Fire T2000 Space (RU) 2 Watts 330 Performance (Composite) 14,001 Performance/Watt 42.427 (Higher is Better) SWaP (Higher is Better) 21.2 IBM x3650 2 585 9,182 IBM x346 2 438 4,348 IBM p550 4 770 7,881 15.7 9.927 10.235 7.8 5.0 2.6 HP DL580 4 637 939 HP rx4640 4 745 880 1.5 1.2 0.4 0.3 Figure 26 – Server Benchmark SAP SD 2‐Tier SAP SD 2‐Tier benchmark (Database Performance) Sun Fire T2000 HP DL380 G5 Space (RU) 2 2 Watts 318 595 Performance (Users) 950 1,216 Performance / 3 1.5 Watt SWaP (Higher is Better) 1.5 1 43 Sun Fire / Sun SPARC Enterprise Cool Threads Industry Server Benchmarks, http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/t1000/benchmarks.jsp ‐ 59 ‐ Scalability An intelligent traffic manager handles load balancing across at least 2 machines. In case of failure of one machine, traffic is automatically routed to the other. A dedicated external network attached storage system (NAS) increases the availability of data using built‐in RAID and clustering. RAID arrays provide data redundancy, fault‐tolerance and high‐ performance, as record and file serving is processed by the NAS and not done by the application servers itself. In order to match the growing numbers of user accounts and an increase in simultaneous data requests from record subscribers as well as record providers, the IT infrastructure will sequentially be built‐up and extended. In Year 3 of operation the total server capacity will be able to handle 100% higher capacity than actual predicted traffic on systems which will ensure a flawless user experience. Figure 27 – IT‐Capacity Internet Connectivity The choice to locate offices at the Invent Centre in Dublin City University in the first year of operation enables GeniConnect to use the existing 100Mbit high‐speed Internet Connection infrastructure for data transfer between the IT hardware and the Internet. The company’s Inter connectivity will be backed up via an alternate service provider. ‐ 60 ‐ Figure 28 – Predicted Development of Data Transfer Monitoring In order to ensure service availability guaranteed by the Service Contract, GeniConnect operates an automated monitoring and alerting service 24x7. Every 10 minutes our monitoring services will ping the host address and additionally check for web site availability by URL check. In case a downtime is noticed, the IT personnel will be directly informed via email and phone (SMS) by the system. Firewall & Transfer Encryption A clustered environment protects against Denial of Service Attacks and other sophisticated hacker intrusion attempts into systems. Certificate Management is used to manage traffic routing and user authorisation. The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides secured communication over the Internet. Backup and Recovery In order to secure data contents against hardware failure and provide recovery functionalities to customers, all hosted data contents will be automatically mirrored by automatic backup processes to a second independent redundant server set‐up at an external data location. Data is protected against disaster scenarios and electricity outages as the location is outside of Dublin City University. Further daily backups allow data recovery to prior versions of the record database within one business day. ‐ 61 ‐ 6.7 Record Digitisation The digitisation of records is of significant value for the syndication of record data to record subscribers. However, it also constitutes the most significant cost driver of GeniConnect’s business model. Figure 29 – Record Digitization The process can be divided into two main parts: 1. Document Scanning In order to digitize records, GeniConnect offers to digitize handwritten non‐digital ledger records into a binary format. For record providers which do not want to ship record material to our office location, we offer a service to scan information at the customer’s location. The scanning device used will be ATIZ Book Drive 44. This device is highly mobile, fast in operation and fitting the demands for the digitisation purposes of GeniConnect. Due to its small form the scanning device can easily be moved to any location. Operated by one person with a standard laptop system the record is scanned at 300dpi, stored as a compressed graphics format file (JPG/ Gif/ PCX), encrypted using the public cryptography algorithm RSA and forwarded electronically over a secure transmission protocol (SSL) to our dedicated data entry offshore provider. Technical Specifications Type Scanning Method Output Scanning Resolution Automatic page turning scanner CIS type sensor Colour and grey scale 100/200/300/600 dpi Scanning Time Image Sensor Interface Weight 44 http://www.atiz.com/bookdrive_specifications.php ‐ 62 ‐ Less than 10 seconds per page, Up to 500 pages per hour Automatic edge detection USB 2.0 (Hi‐speed) 66 lb (30 kg) Dimensions (W x D x H) 86 x 57 x 32 cm Functions Costs €20,000 (Financed at €1,700 monthly) Automatic rotation Automatic edge detection Automatic cropping Manual cropping Continuous printing Brightness adjust Contrast adjust Figure 30 – Productivity ATIZ Book Drive DPI Scanning (per page) Page turning (per page) Returning (per page) Total Scanning Time (per page) Scanning Speed (pages/hour) Image Processing (per page) Scanning + Image Processing Time (per page) Throughput Rate (pages/hour) 100 200 300 600 10 sec 19 sec 27 sec 55 sec 3.5 sec 3.5 sec 3.5 sec 3.5 sec 2 sec 3 sec 4 sec 5 sec 15.5 sec 24.5 sec 32.5 sec 60.5 sec 230 146 111 60 3.8 sec 5.3 sec 9.2 sec 342 sec 19.3 sec 29.7 sec 41.7 sec 402 sec 186 121 86 8 Figure 31 – Costs of Scanning per Cemetery Average Number Records per Page of Records 20,000 30 Pages per hour Cost per Hour Total Cost 86 ‐ 186 50€ 388 2. Data Entry Our choice for a trusted data entry service is off‐shore data entry provider Data Entry Services India. Data Entry Services India offers cost‐effective and competitive pricing policies with wage rates at $2‐3 per hour. This is due to the advantage of lower cost offshore processing and Internet based file transfer protocols. Their track record has shown that their well known customer base was able to save 40‐50% or more on their back office costs. GeniConnect will monitor performance and cost of multiple data entry providers in China, India, Korea, Philippines and Singapore throughout its operation. 45 At the providers location the digital graphics file format is converted with the help of OCR and manual inputting processes into a database compatible XML format. Multiple control and quality measures such as inserting data by two persons simultaneously (double input efforts) and automatic computer verification assures our customers’ to reach a data entry accuracy level of 99.9%. 45 Company Web Site, http://www.dataentryservices.co.in/prices.htm ‐ 63 ‐ Figure 32 – Offshore Data Entry Providers Offshore Provider Data Entry Services India www.dataentryservices.co.in Services • Online Data • Offline Data • Image Entry • Book Entry • Hand written Advantages • High Speed dedicated Internet • Video Conference Possibility • Highly Skilled Personnel • 24/7 work • Full Security equipment Open World Data http://www.owdata.com • • • Data Entry Data Capture Data Processing • • • 25 years experience Multiple languages Fed‐Ex Services VtlGlobal http://www.vtlglobal.com • • • • Online Data Offline Data Image Entry Data/ Image Processing • • Part‐time leasing Multiple Offices (Fort Myers, Las Vegas, New Delhi & Bangalore) ISO 9001‐ 2000 processes 24/7 availability Proven track record and satisfied clients Security and IP protection. Latest technologies. Competitive prices on the web • • • • • • Figure 33 – Costs of Data Entry per Cemetery Average Number of Records Input Speed records/hour Labour Hours per cemetery Labour Cost per Hour Total Cost 20,000 60 33 2€ 667 ‐ 64 ‐ 6.8 Benefits of Software as a Service ITInfrastructure Aggregate operating environment Complete control to optimize an infrastructure to SaaS application's specific requirements. This synergy leads to financial savings. Predictable recurrent revenues A subscription model associated with SaaS means that customers will pay on a recurring schedule enabling optimized forecasting of revenues. The scheduled nature of cash inflows makes revenue modelling more reliable. Predictable Growth The volume of subscribership is easy manageable. As users utilize the site to access applications, usage can be monitored closely. Focus On Smaller Upgrades Instead of Larger Patch Rollouts Development teams can focus on developing core application functionality, fixing bugs and enhancing features in smaller incremental rollouts. This also leads to less support calls for software upgrades. Sales Becomes Customer Relationship Management As a subscription service, SaaS gains market share through growing its subscriber ship. Efforts can be concentrated on balancing user retention vs. attrition, as the real thrust of new sales and marketing in SaaS is customer relationship management. Higher retention rates than attrition rates assure continuous cash inflow and equal efforts to bring in new customers. Product Diversification Opportunity to sell additional services with higher profit margins compared to selling raw infrastructure. Disruptive Innovation Small and medium sized businesses offer a channel into new markets. 6.9 Research and Development GeniConnect believes that its future success will largely depend on the company’s ability: • To increase the number of users for its cemetery management software, to leverage volume of record providers and ensure quality of genealogical record information. • To enhance and extend the On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software application, particularly its integration with the syndication management platform for Record Web Services. • To satisfy an evolving range of customer needs and requirements for product functionality, integration possibilities, industry standards and marketing consultancy expertise. ‐ 65 ‐ • To achieve and maintain leadership as an integrated solution provider of technological capabilities, system interoperability, system scalability and delivery standards. The Research and Development Team focuses in collaboration with members of the sales team and senior management on gaining insight into the needs of On‐Demand software users. The software’s functionality will be adopted to match the requirements in terms of scope and quality of record information of external subscribers. Development of the following additional product functionalities is targeted: On–Demand Cemetery Software (Update January 2009) • Offline Capability – Integration of Google’s free offline database store. Google Gears is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using JavaScript APIs. With its integration, record input of the On‐Demand Cemetery Management Software application can be stored locally in a fully searchable relational database. When connected to the Internet the application will automatically synchronize resources to GeniConnect’s On‐Demand Cemetery Server. • Localisation ‐ Translation of user‐interface, web site and marketing material to extend software distribution to non English native speaking local markets such as Germany, Poland, France, Spain and Italy. • Communication and Order Management – Offer automated messaging capabilities to integrate order management functionalities between different funeral service providers. • Analysis and Statistics – Extend the capability to monitor usage and access of records per customer, region etc. • Modularity – Introduce complete modularity over the user‐interface. Users will be able to alter displayed product functions, alter grouping and prioritisation. Record Web Services (Update July 2009) • Management Tools – Introduce to record subscribers a web based administration tool that enables them to control subscription options more closely, automate payment and the ability to request specific content from record providers. • Subscription Model – Extend subscription options for record subscribers to monthly, daily or hourly access models. ‐ 66 ‐ Section 7 Management and Organisation 7.1 Management Figure 34 – Organisational Structure All Members of the senior management team hold a Masters of Science Degree in e‐Commerce awarded by Dublin City University. Further they combine work experiences in the field of Software Engineering, Technology Consulting and Management. • Aidan Proctor Fitzsimons will have overall operational responsibility and has to report to the Board of Directors. Aidan has experience in management and sales strategy. He holds a bachelors degree in Business Studies from Dublin Business School. • Daragh Barrett manages IT personnel, is responsible for the seamless integration of external subscribers and will implement new product features. Daragh has worked in various positions in the field of software engineering and holds a bachelors degree in computer science from University College Cork. • David Strobel will oversee sales and marketing initiatives, extend sales channels and manage the sale force. He holds a bachelors degree from the University of Maastricht in International Economics. He combines work experience in information technology analysis and finance. • Ting Zeng will manage partnerships with offshore providers in Asia and oversee the digitization processes. Ting originates from Hangzhou China, where he has gained experience in the field of marketing. He holds a degree in Business Studies. 7.2 Board of Directors The board of directors will consist of the senior management team and 3 additional members. These are ‐ 67 ‐ Theodore Lynn ‐ Dr, BBLS, MBS Theo (32) holds a Degree of Bachelor of Business and Legal Studies and Masters Degree in Business Studies and PHD (Law) in the field of Corporate Governance from University College Dublin. Currently he is CEO of his latest founded company Atomic Assets, which provides content management solutions. Theo is also founder and former CEO of Educational Multimedia Group and Enki Information Systems. He has lectured on Information Systems and Design at the Graduate School of Business, UCD and taught courses in the field of strategic management and entrepreneurship at the School of Business, DCU. Darach Turley – Prof, Dr Darach Turley is a senior lecturer in consumer behaviour at DCUBS. He joined the Business School in 1989. Before, he has lectured at the Dublin Institute of Technology, School of Marketing and Design. His research interests are in the fields of Senior Marketing, Bereavement and Consumer Behaviour, Values and Consumption, and Marketing and Ethics. He has researched intensively the marketing possibilities of funerary services for a number of years. Prior to his academic career, Darach worked for a number of years with an Irish based television production unit specialising in social and third world issues. Additional Member to the selected Management is currently searching for a board member with a background in the genealogy industry. Skills should include strong knowledge of the funerary industry and expertise in data digitalisation projects. He should be based in Ireland, UK or the U.S. 7.3 Legal GeniConnect will be founded as a public limited company (PLC) in Ireland in October 2007. The necessary funding requirement of £50,000 has been included in the financial section. Management currently holds the international domain name rights for company name and product service brand names. 7.4 Staffing The following figure sets out the anticipated number of employees (including senior management and executive director) by category. These figures have been estimated for the purpose of the financial illustrations contained in this business plan. ‐ 68 ‐ Figure 35 – Development Number of Employees 7.5 Offices GeniConnect will be based in Dublin. In the period of September to December 2007 the management team will seek investor relations and continue product development. In this period, an office will be located at Dublin City University Invent Centre. The Invent Centre provides GeniConnect, for a member fee of €1,000 annually plus rent and communication cost, an incubation space for developing our services. Office space will grow from 70m2 in the first year operation to 200m2 in the beginning of the third year. In the third year of operation a second office will be located at Arizona State University, exploiting DCU’s strong relation with ASU. This enables GeniConnect to be close to important industry locations such as Salt Lake City, which is considered the worldwide capital of genealogical research. Staffed with the senior director of sales and marketing and sales personnel exclusively this subsidiary will be extensively targeting product sales in the U.S. market and leveraging further partnerships with external record subscribers. ‐ 69 ‐ Section 8 Financial Overview 8.1 Introduction In order to evaluate the economics of running a Software as a Service based business model, GeniConnect will particularly focus on operating costs and scalability issues. Software as a Service brings well established and sustainable advantages to record providers and record subscribers, leveraging our market potential. Industry statistics were used to calculate correct sales and costs estimates and to form profitability expectations for GeniConnect’s operation. Operating challenges such as capital intensity and delayed profitability due to a delay of subscription from external provider are specially targeted with the introduction of multiple integrated product services. Integrating product capabilities across and within each category, will drive down the costs of On‐Demand Software and Syndication Services operated at the optimal cost level. Unique operating benefits are reached by leveraging a higher diversification in products and targeting multiple market segments simultaneously. Increasing the number of Record Provider’s in the first year of operation will help to gain access to grow customers for our Content Syndication Programme and generate sustainable growing revenues. 8.2 Funding This business plan is presented in order to raise initial capital of €350,000. GeniConnect is projected to become profitable after the end of Year 2 of operation. Cumulative profits in Year 3 are estimated to reach a value of €0.58m with overall yearly revenues of €2.23m. In order to raise capital, the company proposes the following distribution of company’s shares: Figure 36 – Funding Overview Source of Capital Heritage Grants/ EU FP7 External Investors Management & Board DCU Invent Centre Entrepreneurial Programme Employee Option Programme Industry Partnership Programme Total Funding €150,000 €100,000 €80,000 €20,000 ‐ ‐ €350,000 Company Shares ‐ 10% 70% 5% 5% 10% GeniConnect intends to collaborate with Dublin City University in a close research and development partnership. The Commercialisation Programme of the DCU Invent Centre can provide support for the company development by supplying access to entrepreneurial expertise, partner networks and further information resources. GeniConnect will locate its office space (Office Space/ wet labs model) at the DCU Invent Centre for the first year of operation. Through this entrepreneurial programme GeniConnect will additionally receive €20,000 start‐up capital in return for 5% of company’s shares to the Invent Centre. ‐ 70 ‐ GeniConnect intends to source funding through a variety of government institutional sources including the Enterprise Ireland HPSU fund, heritage grants and the EU FP7 Cooperation Work Programme 2007‐08 initiated by the European Commission.46 The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) theme of this programme provides a framework for work projects of the European Community for research, technological development and activities. Particularly Section 3.4 Challenge 4: Digital Libraries and Content constitutes in collaboration with the i2010 “Digital Library” initiative a significant funding opportunity, to leverage the European Commission Objective ICT‐ 2007.4.1 (ICT ‐2007.4.3) to provide innovative European wide digital libraries and access services and migrating content involving memory institutions (library, archives and museums) to digital form. With a research partnership at Dublin City University, GeniConnects’ efforts to digitize and syndicate a comprehensive genealogical record database meet the requirements for applying for funding by the European Work Programme. Under the programme’s funding scheme Collaborative Research Projects (CP), Network of Excellence (NoE) and Coordination and Support Activities (CAS), GeniConnect intends to apply for ICT Call 3 ‐ #FP7‐ICT‐2007‐3 (with a total of €50 million) in order to raise initial start‐up capital of €150,000. Funding is available in this frame for large scale integrating projects (IP) as well as for small and medium scale focuses research (STREPs). Date of publication is the 4th of December 2007. Closure date for proposing our business model is the 8th of April 2008, fitting with the planned launch date of GeniConnect Services in mid 2008. GeniConnect will also offer a 10% equity share in the company to an external investor. This will act a second source of funding, in case European funding would be neglected. Additionally, senior management intends to raise a sum of €80,000 from personal wealth, family and friends. This is €20,000 by each director. For reference social networking site Geni.com which intends to map the whole world in a family tree had raised a total of $11.5 funding from venture capitalist by the end of 2006, and has a current valuation of $100m. Since its launch in January it was able in just five months of operation to gain 5 million users.47 15% of shares are being reserved for an Employee Option Programme and an Industry Partnership Programme. GeniConnect intends to offer important industry partners to work together with us in return for gaining shares of the company. These programmes will ensure strong commitment by staff and partners to the company’s sales and product service objectives. 46 European Commission ICT Work Programme 2007‐08, ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/fp7/ict/docs/ict‐wp‐2007‐ 08_en.pdf ‐ 26th February 2007 47 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/02/geni‐5‐million‐profiles‐in‐5‐months ‐ 71 ‐ 8.3 Revenues Figure 37 – Development Revenues by Service Category Initially, revenues from On‐Demand Software solutions such as consultancy and record digitisation fees account for all revenues, growing the record volume. Once On‐Demand has been established and external subscribers have been signed, revenues from Record Web Services are expected to make up 71% in the second year and increase further to 74% in third year of operation. Figure 38 – Distribution of Sales by Service Category Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Cemeteries do account for the majority of income for On‐Demand software services reaching a value of €174,000 in Q12. Pay‐Per‐View Fees (Advanced Record Web Services) are expected to generate €400,000 in Q12. Each product launch (Q3 and Q5) will drive the average revenue per record provider higher. ‐ 72 ‐ Figure 39 – Development Revenues per Data Provider ‐ 73 ‐ 8.4 Financial Statements Figure 40 – Profit and Losses Account Projected Profit and Loss Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Sales On Demand Software 48,500 279,000 624,750 On-Demand Cemetery 38,500 16,000 22,500 196,000 46,000 150,000 441,250 70,000 371,250 Additonal User licences 10,000 8,000 2,000 83,000 23,000 60,000 183,500 35,000 148,500 Record Web Services - 612,000 1,610,000 Basic Record Web Services - 102,000 102,000 460,000 460,000 Pay-Per-view Fees - 510,000 510,000 1,150,000 1,150,000 Other Premium Services - - - 48,500 28,677 891,000 360,422 2,234,750 769,024 19,823 40.87% 530,578 59.55% 1,465,726 65.59% 170,000 21,600 8,640 44,000 10,877 14,188 425,000 34,800 18,720 163,000 10,765 50,962 557,500 55,200 24,480 318,000 4,867 38,294 269,305 (224,179) (224,179) 703,247 (99,924) (324,103) Consultation Fees Additonal User licences On-Demand Funeral Consultation Fees Monthly Subscription Fees Advanced Record Web Services Total Sales Cost of Sales Gross Profit Gross Margin Expenditures Salaries Rent, Rates and Insurance Office Costs Marketing Depreciation Bank Interest and Charges Total Expenditures Profit & Loss Cumalative Profit & Loss ‐ 74 ‐ 998,340 578,083 253,980 Figure 41 – Cash Flow Statement Projected Cash Flows Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Inflows 30 Days 60 Days 37,434 20,641 507,424 298,717 1,313,196 819,899 Total 58,074 806,141 2,133,095 Outflows Fixed Assets Data Transfer, Licensing Fees and Commissions Salaries Rent, Rates & Insurance Other Office Costs Marketing Bank Interest and Charges 75,900 28,677 170,000 21,600 8,640 44,000 14,188 65,600 360,422 425,000 34,800 18,720 163,000 50,962 Total 363,005 1,118,503 38,150 769,024 170,000 55,200 24,480 318,000 (855) 1,413,148 Period Inflow/(Outflow) (304,931) (312,362) 719,947 Cumulative Inflow/(Outflow) (304,931) (617,293) 102,654 ‐ 75 ‐ Figure 42 – Balance Sheet Balance Sheet Year 1 Assets Fixed Assets - Hardware and Software - Office Equipment - Accum. Depreciation - Net Book Value Year 2 Year 3 67,600 8,300 10,877 65,024 121,600 19,900 21,642 119,859 148,100 31,550 31,375 148,275 15,728 15,728 173,331 173,331 385,684 385,684 304,931 304,931 617,293 617,293 249,093 249,093 Net Current Assets/(Liabilities) (289,203) (443,962) 136,591 Total Assets (224,179) (324,103) 289,732 Total Net Assets/(Liabilities) (224,179) (324,103) 289,732 Capital Reserves - Share Capital - Profit and Loss A/C (224,179) (324,103) 289,732 (224,179) (324,103) 289,732 Current Assets - Accounts Receivable - Cash at Bank Liabilities + Equity Creditors - Creditors - Bank Overdraft ‐ 76 ‐ Section 9 Appendices48 Appendix 1 – Search Volume and News Reference Volume Genealogy Ancestry Family records Appendix 2 – Geographical Origination of Google Queries 48 Researched and compiled by GeniConnect June –August 2007. Otherwise sources are quoted. ‐ 77 ‐ Appendix 3 – Number of Cemeteries in Ireland No. of Cemeteries Local Authorities DUBLIN Fingal County Council South Dublin County Council Dun Laoghaire Rathdown CoCo Dublin City Council Meath CoCo Kildare CoCo Wicklow CoCo Wexford CoCo Waterford CoCo Carlow CoCo Westmeath CoCo Louth CoCo Monaghan CoCo Monaghan Town Council Cavan Laois Kilkenny county kilkenny borough North Cork Cork City Council Kerry Limerick North Tipperary South Tipperary Clare Galway Mayo Roscommon (inludes all) Childrens burial Grounds Church of Ireland Quaker Catholic Sligo Leitrim Donegal Notes Total In use Full 36 14 22 8 7 80 27 34 146 2 4 6 3 11 135 10 1 1 1 9 27 27 72 4 36 2 Registrar holds records in ledgers Ledger 16 88 116 36 200 182 287 77 23 1 186 64 23 Total Local Authority 1751 Records kept by parish Registrars, looking into doing a pilot computer system in mountmelick (ORLA) 36 2 Caretakers keep maps and ledgers Since 2001 onwards on a database 19 182 Caretakers keep records on ledger 299 213 ‐ 78 ‐ Appendix 4 – ITIF Broadband Rankings – Top 20 OECD Countries Penetration Rank Nation Speed Price Subscribers Average Speed Price per Month for 1 mbps, Fastest Technology per Household (mbps) (USD PPP) Overall Score 1 Korea 0.90 45.6 0.45 15.73 2 Japan 0.52 61.0 0.27 14.99 3 Iceland 0.83 6.0 4.99 12.14 4 Finland 0.57 21.7 2.77 12.11 5 Netherlands 0.73 8.8 4.31 11.87 6 Sweden 0.49 18.2 0.63 11.54 7 France 0.49 17.6 1.64 11.41 8 Denmark 0.70 4.6 4.92 11.37 9 Norway 0.64 7.4 4.04 11.29 10 Canada 0.62 7.6 6.50 11.11 11 Belgium 0.54 6.2 6.69 10.60 12 US 0.51 4.8 3.33 10.47 13 Switzerland 0.68 2.3 21.71 10.40 14 Australia 0.50 1.7 2.39 10.23 15 Austria 0.42 7.3 5.99 10.08 16 Portugal 0.42 8.1 10.99 9.92 17 UK 0.50 2.6 11.02 9.92 18 Germany 0.38 6.0 5.20 9.81 19 Italy 0.38 4.2 3.36 9.78 20 Luxembourg 0.51 3.1 18.48 9.71 Appendix 5 – Cost of Digitisation Data Entry Average Number of Records Input Speed records/hour Labour Hours per cemetery Labour Cost per Hour Total Cost 20,000 60 33 2€ 667 Pages per hour Cost per Hour Total Cost 86 ‐ 186 50€ 388 Scanning Average Number Records per Page of Records 20,000 30 ‐ 79 ‐ Appendix 6 ‐ List of Digitisation Projects Name Nation Digitisation of Vital UK Events (2005 – 2008) Glasnevin Modernisation Programme (2006 – 2016) Ireland JISC Digitisation Programme (2003 – 2009) UK Responsible Funding Description Technology Stats Office for n.a. Scanning and digitisation of more than 250 Scanned and encrypted 250 million records National 80,000 microfilms million birth, marriage and death certificates images will be Statistics (ONS), Serving a population of from 1837 to the present day. electronically and securely transmitted to 50million Registrar the Siemens Business 1.5 new events are registered General in Process Operation partnership with annually Centre in India for data local authorities capture. and Siemens Business Services Manual Input 1.2 million burial records Glasnevin €2.5 million yearly Chronicling and updating archive records of Cemetery provided by each grave and details of any restorative work Proprietary National carried out . Digital photographs Development Plan of each and every grave both before and after (EU) the clean‐up programme are taken The Online historical population reports Arts and XML based digitisation 10 billion words and 2 million £22 from the Humanities Data Higher Education project will deliver 200,000 pages of population Web based interface pages are being digitised Service History Funding Council reports relating to the demography, economy from complete runs (or the and sociology of the British Isles published for England majority) of 19th‐century between 1801 and 1937. 600 volumes of Census (HEFCE)8 local, regional and national reports representing over. The project will give British newspapers. users free access to historical material that is currently widely dispersed in books and 600 volumes of Census microforms across the UK. Reports relate to the reports representing over demography, economy and sociology of the 200,000 pages and 100 years British Isles between 1801 and 1937. of population growth – from 9 million people in 1801 to ‐ 80 ‐ more than 40 million by 1901. Massachusetts Vital U.S. Records Digitization Project (Started in 2003 ‐ 2006) Modernisation of Civil Registration Service (start 2001) Ireland OCR There are 80 Birth, 65 Scanning the VR Index books. Database Conversion Marriage, and 58 Death VR Converting the Index scans into a searchable Index books for the period database with links to the appropriate Record 1841‐1910. Each book Page images. contains approximately 524 Scanning the VR Record books. pages, and each page Converting the Record Page images into a contains approximately 80 format that can be quickly downloaded. Finding and correcting errors introduced in the names, for a total of digitization process. approximately 8,500,000 names. General Register £7 million Windows 2000 based 400 internal users, 104,000 Phase 1 ‐ improving customer service, Office/ Web‐based transaction registered events, 400,000 provided by the introducing a Accenture processing (OLTP) Irish Government new registration computer system, defining certificates produced system 1.2 million searches/ roles, responsibility and enquiries annually authority, providing wider access to civil registration data across the Public Service and the enactment of a new body of legislation. Phase 2 ‐ development of external access and services via the Internet to digital life event data to facilitate a wider group of customers Massachusetts n.a. State Archives ‐ 81 ‐ Appendix 7 ‐ List of Online Memorial and Genealogical Information Web Sites Name URL Description Stats Records Database for ancestors 9m entries Linked to FamilyTreeMaker.com 14.000 family stories software 90.000 photos Service Mapping individual Cemetery Updating Service www.cemeteryrecordservices.com Gravestones and Inscriptions UK Censuses available from 1841 – Full details are offered as a Census UK 1901, Parish Register. premium service http://www.censusuk.co.uk/ Provider of information about funeral, Dignity Memorial cremation and cemetery services. http://www.dignitymemorial.com Funeral related good online store Ever life Memorials www.Everlifememorials.com Pay per view site for up to date Family History Online records www.familyhistoryonline.net Family Pages and Family Tree Family Network Online Services http://www.myheritage.com Portal for British related funeral Family records services and burial records (England www.familyrecords.gov.uk & Wales) 1538 - 2000 Ancestry www.ancestry.com Find a grave www.findagrave.com Genaologue http://www.genealogue.com/ Geni http://www.geni.com Graveyards www.graveyards.com Griefnet www.griefnet.org Interment www.interment.net US focused cemetery contents 16m records Create own Virtual cemetery of famous people User submitted contents Possibility to add a picture of grave/ person Genealogy Blog Directory Cemetery Ancestry Family Service Memorials ObituaryProductForum Community Info Search Tree Directory x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Family Tree Social Networking x Listing and Mapping of US cemeteries on Google Maps Includes Pictures of 554 graveyards with coordinates x x x x Worldwide Burial Record Database 8.500 cemeteries User submitted contents freely 4m records available for genealogical reference 50.000 monthly visitors revenue through advertising of related sites ‐ 82 ‐ x x x Irish Genealogy Limited www.Irishgenealogy.ie Irish Origins http://www.irishorigins.com/ Irish Times http://www.ireland.com/ Last Memories www.last-memories.com Legacy www.legacy.com Paid Grave Stone inscription and 389.000 gravestones records mapping service across Ireland Certificate 20$/ Map 10$ 3.6m free records Based on data of Irish family history centres & IGL Specialist in Irish Genealogy x Online Obituaries x Online Memorials 2143 unique websites Affiliated with www.death-notice.com 24$ yearly/ 40$ forever life stories, video, audio, galleries, condolences, memories Online Directory for Funeral Services, Obituaries & Memorial Services Guestbook, Forum Selected Genealogy Companies Links to Genealogy Services http://pbjclib.state.ar.us/gensale.htm Information Services for funerals Memorial Service Planning www.MemorialServicePlanning.com Poems, Eulogy Writing, Funeral Ideas Specialist E-books ~ 10$ Online Memorials Memory of www.memory-of.com 7m monthly visitors Flowers Funeral Home Directory > 400 Newspaper Affiliates Flash based 29 - 49$ Packages x x x x x x x 49.000 websites/ 2m candles2 weeks free5$ monthly/ 50$ yearly/ 100$ forever Reader device mounted to headstone www.memorymedallion.com Remeire http://remeire.com Device attached to headstone which Different designed medallions holds digital info about a person accessed via PDA/laptop Online Ship for Funeral related Products Remembered Forever www.Remembered-Forever.com Online Memorials Grief Forum Gift store RIP.ie www.rip.ie Steenhouwerij Rijtink www.steenhouwerij-rijtink.nl x Currently 78 memorials virtual candles free setup for 5 days sponsorship for 100 $ 5% goes to charity Irish Obituary Provider x x x x x ‐ 83 ‐ x x x Manufacture headstones with video displays x x x Vidstone www.vidstone.com Virtual-memorials www.virtual-memorials.com Word Vital Records http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/ Grave Angles www.graveangels.com Cemetery Services http://potifos.com/cemeteries.html Video screen attached to headstone - contains pictures and sounds relating to person interred Online Memorials Text only: Free for 10 years Full Features: 50$ Customized: 100 - 300$ Record Database and Linkage x x Grave Services for Irish cemeteries x x Collection of Cemetery Information x ‐ 84 ‐ x Appendix 8 ‐ List of Funeral Software Services Name & URL Product and Services Description Features Price Location Association Computer Services http://www.funeralhom esoftware.info/ Funeral Home Management Software. Funeral Home Accounts Receivable Software Funeral Home Preneed Software Cemetery Management Suit Mapping Electronic Memorials The electronic funeral ledger. Prints state and federal government forms, and obituaries. Prints at-need contracts, memoranda, statements, and reports. Prints preneed contracts, memoranda, statements, and reports. Axiom's Charon Cemetery Management Suite (CMS) offers unprecedented integration and ease of use that is unmatched in the death-care industry. For the first time in the industry, Charon CMS provides a one-stop cemetery management system. Billing, Accounting, Forms Individual Price proposal USA Accounting & Financials, Records & resource management, Property mapping, Web Applications, PDA Applications, Point of Sale, Touch Screen kiosks, Individual Price proposal Australia Continental Computer Corp http://www.continentalc omputers.com Crematory Manager.Net Training Providing software for funeral home management and billing. SQL Server Database / SQL Express, Fully Scalable and Expandable Technology, Advanced Data Exchange, Wide Area Network Support, XML Based Web Services, .Net Environment, Multi-Tier Architecture, Object-Oriented Development Individual Price proposal USA Crematorium/ Cemetery Administration http://www.cassoftware .co.uk/ CSR Consultants http://www.cemeteryda tabase.com/ CAS Solution CAS is a suite of software that enables users to record and store data in a simple and logical way using specific data screens. Administrative functions and analysis tasks use this data to provide all the required authorisations and management information. Client Based Software Designed for Windows "Manages information from a small cemetery of a few thousand to those with tens of thousands interred. Easy user friendly screens with search capabilities remove problems of entering and locating information. Automation assists in recording your cemetery layout, automatic transfer of Reserved graves to Interred, change reoccurring information instead of being forced to accept options from a program, no limit on number of interred per grave site." Diaries, Data Screens , Administration, Utilities, Dialin Bookings, Financial Control Individual Price proposal UK Record Verification, Reports, Record Management Single User: $309.99/ + $59.99 for one more user Basic Version: 259.99 (No mapping, no import, no modifications, user inputs all presetup) Network Version: $749.95 1 year Support USA AXIOM http://www.charon.com .au/index.html Cemetery Management SC Customization of Screens, Reports, Tables Complete IT Consultancy CSR Consultants http://www.cemeteryda tabase.com/ Cemetery Management Max Client Based Software Designed for Windows Standard + Cemetery Administration Menu Administration Menu, Owner’s Menu, Interred Menu, Graves Menu, Visual Menu, Accounts Menu, Maintenance Menu, Reports Menu, Single User / One Cemetery: $359.99 + $124.99 for one more user Multiple Cemeteries: $459,99 Network Version: $999.95 Import: $99.95 Grave Layout Modification: $199.95 1 year Support USA CurrentObituary.net Http://www.CurrentObit uary.net CurrentObituary.net National Online Obituary Service for Funeral Directors Obituary Web Site integration $16-50 a month hosting fee + $400 setup fee USA ‐ 85 ‐ Davidson Software Systems Inc http://www.davidsonsof tware.com/ DFDMS 2007/Network Software for mortuaries and funeral homes. Final Filer Software is committed to bringing free, comprehensive and powerful data management tools to the funerary industries, especially cemeteries, memorial parks and crematoria Record Management Final Filer http://www.finalfiler.co m Final Filer Database FM Solutions is a software development company that develops software for the Death Care Industry. Currently FM Solutions has over 1,700 funeral home customers nationwide using our FM9000 Funeral Management software. Record Database FM9000 (Release 10.0) New Customers Software and 1 year Support $1495.00 Renew Support Contract: $495.00 annually Network Seat License $245 per Computer Australia FPA Software http://www.fpasoftware .com/ MACCS Implementation Services Data Conversion Training Support Custom Crystal Report Development HMIS® Advantage Implementation Planning Data Conversion Electronic Customer Support Configuration and Training The Complete Mortuary & Cemetery Software Solution Accounts Receivable, Casket Inventory, Client Database, Contract Entry, General Ledger, Mortuary/Funeral Services, Pre-Need Trusts, PreSales Prospects, Property Inventory On request USA Web based Solution; HMIS offers our industry’s only fully integrated cemetery, mortuary and crematory software solution. Whether you have a single location or two thousand, we offer you a single, secure database solution which includes multi-location, multiuser capability. Reporting, Enter Data Once Name Management, Property Ownership, Funeral Home Management, Crematory Management, Cemetery Mapping, Data Integrity, General Accounting Interface, Accounts Receivables, Document Imaging, Sales Commissions, Trust Fund Management Individual Price proposal USA Reports, Maps, Invoicing, Backup and restore module, Quick Add for fast data entry (used for a single sale for multiple lots), Export data to an Excel spread sheet, User modified location & sales labels and fields, E-mail integration, Mailing Labels, Popup Calendar, Print a Deed, Work Orders, Optional Mausoleum recording, Optional Payment tracking, Software can be customized for your cemetery needs, Optional Multiple Cemeteries Optional Enhanced Invoicing and Statements, Optional display tombstone of deceased pictures Individual Price proposal USA Record And Cemetery Administration Individual Price proposal USA HMIS http://www.hmisinc.co m/ Medford Software House http://bryantminard.co m/ Cemetery Database Management Software 2007 Free Product Support and Upgrades Additional Annual Support Maintenance Programme Online Product Support Ramaker & Asscoicates http://www.cimscemete rysoftware.com Cims Cims Light (no maps) e-Cims (web version) Quickbooks Module (Interchange with Quickbooks Accounting Software HMIS® Advantage can be hosted at a Customer’s Location. HMIS® Advantage can be hosted at an HMIS® ASP Location. Database Application for Windows Offers a cemetery database management programme. Cemetery Software (Windows) to consolidate your Log Books, Lot Cards, Spreadsheets, Accounting Information and Maps! ‐ 86 ‐ USA Appendix 9 ‐ List of Potential Channel Partners Name ICCFA - International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association Location Virginia USA Description Includes Cemetery Directory - Funeral Home Directory - Also memorial designers, insurance companies, and suppliers to the funeral service and cemetery industry. Can purchase cemetery related products online. Trade Convention National Funeral Directors Association - America USA Resource and body representing funeral homes, cemeteries and death services Australian Funeral Directors Association Australia Resource and body representing funeral homes, cemeteries and death services Casket & Funeral Supply Association of America USA Represent the interests of member suppliers to licensed funeral homes and licensed funeral directors. CFSA has long been established as the trade association for the funeral supply industry. The Association's objective is to provide useful information and perspectives on the funeral industry and the funeral supply industry to support manufacturers and suppliers of funeral goods and/or services International Memorialisation Supply Association Cemetery Supply Resource American Cemetery Supplies Inc USA American Cemetery Supplies is a national leader in the manufacturing and distribution of Cemetery, Funeral Home, and Vault supplies. Cemetery Funeral Supply American Funeral Supply Co USA USA The National Society of Allied & Independent Funeral Directors UK SAIF Trade is an innovative new idea for the funeral sector brought to you by THE innovative trade association working in funeral service today. SAIF Trade is a 21st century concept – a virtual trade association for suppliers of products and providers of services to the funeral sector. We know how important it is for us to support our Associate members in every way that we can. Funeral Business Advisor Magazine USA Trade Magazine Over 37,000 items for the death care industry, including general supplies such as paper products, name badges, candy, and cleaning supplies; and funeral & cemetery supplies, such as register books, expando seating, flags, and more ‐ 87 ‐ Appendix 10 – Projected Profit and Losses by Month Projected Profit and Loss Account - Year 1 January February March April May June July August September October November December Total Sales On-Demand Cemetery Consultation Fees Additonal User licences Record Digitisation - - - - 5,788 2,000 625 3,163 6,413 2,000 1,250 3,163 7,038 2,000 1,875 3,163 7,663 2,000 2,500 3,163 8,288 2,000 3,125 3,163 8,913 2,000 3,750 3,163 9,538 2,000 4,375 3,163 10,163 2,000 5,000 3,163 38,500 16,000 22,500 25,302 On-Demand Funeral Consultation Fees Additonal User licences Record Digitisation - - - - 1,250 1,000 250 - 1,250 1,000 250 - 1,250 1,000 250 - 1,250 1,000 250 - 1,250 1,000 250 - 1,250 1,000 250 - 1,250 1,000 250 - 1,250 1,000 250 - 10,000 8,000 2,000 - Basic Record Web Services Subscription Fees - - - - - - - - - - - - - Advanced Record Web Services Viewing Fees - - - - - - - - - - - - - Total Sales - - - - 7,038 7,663 8,288 8,913 9,538 10,163 10,788 11,413 48,500 Cost of Sales - - - - 3,226 3,328 3,431 3,533 3,636 3,738 3,841 3,943 28,677 Gross Profit Gross Margin - - - - 3,812 54% 4,335 57% 4,857 59% 5,379 60% 5,902 62% 6,424 63% 6,947 64% 7,469 65% 19,823 41% - - - Expenditures Salaries Rent, Rates and Insurance Office Costs Marketing Depreciation Bank Interest and Charges 10,833 1,800 720 2,000 399 - 10,833 1,800 720 2,000 485 294 10,833 1,800 720 2,000 572 461 10,833 1,800 720 2,000 672 628 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 766 811 15,833 1,800 720 12,000 860 1,058 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 953 1,355 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 1,047 1,546 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 1,140 1,734 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 1,234 1,919 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 1,328 2,101 15,833 1,800 720 12,000 1,421 2,281 170,000 21,600 8,640 44,000 10,877 14,188 Total Expenditures 15,752 16,133 16,386 16,654 21,931 32,271 22,661 22,946 23,227 23,506 23,782 34,056 269,305 (15,752) (15,752) (16,133) (31,885) (16,386) (48,271) (16,654) (64,925) (18,118) (83,043) (27,936) (110,979) (17,804) (128,784) (17,566) (146,350) (17,326) (163,676) (17,082) (180,757) (16,835) (197,593) (26,586) (224,179) (224,179) (224,179) Profit & Loss Cumalative Profit & Loss ‐ 88 ‐ Projected Profit and Loss Account - Year 2 January February March April May June July August September October November December Total Sales On-Demand Cemetery Consultation Fees Additonal User licences Record Digitisation 10,788 2,000 5,625 3,163 17,201 4,000 6,875 6,326 18,451 4,000 8,125 6,326 19,701 4,000 9,375 6,326 20,951 4,000 10,625 6,326 22,201 4,000 11,875 6,326 23,451 4,000 13,125 6,326 24,701 4,000 14,375 6,326 25,951 4,000 15,625 6,326 27,201 4,000 16,875 6,326 28,451 4,000 18,125 6,326 29,701 4,000 19,375 6,326 196,000 46,000 150,000 72,744 On-Demand Funeral Consultation Fees Additonal User licences Record Digitisation 3,250 1,000 2,250 - 4,750 2,000 2,750 - 5,250 2,000 3,250 - 5,750 2,000 3,750 - 6,250 2,000 4,250 - 6,750 2,000 4,750 - 7,250 2,000 5,250 - 7,750 2,000 5,750 - 8,250 2,000 6,250 - 8,750 2,000 6,750 - 9,250 2,000 7,250 - 9,750 2,000 7,750 - 83,000 23,000 60,000 - Basic Record Web Services Subscription Fees 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 9,000 9,000 9,000 9,000 9,000 9,000 12,000 12,000 12,000 12,000 12,000 12,000 15,000 15,000 102,000 102,000 Advanced Record Web Services Viewing Fees 15,000 15,000 15,000 15,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 45,000 45,000 45,000 45,000 45,000 45,000 60,000 60,000 60,000 60,000 60,000 60,000 75,000 75,000 510,000 510,000 Total Sales 32,038 39,951 59,701 61,451 63,201 82,951 84,701 86,451 106,201 107,951 109,701 129,451 891,000 Cost of Sales 11,871 15,237 23,041 23,321 23,602 31,406 31,686 31,967 39,771 40,051 40,331 48,136 360,422 Gross Profit Gross Margin 20,167 63% 24,714 62% 36,659 61% 38,129 62% 39,599 63% 51,544 62% 53,014 63% 54,484 63% 66,429 63% 67,899 63% 69,369 63% 81,314 63% 530,578 60% 31,250 2,900 1,560 11,500 440 2,541 31,250 2,900 1,560 11,500 507 3,157 31,250 2,900 1,560 11,500 574 3,537 31,250 2,900 1,560 11,500 641 3,878 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 708 4,098 37,500 2,900 1,560 21,500 775 4,300 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 842 4,637 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 909 4,792 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 976 4,876 37,500 2,900 1,560 16,500 1,043 5,011 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 1,110 5,086 37,500 2,900 1,560 21,500 2,240 5,048 425,000 34,800 18,720 163,000 10,765 50,962 Expenditures Salaries Rent, Rates and Insurance Office Costs Marketing Depreciation Bank Interest and Charges Total Expenditures Profit & Loss Cumalative Profit & Loss 50,191 50,874 51,321 51,729 58,266 68,535 58,939 59,161 59,312 64,514 59,656 70,748 703,247 (30,024) (254,204) (26,160) (280,364) (14,662) (295,026) (13,600) (308,626) (18,667) (327,292) (16,991) (344,283) (5,925) (350,208) (4,677) (354,885) 7,118 (347,768) 3,386 (344,382) 9,713 (334,669) 10,566 (324,103) (99,924) (324,103) ‐ 89 ‐ Projected Profit and Loss Account - Year 3 January February March April May June July August September October November December Total Sales On-Demand Cemetery Consultation Fees Additonal User licences Record Digitisation 30,951 4,000 20,625 6,326 37,988 6,000 22,500 9,488 39,863 6,000 24,375 9,488 41,738 6,000 26,250 9,488 43,613 6,000 28,125 9,488 45,488 6,000 30,000 9,488 47,363 6,000 31,875 9,488 49,238 6,000 33,750 9,488 51,113 6,000 35,625 9,488 52,988 6,000 37,500 9,488 54,863 6,000 39,375 9,488 56,738 6,000 41,250 9,488 441,250 70,000 371,250 110,698 On-Demand Funeral Consultation Fees Additonal User licences Record Digitisation 10,250 2,000 8,250 - 12,000 3,000 9,000 - 12,750 3,000 9,750 - 13,500 3,000 10,500 - 14,250 3,000 11,250 - 15,000 3,000 12,000 - 15,750 3,000 12,750 - 16,500 3,000 13,500 - 17,250 3,000 14,250 - 18,000 3,000 15,000 - 18,750 3,000 15,750 - 19,500 3,000 16,500 - 183,500 35,000 148,500 - Basic Record Web Services Subscription Fees 20,000 20,000 20,000 20,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 40,000 40,000 40,000 40,000 40,000 40,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 60,000 60,000 460,000 460,000 Advanced Record Web Services Viewing Fees 50,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 75,000 75,000 75,000 75,000 75,000 75,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 125,000 125,000 125,000 125,000 125,000 125,000 150,000 150,000 1,150,000 1,150,000 Total Sales 111,201 119,988 157,613 160,238 162,863 200,488 203,113 205,738 243,363 245,988 248,613 286,238 2,234,750 Cost of Sales 35,916 39,422 52,404 52,824 53,244 66,226 66,646 67,066 80,048 80,468 80,888 93,870 769,024 Gross Profit Gross Margin 75,284 68% 80,566 67% 105,209 67% 107,414 67% 109,619 67% 134,262 67% 136,467 67% 138,672 67% 163,315 67% 165,520 67% 167,725 67% 192,368 67% 1,465,726 66% Salaries Rent, Rates and Insurance Office Costs Marketing Depreciation Bank Interest and Charges 41,875 4,600 2,040 24,000 184 5,144 41,875 4,600 2,040 24,000 224 4,908 41,875 4,600 2,040 24,000 265 4,656 41,875 4,600 2,040 24,000 305 4,527 48,750 4,600 2,040 24,000 345 4,184 48,750 4,600 2,040 39,000 385 3,744 48,750 4,600 2,040 24,000 426 3,512 48,750 4,600 2,040 24,000 466 2,959 48,750 4,600 2,040 24,000 506 2,267 48,750 4,600 2,040 24,000 547 1,655 48,750 4,600 2,040 24,000 587 845 48,750 4,600 2,040 39,000 627 (107) 557,500 55,200 24,480 318,000 4,867 38,294 Total Expenditures 77,843 77,647 77,436 77,347 83,919 98,519 83,327 82,815 82,163 81,592 80,822 94,910 998,340 (2,559) (326,662) 2,919 (323,743) 27,774 (295,969) 30,067 (265,902) 25,700 (240,202) 35,743 (204,459) 53,140 (151,319) 55,857 (95,462) 81,152 (14,309) 83,928 69,619 86,903 156,522 97,458 253,980 578,083 253,980 Expenditures Profit & Loss Cumalative Profit & Loss ‐ 90 ‐ Appendix 11 – Projected Cash flows by Month Cash Flow Projected - Year 1 Inflows 30 Days 60 Days Notes January 60% 40% Total March April May June July August September October November December Total - - - - - 4,283 - 4,688 2,855 5,093 3,125 5,498 3,395 5,903 3,665 6,308 3,935 6,713 4,205 38,484 21,181 - - - - - 4,283 7,543 8,218 8,893 9,568 10,243 10,918 59,664 19,933 10,833 1,800 720 2,000 - 4,333 10,833 1,800 720 2,000 294 4,333 10,833 1,800 720 2,000 461 5,967 10,833 1,800 720 2,000 628 5,167 3,226 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 811 5,167 3,328 15,833 1,800 720 12,000 1,058 5,167 3,431 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 1,355 5,167 3,533 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 1,544 5,167 3,636 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 1,731 5,167 3,738 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 1,914 5,167 3,841 15,833 1,800 720 2,000 2,094 5,167 3,943 15,833 1,800 720 12,000 2,271 75,900 28,677 170,000 21,600 8,640 44,000 14,160 Total Outflows Fixed Assets Data Transfer, Licensing Fees and Commissions Salaries Rent, Rates & Insurance Other Office Costs Marketing Bank Interest and Charges February 35,287 19,981 20,147 21,948 29,557 39,906 30,305 30,598 30,887 31,172 31,455 41,734 362,977 Period Inflow/(Outflow) (35,287) (19,981) (20,147) (21,948) (29,557) (35,623) (22,763) (22,380) (21,994) (21,605) (21,212) (30,816) (303,313) Cumulative Inflow/(Outflow) (35,287) (55,267) (75,415) (97,363) (126,920) (162,543) (185,306) (207,686) (229,679) (251,284) (272,496) (303,313) (303,313) Cash Flow Projected - Year 2 Inflows 30 Days 60 Days Notes February March April May June July August September October November December 34,763 4,745 24,630 23,175 51,600 16,420 37,770 34,400 38,940 25,180 65,910 25,960 52,080 43,940 53,250 34,720 80,220 35,500 66,390 53,480 67,560 44,260 580,234 346,257 Total 11,593 39,508 47,805 68,021 72,171 64,121 91,871 96,021 87,971 115,721 119,871 111,821 926,491 Outflows Fixed Assets Data Transfer, Licensing Fees and Commissions Salaries Rent, Rates & Insurance Other Office Costs Marketing Bank Interest and Charges 23,433 11,871 31,250 2,900 1,560 11,500 2,528 3,833 15,237 31,250 2,900 1,560 11,500 3,140 3,833 23,041 31,250 2,900 1,560 11,500 3,389 3,833 23,321 31,250 2,900 1,560 11,500 3,636 3,833 23,602 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 3,719 3,833 31,406 37,500 2,900 1,560 21,500 3,823 3,833 31,686 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 4,143 3,833 31,967 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 4,154 3,833 39,771 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 4,132 3,833 40,051 37,500 2,900 1,560 16,500 4,242 3,833 40,331 37,500 2,900 1,560 11,500 4,166 3,833 48,136 37,500 2,900 1,560 21,500 4,015 65,600 360,422 425,000 34,800 18,720 163,000 45,086 106,587 101,791 119,445 1,112,628 9,134 18,080 Period Inflow/(Outflow) Cumulative Inflow/(Outflow) 85,042 69,420 77,474 78,001 84,614 102,523 93,123 93,413 101,196 (73,449) (29,912) (29,668) (9,980) (12,444) (38,402) (1,252) 2,607 (13,226) (376,762) (406,673) (436,342) (446,322) (458,766) (497,168) (498,420) ‐ 91 ‐ (495,813) (509,039) (499,905) (481,825) Total 7,118 4,475 Total 60% 40% January (7,624) (186,137) (489,449) (489,449) Cash Flow Projected - Year 3 Inflows 30 Days 60 Days Notes February March April May June July August September October November December Total 94,530 45,040 68,700 63,020 74,153 45,800 141,908 49,435 98,663 94,605 100,418 65,775 168,173 66,945 124,928 112,115 126,683 83,285 194,438 84,455 151,193 129,625 152,948 100,795 1,496,736 940,899 139,571 131,721 119,953 191,343 193,268 166,193 235,118 237,043 209,968 278,893 280,818 253,743 2,437,635 Outflows Fixed Assets Data Transfer, Licensing Fees and Commissions Salaries Rent, Rates & Insurance Other Office Costs Marketing Bank Interest and Charges 10,650 35,916 10,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 4,079 2,500 39,422 10,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 3,683 2,500 52,404 10,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 3,311 2,500 52,824 10,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 3,142 2,500 53,244 15,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 2,381 2,500 66,226 15,833 4,600 2,040 39,000 1,642 2,500 66,646 15,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 1,356 2,500 67,066 15,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 371 Total 92,118 87,079 99,689 99,940 104,598 131,841 116,975 116,411 128,387 128,128 127,291 153,994 1,386,450 Period Inflow/(Outflow) 47,452 44,642 20,265 91,404 88,670 34,352 118,143 120,633 81,581 150,766 153,527 99,750 1,051,184 (441,997) (397,355) (377,090) (285,687) (197,017) (162,664) (44,521) 76,112 157,693 308,459 461,986 561,735 561,735 Total Cumulative Inflow/(Outflow) 60% 40% January ‐ 92 ‐ 2,500 80,048 15,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 (634) 2,500 80,468 15,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 (1,314) 2,500 80,888 15,833 4,600 2,040 24,000 (2,570) 2,500 93,870 15,833 4,600 2,040 39,000 (3,850) 38,150 769,024 170,000 55,200 24,480 318,000 (4,681) Appendix 12 – Projected Cost of Sales Cost of Sales Year 1 Scanning Input Data Transfer Sales Commissions Revenue Share Rate Total 100% 15% Total Cost of Sales Year 2 Scanning Input Data Transfer Sales Commissions Revenue Share Rate 100% 15% Scanning Input Data Transfer Sales Commissions Revenue Share Total Rate 100% 15% February March April May June July August September October November December 7,752 13,333 316 7,275 - - - - 969 1,667 9 581 - 969 1,667 18 675 - 969 1,667 26 769 - 969 1,667 35 863 - 969 1,667 44 956 - 969 1,667 53 1,050 - 969 1,667 62 1,144 - 969 1,667 70 1,238 - 28,677 - - - - 3,226 3,328 3,431 3,533 3,636 3,738 3,841 3,943 Total Total Cost of Sales Year 3 January January February March April May June July August September October November December 22,287 38,333 2,952 41,850 969 1,667 104 1,631 7,500 1,938 3,333 122 2,344 7,500 1,938 3,333 164 2,606 15,000 1,938 3,333 181 2,869 15,000 1,938 3,333 199 3,131 15,000 1,938 3,333 241 3,394 22,500 1,938 3,333 259 3,656 22,500 1,938 3,333 276 3,919 22,500 1,938 3,333 319 4,181 30,000 1,938 3,333 336 4,444 30,000 1,938 3,333 354 4,706 30,000 1,938 3,333 396 4,969 37,500 105,422 11,871 15,237 23,041 23,321 23,602 31,406 31,686 31,967 39,771 40,051 40,331 48,136 Total January February March April May June July August September October November December 33,915 58,333 8,064 93,713 1,938 3,333 414 5,231 25,000 2,907 5,000 440 6,075 25,000 2,907 5,000 528 6,469 37,500 2,907 5,000 555 6,863 37,500 2,907 5,000 581 7,256 37,500 2,907 5,000 669 7,650 50,000 2,907 5,000 695 8,044 50,000 2,907 5,000 722 8,438 50,000 2,907 5,000 810 8,831 62,500 2,907 5,000 836 9,225 62,500 2,907 5,000 863 9,619 62,500 2,907 5,000 951 10,013 75,000 194,024 35,916 39,422 52,404 52,824 53,244 66,226 66,646 67,066 80,048 80,468 80,888 93,870 ‐ 93 ‐ Appendix 13 – Projected Development of Customer Numbers Customers Year 1 Total January February March April May June July August September October November December Data Provider Number of Cemeteries 40 New Cemeteries Number of Funeral Homes 40 New Funeral Homes - - - - 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 - - - - 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 40 5 - - - - 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 - - - - 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Data Subscribers Basic Web Services - - - - - - - - - - - - - Advanced Web Services - - - - - - - - - - - - - 90 - - - - 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Total Customers Customers Year 2 Total January February March April May June July August September October November December Data Provider Number of Cemeteries 155 New Cemeteries Number of Funeral Homes 155 New Funeral Homes 45 55 65 75 85 95 105 115 125 135 145 5 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 155 10 45 55 65 75 85 95 105 115 125 135 145 155 45 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 Data Subscribers Basic Web Services 5 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 Advanced Web Services 5 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 340 142 132 154 174 194 216 236 256 278 298 318 340 Total Customers ‐ 94 ‐ Customers Year 3 Total January February March April May June July August September October November December Data Provider Number of Cemeteries 330 New Cemeteries Number of Funeral Homes 330 New Funeral Homes 165 180 195 210 225 240 255 270 285 300 315 10 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 330 15 165 180 195 210 225 240 255 270 285 300 315 330 10 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 Data Subscribers Basic Web Services 15 5 5 8 8 8 10 10 10 13 13 13 15 Advanced Web Services 15 5 5 8 8 8 10 10 10 13 13 13 15 720 360 400 435 465 495 530 560 590 625 655 685 720 Total Customers ‐ 95 ‐ Appendix 14 – Projected Costs of Rent Rent & Costs Year 1 Rent Office 1 Dublin 50m2 Invent Other Rates (as a % of Rent) Insurance (as a % of Rent) Total Rent, Rates & Insurance Rent & Costs & Year 2 Rent Office 1 Dublin 100m2 Office 2 Arizona Other Rates (as a % of Rent) Insurance (as a % of Rent) Total Rent, Rates & Insurance Rent & Costs Year 3 Office Dublin 1 150m2 Office 2 Arizona Other Rates (as a % of Rent) Insurance (as a % of Rent) Total Rent, Rates & Insurance Monthly 1,500 10% 10% 21,600 Monthly 2,000 500 10% 10% 34,800 Monthly 3,000 500 10% 10% 55,200 January February March April May June July August September October November December 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 1,800 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 2,000 500 2,500 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900 January February March April May June July August September October November December 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 3,000 1,000 4,000 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 4,600 4,600 4,600 4,600 4,600 4,600 4,600 4,600 4,600 4,600 4,600 4,600 ‐ 96 ‐ Appendix 15 – Projected Office Costs Running Costs Year 1 Telephone, Internet & Fax Printing and Photocopying Other Head/month 40 40 40 Total Running Costs Year 2 Telephone, Internet & Fax Printing and Photocopying Other Head/month 40 40 40 Total Running Costs Year 3 Telephone, Internet & Fax Printing and Photocopying Other Total Head/month 40 40 40 Total January February March April May June July August September October November December 2,880 2,880 2,880 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 240 8,640 720 720 720 720 720 720 720 720 720 720 720 720 Total January February March April May June July August September October November December 6,240 6,240 6,240 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 18,720 1,560 1,560 1,560 1,560 1,560 1,560 1,560 1,560 1,560 1,560 1,560 1,560 Total January February March April May June July August September October November December 8,160 8,160 8,160 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 680 24,480 2,040 2,040 2,040 2,040 2,040 2,040 2,040 2,040 2,040 2,040 2,040 2,040 ‐ 97 ‐ Appendix 16 – Projected Fixed Assets Hardware & Software Cost Per Unit Total January February March April May June July August September October November December Monthly Units External Servers Redundant Servers External Storage Redundant Storage Internal Servers Laptops and PCs Printers Office Software and other Server software Scanning Equipment 8,000 8,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 1,000 200 500 2,500 20,000 1 2 1 1 1 3 3 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 3 3 1 1 - - - - - - - - - - - Montly Costs External Servers Redundant Servers External Storage Redundant Storage Internal Servers Laptops and PCs Printers Office Software and other Server software Scanning Equipment 667 667 4,000 4,000 667 1,000 200 500 2,500 1,667 8,000 16,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 3,000 600 1,500 2,500 667 1,333 4,000 4,000 667 3,000 600 1,500 2,500 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 667 1,333 667 1,667 47,600 19,933 4,333 4,333 4,333 4,333 4,333 4,333 4,333 4,333 4,333 4,333 4,333 Total Fixed Assets Year 1 Total January February March April May June July August September October November December Hardware and Software Office Equipment 67,600 8,300 19,933 - 4,333 - 4,333 - 4,333 1,633 4,333 833 4,333 833 4,333 833 4,333 833 4,333 833 4,333 833 4,333 833 4,333 833 Total 75,900 19,933 4,333 4,333 5,967 5,167 5,167 5,167 5,167 5,167 5,167 5,167 5,167 ‐ 98 ‐ Hardware & Software Cost Per Unit Total January February March April May June July August September October November December Monthly Units External Servers Redundant Servers External Storage Redundant Storage Internal Servers Laptops and PCs Printers Office Software and other Server software Scanning Equipment 8,000 8,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 1,000 200 500 2,500 20,000 1 1 1 1 6 3 1 1 1 1 1 6 3 1 1 - - - - - - - - - - - Montly Costs External Servers Redundant Servers External Storage Redundant Storage Internal Servers Laptops and PCs Printers Office Software and other Server software Scanning Equipment 667 667 4,000 4,000 667 1,000 200 500 3,000 1,667 8,000 8,000 4,000 4,000 6,000 1,500 2,500 667 667 4,000 4,000 6,000 1,500 2,500 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 667 667 1,667 34,000 21,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 Total Fixed Assets Tear 2 Total January February March April May June July August September October November December Hardware and Software Office Equipment 54,000 11,600 21,000 2,433 3,000 833 3,000 833 3,000 833 3,000 833 3,000 833 3,000 833 3,000 833 3,000 833 3,000 833 3,000 833 3,000 833 Total 65,600 23,433 3,833 3,833 3,833 3,833 3,833 3,833 3,833 3,833 3,833 3,833 3,833 ‐ 99 ‐ Hardware & Software Monthly Units External Servers Redundant Servers External Storage Redundant Storage Internal Servers Laptops and PCs Printers Office Software and other Server software Scanning Equipment Montly Costs External Servers Redundant Servers External Storage Redundant Storage Internal Servers Laptops and PCs Printers Office Software and other Server software Scanning Equipment Total Fixed Assets Year 3 Cost Per Unit Total 8,000 8,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 1,000 200 500 2,500 January 5 3 - February 5 3 March April May June July August September October November December - - - - - - - - - - - 1 667 667 4,000 4,000 667 1,000 200 500 3,000 1,667 5,000 1,500 - 5,000 1,500 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 6,500 8,167 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 1,667 Total September October November December January February March April May June July August Hardware and Software Office Equipment 26,500 11,650 8,167 2,483 1,667 833 1,667 833 1,667 833 1,667 833 1,667 833 1,667 833 1,667 833 1,667 833 1,667 833 1,667 833 1,667 833 Total 38,150 10,650 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 ‐ 100 ‐ Appendix 17 – Projected Balance Sheet by Month Balance Sheet - Year 1 Fixed Assets - Hardware and Software - Office Equipment - Accum. Depreciation - Net Book Value January February March April May June July August September October November December Total 19,933 399 19,535 24,267 884 23,383 28,600 1,456 27,144 32,933 1,633 2,128 32,438 37,267 2,467 2,894 36,839 41,600 3,300 3,754 41,146 45,933 4,133 4,707 45,360 50,267 4,967 5,754 49,480 54,600 5,800 6,894 53,506 58,933 6,633 8,128 57,439 63,267 7,467 9,455 61,278 67,600 8,300 10,877 65,024 67,600 8,300 10,877 65,024 - - - - 7,038 7,038 10,478 10,478 11,353 11,353 12,228 12,228 13,103 13,103 13,978 13,978 14,853 14,853 15,728 15,728 15,728 15,728 35,287 35,287 55,267 55,267 75,415 75,415 97,363 97,363 126,920 126,920 162,603 162,603 185,496 185,496 208,058 208,058 230,285 230,285 252,174 252,174 273,724 273,724 304,931 304,931 304,931 304,931 Net Current Assets (35,287) (55,267) (75,415) (97,363) (119,882) (152,125) (174,143) (195,830) (217,182) (238,196) (258,871) (289,203) (289,203) Total Assets (15,752) (31,885) (48,271) (64,925) (83,043) (110,979) (128,784) (146,350) (163,676) (180,757) (197,593) (224,179) (224,179) Capital Reserves - Share Capital - Profit and Loss A/C (15,752) (31,885) (48,271) (64,925) (83,043) (110,979) (128,784) (146,350) (163,676) (180,757) (197,593) (224,179) (224,179) (15,752) (31,885) (48,271) (64,925) (83,043) (110,979) (128,784) (146,350) (163,676) (180,757) (197,593) (224,179) (224,179) Current Assets - Accounts Reeivable - Cash at Bank Creditors - Creditors - Bank Overdraft ‐ 101 ‐ Balance Sheet - Year 2 Fixed Assets - Hardware and Software - Office Equipment - Accum. Depreciation - Net Book Value January February March April May June July August September October November December Total 88,600 10,733 11,317 88,017 91,600 11,567 11,824 91,343 94,600 12,400 12,398 94,602 97,600 13,233 13,039 97,794 100,600 14,067 13,747 100,919 103,600 14,900 14,522 103,978 106,600 15,733 15,364 106,969 109,600 16,567 16,273 109,894 112,600 17,400 17,249 112,751 115,600 18,233 18,292 115,542 118,600 19,067 19,402 118,265 121,600 19,900 21,642 119,859 121,600 19,900 21,642 119,859 36,603 36,603 52,766 52,766 75,681 75,681 85,331 85,331 87,781 87,781 108,231 108,231 117,881 117,881 120,331 120,331 140,781 140,781 150,431 150,431 152,881 152,881 173,331 173,331 173,331 173,331 378,823 378,823 424,472 424,472 465,309 465,309 491,750 491,750 515,993 515,993 556,492 556,492 575,058 575,058 585,110 585,110 601,300 601,300 610,355 610,355 605,815 605,815 617,293 617,293 617,293 617,293 Net Current Assets (342,220) (371,706) (389,628) (406,420) (428,212) (448,261) (457,177) (464,779) (460,519) (459,924) (452,934) (443,962) (443,962) Total Assets (254,204) (280,364) (295,026) (308,626) (327,292) (344,283) (350,208) (354,885) (347,768) (344,382) (334,669) (324,103) (324,103) Capital Reserves - Share Capital - Profit and Loss A/C (254,204) (280,364) (295,026) (308,626) (327,292) (344,283) (350,208) (354,885) (347,768) (344,382) (334,669) (324,103) (324,103) (254,204) (280,364) (295,026) (308,626) (327,292) (344,283) (350,208) (354,885) (347,768) (344,382) (334,669) (324,103) (324,103) Current Assets - Accounts Receivable - Cash at Bank Creditors - Creditors - Bank Overdraft ‐ 102 ‐ Balance Sheet - Year 3 January February March April May June July August September October November December Total Fixed Assets - Hardware and Software - Office Equipment - Accum. Depreciation - Net Book Value 129,767 22,383 21,826 130,324 131,433 23,217 22,050 132,600 133,100 24,050 22,314 134,836 134,767 24,883 22,619 137,031 136,433 25,717 22,964 139,186 138,100 26,550 23,350 141,300 139,767 27,383 23,776 143,374 141,433 28,217 24,242 145,409 143,100 29,050 24,748 147,402 144,767 29,883 25,294 149,356 146,433 30,717 25,881 151,269 148,100 31,550 26,508 153,142 148,100 31,550 31,375 148,275 Current Assets - Accounts Receivable - Cash at Bank Current Assets 162,981 162,981 164,469 164,469 205,609 205,609 223,284 223,284 226,959 226,959 265,634 265,634 283,309 283,309 286,984 286,984 325,659 325,659 343,334 343,334 347,009 347,009 385,684 385,684 385,684 385,684 Creditors - Creditors - Bank Overdraft Current Liabilities 617,364 617,364 613,301 613,301 624,246 624,246 609,522 609,522 585,468 585,468 586,771 586,771 549,868 549,868 496,761 496,761 454,011 454,011 388,056 388,056 305,896 305,896 249,093 249,093 249,093 249,093 Net Current Assets (454,384) (448,832) (418,638) (386,238) (358,509) (321,137) (266,560) (209,778) (128,352) (44,722) 41,113 136,591 136,591 Total Assets (324,059) (316,232) (283,802) (249,208) (219,324) (179,837) (123,185) (64,369) 19,050 104,633 192,381 289,732 289,732 Capital Reserves - Share Capital - Profit and Loss A/C (324,059) (316,232) (283,802) (249,208) (219,324) (179,837) (123,185) (64,369) 19,050 104,633 192,381 289,732 289,732 (324,059) (316,232) (283,802) (249,208) (219,324) (179,837) (123,185) (64,369) 19,050 104,633 192,381 289,732 289,732 ‐ 103 ‐ Appendix 18 – Financial Statistics of Software as a Service companies A study of 1990s client/server companies by venture capitalist Will Price in California in January 2007 found the following statistics: Financial Overview SaaS companies Median Capital Raised Median 1st‐4th Year Revenue Ramp Median revenue at profitability Median Years to Exit $10.1m $.1m $.8m $6.9m $21.6m $48m 4 Compared to other internet companies the analysis also showed that on average it took public SaaS companies 1.6 times longer to become liquid, the need of 3.65 times more capital, and 1.75 times the earnings to hit profitability. ‐ 104 ‐ Appendix 19 – US Death Projections by State 2025 Projections based on past 5 years' average percent change and Cremations to Deaths Projections 2010 and 2025 State 2005 Cremations 2005 Deaths % Projections 2010 Projections 2025 % % Alabama * 4,679 48,106 9.73 24.75 Alaska * 1,764 3,058 57.68 63.54 Arizona * 26,603 44,562 59.70 65+ Arkansas * 5,457 27,654 19.73 23.98 California **** 120,883 232,211 52.06 55.88 Colorado * 16,486 29,563 55.77 62.43 Connecticut ** 10,240 29,515 34.69 39.66 Delaware ** 2,279 7,675 29.69 34.27 District of Columbia ** 2,454 5,391 45.53 65+ Florida ** 82,004 170,050 48.22 50.47 Georgia ** 13,794 65,683 21.00 27.52 Hawaii * 5,961 9,329 63.90 65+ Idaho ** 4,910 10,665 46.04 52.42 Illinois * 26,162 102,922 25.42 29.67 Indiana ** 11,925 54,874 21.73 47.12 Iowa ** 5,908 27,875 21.19 26.65 Kansas ** 6,280 24,774 25.35 34.59 Kentucky ** 4,880 40,386 12.08 18.41 Louisiana ** 6,346 42,012 15.10 21.31 Maine * 6,844 12,806 53.44 62.00 Maryland ** 12,662 44,044 28.75 35.46 Massachusetts ** 14,448 53,447 27.03 30.29 Michigan ** 32,158 86,933 36.99 45.21 Minnesota * 14,38 37,594 38.25 45.50 Mississippi ** 2,806 29,257 9.59 14.69 Missouri ** 12,746 54,692 23.30 32.05 Montana * 5,050 8,554 59.04 65+ Nebraska ** 3,980 14,882 26.74 36.71 Nevada * 12,815 19,692 65+ 65+ New Hampshire ** 5,187 9,985 51.95 57.45 New Jersey * 12,868 71,955 17.88 30.01 New Mexico * 6,767 14,722 45.97 52.63 New York * 36,841 154,147 23.90 28.13 North Carolina ** 16,715 74,693 22.38 29.65 North Dakota * 632 6,143 10.29 11.58 Ohio ** 27,414 108,088 25.36 30.91 Oklahoma ** 7,257 36,278 20.00 27.73 Oregon ** 19,667 31,120 63.20 65+ Pennsylvania ** 34,830 128,401 27.13 33.71 Rhode Island ² 3,022 10,177 29.69 NA South Carolina ** 6,386 37,167 17.18 20.21 South Dakota ** 1,555 7,042 22.08 31.69 Tennessee ¹ 5,998 57,129 10.50 NA Texas ** 35,001 154,994 22.58 30.79 Utah ** 2,946 13,356 22.06 27.24 Vermont ** 1,886 4,889 38.58 36.17 Virginia ** 15,057 57,715 26.09 33.33 Washington ** 29,412 45,951 64.01 65+ West Virginia ** 4,318 20,649 20.91 65+ ‐ 105 ‐ Wisconsin ** Wyoming ** United States 15,944 1,863 778,025 46,699 4,062 2,432,000 34.14 45.86 30.88% 42.05 65+ 38.15% 51.12% *Official 2005 preliminary figure from National Vital Statistics, State Health Dept. or similar entity. Fifteen states reported their numbers. **Estimated using official 00‐04 state data and 2004 confirmed death count from National Vital Statistics. ***2005 United States death total from the National Vital Statistics. **** California cremation total collected from the Association of California Cremationists. ¹ – TN cremations derived from surveying state crematories and 2004 confirmed death count from National Vital Statistics. ² – The state of Rhode Island began collecting cremation figures in 2005. For more information on cremation statistics visit the Cremation Association of North America at www.cremationassociation.org. Appendix 20 – Pricing of Funeral Services Funeral director David Fanagan described cultural, religious, economic and social trends in funerals, cremations and burials in Ireland. He has noticed during his work that higher social classes tend to limit insensitivity of the celebration of death event. Darach Turley found in his research as a professor for death marketing in DCU a similar trend. He found also that lower social classes tend to spend up to 3‐4 times more on funeral arrangements, gravestone and related services. Reasons attributed were that this group takes life events such as a funeral as a once in life‐time chance to extensively celebrate and showing off to others. Other trends in the U.S. include the popularity of extraordinary death services such as being buried in special coffins. In general GeniConnect found that death related service prices are commonly discussed or questioned, but rather accepted. Higher premiums are considered to honour and express valuation of the loved one in remembrance. Leisure time is increasing predominantly for the 40+ age group. Pamela Drake who researched in her master thesis the online genealogy market finds that in 2001 alone one search engine showed 7.2 million hits for the term "genealogy" and 1.8 million hits for the phrase "family history." Participants started their genealogical research at an average age of 40, with responses ranging from early childhood into late adulthood. The majority (89.8%) of participants in the study had travelled at least once within the past five years to conduct family research.49 49 http://psych.fullerton.edu/genealogy ‐ 106 ‐ Appendix 21 – Online Memorial Services Online Memorial Services Cost to create a memorial is a one‐time fee of £10 (10% donated to charity) User can light candles at no extra cost. Other Features include life story, light candle, music, photo album family tree, guest book, pet memorials and search. http://www.gatesofremembrance.com.com This site has no charge to create or edit memorials. It operates a subscription based model, charge for hosting $39.90 forever (one‐time payment), $24.90 annual fee or $4.90 monthly fee. One can also give donations (30% goes to charity). The features offered are a gallery, video & audio, life story, candles condolences, search and death notices http://www.last‐memories.com This site concentrates on publishing online memorials. Text only memorials are free, whereas for fully featured memorials user are charged a onetime fee of $50.00 Custom memorials, which include functions such as custom backgrounds, scanning and placing photos, text editing and custom layout design are priced on average between $100 ‐ $300. http://www.virtual‐memorials.com This site includes currently 51,087 memorial websites on which 2,155,065 virtual candles where lid by visitors. Creating a memorial website is free for a period of 2 weeks. After that users can choose between a monthly hosting fee of $5, a 12‐month hosting fee of $50 or a one‐time sponsorship fee of $100 which will ensure that the personalized memorial website will remain online forever. Additionally, the site links related e‐commerce products and services such as flower and gift shops. http://www.memory‐of.com ‐ 107 ‐ Appendix 22 – Overview IT and Office Costs Type Office Printing and Photocopying Laptop and PCs Software Licences Data Transfer & Communication Telecommunication, Internet and Fax 100‐MBit Data Transfer Server Hardware & Software Operating Systems On‐Demand Cemetery Application Server Relational Database System Costs per unit €40 per person per month €1,000 €500 per PC and Laptop €40 per person per month €1 per gigabyte (€500‐ 1,000 monthly) Windows Server 2003: $999 with 5 Client Access Licences 50 Sun Fire T2000 Server: €7,900 or monthly financed at €667 per month for 1 year 51 Microsoft SQL Server 2005: $1,849 with 5 Client Access Licences 52 50 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Pricing, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/pricing.mspx 51 Business System International Web Site, http://www.e‐business.com/products/sun/t2000.html 52 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Pricing, http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/default.mspx#E2G ‐ 108 ‐ Appendix 23 – Article Technology in Funeral Homes Making Technology Profitable Funeralwire.com April 30 2002 ‐ http://www.fx‐ds.com/Making_Technology_Profitable.shtml Many funeral directors have embraced technology with about the same enthusiasm as a child on the first day at a new school. They have come to see technology as a necessary evil, often costing more in time, effort and money than is realized in benefits. Is there an easy way to implement technology solutions in the funeral industry so that it adds value to a funeral home's services, increases their market share and helps the funeral home become more profitable? The answer to that question is finally, "yes." Over the last ten years, technology has evolved from simple accounting packages and basic funeral home management software to fully integrated web‐based applications. Technology solutions provide funeral directors with the ability to realize new merchandizing opportunities, offer expanded services, open new marketing options, expand their market share, maximize personnel all while lowering procurement costs, reducing inventory and curtailing marketing expenses. Merchandising Opportunities Research shows that well‐informed customers leave the arrangement process feeling confident with their decisions and satisfied with the value of the products and services that the funeral home offers. Virtual Showroom ‐ makes it possible to greatly increase the number of offerings to families without increasing overhead. The virtual showroom allows families to personalize the selection process much more for a loved one than if they were walking among caskets and having to make a selection. Overhead costs are cut with the virtual presentation as inventory can be ordered within a short period of time on an at‐need basis rather than having to be kept in inventory. A virtual showroom also offers greater options than a traditional merchandising display wall or room. Online merchandising offers multiple choices for each and every item you carry, (i.e. a casket can be viewed with 20 or 30 different panels, crowns, engravings and interior color patterns.) This gives the funeral director the flexibility of offering families options that are easily personalized at the click of a button. It also allows consumers to be better informed and make their decision based on what they want and not what they have to settle for. A family that leaves the arrangement conference satisfied is the best form of advertising and source of repeat business. Floral Sales ‐ Many funeral directors who do not want to be "in the flower business" are often missing out on a potential revenue source. Funeral homes regularly give referrals to local florists; now these same referrals can be made online without alienating local florists and without cutting into their profits. A win‐win‐win situation thus exists, with family and friends actually seeing the arrangements they are ordering, florists keeping the same profit margins and the funeral director receiving the commissions they are rightfully due by referring the customers to the florists. Pet Memorialization ‐ a growing trend in memorialization in the death‐care industry. Funeral professionals are beginning to see these offerings as complementary to their traditional services. Various products, including urns, memorials, burial and cremation caskets, as well as keepsake merchandise can now be offered by the funeral home without having to keep any of the merchandise in stock. These products can have a high or low marketing visibility as desired by the funeral home while still generating commissions or profits on all merchandise or services sold. Expanded Services There is no longer one service or product offering that will meet the needs of the many different generations and cultures served by most funeral homes today. Increasingly, funeral directors need to provide services that are reflective of the families' unique culture, ethnic background and beliefs. There is no "one size fits all." Web Broadcasting ‐ an extension of the funeral home's services to serve family members and friends who are not able to attend the service. The passing of a loved one impacts all. Closure is an important element in how we deal with death. For many, attending the service meets this basic need. Many times however, there are geographic barriers, time constraints or scheduling conflicts that make it impossible for some to attend. Web broadcasting is a means by which people unable to attend can have this closure. Using On‐Demand broadcasting also allows family members to have a permanent record of the service. This service helps preserve memories and helps families remember people who attended and details of the service they may have missed because of the emotional nature of the event. These broadcasting services can be implemented without a high up‐front expense. Funeral homes are able to resell these services to their families if they so choose. Some funeral homes provide this service at a minimal cost and use it to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Additional revenue can be created by providing copies to extended family or friends and memorial products that can be implemented with these programs. ‐ 109 ‐ Unique After‐Care ‐ personalized programs for families served that can be tailored to suit their specific needs. These online offerings allow families to utilize resources you provide to them in the comfort of their own home with their loved ones. Initial programs can be introduced to the family face‐to‐face and then modeled accordingly. Tailoring your aftercare program to each family allows you to continue to serve families long after the actual service takes place. These aftercare programs can also be aligned with specialists in grief recovery thus providing additional services and products without requiring the funeral director to create the programs. This allows the funeral home to provide products and services they can earn commissions on without the time and cost of development. Marketing Options Funeral directors are no longer bound by the traditional marketing avenues of telephone books, mailings, billboards or radio and television. A new marketing medium is opening new doors to funeral homes. Interactive Website ‐ complementing all aspects of traditional marketing and extends current marketing efforts even further. A website can provide families with relevant content, helpful resources and any other additional information they may need to make informed choices. A website can be seen as a virtual staff working 24/7 with no increase to the payroll. A well developed website extends the funeral home's reach beyond the traditional means of advertising and into other communities that might not otherwise be reached. It is a "tool of the trade" with tremendous application possibilities. A website can be used prior to any interaction with families letting them discover many services offered before they arrive at the funeral home. Beyond making a good first impression with a thought‐out design and professional image, it needs to include relevant and updated content to allow consumers to make informed decisions. A good funeral home website should also include the details of the preneed process in a step‐by‐step format. This makes it possible for families to enter their own information and walk through the entire preneed process by themselves. Another option is to involve the funeral home personnel in assisting in the process as little or as much is desired. Additionally, a website can be used in assisting in at‐need arrangements and also incorporated throughout the actual service process by connecting families you serve with friends, relatives and others that are not able to attend the funeral. It should offer families additional resources in the form of grief resources and quality aftercare programs. Online obituaries can include many color photos and provide space for a much more detailed life history than the traditional obituary in the local newspaper. This is a far more memorable and desirable approach for the family. A website can be one of a funeral home's most valuable resources as an extension of every product and service you offer. Each can be tailored to better serve families. Historically, many funeral home websites began as basic information‐only sites with limited functionality. With the advance of technology and the expanding use of the Internet, not only by the senior community, but also at every generational level, websites have become far more functional. It is imperative that a funeral home's website be updated with new service options. A good question to ask is why would someone want or need to come back to a funeral home's website after being there once? Static‐content driven sites that provide information only will not get much repeat traffic. There are now options that allow you to increase functionality without having to completely reconstruct an existing website. The funeral home website should be a place where the local community visits on a consistent basis. Today's technology makes it possible to have a dynamic, useful and informative site without a large cash outlay to get it done. "Webmercials" ‐ a new concept of personalized marketing. Using "flash media" or personalized video messages, funeral homes can target market specific groups online. Many funeral directors provide consumer education to different groups. Now these can be digitally recorded and made available to larger markets for increased exposure through the Internet. These messages can be produced and implemented with minimal expense. They can then be used on other community websites as well. With a minimal amount of capital expenditure, this can be a cost‐effective marketing tool that reaches further than traditional marketing methods. Life Remembrances ‐ various methods of memorializing the life of a loved one. From simple Power Point presentations to active flash movies; pictures, testimonials, music and even video clips can be made into meaningful memorials for the family. Funeral homes are now using this medium to show slideshow‐style presentations outside of the stateroom where a series of pictures fade in and out. Life stories can also be presented at the funeral in this fashion. Each of these can be presented as memorials to the family after the service is over. Technology makes it possible to offer these additional services and products to the family. These services can be out‐sourced to third parties or developed by the funeral home through low‐cost templates. This allows a high margin of profit on products that families will appreciate for years to come. Expanding Market Share The funeral industry is no longer bound by traditional geographic market boundaries. With technology, funeral homes are able to attract customers throughout the world. ‐ 110 ‐ Online Tours ‐ give tours of your facilities to families prior to ever having any face‐to‐face interaction. Online tours can be a great way for families to familiarize themselves with a funeral home and gain a comfort level before setting foot in the home. Online tours can be given of the interior and exterior of the funeral home, a look at the cemetery grounds, a memorial garden or any other location or aspect of service and facility that would be beneficial to show. One funeral director that built an online tour of his facility recently gave an example of what a well‐laid out cemetery grounds online tour can do: "…Internet is the place to be in business. A family walked in and wanted to take care of funeral and cemetery arrangements. They found us in phone book first, and then looked to see if we had a website. They took the tour of the mortuary and cemetery and, as a result, the gentleman purchased 2 direct cremations, $2400.00, and a double niche, $3600.00. That covers the website easily. By the way, he did not want to take a tour of cemetery grounds when he was in our office because he already had seen everything on website and made his decision of location prior to us meeting with him." Pre‐Need ‐ an integral part of the future of your business. Preneed marketing is growing more and more difficult. Traditional methods are not as effective as they used to be. Families are far more reluctant to have a preneed salesman that they have never seen before in their homes. Overzealous phone marketing has caused such a consumer backlash that regulations are being implemented to restrict this marketing forum even further. Mail campaign costs are increasing and the percentage of returns is decreasing. It is necessary, therefore, to look to new means of reaching the consumer. With a comprehensive preneed technology package, families can compile a family history, complete vital stats and make choices regarding funeral arrangements. This functionality tied into a merchandising module can allow families to complete the preneed process in the privacy of their home. It gives them control and comfort. Another possibility is to allow families to complete only a limited part of the process and require personal intervention by one of your trained counselors, thus becoming a powerful lead generation tool. Maximizing Personnel A fear of many funeral directors is the belief that by increasing technology resources they will have to increase personnel. Fortunately, we are seeing the opposite effect. Technology is increasing employee productivity and, with a forecast of fewer people going into the funeral service industry, it is imperative that funeral directors spend less time "doing paperwork" and maximize the time working with families. Web Applications ‐ takes the cost of expensive hardware, software and maintenance out of the equation. Web applications are business applications that are offered over the Internet through secured access. These applications can be accessed anywhere an Internet connection is available. Web applications eliminate the need to have, for example, an accounting package loaded on every workstation within your office. They can also eliminate the need to combine multiple facilities' data after the fact. Multiple administration and security levels can be established and the funeral home staff can have access to only the parts of the application they need. Any current business process can be transitioned into a web‐ based application. Web applications can dramatically reduce the time required for data entry as well. Training & Continuing Education ‐ increasingly, training and CEU's are being offered through online or computer‐based courses. Instead of having to take off for an afternoon or a couple of days (due to distance of traveling) to meet insurance or funeral board continuing education requirements, courses can be done online when it is convenient for the funeral director. The funeral home staff can be kept abreast of the latest training without having to leave the city limits or rescheduling staff assignments. Technology continues to expand and increase the opportunities for the funeral industry to meet the growing needs and expectations of consumers. It is imperative that funeral professionals see how their investments in technology can produce a strong ROI. Can technology solutions add value to a funeral home's services, increase their market share and help the funeral home become more profitable‐yes they can, and in more ways than one. Through the implementation of technology solutions, the funeral home can realize new merchandizing opportunities, offer expanded services, be open to new marketing options, expand market share, and maximize personnel. ‐ 111 ‐ Appendix 24 – Article Technology Trends in the Funeral Industry What next for funeral‐home technology? Four predictions for the next five years February 7th, 2007, http://www.funeralwire.com/article.php?id=19613 Back in 1992, when I first started covering deathcare, National Music Service was on the hotseat. The longtime funeral‐ music vendor had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was getting howls of protest from many funeral directors who had signed on for NMS’ pioneering Tribute Videos, which had hit the market just four years earlier. (On video tape only, of course; DVDs wouldn’t become available until 1997.) As was NMS’ long‐standing business practice, funeral homes had to sign long‐term contracts for those first Tribute Videos; you got billed for a certain number of them each month, whether families actually bought 'em or not. And in many markets, the videos simple didn’t move. NMS CEO Merrill Womach claimed funeral directors weren’t selling them deftly or passionately enough; many owners said the notion of a video tribute was still too radical for their communities; a lot of families simply couldn’t imagine showing one at a funeral, no matter how enthusastically you presented the option to them. Fifteen years later, of course, many families can’t imagine saying goodbye to a loved one without a video tribute, either home‐grown, created by the funeral home or outsourced to one of the many vendors in the marketplace today. At the Dec. 2003 funeral for Lori Olsen Marks, a close high school friend, there were three PowerPoint presentations loaded with photos and accompanied by some of her favorite songs: one from her nine brothers and sisters, another from her grieving husband and kids, and a third from her mother. The service was packed with friends and relatives, and I remember gazing in awe at the A/V booth in the back of the church; it looked like almost like a TV studio, filled with tens of thousands of dollars worth of cutting‐edge equipment, including two laptop PCs. It brought home what a lot of progressive deathcare professionals were telling me 3‐5 years ago: churches were quickly pulling ahead of funeral homes on the A/V and technology front. I think that gap has closed some in the past few years. Nearly every new build or funeral‐home expansion I read about includes state‐of‐the‐art A/V setups, often entailing enormous, drop‐down plasma screens for video tributes. The best funeral‐home web sites continue to become more attractive, engaging and feature‐filled. And the bar for online obtituaries has really been raised in the past few years, with more photos, online guestbooks and other goodies. Of course, thousands of funeral homes still don’t offer video tributes or the opportunity for online condolences. Many still haven’t put up a web site – or haven’t done a thing to update their site in years. But many more funeral homes understand that technology will continue to become a more important part of serving families well, staying two steps ahead of the competition and creating meaningful ceremonies with plenty of “wow factor” and emotional poignance. Like those forward‐thinking owners, I’m constantly wondering what’s next in deathcare tech. The best place to get the answers will be at the 2007 Funeral Home Technology Summit, May 6‐9, 2007 at Caesars Place Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. This third annual meeting is presented by the Foresight Companies, Phoenix, and the platinum sponsor is Aldor Solutions Corp., FuneralWire’s parent company. You probably already know Aldor as the industry’s top technology‐solutions provider, with leading edge web‐site creation, video tributes, business‐management software and more. (Go to www.aldorsolutions.com for details.) Aldor’s filled with visionary leaders who are a lot more tech savvy than I am, and I can’t wait to hear their presentations four months from now in Vegas. (For more information, go to www.fhtechsummit.com or contact Kim Valenzuela at [email protected] or 800‐426‐0165.) Until then, here are a few funeral‐home technology predictions that seem like pretty safe bets to me: 1. Video booths will become more prevalent at funeral home‐based services. No. 2 consolidator Stewart Enterprises is way ahead of the pack on this one with its “Remembrances Video Booth,” and it’s a great way to fend off the trend of declining facilities use. The idea is simple: Provide a comfortable, private setting for friends and relatives to share their memories of the deceased while the camera’s rolling – a variation on something that wedding videographers have been doing for years. Edit the remembrances to the degree you feel necessary (at the very least, remove anything inappropriate), then combine them on a memorial DVD and give the disc to the family as a keepsake. Another option: Gather those video remembrances during the visitation and show them either at the funeral or at a post‐service reception. This might still be a difficult sell in some traditional markets, but I think most of America is ready for it. We’re becoming a nation of videographers, thanks to cheap digital cameras, PC‐based video‐editing software and, that latest internet phenomenon, youtube.com. Speaking of which... 2. Funeral homes will be uploading more video for tributes, remembrance DVDs and more. Think of this as the continued evolution of online condolence books, or as a marriage of the video booth and the internet. It’s a good thing that prices continue to fall on high‐speed, broadband internet access and monster hard drives (think 1,000 GB or more). Leading‐edge funeral homes will need plenty of both to upload all the video that will be coming their way from across the country and around the world, especially as youtube.com’s popularity continues to expand. Some of these files will be fresh digital video remembrances that senders capture with their own cameras, load onto their PCs and then send to your funeral ‐ 112 ‐ home’s web site or email address. But a lot of the video you get online will be home‐movie snippets of the deceased, in some cases from many decades ago, transferred to the digital domain from Hi‐8, VHS and even Super‐8 film. Think of how that sort of footage could help take your video tributes to a whole new level! If you’re the first funeral home in your community to accept video online and put the footage to good use, trust me: You’re going to absolutely spellbind local reporters when you announce this new offering. Once those old home movies and online video remembrances start rolling in, it’s really up to you and the family on how to use them. Much of that footage might be good to include in the video tribute itself (especially if they’re from a sibling or other close relative.) Most of it should probably make it onto that video remembrance disc you give to the family after the service. And maybe, you just might post some or all of those remembrances to your web site. Click a button on the online obituary, and presto! You’re watching Aunt Martha’s best friend recall the day they ditched school to greet the Beatles at JFK Airport. (Coincidentally, that historic landing of the Fab Four took place 43 years ago today – Friday, Feb. 7, 1964.) The bottom line: Within a few years, many progressive funeral homes will tell their families: “We can gather video remembrances from anyone at anytime – in person or online, whichever is most convenient. And we can use those remembrances any way you’d like. We have the tools and the talent to some pretty neat stuff.” 3. Webcasting of funerals will finally take off – but only with better production values and video archiving. My Aunt Carolyn died just outside of Baton Rouge, La., last summer. Two of my aunts – one in Washington state, the other in Montana – couldn’t make it. Both are pretty PC‐savvy and would have loved to watch Aunt Carolyn’s funeral online. They were pretty disappointed when I told them that some funeral homes webcast funerals, but not the one handling Aunt Carolyn’s arrangements. I think that’s where a lot of consumers are today. They don’t know that some funeral homes are transmitting service videos online...they probably wouldn’t think to ask about it on their own...but in many cases, if the option were offered, they’d be mighty interested. Of course, webcasting has been around for many years, but it has yet to take off at most funeral homes...even though hundreds of millions of people huddled around their TVs and computers to watch the funerals of Princess Di, Pope John Paul II and former presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. But with broadband becoming more prevalent – and computer‐based video storage become cheaper all the time – I think the right factors are finally coming together for webcasting to finally be done right. What do I mean by that? For starters, the production values need to get much, much better. Most of the webcast funerals I’ve seen feature a single, stationary camera – perhaps with a couple of zooms in and out. That’s about it for eye candy. When video tributes are shown, the camera simply captures what’s being shown on the chapel's screen – a low‐tech approach that generally yields a murky image for the webcast viewer. Webcasting in the future will involve multiple cameras, with fades, dissolves and other advanced techniques, plus direct audio and video feeds from both your house sound system and the computer playing the video tribute. There will be more use of titles. And finally, this isn’t just about broadcasting the funeral in real time over the internet. It’s about putting those service videos in an archive on your web site (again, with a link to the online obituary), so that a far‐away friend or relative can download that video and watch ithe funeral or memorial service at any time. Of course, you’d need the family’s permission to record the video in the first place and to place it online. Some won’t go for it...but a growing number will. 4. More funeral home technology will be focused on preneed offerings – and capturing memories before the person dies. As you might know, my Dad left us less than three weeks after retiring in Jan. 2003. But long after his funeral, his voice‐mail message remained active on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s phone system. My sister made this discovery one day after dialing his old work number...and afterwards, we both called that number dozens of times just to hear Dad’s friendly, upbeat voice once again. It’s hard to convey how powerful and comforting that experience was – and this was just a voice‐mail greeting. Imagine if, in the years before he died, Dad had videotaped an hour or two of things he’d like his grandchildren to know and remember...stories from his childhood...the proudest moments of his life. Imagine how much a family’s loyalty to a funeral home would soar if it was the funeral director that orchestrated the preservation of those sounds, images and memories. (Most families, even those of terminally ill patients, won’t do this on their own.) Sadly, most funeral homes are still so focused on at‐need service that they haven’t really thought about how to better leverage their existing relationships with preneed customers – even though 25% ‐ 35% of most firms’ current volume started as prearrangements. Most of those preneeds are on the books 7‐10 years before fulfillment. That’s a long time – and a rich opportunity – to check in with preneed customers every year and pitch the option of capturing those memories and sentiments today, because you just never know... Of course, with all of these technology‐enabled service upgrades, there’s the question of whether to charge for the new offerings a la carte or simply offer them to everybody as part of your service. Also, you’ll need to recruit folks with some pretty well‐developed computer skills to make most of these advanced offerings fly. Already, some larger funeral homes have created a director of technology position, but you can probably cover your growing needs with a few tech‐savvy college or high‐school students working part time. Even so, there’s no substitute for funeral directors who understand your growing tech offerings enough to educate and excite families. Otherwise, those spiffy webcasts and online video tribute ‐ 113 ‐ offerings will continue to be slow movers at many funeral homes...just like those early NMS Tribute Videos a decade‐and‐a‐ half ago. ‐ 114 ‐