Parking Guru - Iphone Application
December 1, 2015
St. John’s University
MKT 600
Prof. Ivan Abel
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By Team 4:
Samuel Vasquez, Mingjue Huang, Yuan Xue
- Introduction
About the App
Parking Guru is an iPhone application that allows its users to look and learn at the different on-street parking restrictions around New York. In addition, the app will allow customers to find, book and rate the different parking garages around the city based on its location. New York is a city that has many different parking restrictions depending on the areas and streets. Also, parking garages are very expensive and there is not a convenient way for drivers to compare their hourly fees which makes the service of this app appealing to those that have cars, tourists who decide to rent a car or those here on business who rent cars.
In recent years, as municipal budget has decrease in many cities in the U.S., and there is a trend to look for alternatives for parking services. Maintain parking meters cost more than the money they are able to collect.[1] For this reason, main cities such as Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and others have initiated programs that allow drivers to pay for their parking through their mobile phone. Thence, Parking Guru is intended to fulfill this trend by delivering a valued service to its customers and communities while making profit.
Company Strategy
Parking Guru will be available only to iPhone users and will have both a free and a paid version. The free version allows users to input their location or desired parking location and see the on-street parking time and day restrictions, parking meters and prices. The paid version, which will be available for $.99, allows its users to have all of the features of the free versions, but also allows them to see near parking garages with their respective prices, user blog for best areas to park and reviews, live updates on construction, street closures and traffic areas based on user input, and log in through the app website to access their user information and talk to other members. Finally, it provides the user with the opportunity to save their current parking location and see past location in order to both remember where the car is parked and see past spots/favorite areas. The $.99 for the paid version of the application was decided based on comparable applications.
- Company Structure
Management Summary
Parking Guru is a startup company in a phase of development and market research that will be launched at the beginning of next year 2016. The management team will initially consist of four directors responsible for business planning, financial forecasting, marketing, software designing and programing. Currently, all directors are seeking a master’s degree at St. John’s University in New York City.
The company plans to hire additional officer personnel as we begin to get large numbers of Parking Guru’s mobile download and advertising contracts in the near future.
Organizational Structure
An agile organizational structure that focuses on a smooth flow of ideas and implementation between sales, marketing and app development; is the key in any successful company. The Parking Guru’s management team consists of the President and CEO, the Director of Finance, the Director of Sales and Marketing, and the Director of Operations:
- Board of Directors: composed of four directors, oversees the overall strategic activities of the company. In addition, has control over the business operations and financial stability, ensuring the wellbeing and profitability of the company.
- President and CEO: responsibilities involving high-level decisions making about policy and operations strategies of the company. Furthermore, include expansion opportunities, and strategic alliance.
- Director of Finance: responsibilities include financial oversight managing budget of the company, securing new funding, analyzing cost benefit, and forecasting needs.
- Director of Sales and Marketing: responsibilities include sales generation seeking market research, public relations, and designing advertising and promotions.
- Director of Operations: responsibilities include segment of the business encompassing procurement, customer service and distribution of the service.
Management Team Gaps
We believe we have a great team for covering the main points of our business plan. However, the management team will have to rely partially upon outside contractors/consultants for software development, marketing and accounting functions, meaning that operations in which the company cannot develop core competencies should be outsourced. The following table shows the executive’s and employees’ salaries for the first 3 years of the company’s operations: