Null-Tuple A Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Company Providing Logistics Solutions to Help Desks Business Plan Tarun Kotia 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS Company Description... 3 Tarun Kotia Background and Education... 4 Competitive Comparisons... 5 Market Analysis... 7 Capital Sources and Uses... 9 3 year Proforma... 10 Contact Information... 11 2
Company Overview Null-Tuple was formed to address one of the most challenging issues for companies in business today the help-desk. Companies of all sizes lack the adequate know-how to properly implement help-desks and, as a result, are losing business. Every day hundreds of people are switching service providers for the sole reason that their current provider is ineffective at resolving their issues. According to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience. Companies are losing customers, losing business, and most importantly losing revenues. Even more surprising, the reason is not because companies are unwilling or unable to allocate resources to this task. Another recent survey from the Gartner Report revealed that companies may spend up to 80% of their total non-fixed overhead expenditures on their IT budgets. Null- Tuple is specifically designed to meet the IT needs of companies to effectively run their helpdesks. Null-Tuple is positioned to capitalize on the extensive demand for such a service. Furthermore, the willingness of companies to devote considerable resources to these tasks makes this a truly exciting opportunity. Null-Tuple is a unique logistics platform that revolutionizes the way companies approach their help-desk services. It allows companies to become proactive, instead of merely responsive to customer issues. Further, it helps customer service representatives focus on the actual issue that is causing the problem. Its innovative approach makes problem solving more time efficient, which has the dual benefit of cutting wasted time and expense, and, more importantly, it has the benefit of reducing the total time a customer spends trying to rectify a problem. Ultimately, problems are addressed faster and more competently creating a better overall experience for the customer and savings for the company. A positive reaction to calling a help-desk is essential to maintaining customer loyalty, and reduced costs in this area can help a company apply what would have been wasted funds to their essential business. 3
Tarun Kotia Tarun graduated from the Jai-Hind College at Mumbai University in June, 2003 with a Bachelor s Degree in Mathematics. He continued his education at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) where he completed a Master of Science in Computer Science in December, 2005. While at NJIT he was awarded the prestigious Provost Scholarship for Master of Science. Over the next 8+ years he has worked in the.net industry gaining a wide range of skills and experience. His technical experience includes a proficiency in the following areas: Technologies and Languages: C#, ASP.NET, Java, C, Smart Client Applications, Multithreading, Microsoft AJAX Extension, WPF, WCF, MVC, JQuery. Internet Design and Development: AJAX, JSON, HTML, DHTML, JavaScript, XSL, CSS Middleware: RESTFul Services, SOAP (Web Services),WSDL, UDDI, XML, MSMQ, COM/COM+ Applications: Visual Studio.NET. MS Office with Visio and Front Page Databases: SQL * Plus, MySQL, MS SQL Server 2000/05/08, MongoDB, CouchDB Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/7, Linux 2.4+ Over the years Tarun has worked in many different capacities in the industry including as a software engineer in research and development and as a program analyst. Currently Tarun is the Senior Systems Analyst in the Informatics Research and Development Division of Forest Laboratories, Inc. Tarun is well known for his thoroughness and amazing work ethic, he has a history of exceeding expectations and of seeing all his projects through to completion. Additionally, Tarun is fluent in both English and Hindi. He plans to leverage his command of both languages to enable him to further grow the business by utilizing the extensive, highlyskilled Indian community in both America and India. Tarun is also a strong networker who has maintained key connections both in America and India; he plans to use these connections and his skills to further establish and grow Null-Tuple. 4
Competitive Comparisons Null-Tuple is unique, because it integrates with a company s already existing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software. Null-Tuple stands out from competitors by providing a simple integrated option that will save money both on the front end as well as the back end. Currently, there are numerous options that companies employ for their customer support, but most of their models share a common inefficiency at the core of their system. Companies experience many different types of issues that arise from their normal course of business including billing issues, software issues, technical issues etc. In order to resolve any one particular issue the problem must be directed to the person or division within the company of handling that specific issue. To achieve this most companies have a single point of contact (POC) where all calls or emails start, which are then routed through the system until they reach the appropriate parties. Often the routing process contains multiple redundancies, continually asking the customers for their information and to describe the problem they have experienced. Further the CRM software is often inflexible and cumbersome spending more time assigning case numbers than addressing the issue at hand. This causes frustration for the customer and wastes the company s time and resources. Many companies have opted to outsource their helpdesk in an effort to simplify the process. Companies like Dataprise Inc., for example, on their website offers comprehensive Outsourced Help Desk services to customers requiring a full service technical resource center, full or part-time help desk, application support center, or customer service desk. No matter what type of help desk functions you need to outsource, we can provide you with a complete and custom turnkey solution. Outsourcing, however, comes at a price. It is often difficult to turn over specific help-desk issues to an outsource servicer without giving up control of sometimes vital business operations or trade secrets. Often outsourcing may present the company with privacy and/or security issues. Further, there is often a concern that outsource personnel may not have the interests of the company as their primary interest. This misalignment can cause untold problems for a company. Given the choice, the vast majority of companies would opt to handle all operations of their business including help-desk services in-house. Null-Tuple allows companies to keep control of their own services, and helps companies operate effectively and in a more streamlined manner. Null-Tuple will differentiate from its competitors by offering a simpler, cheaper solution to the current help-desk format. Null-Tuple s logistics approach for help-desks is unique in the help-desk software and servicing industry. 5
Null-Tuple does not require a company to outsource its business and also does not require a company to invest a large sum in an expensive IT software system. Rather, Null-Tuple charges a small fee on a per request basis to help companies effectively manage their helpdesks. Keeping the service in-house is better for both the company and its customers, and for a small added fee to Null-Tuple a company will manage its help desk efficiently and expertly allowing it to keep customers loyalty and business, while at the same time cutting out inefficiencies boosting overall revenues. Null-Tuple Services: Integrate with already existing CRM s Use machine learning algorithms to identify support patterns Auto triaging of service request Automatic routing of the request to appropriate support personnel/team Implementation cost comes from Operational Budget rather than Capital Expense Null-Tuple s product s success is dependent upon having excellent support in place to make sure that their clients know that help is readily available and that any and all issues will be handled expeditiously. It is essential that our own help-desk is superior in every way. Our services will employ our own software and help-desk solutions to streamline solutions to customer difficulties. We view our relationship with our customers as ongoing and dynamic; our business model extends beyond the point of sale. Null-Tuple is dedicated to its customers and will offer a wide variety of tools to assist them to effectively implement our unique solution. Our tools will necessarily be constantly upgraded as technology changes and the needs of our customers shift. Also we will offer customer training. This is a main area that separates Null-Tuple from its competitors. Most others in the industry either take over the task entirely themselves (outsourcing) or offer a onetime purchase of a software solution. Null-Tuple recognizes the need and desire of companies to have assistance and guidance in tackling their IT issues, and we are dedicated to providing the highest level of service. 6
Market Analysis Summary Null-Tuple will market its services primarily to enterprises that already have an established help-desk and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL is the most widely adopted approach for IT Service Management in the world. It provides a practical, nononsense framework for identifying, planning, delivering and supporting IT services to the business. Many companies have seen an explosive growth in their help-desk requests; an average large company may experience in excess of 100,000 requests per year. IT budgets have soared over the years, but solutions to meeting the help-desk challenge are elusive. Companies using ITIL protocols have the foundation but often lack the ability to effectively implement a successful help-desk. Market Segmentation At this point, according to the official ITIL website, there are currently 1.5 million people who have received ITIL certificates with over 263,000 exams administered during this past year. The need and demand of companies for ITIL expertise is extensive. A quick search of Linked-In reveals the following telling statistics: 800 Groups dedicated to ITIL Over 3,000 organizations offering ITIL solutions and services More than 1.2 million professionals working across 100,000 companies having implemented ITIL. Target Market Null-Tuple will be targeting all enterprise companies that have implemented ITIL and have established help desks. Any company which has ITIL implementation is very much aware of the need to effectively manage the tremendous task of responding to an overwhelming number of help-desk requests. Market Trends On August 22 2005, Opalis Software, Inc., the expert provider of enterprise infrastructure software, presented at the Pink Elephant ITIL Case Studies symposium. The main topic of the presentation was that ITIL was, after early skepticism, now the mainstream foundation for helpdesk solutions. 7
Market Needs Large businesses have already made significant investments in help-desk infrastructure but are still often experiencing points in their system where their mechanisms fail, often called painpoints. The benefit of Null-Tuple is that it does not overturn, replace, or remove the existing help-desk infrastructure. Null-Tuple does not require an extensive capital investment. Rather, it addresses the specific pain-points of its customers, boosting efficiency, streamlining operations, and improving overall operations of the ITIL infrastructure. 8
Capital Sources and Uses Capital Sources: $50,000 Initial Investment by Tarun Kotia $30,000 Small Business Loan $80,000 Total Star-up Capital Capital Uses: $10,000 Legal/Professional Fees $25,000 Advertising/Marketing $12,500 Equipment $25,000 Initial Personnel Costs $5,000 Operating Capital $2,500 Contingency $80,000 Total Initial Capital Use 9
3 Year Proforma Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Expenses Loan (principal and Interest) $ 4,500.00 $ 31,500.00 $ - Rent $ 10,000.00 $ 25,000.00 $ 35,000.00 Utilities $ 2,100.00 $ 5,600.00 $ 8,700.00 Supplies $ 2,500.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 9,000.00 Payroll $ 55,000.00 $ 110,000.00 $ 235,000.00 Advertising/Marketing $ 25,000.00 $ 45,000.00 $ 65,000.00 Legal/Professional $ 15,000.00 $ 25,000.00 $ 35,000.00 Accounting Fees $ 3,600.00 $ 4,200.00 $ 5,600.00 Insurance $ 4,200.00 $ 10,000.00 $ 20,000.00 Travel $ 3,500.00 $ 5,500.00 $ 7,500.00 Other $ 10,000.00 $ 15,000.00 $ 25,000.00 Total Expenses $ (135,400.00) $ (281,800.00) $ (445,800.00) Income $ 121,500.00 $ 495,000.00 $ 855,000.00 TOTAL PROFIT/(LOSS) $ (13,900.00) $ 213,200.00 $ 409,200.00 Assumptions 1. We expect that it may take up to 3 months to gain our first client, during which time we expect to expend a large portion of Start-up Funds. We intend to limit our expenses in the first year by limiting our physical office space and our personnel. As we add clients, we will look for office space and add employees as needed. 2. We plan to add at least one client every three months. 3. An average large company with 5,000 employees will have greater than 100,000 helpdesk requests per year. Our fee structure will be $1.00 to $2.00 per request. We will use an average of $1.50 per request for the first 3 years. 4. In order to calculate our projected revenues, we have used an approximate number of requests per month that the Null-Tuple will process instead of the number of clients we have are servicing: a. Starting in month 3: 4,000 per month b. Starting in month 6: 8,000 per month c. Starting in month 9: 15,000 per month d. At the beginning of year 2: 20,000 per month e. After the beginning of year 2 we expect to process an additional 5,000 requests per quarter 5. For every 10,000 requests/per month we process we will add an additional employee at a cost $45,000 per year. 6. Payoff loan in year 2. 10
Contact Information Tarun Kotia Phone: (732) 586-7349 tarunkotia@gmail.com tarun@null-tuple.com 11