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nickelring corp.OAP – Submission 1

Team Data Insights12 May 2012

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Executive Summary

Background• nickelring is a team dedicated to the common vision of developing a meaningful data analytics solution for SME’s• We have chosen to adopt a slightly different approach for the OAP, in that:

– We have deployed the survey to understand the current situation at SME’s (their needs and constraints)– We are conducting a comprehensive competitor analysis to identify features being offered and gaps– We intend to use the field-interviews to test our specific proposition

Key milestones achieved during the first two weeks• Based on our research, we are convinced that Data Analytics is a large, growing business and that our target

market (SME’s) is of significant size (this is not a niche play) that is under-served• The survey feedback (to date) validates our hypotheses that current systems are not “easy to use”, there is only a

average satisfaction with current systems and highlights interesting aspects that will need us to pivot• We understand that “not listening to customers” is the key reason for most start up failures; we are taking steps

to ensure we listen and built our website (www.nickelring.com) clearly emphasizing this message to target clients

Next steps• We are working on our value proposition – it is a challenging task to find a middle ground between advanced data

analytics and primitive reporting, which will drive the price point of our product

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Our process

Proposition Finalisation

Key tasks Team formation – Assignment of roles & responsibilities

Agree on communication tools Develop questionnaire & deploy Develop functional website Educate “diverse” team on

fundamentals of “Data Analytics” Conduct competitor analysis Develop high level market sizing

Finalise proposition Market test proposition with ~25

potential clients Pivot and refine proposition –

develop detailed product features

Determine price range Outline market level risks &

mitigation plan

Opportunity Execution Project

Develop prototype Develop service proposition Develop marketing strategy Develop distribution strategy Develop financial model Outline operational risks and

mitigation plan

Phases

Outcomes Initial feedback from potential customers

Market sizing

Finalised value proposition Results from market testing

Prototype Cost benefit analysis Execution plan

Proposition Development

Opportunity Analysis Project

Our approach is slightly different. However, given the complexity of the task, we believed this to be the optimum approach

12 May 19 May

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Hypothesised market size*

Total number for firms in the world - ~ 500 million

Total number of SME’s in the world• ~90% of registered firms are SME’s• ~450 million SME’s globally

SME’s who are active & material - ~ 90 mil• There are ~20% are inactive SME’s and

40% are “mom & pop shops”

Target Market Analysis

• ~20% are sizeable firms with no critical need for Data Analytics (DA) / Business Intelligence (BI) tool

• ~25% are estimated to have an existing solution• Profile of target client

• Revenue p.a.: USD 1 mil – 500 mil• Number of employees: 10 – 250

• Target market for nickelring – ~50 million firms

nickelring target

market

Tier 3

Tier 2

Tier 1

Our proposition is global in nature with a large target market!

Source: Based on nickelring research and estimates

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Industry analysis highlights that this is an attractive market

Supplier power

• Technology is continually maturing & hence there is a need to constantly adapt

• Recruiting resources (especially for startup) is a challenge

• Funding will be a constraint, but not a show-stopper for unique proposition

• Strength of threat: Medium

Supplier power

• Technology is continually maturing & hence there is a need to constantly adapt

• Recruiting resources (especially for startup) is a challenge

• Funding will be a constraint, but not a show-stopper for unique proposition

• Strength of threat: Medium

Industry rivalry

• A fragmented market with – large global players & niche / boutique firms

• Large players dominate big corporates space but are weak in SME’s

• Niche firms lack scale & differentiation

• SME market under-served

• Strength of threat: Low

Industry rivalry

• A fragmented market with – large global players & niche / boutique firms

• Large players dominate big corporates space but are weak in SME’s

• Niche firms lack scale & differentiation

• SME market under-served

• Strength of threat: Low

Buyer power

• Typical SME management team will have limited technology and/or analytical resources

• SME’s will appreciate simple product with good service at affordable price point

• Strength of threat: Low

Buyer power

• Typical SME management team will have limited technology and/or analytical resources

• SME’s will appreciate simple product with good service at affordable price point

• Strength of threat: Low

Threat of new entrants

• This is a very lucrative market globally with strong growth forecast (>15% pa over the next 5 years) & will attract a number of new entrants

• However, effective execution and access to distribution channels is a challenge

• Strength of threat: High

Threat of new entrants

• This is a very lucrative market globally with strong growth forecast (>15% pa over the next 5 years) & will attract a number of new entrants

• However, effective execution and access to distribution channels is a challenge

• Strength of threat: High

Substitutes

• Limited substitutes to BI/DA tools for an organisation to glean insights

• Excel is perhaps the most popular tool, especially in the SME space

• Strength of threat: Low

Substitutes

• Limited substitutes to BI/DA tools for an organisation to glean insights

• Excel is perhaps the most popular tool, especially in the SME space

• Strength of threat: Low

Supplier power Industry rivalry Buyer power

Barriers to entry

Substitutes

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Competitor analysis

Source: 1)Source: Lowering the Cost of Business Intelligence With Open Source2) nickelring analysis based on competitor pricing information

2

Large players that service big enterprises; Leverage other products; Not suited for SME’s (despite promise)

Basically reporting / dashboard systems; Low level differentiation; highly fragmented

• Trad. Players represent the larger firms & “Open” represents smaller firms

• Analysis will enable nickelring pricing

Competitive landscape1

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Value proposition

Concept: Blue Ocean Strategy

Low

High

By providing advanced analytics and choice for efficient deployment, nickelring wishes to democratize the use of analytics

Strategy Canvas*

Value Attributes

Capa

bilit

y

DRAFT

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Selected Survey results (Venture Lab participants only; N=20)

Sales improvement

Marketing Strategy

Operational

Technology

Planning & forecasting

Customer relationship

Finance

In which area do you or would you find the most benefit from a data analytics tool?

What problems (if any) have you encountered with your current tool?

Difficult to turn DA into a real solution

Usability

Interpretation of data

Lack of customisation for

different data

Cost

None

Extensive focus on sales /

marketing data

Ease of use is the primary concern – costs come in last

Lack of skill

Not aware of tools, which can help me

Cost of tools

They don’t provide an useful advantage

for the firm

If you are not using a BI/DA tool, it is because of Satisfaction rating of current tool being used(1 – poor and 5 – excellent)

Reflects complexity in deploying current

tools

A gap in the market (?)

A startling response-set with no scores

above 3

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Risks and mitigations

Key Risks Mitigating activitiesIgnore customers • Deploying our survey to over 300 SME’s globally

• Conduct at least 25 face-to-face interviews with target customers• Build relationships with 5-10 clients to test proposition on an ongoing basis

No market need • Our research and credible market reports (by IDC, Gartner, IBM) clearly indicate that:– There is a need for data analytics globally and this is a growing market– SME market is significantly under-served– The market is large and profitable

Not the right team • We have a built a balanced team that consists of motivated individuals that are representative of key organisational functions (Product, Technology, Marketing, Finance, Operations, etc.,)

• During the first two weeks the team members have displayed an affinity to high performance and those who could not contribute found themselves self-selecting out of the team

Poor marketing • We are working on our marketing strategy in conjunction with product development• The emphasis of the message will be on key value attributes – Simple, Secure & Easy to use

Need business model • We have a good grasp of our business model (that is being fine tuned) – Both in terms of solution delivery and the economics of operations

• We will elaborate on this during the OEP presentation

Based on the analysis* of 32 startups that failed, the following were the top 5 risks that were identified for new ventures. Here is how we plan to mitigate the risk

Source: http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/top-reasons-startups-fail-analyzing-startup-failure-post-mortem/Note: We excluded “Ran out of cash”, which was the 5th reason, as it is not yet applicable for us.

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Next steps

• Finalize document for OAP submission (19 May)

– Consolidate survey feedback from enterprises

– Finalize proposition definition – including product features & points of differentiation

– Market test proposition through face-to-face interviews

– Fine-tune proposition – Pivot as necessary

• Commence work on OEP

– Technical foundation for the prototype is currently underway

– The marketing & distribution team is working on the positioning and brand message

– Financial model is being built

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Appendix

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Team description

Name Location Work experience Core competence Education

Alessandro Dublin 2 Years Software Engineering (C++, VHDL) BSc, MSc

Anthony Johannesburg South Africa

2 Years IT Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Finance Bcom (IT)

Arnaud Tahiti, French Polynesia

13 Years Marketing & Business development BSc, MSc

Bharath Singapore 2 Years Software Engineering, Database Administration

BSc Eng.

Deepak Singapore 8 Years Software Engineering, Machine Learning Techniques

BSc, MSc, MTec

Filip Antwerp Area, Belgium

10 Years Business Consultancy BSc Eng.

Matej Slovenia, EU 10 Years Software Engineering, System Administrator BSc. Math

Munir NC, USA 15 Years PLM, Business Analytics (Data Mining) BSc. Eng , MBA

Patrick CA, USA 1 Year Software Engineering Reading BSc. Eng

Romil New Delhi, India

10 Years Internet Marketing & Branding, E-commerce and Web development

BSc (HM), MTM

Sajith Singapore 5 years Software Engineering, Data Mining, Semantics

BSc (Hons) Eng.

Sandeep Singapore 14 years Strategy ConsultingBusiness case development

Engineer & MBA

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Why SME’s?

• Empirical research has highlighted that SME's currently have 4 critical technology needs

1. An accounting package

2. An email system

3. A website

4. A set of productivity tools (Excel, Word, etc.,)

• It is our hypothesis is that there is a fifth need and that is around the need to better understand their data -

predominantly financial and customer/sales data

• The systems that are currently on offer are

– Too technical to implement

– Reasonably expensive

– Difficult to change and are quite static

– Unable to handle multiple, unstructured data sources in an easy to use manner

– Not intuitive

• However, technology has now advanced such that cloud based solutions delivered in SaaS/PaaS format make

it affordable to develop a meaningful solution for SME's.

• Most software firms aim to service the large enterprise- there is a big gap in the SME space

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About nickelring

Why nickelring?

• Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge (Source: Wikipedia).

What does that have to do with Data Analytics for SME, you ask?

• The answer lies in the underlying characteristic of Nickel. We all know that Nickel is an easily available metal that was widely used in manufacturing… well a nickel (US currency). However, did you know that Nickel is also a key component of superalloys that are used in the aerospace, industrial gas turbine and marine turbine industry? Today, over 60% of the global Nickel production is consumed in making nickel-steels used as part of high-strength infrastructure. Moreover, under appropriate treatment Nickel can obtain the luster of silver.

• One simple metal – multiple benefits!

• Similarly, we are committed to developing a simple solution that will provide you and your organization with multiple benefits. We intend to indulge in a virtuous cycle of listening to you and taking your feedback onboard to develop insanely great products.

And hence the name – nickelring!

You can visit us at www.nickelring.com

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Supporting data points – Data Analytics is a booming market (1/2)

More data required to support decisions – McKinsey 2011 Survey*

• Executives say their companies still rely upon a mix of data and experience in decision making, although

they are increasingly looking to analytics tools for support

• Despite the promise of big data to reshape strategy and decision making, more than 75 percent of

respondents to this survey report that their organizations’ greatest benefits from data use flow from clear

and timely reporting of financial and performance metrics

– Only about half say they seek to use data to provide new business insights or develop new

information-based products and services

• Respondents highlight three barriers to more effective use of data and analytics :

– A cultural preference for experience over data;

– A lack of skills in synthesizing and translating the analytics and data for decision makers and

– Concerns that the data quality is poor

Source: McKinsey & Co online survey conducted from October 4 to October 14, 2011, and generated responses from 927 executives.

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Supporting data points – Data Analytics is a booming market (2/2)

• Analytics is the application of computer technology, operational research, and statistics to solve problems in

business and industry*

• Analytics is a rapidly growing industry with a lot of existing and emerging players. According to IDC analytics

market will be $33.9 Billion in 2012 – growing at 8+% since 2011.

• Most of the advanced analytics market is currently owned by big players such as IBM, Oracle, SAS,

Microsoft, SAP, Microstrategy, etc.

• Most consumers of advanced analytics capabilities are medium-large size enterprises as these solutions are

resource-intensive in terms of hardware, software and licensing costs.

Excel still the predominant solution in finance – WesierMazars study of Global Insurance related firms 2011

• The WeiserMazars study found that 87% of the CFOs they surveyed relied heavily on Excel spreadsheets in

their financial close and also in their FP&A activities, as well as for budgeting and reporting.

Source: Wikipedia