E&E - CSS Templates

I was just casually browsing earlier and looking for some inspiration when I came across this site which hosts and provides access to a large number of free CSS templates.

CSS is basically used to style webpages, what we could think of doing is maybe having a page like their one, where the templates are presented to the consumer and they can browse through the examples and test the functionality. SWS could then go further and maybe make it possible for the customer to select a template and then upload their photos and choose a simple colour scheme, almost in a Wordpress Theme kind of way. The customer is then provided with an output link which they can use to direct people to their portfolio. 

Of course this will require a lot more work and investment because it will need a login and online payment system along-side the templates page, but it would be well worth investigating this possibility for the future. Ease of use is a key factor in the marketability of our product.

E&E - Hosting Information

Here's a really interesting website listing most (if not all) of the UK's major hosting companies.

As the site explains it's already a fairly established market so we are going to have to work quite hard to come up with a really good USP. Will selling entirely to students be enough?

E&E - Online Presence

So we have begun to culture an online presence for Student Web Services. This began by firstly purchasing the domain name www.studentws.co.uk (this doesn't lead to a homepage at the moment). In that same vein we've also purchased some hosting so that we can start to offer our services out.

In terms of the more social media related side of things, there are new Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts for Student Web Services (usually appearing under the guise of StudentWS). Although it seems a little naive to say, these platforms really will help us to promote StudentWS amoungst our target market. 

I say it could be a little naive because I am well aware that simply moving an advertising/marketing strategy onto a social media platforms is never sufficient, these strategies have to change and interact cleverly in order to really make an impact. These initial steps will help us to keep people update and create an initial awareness during the first few weeks of our campaign.

E&E - cPanel

Here's a link to cPanel's website, initially we are thinking of using this CMS (Content Management System) for our customers because of it's ease of use for both the user and the administrator. 

Will the licensing costs be too much to warrant using this solution though? The next best step is probably to research what other solutions (if any!) are out there. 

E&E - Presentation Tomorrow

We've just received the timings for our formative presentations tomorrow. We are due to meet at 11:45 so as a group we have decided to come in at 10:00 to prepare. 

At the moment our plan is to talk through our general idea, then begin to explain some of the progress that we have made (researching hosting, cPanel and any possible market), after this we'll explain what the future holds for our enterprise. 

I think what we are going to find most interesting and useful will be the feedback that we get from the tutor, although our plans are making decent progress at the moment (I know from the look of this blog it doesn't look like we have been making progress!) but we've really made a start at this and it'll be great to take away any feedback we get and act upon it. I'll post up any results that we come up with!

E&E - Internet Access

Here's a link to the 2010 UK Internet Access survey which details households and individuals home access to the Internet and individuals’ use of the Internet across the UK.

These statistics show an increasing trend, with more and more people having access to and using the World Wide Web. This is vitally important for our proposed business venture which will rely on this continuing use to drive it's appeal and take-up.

E&E - Project Plan

Below is a copy of the Project Plan that we handed in for our E&E module this year. Our group (George Alton, Dave Christmas and myself) are planning on starting up a web hosting service designed specifically for the student market.

PROJECT PLAN

Name of enterprise:
No definite name yet, will probably develop into something along the lines of “Student Web Services”
Student name(s):
Craig Gardner
David Christmas
George Alton
Job roles to be decided

Summary of enterprise:
The business is to be based around providing online services to students. The prime focus would be those who need temporary hosting and design services during their time at University/College. This could be for a range of things from actual term-time projects (something like Rave Live) through to online portfolio hosting.

The primary focus at the beginning is students who need temporary online services at some point. To that end our major USP would be that we would not attempt to lock the customer down into lengthy contracts but simply provide the service on a month by month basis.

To supplement this we would look firstly into providing basic template solutions that require the minimal amount of effort from the client in order for them to have a functional website, this would mostly be used for basic portfolio presentation during the job application process. Taking this further we could offer more complex and involved hosting/design/technical support services to student start-ups and larger projects.

Finally we would develop an “after University” support section for  graduated students who wish to keep their services. This would be a major development once the original start-up was functioning and profitable.

Our mission statement would involve something along the lines of “we see ourselves providing personal, affordable and no ties web services to the student community. These can be tailored as little or as much as the clients require to help them achieve the best in their endeavours”

Measurable aim(s) of enterprise:

 The feeling at the moment is that there is still a vast amount of market research to be done around this endeavour, which could result in it changing form or direction. The next steps while this is taking place would be to find out the technical infrastructure requirements and begin promoting (at the very least) web design and consultancy services to student projects.

The monetary gains would be small at first, but by making our services highly attractive and affordable the natural flow of the student communications channels should do a lot for our promotion.

Using the fact that many E&E projects will also require websites we could promote the services in this community and hopefully gain some contacts/short term customers there. There is also the up -coming Penrose Media which will require a website etc, these are two examples within Ravensbourne, this idea could easily be pushed further a-field due to the geographically untied nature of the Internet.

A good figure would be 2 – 5 paying customers by the end of the project, spread over various services and at different levels of involvement (short term customers vs long term customers etc)

A starting point would be a website, moving through small-scale social media promotions (a Facebook group etc). The major driving force would be contacting people and making use of already established contacts to bring business and inherrently spread the word through their day-to-day conversations

Action Plan:
Basic Schedule (note this is to be drastically revisited once the final direction of the enterprise has been settled upon)
Weeks 1&2 – Market research, infrastructure research
Weeks 3&4 – Set up own website and hosting, (obtaining/investing in static IP etc) begin to refine portfolio design templates
Weeks 3 – 6 – Promote via word of mouth/online presence and begin arranging client meetings and working to provide the first stages of solutions
Weeks 6+ – Continue with progress, re-asses and re-evaluate enterprise direction and adjust project goals/progress plans accordingly

Budget:
Far to early to say at this stage. Dependant upon initial infrastructure outgoings vs client take-up. A more detailed budget will be drawn out once market research has been done and the project goals have been adjusted accordingly.

Exit Strategy/ Risk management:
Two weeks of market research and technical research will give us a better idea of what we would stand to lose. However as is usually the case with Web infrastructure, the entire thing can be built on older systems and then migrated over to newer systems once investment and uptake have reached appropriate levels. This should minimize the lost investment if the project were to fail during the first 6 weeks.

After this point, the focus should be on continuing student uptake (helped by the fact that every year there are more students entering education) and retaining graduates (this part of the enterprise can be worked on at around a 6month point of the first year, once the original project is seen to be effective).

Blog:
At Ravensbourne we have been required to keep several blogs for several different subjects. Along with my personal blog I have culminated them all at the following URL, this is where my E&E updates will go as well.

http://3rdyearengineering.blogspot.com