PropertyTour - DCU School of Computingasmeaton/MECPracticums2005/PropertyTo… · PropertyTour.ie PropertyTour.ie Name: Class: ID: Tadhg Toomey MECT 54158605 David Dolan MECT 54156921

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PropertyTour.ie

PropertyTour.ie

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PropertyTour.ie Business Plan 31/07/05

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1. Executive Summary.............................................................................................1 Context.......................................................................................................................1 PropertyTour.ie ..........................................................................................................1 Target Market.............................................................................................................1 Value Proposition.......................................................................................................2 Competition................................................................................................................2 Company Background ...............................................................................................2 Finances .....................................................................................................................2

2. The Business Idea.................................................................................................3 Introduction................................................................................................................3 PropertyTour.ie Overview .........................................................................................3

History....................................................................................................................3 Current Staff...........................................................................................................4 Funding ..................................................................................................................4 Company Locations and Facilities.........................................................................4 Roadmap ................................................................................................................5

3. Marketing Report ................................................................................................7 Irish Housing Market .................................................................................................7 Competitor Analysis ..................................................................................................7

Virtual Tours..........................................................................................................8 Property Portals......................................................................................................8 Newspapers ............................................................................................................9 Magazines ............................................................................................................10 Other Media .........................................................................................................10

PEST ........................................................................................................................10 Political ................................................................................................................10 Economic .............................................................................................................11 Social....................................................................................................................13 Technological.......................................................................................................14

Market Assessment ..................................................................................................15 Trends ..................................................................................................................15 Growth Rates .......................................................................................................16 Target Audience...................................................................................................16 Target Market Size...............................................................................................18 Market Share........................................................................................................18 Marketing Objectives...........................................................................................19 Cost of Marketing ................................................................................................19

Marketing Mix .........................................................................................................19 Product .................................................................................................................19 Promotion.............................................................................................................24 Price .....................................................................................................................25 Place.....................................................................................................................26

4. Strategy ...............................................................................................................27 Product/Service Context ..........................................................................................27 Description...............................................................................................................27 Competitive Advantage ...........................................................................................28 Business Model........................................................................................................28

Context.................................................................................................................28 Technology ..........................................................................................................28 Effect....................................................................................................................29


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Conclusion ...........................................................................................................30 Business Model....................................................................................................30

Revenue Model ........................................................................................................31 Marketing Strategy...................................................................................................32 Sales Strategy...........................................................................................................32 SWOT ......................................................................................................................33

Strengths ..............................................................................................................33 Weaknesses ..........................................................................................................34 Opportunities........................................................................................................35 Threats..................................................................................................................36

5. Technology Report.............................................................................................37 Virtual Tour Compilation ........................................................................................37

Image Capture......................................................................................................37 Post Image Capture Processing............................................................................37 Preparation for the Web .......................................................................................38

VoIP Installation and Configuration........................................................................38 Skype........................................................................................................................38 CallSite.....................................................................................................................40 Technical Overview.................................................................................................42

Introduction to ASP.NET.....................................................................................42 Site Structure & Description................................................................................42 Database...............................................................................................................43 Database Connection ...........................................................................................43 Web Server...........................................................................................................43 Back End Administration System........................................................................43 Build a Tour .........................................................................................................44 Manage Tours ......................................................................................................44 Virtual Tour Front End ........................................................................................44

Future Developments ...............................................................................................45 Virtual Tours........................................................................................................45 VoIP Future..........................................................................................................45

6. Finances ..............................................................................................................47 Funding Requirements .............................................................................................47

7. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................52 8. Bibliography .......................................................................................................53 9. Appendix.............................................................................................................54

Appendix A - Profiles ..............................................................................................54 Appendix B – Marketing .........................................................................................55

PEST: Economic..................................................................................................55 Marketing Mix: Advertising Rates ......................................................................57 Special Positions:......................................................................................................58 Marketing Mix: Price...........................................................................................59 Target Market Research.......................................................................................59

Appendix C ..............................................................................................................64 Usability Study.....................................................................................................64 Website Heuristic Evaluation Summary..............................................................65

Appendix D..............................................................................................................66 Notes on Accounts ...............................................................................................66


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1. Executive Summary This document outlines the business plan for PropertyTour.ie. PropertyTour.ie is a Web solutions provider servicing the property sector with high-end communications products and services. Our mission is to provide seamless Web interactivity through communications applications and services, reviving the humanistic factor of business on the Internet.

Context There has been a dramatic increase in the number of new homes being built in Ireland. Over the last 5 years, on average, 50,000 new homes have been built in Ireland per year. Over the next 10 years it is expected that a minimum of 550,000 new homes will be needed, this will lead to a rate of approximately 55-60,000 per annum. Property developers and estate agents are seeking new, innovative methods to modify the continuingly tedious and costly processes involved in the buying and selling of property.

PropertyTour.ie PropertyTour.ie is a Web solutions provider based in Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland. The following services are combined to create an interactive virtual touring environment that we call “Virtual Viewing”:

• Innovative Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP)-enabled Web solutions for the property sector;

• Comprehensive virtual touring of online properties; • A comprehensive “one-click” communications package, streamlining the

customer service process; • Online virtual tour hosting; • Premium maintenance and customer service contracts.

PropertyTour.ie is a company driven to providing customers with a complete solution to their entire current and future Web-based customer service needs. Our service seeks to leverage the latest in Web technology to provide a far higher level of interaction between an estate agent and potential buyer. We will provide the services for the creation and hosting of virtual tours, while also providing the systems, software training and support necessary to augment these with direct VoIP communication between customers and estate agents. It is our intention to create a relationship with our customers that we can develop over a period of time. We propose a service that allows estate agents higher levels of interaction with potential customers over the Internet, which will, through a more efficient and streamlined set of processes, increase the cost effectiveness of the organisation and will result in better prices for clients.

Target Market The company's customer base includes all Web-based estate agents and those companies operating directly in the property development market, encompassing all relevant small- to medium-sized businesses, and eventually moving towards larger property retailers and developers.


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Value Proposition Our core competency is the facilitation of communication between parties over the Internet. This competency can be leveraged to many industries, but has considerable value to the real estate trade, ensuring high-quality interaction so that the property buyer gets the house they want, and the agent achieves the price he/she seeks for the client. Our competitive advantage comes from our unique integration of disparate technologies. We have first mover advantage in an area of the market that will see substantial growth over the next few years. We have identified a strong reputation and good relationships as being key to our success. Our time advantage on competitors allows us to build these relationships.

Competition Competition within our service sector comes in a variety of forms. Any company that offers a service for improving the interaction between estate agents and potential buyers can be seen as a competitor to us. The most obvious of these are companies offering a select number of the services that PropertyTour.ie offer. Currently, the virtual tour is the component that has attracted the most commercial attention, whilst online services such as MyHome.ie and Daft.ie provide centralised databases of properties for sale.

Company Background PropertyTour.ie is a privately held Dublin-based company, and has an experienced management team with direct knowledge of the industry and the technologies involved, extensive research experience, and unique administration skills. The team includes Mr. Tadhg Toomey, Mr. David Dolan, Mr. Damien Crowe and Mr. Shane McGough. We are currently seeking capital to fund the plan through to 2008.

Finances Projected revenues for 2006 through 2008 are €113,202, €519,114, and €1.2 million respectively. The company is seeking an investment of €150,000, and primarily needs capital to fund expansion into the entire Irish market and abroad.

FY 2006 FY 2007 FY 2008

Revenue 113,202 519,114 1,200,070Services 42,300 274,200 843,200Product 70,902 244,914 356,870

Expenses 160,558 473,604 1,065,609Profit -47356 45,510 134,461


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2. The Business Idea

Introduction In May 2005, the “PropertyTour.ie” concept was founded in Dublin City University for the Practicum module on the taught MSc. in E-Commerce programme. From our market research on both the company and client side of the property sector, it is evident that the current trend suggests a cooling period in investor interest levels in the market, but this has been more than made up by additional first-time buyer and trading-up activity. This presents an increasingly competitive environment for estate agents in Ireland, as they attempt to harvest the potential gains available from the sale of properties. This competitiveness can only be achieved through improved marketing techniques, and a more efficient approach to the sales process. Although, for most consumers, finding the right property may by a once or twice-off decision, these very consumers are finding the investigative process more and more tedious, as their lives become increasingly busy. The convenience factor is essential to any business wishing to succeed at the consumer level, and the property market is no exception. The exponential growth of the Internet and, in particular, its use as a primary information-retrieval tool, is highlighting the advances made by consumers in how they approach the purchasing of goods and services. The process of making such an immensely expensive and important purchase, such as a home, is expected to always require the humanistic “trust” factor by way of personal interaction, however, the searching process itself, involving a continuous filtration process of properties, can be streamlined to eliminate the ever-costly and time-consuming interactions required. PropertyTour.ie provide the consumer and the agent with the solution.

PropertyTour.ie Overview

History PropertyTour.ie is the business concept of four Masters students at Dublin City University: Tadhg Toomey, David Dolan, Shane McGough, and Damien Crowe (see Appendix A - Profiles). The group stemmed from a number of different projects undertaken within the one-year full-time courses of Technical and Business E-Commerce. Each member of the group was selected based on their proven records in their respective specialist areas, offering essential insight into particular areas of this expanding business arena. Upon the realisation of a significant “gap” in the property service market, the vision of the group was to incorporate rapidly growing technologies into an underutilised medium within the industry, in order to provide companies with a new approach to the traditional elements involved in the Marketing, Sales, and Support processes of this industry. As well as our extensive research into the property market, the team of three technical students, and one business student have become involved in in-depth research into the growing areas of Multimedia and Voice over IP (VoIP), as well as


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leading investigations into available products and platforms in the marketplace, to enable product idea generation. Product plans were finalised in June 2005.

Current Staff PropertyTour.ie currently has four full-time members of staff: Tadhg Toomey - Chief Executive Officer David Dolan - Chief Operations Officer Shane McGough - Marketing and Finance Manager Damien Crowe - Chief Technical Officer

Funding The organisation of PropertyTour.ie was founded in Dublin City University (DCU), financed by the seed funding of €20,000, which was achieved through contributions of €5,000 from each of the four founding members. Major costs include our initial Web server storage area, and the purchase of website-based, VoIP software. Another significant future expense to the company will be the purchase of highly specialised imaging equipment. Our start-up costs are listed in our 2006 cash flow statement (see Section 6 – Finance).

Company Locations and Facilities PropertyTour.ie will be based within the enterprise and innovation centre, known as Invent, on the Dublin City University (D.C.U.) campus, and is facilitated by the institute and its staff. Primarily based within the Invent building, the company can avail of the core services required to perform the daily activities involved in offering the online service. The University building absorbs the costs associated with equipment such as computers, communications devices, administrative services, and building services. The University is also the focal point for the on-going market research that will form an important insight into the success and development of the service. The campus’ position and prominence within the country are widely known and respected, as are its traditions in educational excellence. Recent years have also brought to prominence the success of DCU Invent itself, whose aim it is to commercialise the research and knowledge developed on the University campus.


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Roadmap

Roadmap 2006-200720

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Roadmap 2007-2008

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Flagship client established

Introduction of Website

Commence wide-scale marketing

Market consistent product upgrades

Research metrics from existing clients

Large-scale advertising campaign

Nation-wide market infiltration

Focus on development of alliance with a networked client

Expand service outside of city radius


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When Milestone January 2006 Developing a flagship client is imperative to the further success of

the company, and will necessitate substantial discounts for the client.

March 2006 The implementation of the company website will be highly beneficial, for demonstrative purposes, and as a marketing medium.

June 2006 This wide-scale marketing will stem from the success of the flagship client and will involve promotional tools and the use of many different types of media.

September 2006 The alliance with a reputable organisation, particularly a nationwide chain, will increase our market penetration, and develop a national reputation within the industry.

March 2007 As the VoIP market becomes more widely available, the promotional emphasis will be on the quality of service provided by the company.

July 2007 Although market research will be on-going, the metrication of the substantial results attained at this point will enhance the company’s understanding and awareness of our client needs.

September 2007 Having established a nationwide client, it will be possible to use this as a platform to move towards the small- to medium-sized companies throughout the rest of the country, with the emphasis on developing from hubs around other major cities and towns. This will necessitate the employment of further employees and the development of one or more regional offices.

April 2008 This intensifying of our marketing and promotional techniques will include the use of mass media, particularly television and national radio.

June 2008 It is intended that our company be the main provider of the VoIP-enabled real estate in the major business hubs around the country.


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3. Marketing Report

Irish Housing Market The Irish housing market has seen a continued level of unprecedented growth over the last decade. This growth in the market has been caused by a number of factors that have come together to affect the Irish economy as a whole. The “Celtic Tiger” has been one of the key drivers of the housing price boom in this country. The increased earning power of individuals has given people access to larger pools of money. This, combined with the increased demand caused by the previously unseen net migration to Ireland, both from returning emigrants and the influx of skilled migrants, has created a shortage, which, through basic supply and demand, has driven prices up. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of new homes being built in Ireland to provide for this growing market of house buyers. Over the last five years on average 50,000 new homes have been built in Ireland per year. Over the next ten years it is expected that a minimum of 550,000 new homes will be needed, and this will lead to a rate of approximately 55-60,000 per annum. These homes include both houses and apartments. The vast majority of these new homes are a part of large-scale developments, with only a small number of them built as individual, once-off homes. Between one quarter and one third of these new homes are being built in the greater Dublin area. The properties built over the last ten years range from small, exclusive developments of less than ten homes, to entirely new towns being built, containing thousands of new homes. This number of new developments, combined with a steady stream of second hand homes, provides the homebuyer with a huge variety of options when the purchasing time arrives. The Irish housing market is serviced by the country’s network of estate agents and auctioneers. Whether operating as independents, part of a group, or as a chain, these companies sell new and second-hand properties for a fixed percentage fee. Irish estate agents operate through high street branches, advertising through their windows, in newspapers and more recently on the Internet.

Competitor Analysis Competition for our service comes from quite a broad category of areas. Any company that offers a service for improving the interaction between estate agents and potential buyers can be seen as a competitor. The most obvious of these are companies that offer similar service components to those being supplied by PropertyTour.ie. Currently, of the technologies that we use to provide our service, the virtual tour is the one that has attracted the most commercial attention. In addition to this, services such as MyHome.ie provide a centralised database of houses for sale. Offline, the national daily newspapers provide weekly property supplements, which though expensive, are still attractive advertising options for many estate agents. In addition to these, weekly and fortnightly magazines exist purely for advertising


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property. As well as the aforementioned methods, our service represents more interactive options for estate agents to spend the advertising budget for a property or development. Spending in one area can reduce the funds available in another. It is important for us, therefore, to look at each of these options in detail, identify where their advantage lies and, thus, draw up a strategy to make our option the most attractive.

Virtual Tours There are currently a number of companies in the Irish market offering services in the creation of virtual tours. The majority of these companies offer their services to a number of different markets, with the real estate market being only one of them. Hotels, museums, and businesses are all seen as potential target markets for virtual tours. Some companies operating in the Irish market have chosen to ignore the real estate market in favour of offering more feature-rich tours to the potentially more lucrative commercial markets. Of the remaining companies, the two that would most directly compete with us initially are the companies who have chosen to focus on the real estate market. They are Webmedia.ie, through their Propertynet.ie service and “Content-Collector”. Both of these companies offer content creation and hosting services, with customers countrywide. The completed virtual tour is held on their servers and accessed from their client’s website. These companies offer their services on a per-use basis, charging a flat fee for the creation and hosting of a tour. Higher levels of service are available for a higher fee, though the service is offered as if each tour were a single transaction. The general process for offering these services is that, once contacted by the customer, the company or a partner company will visit the property and photograph the relevant rooms and features. The photographs are then turned into a virtual tour. This is then hosted on the company’s server with the customer being provided with the link to the tour, which they can then put on their own site. The length of time hosting is offered for varies between companies. The average is approximately six months. This is optimum for the real estate market, though houses would normally be sold in less time, the 6 month limit allows the property to be put back on the market should the sale fall through. There is little loyalty among their customers, as shown by a number of estate agents’ websites that are currently housing tours from both companies. This shows how fickle the market can be given a lack of switching costs.

Property Portals The decentralised nature of the Internet, with companies able to offer their own independent Web pages, can make house hunting online almost as frustrating as in the real world. Offline, one needs to visit many offices to see what they are offering, and then make a choice based on this, however, it is extremely difficult to deduce whether or not you have exhausted all of the possible options. The alternative is to select an area and search for “For Sale” signs, contacting each estate agent at that point. This can be extremely time-consuming.


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Online, without a centralised source of houses for sale, can be similar to trying to visit each estate agent on an individual basis. With so many independents, with their own sites, you would have to do a number of searches in order to retrieve them all for the one area. A centralised, searchable database for selling houses allows users to access homes for sale from a wide selection of estate agents. MyHome.ie is the most reputable and established offering in the Irish market. A powerful search function, combined with simple administration, has made it highly successful with buyers and estate agents alike.

MyHome.ie MyHome.ie works with estate agents around Ireland providing them a centralised place to advertise properties on their books. Rather than linking to each company’s website, MyHome.ie hosts the information and displays it on their own site. The page layout is the same for all agents, with only the company’s individual logo’s identifying who is selling the property. It is possible to then link to the estate agent’s site. When an estate agent wishes to show properties on MyHome.ie, they must first sign up to the company. They then have to pay a fee for each house. There is a basic fee for a listing, including written information and a number of photographs. If they wish to include virtual tours, an additional fee is charged, and the company must use Webmedia.ie.

Newspapers The traditional source of advertising houses for sale has been the newspapers. In the last few years, as the Celtic Tiger grew, and along with continuously growing house sales, the property section has grown from a few pages per week, at the back of the daily broadsheets, to thick supplements with advertisements from all the major agents. The use of features and articles in these supplements helps to underline the importance that the newspapers place on them. Frequently used to announce the release of new developments, often with full-page or even double-spread ads, the property supplements have a huge audience nationwide. It is, however, an expensive and sometimes time-consuming process to get an advertisement into one of the two main supplements. The two main daily broadsheets in Ireland are the Irish Times and the Irish Independent. The cost of placing an advertisement in any of these supplements are all around the same level at €12,700 for 1/2 page up to €25,400 for a full-page spread in the Independent (see Appendix B – Marketing Mix: Advertising Rates). Many estate agents, especially when launching a new development, will place ads in these two main supplements to increase exposure. This is further helped by the fact that they are both released on separate days. The Irish Independent publishes on a Friday, while The Irish Times publishes on a Thursday. If a property is not sold, or a development is not fully subscribed to, it may be necessary to repeat the advertisement until the desired outcome is achieved. While the cost of such an ad is bearable once, even twice, most estate agents are reluctant to continue to advertise on an ongoing basis.


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Magazines The growth in the newspaper property supplements, both in physical size and advertising revenue has brought about a new offering in the Irish property market. The independent property magazines can be seen as competing with or supplementing the newspaper property sections. Offering slightly lower advertising costs though, with lower circulation, these magazines are available in some newsagents and also in the offices of estate agents. “Irish Property Buyer” is one such publication. Released on a monthly basis, it is far more focused than the property supplements. This does result, however, in much lower circulation levels. It is necessary to note that the newspaper circulation figures are for all readers, not just those who wish to look at the property supplement. Irish Property Buyer represents good value for advertisers, with a full-page colour advertisement costing €2500.

Other Media Over the last few years, we have seen the increased use of other media for the marketing of new developments. Local radio has become the medium of choice for developers and estate agents releasing new developments. Stations around Dublin include “98FM” and “FM104”. 98FM, with its older demographic, has been more popular for advertising new developments. Rates for a thirty-second slot vary with the number pre-purchased, from €140 - €150. To achieve maximum exposure, it is necessary for an advertiser to use multiple slots per day. This has resulted in some new developments paying €1500 - €3000 per day on radio advertising. This figure does not include the actual cost of developing the advertisement.

PEST

Political These factors include government regulations and legal issues and define both formal and informal rules, under which the firm must operate. The Revenue Commissioners has recently bowed to pressure and changed its position on blocking stamp-duty exemption for first-time homebuyers, whose parents sign on mortgage documents in certain circumstances. It set out four conditions that had to be satisfied under which parents could sign on the mortgage document but the children could still avoid paying full stamp duty. The transfer of the house had to be taken in the name of the child, while the parent should not take a beneficial interest in the house. Also, the parent must only sign on the mortgage solely at the request of the lending institution in order to provide additional financial security. Finally, the parent is not allowed to put money into the mortgage or become a legal owner of the home. New stamp duty guidelines introduced in December mean first time home buyers were exempt on stamp duty on homes worth up to €317,000. Many young people are struggling to buy property and they frequently use their parents' names as signatories on mortgages. This has been an extremely contentious issue in recent years, and some


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reports have suggested that it may have a negative effect on the property market, were the numbers of investment properties to fluctuate over the coming years. Numerous regulatory proceedings on VoIP are springing up around the world. The majority of Regulators are currently reviewing their position on what are the regulatory requirements and numbering resources that should be allocated to VoIP services. The European Union is moving to play a central role in order to harmonize the differing views. A European Commission Guideline on VoIP is expected to be published before the end of 2005. It is imperative that the laws contained in the Data Protection Act 1988 and 2003 are upheld to the strictest criteria, as the nature of our business means we will have access to the personal data of many individuals and we have to act diligently and professionally to ensure that the privacy of these individuals is maintained.

Economic The Irish housing market has been underpinned by sustained job creation and by increased personal wealth, manifesting itself through the purchase of second homes and rental property as an investment. Any significant downturn in either sector would obviously pose a threat to the overall housing market. However, with the risk of a price blowout moderating, continuing low interest rates and a robust labour market, there is little chance of a market crash and it is believed that a soft landing is far more likely. House price inflation is moderating, declining to under 8% year-on-year in February. By end 2005 it could be down to 5% or below. Prices may rise by less than 3% in 2006. The reduction in house price inflation has reduced the threat of a market crash. However, there are still risks, most notably the continuing high level of supply, the strong growth in second homes and the size of the investment market. Completions could again reach some 75,000 this year. However, it is expected that the level of housing output will decline significantly thereafter, with the number of completions falling back to 65,000 in 2006 and possibly 60,000 in the period 2006 - 20111.

1 Beggs, John et al (April 2005) “Irish Economic Forecasts – April 2005” AIB Global Treasury Economic Research http://www.aibeconomicresearch.com/PDFS/ForecastApril%202005.pdf


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Irish House Completions

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This 2005 forecast still represents a high level of supply, especially as possibly 30% of current output may be accounted for by second homes. While SSIA flows should provide support over the next couple of years, this second homes sector may be approaching saturation levels. Any significant downturn in the sector could have consequences for the whole housing market if developers do not respond quickly to such an eventuality by reducing supply. The investment market is also being monitored closely. The overall housing market would be at risk should investors start leaving in the face of reduced rental incomes. However, rental levels appear to have stopped falling. Furthermore, many investors have amassed substantial capital gains. These factors should help maintain the attractions of property as a investment. Despite these potential threats, the market is remaining relatively well underpinned. Wealth effects should continue to support the market. The Irish economy continues to perform strongly with a robust labour market. Furthermore, SSIA monies could provide support, especially to the second homes market in 2006 and 2007. Lower house price inflation and rising disposable incomes should help to mitigate the impact on affordability of moderate rises in interest rates. Repayment affordability should, therefore, remain relatively comfortable, though the burden of deposit finance is likely to remain an issue. Despite this, it is expected that the market will continue to gain support from the further gradual release of pent-up demand, as more low cost units are completed. Meanwhile, mortgage lending remains buoyant, though the pace of growth should moderate in 2005 in line with lower house price inflation and as activity levels begin to top out.2 These figures outline a continued growth of the Irish housing market, beyond previous expectations, and demonstrate a healthy rate of development over the coming years, resulting in the continued growth of related industries such as estate agents and developers, each looking to remain competitive in an ever-increasing

2 Pollock, Jenny (6 April 2005) “The Irish Housing Market” pg. 1 AIB Global Treasury Economic Research http://www.aibeconomicresearch.com/PDFS/Housing%20April%202005.pdf


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marketplace. PropertyTour.ie hopes to service those agents that are focused on maintaining that competitiveness.

Social Traditionally, Europe has lagged in broadband use because a lack of competition has kept prices high, and high prices have kept customers away. However, recent reports suggest a major improvement in real consumption by the fall of prices. There has also been an increase of consumption along with the advent of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) related products, particularly in Ireland. Domestic broadband use has also risen sharply, due in part to heavy advertising by reputable service providers, and a public realisation of abundant information reception/transmission available through its use, particularly within areas such as distance learning and telemedicine.

Use of Internet Share of Users Consumers Information Search/Researching 69% Email 60% Travel/Leisure Information 27% Entertainment 17% Music Listening/Downloading 17% SMEs Email/Communications 76% File/Document Transfer 45% E-Commerce Transactions 42%3 Many societal changes in the business arena have also caused a significant move towards the use of broadband technologies as an integral part of the company, as opposed to its traditional use as an advantageous component of the corporate infrastructure. For example, the introduction of new management technologies utilising ICT (Supply Chain Management, SCM etc.) is creating new business environments that allow these very technologies to develop for future business use. These developments provide for the restructuring and reorganisation of corporations, where remote access, broadband, and Web presence are a fundamental aspect to the business and its growth. Irish businesses have also developed the realisation of new work styles such as tele-working, and are witnessing the financial and practical benefits of reduced congestion, and remote connectivity for employees and clients. The more businesses that invest in these technologies, in particular broadband and IP-enabled multimedia, the greater the investment into these technologies will be, thus facilitating more business activities. This cycle also enables the development of these technologies for domestic use, throughout the country, as can be seen in the broadband network backbone:

3 Ó Donnchú, Niall (2004) KMI’s Annual Conference on Optical Networking “The Economics of Broadband”


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Technological Broadband communications will form an increasingly important part of business activity in the near future. In common with businesses in other countries, businesses operating in Ireland will require Internet/intranet access, video services, collaborative working services, file transfer and database access. The bandwidth requirements of companies will increase from the range of 14kbit/s to 2Mbit/s seen today to access speeds of 100Mbit/s by 2010. These high access speeds will particularly be required by call centres, software development companies and those involved in the creation of multimedia content. A vital element of this environment will be the availability of world-class telecommunications services and infrastructure. Failure to provide world-class telecommunications and broadband services will cause investment to be diverted to countries that provide the required level of telecoms services at the right price. There is already a gap between the level of broadband services available in Ireland and other countries, and this must be monitored closely. It is this growth in broadband that will provide for the developments and growth of media such as movie and voice formats (map)4.

4 Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Telecommunications and Internet Federation Telecommunications Strategy Group – Interim Report – “Getting Ireland Online” http://www.iia.ie/downloads/TSG_Interim_Report.pdf


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Market Assessment

Trends As can be seen in the previous section (PEST – Social), communications and file transfers are still the most widely used facets of the Internet for small to medium-sized enterprises, whilst communications and information retrieval are the highest priority of domestic users. Each of these facets is provided for within the PropertyTour.ie infrastructure, and is enhanced by the increasing use of broadband connectivity. It is justified to suggest that consumers still rely on bricks-and-mortar travel agents and bank branches, just as many people still use newspaper property listings and estate agent windows to find homes. But the role of off-line property resources is dwindling, and while the traditional tools for house hunting will surely be with us for years to come, their importance will continue to shrivel. Admittedly, only about one-half of the country uses the web regularly, but those in the Internet property business note that the core of this group are young, well-educated adults, in essence, the perfect first-time home buyers. With the degradation of the dot-com hype over, the larger business community is beginning to recognise the change that has already occurred. For example, the 2004 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award; of the 24 short-listed nominees, four came from the property or building industries, including MyHome.ie CEO Jim Miley and Eamonn and Brian Fallon of Daft.ie. Another example of this movement is the purchase of the UK website “Find a Property”, for a staggering £13.8 million, which is the number three e-property site in the UK. Meanwhile, The International Herald-Tribune has just started publishing property listings aimed at the wealthy on its website, after resisting e-property during the dot-com boom. Here in Ireland, both the Irish Independent and the Irish Times run their own property sites, with the latter setting up its classifieds portal on “Nicemove.ie”. Although, it could be argued that the success of Web-based property portals is tied to the on-going property boom, and, as the housing market cools, property portals will see their margins narrow, it is also believed that any slow-down would put more pressure on the estate agents, driving even more investment would online. Contrary to expectations, online property websites saw visitor numbers surge, with Nielsen/NetRatings reporting an 83 percent jump in unique visitors for “Home Gain”, while “AOL Home & Real Estate” saw unique traffic rise 54 percent and “MSN House & Home” experienced a 28 percent spike5. MyHome.ie is already profitable, and this year alone it spent around €400,000 on a re-design and €750,000 on an advertising campaign to boost its already-strong brand. These trends suggest that, although the purchase and humanistic side of purchasing a home will never become defunct, the searching and querying tools are continuously changing to suit a more technologically aware society.

5 Clark, Matthew (2004) In Focus – “Home is Just a Click Away” http://www.enn.ie/print.html?code=9565875


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Growth Rates The rise of Voice over IP (VoIP) as an alternative to traditional telephony has continued apace, although its migration to mass market is far from complete, and Forrester has suggested that the process could take more than a decade. But several important new hardware developments have been announced. For example, Cisco revealed its first Wi-Fi phone, which will operate via VoIP. The improving standard of VoIP has led to several predictions of revenue loss for telecoms firms, including one that will see telecoms companies lose up to 40 percent of their fixed-line traffic to other networks in five to seven years. IDC meanwhile recently reported that 12 percent of European firms have implemented VoIP and a further 33 percent plan to do so in the next two years. This potential revenue loss has made telecoms operators sit up and take notice, with BT in the UK announcing that it is to introduce its first large-scale VoIP package for residential users, thus introducing a wider, more competitive marketplace for VoIP. In Ireland, the spate of activity expected on broadband at the end of the year could result in greater availability and more competitive prices as the various new initiatives kick in. Two recent start-up companies claims that its telephony service can cut customers' phone rates by up to 90 percent, compared to other traditional phone services. But VoIP growth has in fact been stunted, partly thanks to stigmas associated with the service that hark back to its early days, when Net connections were less reliable and Internet-based calls often came with poor quality. Companies are now taking it upon themselves to remove these stigmas by targeting industries that operate almost entirely over the phone, for example, call centres. VoIP has been used extensively by large, multi-site corporations for several years, since these big companies typically have large data networks already in place, allowing for easier set-up of VoIP. In the SME sector, companies have been slow to make the transition and, in the consumer space, the shift to VoIP has been even slower. However, provided that broadband is made as widely available as expected, and full telephone number portability is made into law, these stigmas are expected to dissipate quickly, opening the way for mass market infiltration. The introduction of the high-speed wireless networking technology Wi-Fi will boost the VoIP market further. These reports about the prospects for consumer VoIP are certainly consistent with what has happened in the US over the last two years.

Target Audience

Estate Agents The primary target audience can broadly be described as the small to medium-sized businesses in the real estate industry. PropertyTour.ie’s primary market will be small to medium-sized estate agents who currently provide a Web presence for their customers. This will range from agencies providing specifications for twenty to fifty properties. The emphasis will be on those agencies that currently offer on-line photographic images of their properties but do not offer some virtual tour component.

Initially, we will promote the PropertyTour.ie service through advertising and in house demonstrations of our solution to agencies in this industry sector. The


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development of the initial contract will prove highly influential in the public perception of our service, so it is intended that a relatively high profile agency from within a prime target area will take the initial position of our flagship company.

The first point of contact for the PropertyTour.ie user will be the company website. The aim of the website is to provide those estate agents with the information required to initiate an implementation of our products and services. It will demonstrate who we are, our perception of the service, and have a user-friendly interface, featuring a prompt VoIP-based customer service help-line, and have a medium through which users can view the exceptional service provided by PropertyTour.ie. The future aspirations for our service, with emphasis on the technology and the lack of customer intrusion upon implementation, will be promoted throughout the site, and will be a gateway for agencies to see a fully functional demonstration of the service.

PropertyTour.ie would hope to expand the service to chains of estate agencies, whereby the successful acquisition of the contract would supply a number of implementation sites across the country, thereby, increasing our market infiltration at a lower cost. Agencies will have the option of employing specific components of the service, for example, the virtual tours, or the VoIP customer service; however, our goal is to become a solutions provider, offering an extensive package that will eliminate the need for other providers.

Hospitality Industry A secondary market for us to target would be the hotel industry, whereby their advertising campaigns require on-line tours and necessitate the querying of information. Currently many large hotel groups offer virtual tours, however no group offers the on-line VoIP customer service component. The exponential growth in the use of the World Wide Web for querying travel and hotel accommodation has reached almost 20 percent, demonstrating the huge on-line interest in viewing hotels. However, upon reaching the website, the user will often have a query beyond that information contained in the site, or may not suit the requirements for the payment procedure. Currently, this requires the use of the telephone, or the time-consuming process of emailing. Our customer service component however, incorporates the voice channel into the website, and creates a personal point of contact across an otherwise impersonal medium.

Business Real Estate A further secondary market PropertyTour.ie will focus on will be the business real estate sector. This sector has shown considerable growth over recent years, and is seen as an opportunity to develop relationships with organisations, and to utilise their reputations as an advertising tool for the company.


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Target Market Size We determined the size of the industry by assessing the number of registered estate agents in Ireland. The Irish Auctioneers & Valuers Institute, with 1800 members and Associate members, represents the majority of real estate agents and auctioneers in Ireland, and is by far the largest property body in the country. We then narrowed this figure down by ruling out the largest agencies operating as a chain, particularly international chains, although we will still attempt to develop contracts with national chains within the industry. Our market research suggests that the smallest agencies, primarily singularly run, local agencies, are reluctant to move towards the Web as a marketing medium entirely, and thus, our focus will be on the remaining 850 agencies around the country that do not fall into either of these categories. This number is relatively static as competition within areas of high population density is particularly fierce. With one third of these agencies basing themselves in Dublin, the following table is an overview of the expected market growth up to the year ending 2007: Region Growth 2005 2006 2007 Dublin 2% 280 285 261 Rest of Country

0.75% 570 574 579

A more reliable approach to market growth, as our service and pricing are based upon a per property system, is the extent of property development within the different sectors in Ireland. Type Growth(Avg) 2005 2006 2007 Residential -8% 75,000 65,000 60,000 Hotel/Guesthouse 1.5% 1,060 1,075 1,095 Business6 6% 148,915 sq m 171,270 sq m 190,347 sq m The Residential sector is expected to plateau at 50,000 – 60,000 in 2008, whilst the Business area is seeing a decrease in office planning in the Dublin area, and an increase through much of the rest of the country.

Market Share We can forecast our market share by our estimates of the size of the target market and our estimates of our potential sales. In our first year, we are estimating a target market of about 25 - 35 agents, giving us a market share of about 7.5 percent in the Dublin area. In the second year we are estimating a target market of 70 – 80 agents, providing a market share of 23 agents in the Dublin area. The move to infiltrate the areas throughout the rest of Ireland will be much more sparse, and will require the development of pocket areas, whereby other urban focal points can be used as hubs for those regions. With this scenario taking place at the end of year 2, we estimate that our target market in this area will be approximately 30 - 40 agents in size, giving us a market share of about 5.2 percent outside of the capital. This will grow in Year 3 to about 13 percent, and will provide for the company’s move towards market 6 IAVI Survey 2004 http://www.iavi.ie/news/survey2004.asp#offices


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infiltration within other property areas, such as those described in our secondary property markets.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

2005 2006 2007 2008

DublinRest of Country

Marketing Objectives • To establish PropertyTour.ie as a reputable company providing medium to

high-end, user-friendly solutions for a customer-focused property market; • To create brand awareness for both PropertyTour.ie and its range of products

through the use of the Internet, publishing media, and industry alliances; • To develop a client base in the Dublin area, and throughout the rest of Ireland,

that will service a competitive industry by focusing on process innovation and customer awareness.

Cost of Marketing Details of marketing costs have to be included in the financial section of this document.

Marketing Mix

Product The primary intention of our product/service is to generate a growing customer- oriented focal point in an industry that was once unable to benefit from the growth of the Internet. Many successful e-commerce sites in recent years have been centered on the successful “search-and-query” methodology of the Internet, particularly the areas of travel and real estate. And, whilst the travel sector has dealt quite successfully with the elimination of the human factor from its value chain, the real estate industry has not managed to make this crossover. This can be attributed to the fact that the purchase is so large, and significant to a consumer, that it is essential that they see, first hand, their potential purchase. As with many industries determined to make the move towards maintaining a significant Web presence, it will never be possible to eliminate this human factor, but the costly searching process can be reduced significantly. PropertyTour.ie allows a user to view a property online, through the use of high-quality camera footage of each property they query through our search facility.


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This virtual tour has been implemented on a number of websites in Ireland, but the process is costly to the estate agent, and can even require the employment of new staff. PropertyTour.ie provide for the remote hosting of all an estate agent’s properties using linked databases and server technologies. Furthermore, the user of the estate agent’s Website can call the estate agent directly from the Website (broadband connection permitting), and interact with an agent in a real-time voice communication. This allows the agent to complete a tour that would otherwise require the physical arrangement of a meeting at the property site, a process that is costly, time-consuming, and is only, in approximately 8 percent of occasions, a success. The service in no way tries to underestimate the value of a personal meeting with a client, but it reduces the searching process to those that are genuinely interested in a property upon viewing it. Therefore, the number of customers that can view a property in a day can extend from as little as two or three consecutively in a day to as many as one hundred and more concurrently. From this vantage point, an agent can personally deal with those clients that are still potential customers after the normally costly viewing process has taken place. The distinct advantage of this product/service is its filtration feature that separates viewers from potential clients, and deals at a customer service level that returns the humanistic factor to the real estate’s presence in cyberspace. Branding PropertyTour.ie is advertised as a Web-based company, as the features of our service are aimed at Web users, and can only be seen to their full extent in this environment. The name “PropertyTour.ie” is a non-ambiguous title that clearly states the service provided by the company. Its emphasis is on the service provided, and is suitably malleable to apply it to many different sectors without losing any meaning in the process. Logo The PropertyTour.ie logo is used on all company documents, as well as throughout the website, and on all promotions and advertisements. The descriptive name clearly stands out from the rest of the image, which is of utmost importance, and, while the modern graphic of the building suggests a tour within a property, it does not confine the logo to representing any particular type of property, widening its appeal. The colours were chosen to increase the standardisation of the company Website and its publications, thus maintaining awareness and notability upon its viewing. The modern graphic was designed to emphasize the modern approach to virtual tours that our products and services are focused upon.

Features The main features of the service are as follows:

• An online virtual touring facility that eliminates the estate agent almost entirely from the initial touring process, acting as a user-friendly private tour


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of a property before a physical viewing becomes necessary; this is efficient and less-costly for both the agent and the client.

• An online querying and customer service mechanism that allows a client to contact an agent directly from the website, allowing the agent to provide a commentated walkthrough of the property and the ability to answer any queries immediately.

• A two-way voice communication in real-time that is equivalent to a phone conversation whilst looking at the property from the comfort of the client’s own home/office.

• The voice communication application will also allow for the service to be implemented in a large-scale working environment, whereby a client’s call will be sent directly to the next available agent.

• The solution offers a further means of communication through instant on-line messaging, an online whiteboard, and an impressive file-sharing mechanism, whereby detailed specification, plans, blueprints etc, can all be exchanged instantly and securely over the Internet.

• Online application sharing is provided for, ranging from Web browser controls to spreadsheets, etc. For example, where required and authorised, an agent can take control of the customer’s browser and fill in an online form with them.

• The solution provides a revolutionary feature that allows the agent to see who is visiting their web site in real time, with detailed information about their activity through the web site, and with the added ability calling them directly. Therefore, the agents can pro-actively greet the customers visiting their web site rather than waiting for the customer to contact them.


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Client Contact Agent

Enter Agent Premises

View Property Specs

View Website

Interested / Potential

Uninterested / Non-Potential

Sale

Process Charts

• Current Process Chart As can be seen from the above graph, the point of contact, whereby the agent becomes physically involved in the transaction, occurs very early in the process flow. This leads to a far more involved set of sub-processes, which must be followed even in order to determine whether or not a client shows any interest in purchasing a property. Many different points of contact are available, demonstrating the numerous inputs that must be controlled. The point at which we are most concerned with is the loop that the agent can become involved in upon making contact with the client. This is extremely time-consuming, and, if a client shows interest in a property, the likelihood is that they will request to see many more similar properties in person. This is clearly the stage at which most agents will spend the majority of their time, and which proves to be the most costly. In this scenario, only upon direct contact and through time-consuming visits can a client determine what they are really interested in. This represents a costly manner within which both the client and the agent must operate.

Arrange viewing

Client Contact Point Active Involvement No Sale Sale


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• Process Chart With PropertyTour.ie

In stark contrast, the process control chart of PropertyTour.ie represents, for the most part, a far more linear approach to the process flow. There is one primary entry point to the estate agent, which involves using the PropertyTour.ie website. The client can view all of the property specs online and even take virtual tours of the property, just as other high-profile agencies are beginning to provide. The website’s use of VoIP, however, means that a further contact process is available whereby a client is no longer forced to enter the premises or visit the estate agent personally, but rather, can communicate online. Traditionally, the cycle of showing some interest in a property initiates the property visitation stage, in order for the client to enquire further about other visual and non-visual aspects of the property. The PropertyTour.ie process flow however, ensures that this information can be conveyed in a new way, through the combination of virtual tours and real-time voice communication, thus eliminating the need for a visitation, unless the client shows a greater potential of becoming a future customer. Therefore, the time spent on physical house viewings can be reduced to those that present a more successful outcome. This process flow does not try to remove the costly physical interaction, which is essential to the industry, but merely reduces its applicability to those who show more potential. A live-walkthrough commentary of the premises maintains that required level of human interaction, but in a far more cost-effective manner. It also ensures that the number of clients that can be dealt with over a period of time is significantly reduced, increasing the agent’s work-through rate.

Arrange Viewing

View Property Specs

View Website Client

Uninterested / Non-Potential

Client

Virtual Tour

Interested / Potential

Client

Sale

Contact Agent Online

Client Contact Point Active Involvement No Sale Sale


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Quality Assurance Quality assurance is the one of the primary objectives of PropertyTour.ie. With quality comes customer loyalty and reliability. The design of our service will be based on an ease-of-use methodology, backed by a non-technical, informative approach to the extent of growth of these new technologies, and the benefits to be gained throughout the organisation upon implementation. Usability will be our principle design methodology within the website, and throughout client demonstrations. We plan to perform user testing (Heuristic Method) by way of questionnaires and interviews, which has proved successful in the past in sourcing the fundamental usability guidelines for user interaction. With a single mouse-click, it is possible for a client to switch the communication to a secure mode. This secure mode is stronger and safer than SSL. Due to our affiliations with the freeware group Skype, and NetDIVE, PropertyTour.ie will be provided with the expertise and technological awareness to implement and maintain the most up-to-date technology, in an efficient and cost-effective manner. This service will range from customer care to product up-grades and periodical notices of new products and services available.

Promotion

Internet Marketing As this is primarily a specialized, online product/service for the property sector, we have decided to target this market through the Internet, by way of online samples and screen shots demonstrating ease-of-use, as well as through our online affiliations with larger estate agents that will be developed over time. We also intend to infiltrate those websites that are dedicated to the online provision of property services dedicated to this subject. In addition to this we are also going to employ the use of banner ads as a means of advertising. We have an arrangement with a number of broader property sites, whereby we agree to display our respective advertisements on the other’s site at no charge. Within the area of publishing media, we have researched a number of magazines and newspapers and their advertising rates (see Appendix B – Marketing Mix: Advertising Rates). This will increase our brand exposure as well as awareness of our selling points. Since 1996, the average number of NNI (National Newspapers of Ireland sold per week has increased by 230,692 copies to 4,320,138. Press advertising is not a transient flash, it occupies a space and the information is constantly accessible. The style of newspaper advertising is totally flexible and can be tailored to suit specific messages, a variety of audiences, and different budgets, as well as providing a measurable exposure count.

We have also looked into the possibility of distributing free demonstration Discs with targeted magazines, however, having looked into the costs related to their production, taking into account that many of them would be discarded before the demonstration was tried, we decided that the return on investment would not justify this promotional technique. As mentioned previously, we are in discussions with NetDIVE about creating a strategic alliance. We will be creating a co-branded version of our service that will be sold to future


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NetDIVE customers at a discounted rate. This will allow us to create further brand awareness within our target market. Furthermore, will be developing a brochure about our company and its services. The brochure will tell the customer about all the features available to them, what we have planned for the future and why they should choose us. These will be forwarded directly to the targeted potential clients in each area.

Personal Selling Initially, this will prove to be the most important part of our promotional strategy, as it will be the proven implementation of the service that will ensure the future success of the business. It is imperative that this area is concentrated upon with utmost assurances, highlighting quality and the professional benefits attained. We intend on using flagship companies to demonstrate our products and illustrate the advantages they can provide a company with at a variety of levels. Our marketing strategy will make use of both online and offline channels. We will advertise in industry magazines, and look to get write ups in these publications through an aggressive PR campaign. An important element in achieving this will be to create a partnership with our first customer by offering them our services for the first two years for free. Once this has been achieved we will have a successful installation that we can use to demonstrate the effectiveness of our product. However, in order to acquire these contracts, it will be necessary to showcase the PropertyTour.ie service through on-site demonstrations. The initial implementations will, therefore, be focused on those companies that provide neither virtual tours nor a high level of customer service, as this will highlight the benefits of implementing a PropertyTour.ie solution. In Year Two, we hope to acquire a contract that will allow us to maintain a larger number of networked sites for a client, demonstrating the effect of a full implementation on a successful and reputable Website. A large part of the promotional strategy will by the emphasis on the benefits of maintaining a sophisticated system, utilising cost –effective, strategic systems, in particular, Voice over IP.

Price Our prices will be developed individually for each company, and will be determined primarily by the number of agents that are required. As the primary goal of PropertyTour.ie is to infiltrate the small to medium-sized estate agents, we expect to implement no more than one or two agents per site in the initial 18 month period. The prices being proposed are based upon the cost of the VoIP software (per license), followed by the service and maintenance costs of providing the virtual tour service. This cost is determined from an initial retainer for the service, with an additional fee per tour provided. Therefore, the agent is in control of how advanced and comprehensive they wish to make their Web services.


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Type CallSite Cost (EU) Service Cost Total Cost 1 Agent License 249 999 1248 2 Agents License 499 1499 1998 5 Agents License 829 1999 2828 10 Agents License 1249 2999 4248

This type of VoIP service is currently not on offer in the Republic of Ireland, so we are aiming at the middle to high-end of the market, whereby we can control the initial growth of the service, as the unique provider. It is expected that the first client site to be implemented will be without cast to them, to enable us to benefit from the initial market exposure (see Appendix B – Marketing Mix: Advertising Rates).

Place The traditional idea of place and distribution, where the business needs to be near the customer, is consistent with our business model. Although a technology provider, primarily using the Internet as our focal point, our services can only be implemented with in-house delivery. The delivery mechanism will not require any movement from the client side, as we will facilitate the collection and storage of the virtual tours, as well as the installation of management systems on the agent site. Due to these restrictions, we will initially be offering our services within the Dublin City area, and will focus entirely on penetrating this market, thus providing us with a high-density target area, at a reduced cost, in comparison with the rest of the country. As our profits and brand awareness increase, we will provide the services throughout the rest of the country, selecting those similar high-density areas around the country as hubs for the surrounding areas. Cities and towns such as Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Kilkenny will be targeted in the third year.


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4. Strategy

Product/Service Context The Irish housing market has for the last decade been growing at an exponential rate. New property development is currently running at around 75,000 homes a year, with a continuous supply of second hand homes as people move up. Combined with this is the never before seen access to information that is now available to people. People are able to find more information about more houses as they search for their dream home. Traditionally, estate agents used their windows as the primary advertising space. People would physically travel to the shop to see what was available. The increasing use of the Internet has changed this very little. What we see from estate agents are virtual shop-fronts linking to virtual brochures, and very little has changed in recent years. Property portals such as MyHome.ie have provided a centralised search for property that is invaluable to buyers, and has become a necessity for sellers, however there is little to allow estate agents to differentiate themselves and promote their properties more effectively. We propose a service that allows estate agents higher levels of interaction with potential customers over the internet, which will, in turn, lead to the agent achieving better prices for his clients and thus increased business.

Description Our service seeks to leverage the latest in Web technology to provide a far higher level of interaction between an estate agent and potential buyers. The traditional Estate agent website has been used merely as a means of getting the shop-front to a global audience. Even the use of a search facility is just simplifying the process. The information available is changed very little from the brochures that estate agents provide on request in their business premises. In the estate agent value chain, the use of the Internet stops here. We seek to continue the use of the Internet along the value chain, not only for providing information on the property, but to allow real-time interaction between the estate agent and potential buyers, and to provide a guided tour of the property. The system offers further interaction in the form of a VoIP connection, which, at the click of a button, allows the user to contact the estate agent over a phone connection to clarify details and to set up an appointment to view. It is our intention that we would help to improve the quality of interaction between the estate agent and the potential client. By allowing potential buyers a sample of what a guided tour around the house is like, they can better decide if they wish to proceed. In addition to this, by promoting voice interaction, the system allows the estate agent to get a feel for the customer and how serious they are, reducing the problem of bogus appointments through emails.


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Our company is a consultancy service that seeks to develop an ongoing relationship with our clients in order to improve their interaction with their customers. Once an estate agent has joined into a partnership with us, we will work with them providing the software and training necessary to allow them to enjoy the benefits of our system. We will also work with them providing the content and development for the virtual tours. We will integrate this offering with their websites to take the estate agents from virtual tours to virtual viewings.

Competitive Advantage Our core competency is the facilitation of communication between parties over the Internet. This competency can be leveraged to many industries, but has considerable value to the real estate trade. The purchase of a home is the single largest purchase a person will make in their life. Therefore it human interaction is essential to the process. Many online services seek to reduce the human-to-human contact in transactions in favour of automation. We seek to achieve the opposite, ensuring high quality interaction so that the buyer gets the house they want, and the agent achieves the price he seeks for his client. Our competitive advantage comes from our unique integration of disparate technologies. We have first mover advantage in an area of the market that will see substantial growth over the next few years. We have identified a strong reputation and good relationships as being key to our success. Our time advantage on competitors allows us to build these.

Business Model

Context When developing a strategy for any business making use of the latest in technology, a number of issues must be considered. The current and predicted future usage levels, along with its penetration into the market, are very important. In addition, the effect the use of these technologies has on the way potential customers do business is also central. While these external factors are very significant, it is also necessary for us to examine what is going on inside the company, from a similar point of view.

Technology The current use and future spread of new technology will greatly impact any high tech start up, we are no different. There are two key technologies that we will rely on. They build upon each other, thus we have to examine the state of both. Broadband Internet access and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are the two key technologies we will be using to deliver our service. While it is accepted that both broadband and VoIP have key parts to play in the future use of the internet and communications as a whole, it is their level of use that will impact us most from the beginning. While we will be targeting our services at


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businesses, their take up of the relevant technologies is something that we can alter to better suit our needs. Through the use of a well trained sales force, and good strategic marketing potential customers can be convinced to adapt. As our customers provide services to members of the public, it is the perceptions of this group that we will need to be most aware of. There is little point in offering these services if only a small proportion of homebuyers can access them. The access to high-speed Internet connections and the customer’s willingness to use VoIP will determine whether a potential homebuyer is able to use our service, and therefore, whether or not this will provide benefit to our clients. It is in this area that we are most at the whim of popular ideas. Broadband access in Ireland has lagged behind that of other European countries despite efforts by the Government to market Ireland as a technology hub for the rest of Europe. The statistics show that 120,000 customers, just 3 percent of Irish Internet users, subscribe to broadband services. It is predicted that this will grow to 500,000 over the next number of years with 13 percent of all Irish users accessing the Internet through a broadband connection by 2006. Voice over Internet Protocol, is the latest “killer” application to come out of the Internet. By using the Internet to route calls it is possible to reduce the costs of a call to a fraction of its cost over standard technology. While our system is specifically designed to be as easy to use from the end user point of view, with no plug-ins or new software needing to be added, the use of broadband by the general population will impact our strategy. While the number of people using VoIP does not directly affect us, we don’t need people to already have applications such as Skype or other such software; it is an indicator of people’s acceptance of VoIP. Our service will only truly become successful if people are comfortable with using VoIP to interact and conduct business. The current take-up levels of VoIP in Europe, including Ireland are relatively low; it is predicted though that the growth in this market will be nothing short of phenomenal. VoIP has already seen step growth with figures for Europe growing from 0.5 million in 2003 to 2.5million by the end of 2004. IDC estimates that by 2008 14 million households and 8 million businesses will be using VoIP as a standard form of communication. This is the minimum level that we see as indicating broad acceptance of VoIP, with those not currently using it daily still willing to use it for once-off or short-term interactions.

Effect Having looked at how the technology is going to grow and change over the next few years, we need to look now at what effect its use will have on our customers. We need to assess how things are done presently, and how that will change once our service is adopted. The current trend with house hunting involves a lot of effort put in by the buyer into researching their options outside of office hours. People looking for a house will visit estate agents in the area they are looking in the evenings and at weekends to look in the window and see what is on offer. In recent years the Internet has supplemented this allowing people to look without leaving their homes. The timing has, however,


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not changed. Due to work commitments a lot of this work is done outside office hours. House buyers will usually then use free time during work to contact the estate agent for more information, or to arrange a viewing. Access to phones throughout the day allows people to contact the estate agent during short breaks, or quiet periods. By using a VoIP-enabled Internet site to conduct a virtual viewing, the timing of these interactions will have to change. While a virtual viewing will take only a fraction of the time of a standard viewing, it will still require more time than a simple brochure request. In addition to this, the use of the basic VoIP technology of a microphone and headphones is not currently common in most companies, thus making it difficult for people to use it during the working day. Due to these factors, we will see an increase in contact attempts during lunch times for those working with VoIP-enabled workstations, and at the fringes of the work day for people contacting from home, as well as an increase in weekend contacts. In order to facilitate this technology, it will be necessary for our customers to make some changes to their staffing and opening hours. They may need to ensure that agents are available at peak times, such as lunchtimes, and that staff is available later in the evening than would have traditionally been expected.

Conclusion Our assessment of the acceptance and use of these two technologies, both currently and into the future has allowed us to identify a timeframe of approximately 3 years. It is at this point that the technology will be at a level to successfully sustain our service. In order to facilitate this, we will have to work during the intervening period at positioning ourselves to take advantage of this. It is insufficient for us to create a strategy that will work in the short-term on a year-to-year basis. Instead we must devise a strategy that will take us to this point and beyond. The impact that this focus has had on our strategy development is huge. If we were looking at short-term gains, we could focus on providing the service on little more than a property-by-property basis. As it stands, this would not sustain us for the time required. Instead we will need to look at establishing relationships with our customers that will allows us to take advantage of public perception as and while it changes. We will focus on working with our customers. When developing the business model for our company we need to take, not just the state of the technology, but also its effects into account. As a consultancy firm working closely with our clients, the idea of relationships is very important and this must also be reflected in our strategy.

Business Model PropertyTour.ie is a full service virtual viewing provider initially to the real estate market. We will provide the services for the creation and hosting of virtual tours, while also providing the systems, software training and support necessary to augment these with direct VoIP communication between customers and estate agents. In this, we see ourselves as the providers of a service, and have based our business model on this. PropertyTour.ie is a service provider; we will not be offering our system to our customers, rather, we will be offering the service to them through a web link. We will


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provide the service to customers on a recurring annual basis. It is our intention to create a relationship with our customers that we can build on over the years. This will allow us to build a reputation that will, in turn, provide us with the opportunity to build and defend our position as the market for these services grows. We will offer two key services. First, we will offer the installation, training, and support of the third party software necessary in providing VoIP interactivity. Secondly, once this has been achieved, we will offer the creation and hosting of virtual tours. We will not be offering these services on their own as this would dilute our offering and could easily lead the company in a direction that we had not planned. Instead, these two services are combined to create an interactive virtual touring environment that we call a virtual viewing.

Revenue Model Our revenue model is based largely on receiving funds from customers on an annual basis. The fee itself is divided between the two main services that we offer, though will be charged as a single amount. The first part of the charge comes from the provision of the software necessary to provide the VoIP segment of the virtual viewing. This software, NetDIVE’s CallSite software suite, is provided to us through a VAR (Value Added Reseller) Partnership Agreement with NetDIVE. We, in turn sell it on to our customers, combined with the additional services of installation, training and ongoing technical support. The software licences provided by NetDIVE are single-user licences. We, as partners, have to pass it on to our customers on a per-user basis. We have devised a scheme that bundles the software, training, installation and support into a single charge for each seat. If customers require more than one user, we charge a multiple of this amount. For larger orders, it will be possible for us to offer a reduced rate. After the initial year, the next year’s annual fee will be greatly reduced, reflecting the ownership of the software licence and there no longer being a need for training. We will still offer support and upgrades as they become available. When new users join the company, or others in the company are brought onto our program, the company can add them throughout the year. The other revenue stream that will come from this is a charge for the provision of the virtual tour content and hosting. Most of our competitors offer this service on a per use fee basis. This does not suit our business model, as we are already charging companies on an annual basis for our main service. To go to a strict per-use basis for others does not make sense. With this in mind, we will allow customers to purchase tours on their account as and when they need them, invoicing our customers at the end of each month. We are willing to offer discounts for power users. If we use, as an example, a single agent seat, with up to 12 four-room tours, with a single-user software licence, software training and full technical support for one year, the total cost of €2449 will be broken down as follows:


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Service Cost CallSite software €249 12 x Tours €1200 Training €300 Installation €300 Technical Support €400 Each single extra seat is €1249, reflecting the cost of software training and technical support for the additional agent. Therefore, a medium-sized agency with 10 employees, looking for 4 seats and 25 tours over the year, would be charged an annual fee of €9,000. This compares favourably with other forms of advertising, such as newspaper or magazine advertisements, which cost €12,000 - €16,000, or hosting the property on MyHome.ie costing €260 per tour. The cost of the software to PropertyTour.ie is €500, with each tour costing us €60 in man-hours, equipment depreciation, and travel expenses.

Marketing Strategy Our marketing strategy will make use of both online and offline channels. We will advertise in industry magazines, and look to get write ups in these publications through an aggressive PR campaign. An important element in achieving this will be to create a partnership with our first customer by offering them our services for the first two years for free. Once this has been achieved we will have a successful installation that we can use to demonstrate the effectiveness of our product. This will also allow us to test the service in the real world and allow us to refine it. In addition to our explicit campaign, the existence of our tours on a site will act as a form of marketing; they will be discreetly branded with our brand to ensure that we have continuous exposure. We will also operate a direct marketing campaign, which will be tied directly into our sales strategy. This will include the use of an informative brochure detailing our service, which we can use as an introduction to potential customers. In addition to this, sales staff will be armed with full demonstration versions of the service allowing them to do more than just talk about the offering.

Sales Strategy All initial sales will be from outbound marketing and sales efforts. As such, the main limiting factor to our potential sales will be the capabilities and numbers of the sales team. Initially, the team will consist of 1 office-based and 2 field-based sales representatives, made up of members from the management team. As volumes increase, we will seek to employ a dedicated sales team, and also possibly a direct marketing strategy. All sales calculations will need to be based on reasonable expectations of what these representatives can achieve.


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The office based sales staff will be operating a direct mail campaign. This will involve initial contact with potential client companies. The representative first task is to identify parties in the business that should be targeted with more information about our service. Once they have identified the main contacts, they will then forward promotional material on the service. While this is an offline approach to marketing an online service, the prevalence of spam and Irish Data Protection Legislation prevents using electronic communications to target customers with a direct marketing campaign. Within two days of sending promotional material to targeted customers, the office- based sales representatives will contact the selected individuals with the intention of organising an appointment for one of the field sales representatives (FSR) to visit them. The FSR’s task is to demonstrate the system to the customers and achieve sales on a per-user basis. Sales may require repeat contact from both office- and field-based representatives. Our service is unique to the industry. Real estate is an industry that has, in the past, made only limited use of the Web. At all times, we will operate a sales force that works with our customers to identify properties and opportunities when our service can enhance the interaction with the potential buyers. This sales force will double as consultants, and will be able to function as content creators to ensure short lead-times.

SWOT

Strengths After the initial launch of our service with a flagship client, an increasing amount of the service team’s time can be applied to the maintenance of the existing products and services. This time will also focus on the continued product up-grades necessary to maintain an effective system, whilst simultaneously providing increasing levels of quality customer service. It will prove a fundamental element of our service that we continuously keep our customer base satisfied and persuade them to purchase future software upgrades, in order to maintain a consistent number of long-term contracts. This increased level of customer service will increase the company’s brand recognition and will sustain a high level of brand loyalty, which will prove highly beneficial for future marketing campaigns. It is imperative that the core product be entirely differentiated from that of our competitors, and that we consistently maintain this status throughout our product/service updates. As the market for the development and production of VoIP products is extremely competitive, whilst the VoIP service market has proven relatively untouched, particularly in Ireland, it will allow us to remain competitive in our pricing, thus passing on a percentage of our cost savings to the client. Initially, we intend on using traditional forms of advertising in marketing the product, whilst using the Internet for demonstration purposes. With the growth of the product, our attention will turn to the Internet as the primary marketing technique. By utilising both of these methods, we can appeal to a much wider audience, and measure their strategic effectiveness over time.


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The software products and infrastructure required to implement and maintain the PropertyTour.ie service will be a hybrid of well designed and highly functional systems that can be maintained efficiently and effectively, and will prove highly usable compared to the majority of VoIP products currently available, all of which require the user to actively download components, and administer server and database connectivity. The efficient management structure and team will be able to respond to potential threats and opportunities extremely quickly as the hierarchy within PropertyTour.ie will not be dealing with a large number of inter-departmental barriers, reducing the amount of administration, and thus reducing the turn-around time utilised throughout the decision-making process. There will be no need to consult with higher management in gaining approval for strategic re-positioning in the market place as the company will have a flat management structure, whereby significant decisions can be reached promptly. PropertyTour.ie will be developing a partnership with the developers of the VoIP software. This alliance will ensure that the software used as the basis for some of our service components will be certified and tested to the required product specifications by the most successful VoIP product manufacturer to date. The partnership will also ensure that our service will have the approval of a recognised and reputable software manufacturer within the industry, providing us with a well-founded entry point into the marketplace of VoIP. Our company will effectively act as a distributor of this component of the service, whilst maintaining the service contracts for the product.

Weaknesses As expected, PropertyTour.ie will begin its growth in the increasingly hostile I.T. marketplace, where the reputation of a company, in particular its brand recognition, can prove indispensable in determining its success. It is intended that successful word-of-mouth and the use of printed media and Websites will create the initial interest in the company and its products and services. Whilst a number of companies in Ireland provide virtual tour services to organisations, no other company in Ireland currently offers this extensive VoIP-enabled customer service, so it is essential that we follow a strict pricing strategy that we neither overcharge, thus losing part of our competitiveness, nor undercharge, thus adding to the risk of product devaluation in the marketplace. Unfortunately, the low cost of software in today’s market in general ensures that a cost-based strategy cannot be relied upon at any stage, and that our customer loyalty is based on quality of service and product effectiveness. The initial budget for the marketing and sales department will need to be administered astutely, and we will need to be sufficiently alert for the potential threat of forward integration from those companies that are managing web services in this competitive area. As a start-up company, the funds available to finance technological research will be low while the company grows, particularly in-lieu of the finances that will need to be focused on marketing and sales. Voice-enabled products are growing in popularity in the marketplace, and PropertyTour.ie will need to maintain a strong position at the forefront of the industry in order to maintain its competitiveness. The company’s service may be viewed as dated if the areas of research and development are under-funded.


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Unfortunately, our staff levels are quite small, although, there is enough experience within the team to deal with the product implementation and the marketing. However, the issue of legalities and financing are two particular areas where the team’s skill-set are under-developed, and will necessitate a number of employees, both on a temporary basis from the offset. This will prove costly, particularly at the beginning, where the company budget will already be under severe constraints from other areas. Depending on the advances within the industry, and the development of potential standards, as well as the success of the company’s marketing campaigns, unforeseen expenses could prove fatal in keeping our cash flow positive within the first two years.

Opportunities The alliance of PropertyTour.ie with a reputable VoIP provider we allow us to strengthen the development of our relationship over time. Their continuing growth as a major software development house for VoIP products, ensuring a surge in their popularity as a major contender for the number one position within the industry, will enable on-going developments within their product research, ensuring that PropertyTour.ie remain the sole distributor of the most current VoIP products in the country. As previously mentioned, there are a number of companies that offer the service of virtual tours to estate agents at this time. We believe that incorporating an exciting, revolutionary technology such as VoIP as a service to those agents already offering a virtual tour, will furthermore give us the opportunity to increase our service contracts by acquiring the virtual tour component. Our VoIP provider will also be able to provide us with invaluable feedback from their other customers, providing us with an insight into the general perception of the products, as well as their feelings towards issues such as upgrades, usability, and functionality. The exponential growth of broadband over the past three years is ensuring that the quality of IP-based media has also increased considerably, and nowhere is this more prevalent than in video streaming and voice. As the company grows with time we should have the opportunity to diversify into other business areas that require significant on-line assistance and customer care, services that would otherwise only be achieved through costly and time-consuming phone calls and on-site visits. There is also an opportunity to make strategic partnerships with other companies to share expertise and marketing costs. For the most part, the development of VoIP has gone relatively unnoticed over the last five years. This has allowed the technology to evolve without the interruptions, speculation, and market pressures that are often experienced with such a revolutionary technology. Because of this, there is a wider choice in the type of product available, as well as its potential application. The opportunities that stem from this are based on the current availability of affordable software, and its application to an area such as customer care, dealing with significant problem areas for the agent and the customer. Attempts to streamline a company can often have negative effects for the customer, or are limited to a particular sector, but the reduction of organisational processes in this manner creates opportunities across entire industries, that are both cost effective and efficient. The continuing movement towards e-commerce is ensuring that any company that implements a customer care strategy, must provide an on-line


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alternative to coincide with their Web presence. This will create the opportunity for PropertyTour.ie to infiltrate markets across industrial sectors in the future.

Threats Our biggest threat from the offset of PropertyTour.ie is that a current provider of Web development and virtual tours to estate agents decides to utilise a forward integration policy, whereby they use their power as an existing partner of the agent to provide the additional service of VoIP-enabled customer support. Their ability to imitate the high-quality video footage used for our virtual tours may be possible with the purchase of high specification equipment, but if it were possible for these potential competitors to develop a VoIP strategy into their service catalogue, then they could drastically reduce the size of our market, by utilising those agencies they currently provide tours for. There is also the possible threat that an organisation could develop and supply a software component similar to ours and target it directly at our market in the time it takes for us to release our product. This would capture a significant share of our target market prior to us making any impact on it. If a reputable company with high brand recognition could imitate our high-quality service, whilst providing it at a lower cost to the same market, this would effectively remove any competitive advantage PropertyTour.ie would hold. Slight fluctuations in the index of house prices recently, as well as changes in the national rates of inflation, could induce a downturn in the number of properties being sold, although this is not expected due to the anticipated number of first-time buyers entering the housing in Ireland over the next few years. If this were the case, estate agents may be less likely to invest in a service that effectively reduces the number of people entering their premises. If a company founder decides to sell their shareholding before the exit strategy is implemented effectively, this might create internal problems relating to structure and control within the organisation.


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5. Technology Report

Virtual Tour Compilation When an estate agent wishes to use our services, they contact us, providing us with details about the property in question. They may or may not send us images associated with the house they wish to sell. Based on the information given to us, we decide whether we need to photograph the property or not. There are three steps that are followed in order to create the virtual tour of a property.

Image Capture The first step required to create a virtual tour is the capturing of the virtual tour images. Virtual tour images are created by capturing a 360-degree image from the centre point in the room. This is done by placing a specially equipped digital camera on a panoramic tripod head at the centre point of the room and rotating the camera as the image is captured. Proper exposure compensation and other considerations are critical during this step in order to assure a high quality outcome. Special care needs to be taken when capturing areas of high contrast, such as views through windows from interior spaces to exteriors. These views are especially prone to washed out highlights and excessively dark shadows.

Post Image Capture Processing The second step required to create the virtual tours is to process the images captured in Step 1. This involves the stitching together, and retouching of separate images captured in sequence with a still camera. It is important to note that, regardless of the type of system used, image processing and retouching will be required to deliver a quality virtual tour image. In fact, most of the time required to produce your virtual tour images will be spent in the image processing and retouching stage. Stitching software is available from a variety of vendors. PropertyTour.ie uses the stitching software available with the Canon S200 IXUS Digital Camera. A popular system for real estate virtual tours is the iPix system. The images captured in Step 1 are imported into the stitching software, in the order in which they were taken. The software then combines each of these images based on similar colour, texture and shade in each of the images. On completion, the stitching software displays a .jpeg image, which is a 360-degree panoramic view of the room captured.


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Preparation for the Web The final step required to create a virtual tour is to prepare the virtual tour for deployment on the Web. Virtual tours can be deployed using plug-ins or Java technologies. A plug-in is a helper application that works within a Web browser, or as a stand-alone application. Plug-ins are usually available free-of-charge as downloads on the Web. However, PropertyTour.ie wants their site to be free from asking users to download software in order to view the virtual tours. In order to counteract this, we have chosen to use a Java Applet called “Ptviewer”. Java is a language that is built into Netscape, Microsoft and AOL version 3.0 and later Web browsers. The advantage of Java is that browsers do not require a plug-in to play virtual tours. Ptviewer accepts a .jpeg image as a parameter and it simply rotates through the jpeg image, giving the customer a 360-degree view of the selected room. Various parameters can be set within Ptviewer regarding viewing profiles, the speed at which the tour revolves, and the scale at which the tour begins. These parameters have been configured by our Web team for optimal performance on Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher, Netscape 6.0, and Mozilla Firefox 1.0.

VoIP Installation and Configuration Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is used to communicate with users directly from the PropertyTour.ie website without the need for dialling phone numbers on a conventional landline handheld phone. Instant VoIP communication allows estate agents to talk to web based customers anywhere in the world in telephone quality voice while the estate agent pays absolutely nothing for long distance or overseas voice communication. There are various off-the-shelf products that offer this service, however most of these systems are peer-to-peer and thus require the user to download specific software in order for the communication to take place. We researched a large number of these products and services, and there were two that complemented the high-quality services we will be providing. These are Skype, from the Global P2P Telephony Company, and CallSite from NetDIVE.

Skype Skype allows users to make calls all over the world for free. Skype is quick and easy to get started with. Users visiting our site will have no trouble setting it up. All they have to do is download the software package, register once with Skype, install the package, plug in their headset and speakers (where necessary), and then speak directly to the estate agent that is offering the house they are interested in. The calls have excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption. The client doesn’t even need to configure their firewall or router or any other networking gear.

Skype doesn’t just work on Windows, like some other software packages we researched. It is also compatible with Mac OS X, Linux and PDAs using Pocket PC, with a native look and feel for each platform. The features offered by Skype include talking, sending instant messages and even file transfers between different platforms. This makes Skype ideal for a real estate services such as those offered by PropertyTour.ie.


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Both the client and server have the same interface displayed on their respective machines. The interface includes all the controls for file transfers and voice communication. Both on the client and the server sides, the users can see who is currently connected to the Skype network.

Once both the client and server have established a connection, they can talk via their microphones and speakers, or even through a USB phone. They can use the Instant Messenger facility and the File Transfer facility offered by Skype to transfer blueprints of the selected property, still images, or even complete floor plans. The quality has been proven to be similar if not better than mobile communications, but the more bandwidth that is available, the better the quality of the call is. If the client and server do not wish to communicate verbally, they can choose to use the Instant Messenger facility provided by Skype. The agent and the customer simply type in the message and click “Send” and it is delivered directly to the other side.


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The server can monitor all calls that are currently active and these calls are treated on a round robin basis. All calls are stored in Skype’s history archive for later viewing by the estate agent administrator. The time of the call is stored along with the duration of each call. This will save time for the agents as this is completely automatic and requires no call logging on their part.

CallSite We researched another off-the-shelf product from NetDIVE in order to provide VoIP communication for our clients. This product is called CallSite. CallSite allows users to contact the estate agent in a number of ways, be it through an Instant Messenger service, whiteboard facilities, or most significantly, through Voice Communication. The main CallSite administration sits on the server side and the software simply runs in the background and waits for connections from clients (web based customers) that wish to enquire about a specific property listed on the website.


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NetDIVE's Voice over IP technology results in a voice quality that is as good as, if not better, than the Voice quality of a typical mobile telephone, even on an Internet connection speed as low as 33.8 kBit/Sec. All the configuration of the CallSite software takes place on the server side, leaving the client to do nothing only click on the “Live Chat” button on the PropertyTour.ie website and communicate directly with the estate agent. The CallSite software system is written in Java, both on the client and the server sides. On the client side, the client is a Web-based applet; this applet is written in Java 1.01 to ensure most cross-platform operation and thus usage by almost 99 percent of Web users. The server side can run on Java 1.2 or 1.3 and, as a result, either on Microsoft Server Operating Systems or Unix Operating Systems, such as Linux. CallSite can be connected to any SQL database via a provided JDBC bridge. CallSite is massively scalable and can allow anything up to 250 agent-to-customer live discussions on a single server. The CallSite Agent application resides on the agent's computer. It is constantly listening for incoming calls and monitoring the website visitors via the “LiveTrax” system. The agent application is packed with communication and control features to allow the agent to have Secure and Multimedia communication with the caller, while the communication is completely under the agents control at all times. The agent can then initiate Voice Communication by clicking on the “Voice” button on the interface provided. Once the voice application is launched by the server, the client can choose to accept or reject the application by the server.

Once the client and the server are connected, they are able to communicate using their microphones and speakers. The quality of the call depends on the bandwidth that is available and the speed of each user’s processor.

Client Side: Server Side:


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The CallSite software needs a licensing key costing €800 to open/activate the voice port on the server’s machine. Our seed capital was limited during the development stage of this system and it was not possible to purchase the CallSite licence key. For this reason, we have used Skype during the development stage of the product.

Technical Overview

Introduction to ASP.NET ASP.NET is the next generation of ASP. The latest version of ASP is ASP 3.0 but there will never be an ASP 4.0, ASP.NET is the entirely new method for server-side ASP scripting. It is part of the .NET Framework, which is an environment for building, deploying, and running Web applications and Web Services. The reasons why ASP.NET was chosen to develop this project are:

• Powerful database-driven functionality: ASP.Net allows programmers to develop web applications that interface with a database.

• Faster web applications: Compiled code and caching make a site developed in ASP.NET very fast. In other “non .NET” sites, the code would be interpreted into "machine language" when the site was viewed. With ASP.Net the code is compiled into "machine language" before the site is viewed. Tests have found to be over ten times faster for the average user than Java's J2EE technology.

• Multiple language support: The code for the site can be written in more than twenty-five .Net languages. This means that it would be easier to find programmers to support the work on your site.

Site Structure & Description This site was developed using ASP.NET with VB, MS Access, IIS v6.0 and the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK v1.1. The overall structure of the site is as follows.

Virtual Tour Front

End

Administration

Back End System

IIS Web Server MS Access Database

OleDBConnection


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Database The database chosen for this site is Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access is part of the Microsoft Office suite and is used to store all information about the agents, front end details and virtual tour information.

The database consists of three tables.

• PageDetails: stores the Tour name, Page Title, Agency’s logo and the agency’s Skype username.

• RoomInfo: stores the Tour ID, Room Name, Room Description, Room image, Room ID and Tour’s folder name

• TourInfo: stores the TourID, Tour name and property image and the number of rooms in the property.

Database Connection ADO.NET is used to handle data access and allows us access the MS Access database. The main areas concerning the database connection are:

• System.Data.OleDb: This namespace allows us to work with Microsoft Access and other OLE DB database providers.

• OleDbCommand: This class is for issuing SQL queries against database tables.

• OleDbDataReader: This class is used to read a stream of records from a data source.

Web Server The web server that this site runs on is IIS 6.0. When developing ASP.NET pages no other option is available. However, IIS 6.0 is an ideal choice as it provides increased performance, reliability, and manageability.

Back End Administration System The back end of the system is protected by a username and password. The username and password are stored in the login.aspx page. Forms authentication is used to validate the login. Forms authentication uses cookies to allow applications to track users throughout their visit. When a user logs in via forms authentication, a cookie is created and used to track the user throughout the site. If the user requests a page that is secure and has not logged in, then the user will be redirected to the login page. Once the user has been successfully authenticated, they will be redirected to the default.aspx page. From the default page, they can Build a tour, manage existing tours and add page details for Tours.


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Build a Tour Step 1 The administrator enters the Tour name, the number of rooms in the property and a picture of that property then they continue to step 2 of the Tour Builder.

Step 2 In Step 2, the administrator enters the room names, a description for each room and submits a panoramic image of the room that will be displayed using the Ptviewer. The administrator continues to step 3 where they can view the tour details before entering the Page Title, Agency’s logo and the agency’s Skype username. On completion the administrator will have created a new virtual tour, which they can manage from the “Manage Tours” page

Manage Tours

The administrator can view, edit or delete tours from the site from the Manage Tours page. Whilst editing a tour, the administrator can add rooms to the property if required.

Virtual Tour Front End The front end of the site displays the virtual tour. The tourID query string is used to retrieve all the information relevant to that train from the database. Page Highlights

Agency’s logo Property logo Property Name List of rooms Virtual tour Contact Agent

On the front end of the site, the user can read descriptions of the rooms, see a 360° image of the room, contact the agents using VoIP and see the property image.


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Future Developments

Virtual Tours In order for the virtual tours to be of optimum quality, it is desirable that we would be able to use the iPix system to capture and stitch the images from the displayed properties. The iPix system stitches together two 180-degree fish-eye images captured with a digital camera. The images are rounded at the corners due to the wide angle of the fisheye lens. The iPix software stitches and stretches the two 180-degree images into a spherical shape to provide what is described as a 360-degree by 360-degree virtual tour. There are a variety of digital cameras available with different configurations of the iPix system. The advantage of the iPix system is the low cost associated with purchasing the system. The disadvantage of the system is the slight image-distortion caused by the stretching of the two fisheye images to simulate the original rectilinear shape of many virtual tour scenes. An alternative to using iPix is to use the “PanoScan” system. This system is an automated, high-end image-capture system that uses proprietary hardware and software. The system produces a single virtual tour image in a variety of resolutions without the need for post-capture image stitching. This creates significant time savings for high-volume applications. The system captures a single virtual tour image by taking a continuous series of vertical image readings as the camera spins on a motorized tripod head. The finished image is saved to disk as a 360-degree panoramic scene. Post-capture image processing and retouching are required for optimum quality results. The nature of the PanoScan image capture method makes it intolerant for movement within the virtual tour scene. This may create an issue in any virtual tour scenes that include people or other moving components of the scene. The advantages of the PanoScan system are its automated image capture, and time savings created by eliminating the need for post capture image stitching. The disadvantages of the system are the high cost to purchasing the system and it's intolerance of movement within a virtual tour scene. Using either iPix or PanoScan, Ptviewer would still be used in order to display the captured panoramic image on the PropertyTour.ie web site.

VoIP Future At the moment, all the clients wishing to speak to PropertyTour.ie-affiliated estate agents have to download the software and register with Skype and only then can they speak to the agent. It is desirable in the future to purchase the licence key associated with the CallSite software. This will mean that the setting up of the voice communication between the client and the agent will be completely transparent to the client. This will leave the clients more at ease as they won’t have to trust software from third parties and, from speaking to various Internet users, we have discovered that users prefer not to have to download software in order to operate a site. Once the key for the software has been received from NetDIVE, it is hoped that individual estate agents will be the administrator within their own domain. This will mean that each estate agent will have full control over the use and administration of the CallSite package. This will reduce the cost of the overall product for both the agent and PropertyTour.ie, as there will only be a small number of users within each individual estate agent company.


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Broadband development over the coming years will have a major impact on the role of VoIP communications in Ireland. Computer users will soon be able to contact each other using their PC alone, and once the infrastructure becomes more stable, more and more people will see the advantages of VoIP communication. PropertyTour.ie is one of the first companies to offer this end-to-end service to its customers. NetDIVE’s VoIP software works on a round robin basis; this allows for call queuing and call management. This is a very important feature for PropertyTour.ie as it means, in the future, that we will be able to branch out into the call centre area and offer our services to technical support companies. This will mean a major saving for these companies, as all calls will be automatically logged and each customer can be dealt with on an individual basis.


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6. Finances

Funding Requirements When identifying the funding needs for PropertyTour.ie, we drew up detailed cash flow and financial statements for the next three years, identifying where our costs came from, and when we would need funding. We have identified the following trends.

• Most of our funding needs are for working capital. As we are a service firm, we have little need for expensive machinery, requiring only one piece of specialised equipment, along with a computer for each member of the team.

• We will require access to funding from an early stage, due to the costs

involved in getting the company started and supporting our service. When we take these factors into consideration, we have reached the following conclusions. After consultation with Enterprise Ireland, we feel that we would currently be ineligible for their start-up grant support. For the mainstream support we are currently too small. The Enterprise Ireland Small and Medium Enterprise grant program requires over ten employees. For the high potential start-up program, our need for working capital means that the support available is negligible. We will need to look to other avenues for funding such as Venture Capital or the Business Expansion Scheme. Currently the BES is extended only until December 2006; in this climate it would be unwise to avail of funds, which may be redeemed within our first year of trading. We have identified seeking venture capital funding as the most suitable method of funding at the moment. We will be offering preference shares in the company to the value of €150,000 in two rounds; one for 50,000 and a second round for €100,000. As these are relatively small amounts in the eyes of most Venture Capitalists, we plan to make use of the Enterprise Ireland Mentors Network to attract funding from Business Angels (see Appendix D – Notes on Accounts).

Monthly Cashflow Statement 01/01/2006 - 31/12/2006

Customers 1 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 35Sales 1,248 3,246 3,996 5,994 6,824 6,904 7,322 9,652 8,822 9,652 7,242 70,902

Tours 1 4 8 14 23 34 43 57 68 82 89 423Sales 100 400 800 1,400 2,300 3,400 4,300 5,700 6,800 8,200 8,900 42,300

Total 1,348 3,646 4,796 7,394 9,124 10,304 11,622 15,352 15,622 17,852 16,142 113,202113,202

January February March April May June July August September October November DecemberDue Total

IncomeOwner Investment 20,000Venture Capital 50,000 50,000Debtors 1,348 3,646 4,796 7,394 9,124 10,304 11,622 15,352 15,622 17,852 97,060Overdraft Facility 5,000 5,000

20,000 50,000 1,348 3,646 4,796 7,394 9,124 10,304 11,622 15,352 20,622

Expenditure

Credit Payments 249 748 998 1,497 1,827 1,907 1,826 2,656 2,326 2,656 1,746 18,436Rent 503 503 503 503 503 503 503 503 503 503 503 503 6,036Telephone 110 112 113 115 117 119 120 122 124 126 128 130 1,435Hosting 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 250 3,000Tour Costs 50 200 400 700 1,150 1,700 2,150 2,850 3,400 4,100 4,450 21,150Marketing 2,100 1,000 1,000 1,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 13,100Purchase of Fixed Assets 5,000 5,000Legal fees 1,200 1,200Auditing 2,500 2,500VAT 48 827 1,520 1,692 2,211 2,037 8,336Wages 5,588 5,588 5,588 5,588 5,588 5,588 5,588 5,588 5,588 5,588 5,588 61,468PAYE 1,365 1,365 1,365 1,365 1,365 1,365 1,365 1,365 1,365 1,365 1,365 15,019PRSI 788 788 788 788 788 788 788 788 788 788 788 8,672

5,000 913 9,103 9,756 13,235 12,258 14,660 13,672 16,985 16,675 19,258 21,428

Opening Balance 15,000 14,087 54,984 46,576 36,986 29,524 22,258 17,710 11,029 5,976 2,070Closing Balance 15,000 14,087 54,984 46,576 36,986 29,524 22,258 17,710 11,029 5,976 2,070 1,264

Trading Profit and Loss Account For the Year Ended 31/12/06 Balance Sheet as at 31/12/06

Fixed Assets Cost Depreciation NBVSales 93,556Less Cost of Sales Equipment 5,000 500 4,500

Purchases 15,236 Current Assets15,236 Bank 1,264

15,236 Debtors 17,852Gross Profit/loss 78,319 19,116

Intangible Assets

Less Expenses Goodwill 63,791Rent 4,988 63,791Telephone 1,186Hosting 2,479 Less Current LiabilitiesTour Costs 17,479 Creditors 1,746Marketing 10,826 Overdraft 5,000Depreciation 500 Rent 503Legal Fees 992 Telephone 130Auditing 2,066 Vat 2,037Wages 61,468 Hosting 250PAYE 15,019 Wages 5,588PRSI 8,672 125,675 PAYE 1,365Net Profit -47,356 PRSI 788

Corporation Tax 0 Corporation Tax 17,407-47,356 65,500

Total Assets 70,000

Financed By

Capital 20,000P&L A/C

Venture Capital 50,000Long Term Loan

Capital Employed 70,000

Quarterly Cashflow Statement 01/01/2007 - 31/12/2007 Trading Profit and Loss Account For the Year Ended 31/12/07 Balance Sheet as at 31/12/07

Customers 14 20 36 45Sales 27,542 45,770 69,150 102,452 Fixed Assets Cost Depreciation NBV

Sales 429,022Tours 337 507 742 1,156 Less Cost of Sales Equipment 8,000 800 7,200Sales 33,700 50,700 74,200 115,600

Purchases 53,328 Current AssetsTotal 61,242 96,470 143,350 218,052 53,328

53,328 Bank 66,012Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 Gross Profit/loss 375,693 Debtors 72,520

Receivable 138,532Income Intangible AssetsVenture Capital 100,000 0 0 Less ExpensesDebtors 52,464 71,750 109,592 168,192 72,520 Rent 5,404 Goodwill 110,705

152,464 71,750 109,592 168,192 Telephone 1,525 110,705Hosting 5,372

Payable Tour Costs 90,645 Less Current LiabilitiesExpenditure Marketing 44,628 Creditors 9,305

Depreciation 800 Rent 503Credit Payments 6,726 10,713 14,361 25,168 9,305 Legal Fees 5,124 Phone 155Rent 1,509 1,509 1,509 1,509 503 Auditing 2,066 Vat 8,532Telephone 395 413 431 451 155 Wages 119,773 Wages 9,231Hosting 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 500 PAYE 29,120 Hosting 500Tour Costs 13,480 20,280 29,680 46,240 PRSI 16,537 320,995 PAYE 2,240Marketing 9,000 15,000 15,000 15,000 Net Profit 54,699 PRSI 1,272Insurance 2,500 2,500Purchase of Fixed Assets 8,000 Corporation Tax 5,470 Corporation Tax 5,470 37,208Legal fees 5,000 1,200 49,229 212,029Auditing 2,500 Total Assets 219,229Overdraft Repayment 5,000 5,000VAT 4,332 2,641 9,006 7,493 8,532Wages 27,640 27,640 27,640 27,640 9,213 Financed ByPAYE 6,720 6,720 6,720 6,720 2,240PRSI 3,816 3,816 3,816 3,816 1,272 Capital 20,000

0 0 0 0 P&L A/C 49,22975,118 102,732 117,664 141,737

Venture Capital 150,000Opening Balance 1,264 78,610 47,629 39,557Closing Balance 78,610 47,629 39,557 66,012


Quarterly Cashflow Statement 01/01/2008 - 31/12/2008 Trading Profit and Loss Account For the Year Ended 31/12/08 Balance Sheet as at 31/12/08

Customers 36 37 39 40 152Sales 68,898 87,888 99,716 100,368 356,870 Fixed Assets Cost Depreciation NBV

Sales 991,798Tours 1,478 1,849 2,326 2,779 8,432 Less Cost of Sales Equipment 16,328 1,633 14,695Sales 147,800 184,900 232,600 277,900 843,200

Purchases 78,124 Current AssetsTotal 216,698 272,788 332,316 378,268 1,200,070 78,124 Stock 0

1,200,070 78,124 Bank 210,687Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 Due Total Gross Profit/loss 913,674 Debtors 125,020

335,707Income Intangible AssetsDebtors 219,296 233,278 296,314 343,334 125,020 1,217,242 Less Expenses

219,296 233,278 296,314 343,334 Rent 10,744 Goodwill 118,371Telephone 1,823 118,371

Expenditure Hosting 5,372Tour Costs 209,059 Less Current Liabilities

Credit Payments 11,376 21,594 26,420 25,586 9,554 94,530 Marketing 152,893 Creditors 9,554Rent 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 1,000 13,000 Depreciation 1,633 Rent 1,000Telephone 472 493 516 539 185 2,206 Legal Fees 992 Telephone 185Hosting 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 500 6,500 Auditing 2,066 Vat 8,522Tour Costs 44,340 55,470 69,780 83,370 252,960 Wages 270,920 Wages 20,840Marketing 15,000 50,000 60,000 60,000 185,000 PAYE 66,907 Hosting 500Insurance 2,500 2,500 5,000 PRSI 37,733 760,140 PAYE 66,907Purchase of Fixed Assets 5,078 5,078 Net Profit 153,533 PRSI 37,733Legal fees 1,200 1,200Auditing 2,500 2,500 Corporation Tax 15,353 Corporation Tax 15,353 160,593Overdraft Repayment 11,000 11,000 138,180 293,484VAT 14,200 6,361 15,579 8,003 8,522 52,664 Total Assets 308,180Wages 62,520 62,520 62,520 62,520 20,840 270,920PAYE 15,440 15,440 15,440 15,440 5,147 66,907PRSI 8,708 8,708 8,708 8,708 2,903 37,733 Financed By

0 0 0 0187,555 227,585 268,540 274,866 Capital 20,000

P&L A/C 138,180Opening Balance 77,012 108,752 114,445 142,219Closing Balance 108,752 114,445 142,219 210,687 Venture Capital 150,000

Long Term Loan



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7. Conclusion There has been a dramatic increase in the number of new homes being built in Ireland. Over the next 10 years it is expected that a minimum of 550,000 new homes will be needed. Property developers and estate agents are seeking new, innovative methods to modify the continuingly tedious and costly processes involved in the buying and selling of property. PropertyTour.ie is a Web solutions provider servicing the property sector with high-end communications products and services. Our mission is to provide seamless Web interactivity through communications applications and services, reviving the humanistic factor of business on the Internet. We propose a service that allows estate agents higher levels of interaction with potential customers over the Internet, which will, through a more efficient and streamlined set of processes, increase the cost effectiveness of the organisation and will result in better prices for clients. This report demonstrates the feasibility and strong market potential for PropertyTour.ie and its high-end voice-enabled products and services. Our first-mover advantage will provide us with the opportunity to infiltrate our target markets within Ireland, and eventually extend to other market areas, and abroad. The company's customer base includes all Web-based estate agents and those companies operating directly in the property development market, encompassing all relevant small- to medium-sized businesses, and eventually moving towards larger property retailers and developers. PropertyTour.ie facilitates communication between parties over the Internet. This competency can be leveraged to many industries, but has considerable value to the real estate trade, ensuring high-quality interaction so that the property buyer gets the house they desire, and the agent achieves the price he/she seeks for the client. Our competitive advantage comes from our unique integration of disparate technologies, in particular, voice. We have identified a strong reputation and good relationships as being key to our success. Our time advantage on competitors allows us to build these relationships. Currently, there are no companies in Ireland competing directly with PropertyTour.ie. Whilst some businesses can offer smaller components associated with Web communications, our comprehensive, VoIP-enabled Web applications suite, coupled with our innovative staff and high-quality services, will enable PropertyTour.ie to become Ireland’s leading provider of VoIP-based software solutions.


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8. Bibliography Atkinson, Jimmy (2004), Household VoIP Usage to Jump, VOIP NOW, October 07, 2004 Beggs, John et al (April 2005), “Irish Economic Forecasts – April 2005”, AIB Global Treasury Economic Research http://www.aibeconomicresearch.com/PDFS/ForecastApril%202005.pdf Beggs, John (April 2005), “How Sustainable is the Current Irish Economic Performance?” , AIB Global Treasury Economic Research pg. 4 – “Irish Housing Market” http://www.johnbeggs.com/jb/pdfs/r06042005398.pdf Beggs, John (April 2004) , “External Environment”, AIB Global Treasury Economic Research – “The Irish Economy” http://www.johnbeggs.com/jb/pdfs/r14042004334.pdf Bewley, David. The Rise and Rise of Property Prices, Business Ireland Oct 2004 pps 2-3 Brown, Curtis. Sleeping Giants rise to the Challenge, Precision Marketing, May 7 2004, P12 Buckley, Donal. Property Survey, The Property Valuer, Vol 24, No1 Jan 2005 Clark, Matthew (2004), In Focus – “Home is Just a Click Away” http://www.enn.ie/print.html?code=9565875 Constantine, L. L. (1994), Collaborative Usability Inspections for Software, Software Development ‘94 Proceedings, San Francisco: Miller Freeman http://irm.cit.nih.gov/itmra/weptest/app_a3.htm Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Telecommunications and Internet Federation, Telecommunications Strategy Group – Interim Report – “Getting Ireland Online” http://www.iia.ie/downloads/TSG_Interim_Report.pdf European VoIP Usage To Surge, Telecomweb, April 19, 2005 Hochmuth, Phil, BRING ON THE VoIP apps. Network World, 6/23/2003, Vol. 20 Issue 25, ps6, 2p IAVI Survey 2004 http://www.iavi.ie/news/survey2004.asp#offices Independent Rate Card 2005, “Irish Independent Advertising Rates” http://www.unison.ie/classifieds/printmediakit/index.php3?section=classifieds_indo_rates Lawson, David, Property software + new media: surf's up for commercial sales Property Week, Feb 2005 Mullaney, Timothy J. REAL ESTATE'S NEW REALITY. Business Week; 5/10/2004 Issue 3882, p88 Ó Donnchú, Niall (2004), KMI’s Annual Conference on Optical Networking, “The Economics of Broadband” Pollock, Jenny (6 April 2005) , “The Irish Housing Market” pg. 1, AIB Global Treasury Economic Research http://www.aibeconomicresearch.com/PDFS/Housing%20April%202005.pdf Times Rate Card 2005, “Irish Times Advertising Rates” http://www.medialive.ie/Press/National/i_times.html Stromberg, Meghan, A New Turn for Virtual Tours.Professional Builder; Mar2001, Vol. 66 Issue 3, p56


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9. Appendix

Appendix A - Profiles Tadhg Toomey Tadhg graduated from the Institute of Technology Carlow in 2002 with a first class honours degree in Information Technology Management, and has followed on his studies completing an MSc. in Electronic Commerce. He has worked in project management for both small and large organisations and has a number of years’ experience as a Network Administrator and I.T. Instructor. This experience, both national and international, has provided Tadhg with the ability to effectively manage I.T. projects from beginning to end, and proved invaluable in the development of PropertyTour.ie. David Dolan David graduated from Athlone Institute of Technology in 2003 with a Second Class Honours degree in Computer and Software Engineering. Since then he worked with Tyco Healthcare in Athlone as a Machine Setter and I.T. Operator. David decided to follow on his studies by completing an MSc in E-Commerce at DCU. He has managed many projects throughout his college years and researched many new technologies. David completed an Online Library System for his final year project in Athlone and it was here that he gained most of his Web technology experience. It is this researching experience and application integration that places David at the heart of the technology and operations section of PropertyTour.ie. Damien Crowe As a graduate of the Computer Systems course in the University of Limerick, Damien has worked in various IT roles in Ireland, Australia and Germany before deciding to complete a Masters in E-Commerce in DCU. This educational and commercial experience has given him excellent problem solving skills and has resulted in a proven reliability in deciding the best possible IT solution for a client. This proved crucial in the development of PropertyTour.ie Shane McGough Shane studied Business Studies in Dublin City University, graduating with honours in 2002. He has worked in a range of different industries including retail, financial services and automation engineering. Shane has been involved in a number of projects including the development of a production management system for small to medium companies, as well as the introduction of a range of new consumer healthcare products. Shane returned to DCU to undertake a year long MSc in E-Commerce.


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Appendix B – Marketing

PEST: Economic The Irish economy experienced another impressive growth performance in 2004. Real GDP rose by almost 5 percent. However, real GNP, a preferred measure of Irish economic performance, rose by 5.5 percent. Real gross national disposable income (GNDI), adjusted for population growth, increased by 3.2 percent last year, bringing the cumulative rise in real per capita GNDI to 50 percent over the past 10 years. The following table summarises the outlook for some key macro economic growth aggregates out to 2007. Real GDP growth is forecast to average 6.3 percent per annum in 2005-07. Excluding the “modern” sectors of manufacturing, the average rise in GDP is projected at 6.5 percent per annum. Real GNP growth is forecast to average 6 percent per annum over the same period. Real GNDI is projected to rise by 5.8 percent per annum. When adjusted for an expected growth in population of 1.5 percent per annum, the rise in per capita GNDI is 4.1 percent. While below the estimated rise of 7.1 percent per annum in the Celtic Tiger period, a forecast rise in real per capita income in excess of 4 percent a year over the next three years would still represent a potentially admirable performance. Of note in these data is the implied growth in economy wide productivity. GDP per employee rose by almost 5 percent per annum in the 1995-2000 period. However, there was a cyclical deceleration in the 2001-03 period. There was a further slowdown in 2004. However, looking ahead, productivity growth is forecast to accelerate towards 3.5 percent per annum. What is significant about this, however, is that the rate of productivity growth excluding the “modern” sectors will pick up very strongly in the period ahead in comparison with the much slower annual growth rate in the 1995-2000 period. The acceleration in productivity growth in the other parts of the economy reflects the introduction of new technologies in the services sector, better inventory management and a more market related focus.

1995-2000 2001-2003 2004 2005 (f) 2006 (f) 2007 (f)Real GDP 9.8 5.3 4.9 6 6.5 6.5Real GDP excl."modern" sectors 6.6 4.1 6 6.5 6.5 6.5Real GNP 8.8 2.7 5.5 5.5 6.3 6.3Real GNDI 8.2 2.6 4.9 5.3 6 6Real GNDI per capita 7.1 1 3.2 3.6 4.4 4.4GDP per employee 4.5 3 1.8 2.6 3.4 3.6GDP per employee excl. "modern" sectors 1.9 1.4 2.5 2.9 3.4 3.5

Irish Economic Performance*

It is widely believed that national average house price inflation will continue to slow towards the end of 2005 (about 5 percent) and run at an even slower rate in 2006 (about 3 percent). Against this backdrop, it is likely that affordability will only disimprove modestly, despite somewhat higher interest rates, helped by the fact that growth in average wages could well exceed house price inflation over the next two years.


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Housing supply has remained very high, much higher than had been originally anticipated, with a growing concentration on more affordable apartments. It is expected that completions will average 75,000 in 2005, before falling to 65,000 in 2006 and to about 60,000 in 2007. This latter figure is in line with the revised forecast of housing requirements over the 2006-2011 period of 60,000 per annum.7 The following table is a more detailed look at the Irish macro economic forecast up to and including 20068:

Annual average % change unless stated 2003 2004 2005 (f) 2006 (f)Real G DP 3.7 4.9 6 6.5Real G NP 2.8 5.5 5.5 6.3Dom estic Expenditure 2.8 4.6 4 5.3

Personal Spending 2.6 3.2 4.5 7Government Spending 2.5 2.9 3.5 4Fixed Investment 3.4 9.2 3 2

Contribution of Stocks to GDP growth 0.5 -0.6 0.1 0.4Total Exports 0.8 4.4 5 6.5Total Imports -2.3 2.7 3.5 6Level of GDP{€bn. current prices) 134.8 146.3 159.5 175Level ol GNP (€bn. current prices) 111 7 122.6 133 145.5Industrial Production (Vol)Total 5 0.7 4.3 6M odern 6 -0.4 7 8Other 2.9 3.1 -2 1H ousingAverage House Price (end year) 13.7 8.6 4 2House Completions ('000) 68.8 77 75 65Labour M arketLabour Force Growth 2.1 2.8 3 2.8Employment Growth 1.9 3 3.3 3Unemployment Rate {% ) 4.6 4.4 4.2 4Net Immigration ('000) 29.8 31.6 35 33Cosls and PricesCPl 3.5 2.1 2.2 2.7Core CPl 4 2.1 1.8 2.1Irish HICP 4 0 2.3 2 2.3M fg Output Prices (Home Sales) 0.8 0.5 1 1.5Earnings Growth (W hole Economy) 4.6 5.5 5.2 5.5Unit W age Costs (W hole Economy) 2.8 3.6 2.5 2Productivity Growth (W hole Economy) 1.8 1.8 2.6 3.4External AccountTrade Balance (% ol GNP) 18.6 18.6 19 18Current Account Balance (% of GNP} -1.7 -0.5 0 -0.3Public FinancesGeneral Government Balance ( € million) 270 1953 -300 1000General Government Balance (% ol GDP) 0.2 1.3 -0.2 0.6General Government Debt /GDP ratio (% ) 320 30 29 27.5Private Sector FinancesReal Personal D isposable Income 4.4 4.5 5.8 4.9Personal Savings Ratio (% ) 10.5 11.5 12.3 10.9Private Sector Credit % (end year) 17.9 26.6 20 18Private Sector Debt /GDP Ratio (% ) 104 7 123.5 136 146

IRISH M A C R O ECO N O M IC FO R EC A STS

7 Beggs, John (April 2005) “How Sustainable is the Current Irish Economic Performance?” AIB Global Treasury Economic Research pg. 4 – “Irish Housing Market” http://www.johnbeggs.com/jb/pdfs/r06042005398.pdf 8 Beggs, John (April 2004) “External Environment” AIB Global Treasury Economic Research – “The Irish Economy” http://www.johnbeggs.com/jb/pdfs/r14042004334.pdf


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Marketing Mix: Advertising Rates Irish Independent Advertising Rates9

MONO Standard Rate Full Page Half Page Front Semi-Solus Guaranteed Positions Run of Paper Financial Appointments Property Property - Regional Motors Theatre/Cinema Personal Notices Personal Notices Legal Notices etc Legal Notices etc Classifieds Lineage Inserts

€ 25,400.00 12,700.00 3,450.00 +20% 64.90 SCC 75.60 SCC 69.80 SCC 64.90 SCC 48.00 SCC 48.00 SCC 22.05 SCC 64.90 SCC 18.60 per line 64.00 SCC 13.00 per line 9.10 per line 70.00 per 1,000

COLOUR Standard Rate Full Page Half Page Front Semi-Solus Guaranteed Postitions Run of Paper Financial Appointments Property Property - Regional Motors Theatre/Cinema

€ 31,900.00 15,950.00 4,650.00 + 20% 84.90 SCC 88.60 SCC 84.90 SCC 74.60 SCC 55.20 SCC 60.00 SCC 28.10 SCC

Sunday Independent Advertising Rates

MONO Standard Rate Full Page Half Page Guaranteed Positions Run of Paper Financial Appointments Property

€ 29,450.00 14,725.00 +20% 71.75 SCC 81.00 SCC 82.25 SCC 71.75 SCC

9 Independent Rate Card 2005 “Irish Independent Advertising Rates” http://www.unison.ie/classifieds/printmediakit/index.php3?section=classifieds_indo_rates


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Motors Travel Entertainment Classifieds Lineage Inserts per 1,000

50.70 SCC 52.95 SCC 41.10 SCC 11.30 per line 78.00

COLOUR Standard Rate Full Page Half Page Guaranteed Postitions Run of Paper Financial Appointments Property Motors Travel Entertainment

€ 36,400.00 18,200.00 +20% 106.00 SCC 117.00 SCC 106.00 SCC 82.50 SCC 63.35 SCC 66.35 SCC 51.35 SCC

Irish Times10

Run of paper scc

Full page Half Page Financial Pages including Business This Week Full Page Half Page Display scc

Special Positions: Front Solus-21cm x 3

Back Page Semi Solus -21cm x 2

Back Page Solus - 20cm x 4 or 10cm x 8

Title Corners

Black & White Colour 23,790.00 28,800.00 12,120.00 14,950.00 25,430.00 30,995.00 13,025.00 15,910.00 64.50 80.85 5,410.00 7,210.00 3,120.00 4,110.00 5,950.00 7,735.00 670.00 855.00

10 Times Rate Card 2005 “Irish Times Advertising Rates” http://www.medialive.ie/Press/National/i_times.html


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Marketing Mix: Price Example of main competitor price:

• Virtual Tour Services http://www.virtualtourservices.ie/Prices.htm

Service Cost (Euro) Virtual Tour single image 125 Additional virtual tour image 50 Tour compilation 85 Virtual tour hosting (6 months) 30 Additional surcharge for outside of 25Km radius

Target Market Research

• Survey Company name:

Contact name: Date:

Size of Company:

No. of Employees: Does the company currently offer a consumer-focused Web presence?: If YES Does the company offer a virtual tour of properties?

Does the company offer on-line support for customers? Are you happy with the current website?

Which company currently offers you this service?


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Is there a member of staff dedicated to this purpose of managing property images?

Is the Web image service used for every property?

What proportion of the company's time is spent touring properties? Do you believe that efficiency could be improved by eliminating a proportion of these tours? Do you feel that an on-line alternative to touring would be a useful tool for the organisation?

Do you feel that an on-line alternative to touring would be a useful tool for the client? Would you see an alternative on-line support mechanism as useful?

Do you believe that on-line support and virtual tours would enhance the company and provide it with a competitive advantage? If NO Do you believe that the company would benefit from such a Web presence?

Do you believe that a service such as a virtual tour and on-line customer support would be beneficial to the company? Would you view these as important measures to be undertaken, in order to remain competitive?

Would the company benefit from the appointment of a dedicated contractor to manage such a service on its behalf?


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• Survey Results

Telephone Research and Interviews of Small to Medium-Sized Companies

Name Phone No Address Knowledge Learned Possible Interest Clonmel Estate Agents

(052) 21244 O'Connell Street Clonmel Co. Tipperary

The company currently does not offer such a service, and currently has an administrative member of staff taking still images of properties.

Showed interest in the virtual tour aspect of the product.

Paul Devaney & Associates

(052) 81690 Joyces Lane Irishtown Clonmel Co. Tipperary

The company feels that its local presence is sufficient for is placing in the market, and does not see a benefit in providing such a service.


Keane Mahony Smith

(052) 21601 Central House 20 Parnell Street Clonmel Co. Tipperary

Although the company's website is used by many potential clients, the service is currently not on offer.

This company are considering a move to virtual tours, and they showed a keen interest in the on-line VoIP support.

Fionnuala Kennedy

(052) 27903 20 Parnell Street Clonmel Co. Tipperary

The company feels that its local presence is sufficient for its placing in the market, and does not see a benefit in providing such a service to them.


Moynihan Curran

(052) 21750 Market House Market Street Clonmel Co. Tipperary



Tony Nugent (052) 24166 16 Mitchell StreetClonmel Co. Tipperary

This company does not have any web presence, and they feel that their high street presence is sufficient for their local business.

No real interest in our product.


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Pollard Property Partners

(067) 50422 Emmet Street Clonmel Co. Tipperary



Real Estate Alliance

(052) 83303 19 Ard Aoibhinn Clonmel Co. Tipperary



Sherry Fitzgerald O'Connell (Clonmel Branch)

(062) 51566 45 Gladstone Street Clonmel Co. Tipperary



D. Toomey Auctioneers

(052) 81960 17 O'Connell Street Clonmel Co. Tipperary



Telephone Research and Interviews of Large-Sized Companies Name Phone No Address Knowledge Learned Possible Interest Gunne (Ballsbridge)

01 6185501 164 Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland

Although the company's website is used by many potential clients, the service is currently not on offer. The implementation would need to be applied throughout their branches nationwide for it to be successful.

This company are considering a move to virtual tours, and they showed a keen interest in the on-line VoIP support, however, this would be a costly move, and they believe that the timing of the implementation would be crucial to its success. They are currently investigating the system requirements for implementing virtual tours.


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Douglas Newman Good

01 2301616 76a Upper George's Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin,

Has recently launched a new property information service. Known as PropertyLine, the system allows potential purchasers to dial a number, enter a six-digit code and get a description of the property they are interested in.

The company feel that their new system will be a success, however, they are aware that the lack of a virtual tour may cause problems. It was felt that they were not aware of the possibilities of VoIP.

RE/MAX Ireland Ltd.

01 4632606 5A Village Square, Tallaght, Dublin 24

Although offering an excellent website, with an extensive search engine, they have neither virtual tours, nor VoIP. However, as an international company, their American Website does feature virtual touring, although communication is still done via email, and personal viewing.

The assumption given to us is that the success of the virtual tours on their U.S. Website will lead to the service being implemented on their other national sites. They were interested in the idea of offering on-line voice support, but feel that their U.S.-based agents would be the first area to utilise such technologies.

Sherry FitzGerald Limited

01 6399200 Ormonde House, 12/13 Lwr. Leeson Street, Dublin 2

Although the company's website is used by many potential clients, the service is currently not on offer. The implementation would need to be applied throughout their branches nationwide for it to be successful and to maintain the desired consistency of their branches' Websites.

The company are considering a move to virtual tours, but at a regional level to start with, in areas that have yet to be decided. They showed a keen interest in the on-line VoIP support, however, this would be a costly move, and they do not see it as important as maintaining the image aspect of the Website.


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Appendix C

Usability Study This section describes the testing procedure undertaken for the usability study of the PropertyTour.ie Website. The observations, and subsequent alterations, proved essential to the on-going development methodology undertaken by the organisation. Heuristic Evaluation is a discount method for relatively quick and easy evaluation of the user interface, which proved ideally suited to our needs. The process required that a small set of evaluators examined the interface, and judged its compliance with recognised usability principles. The goal was the identification of any usability issues so that they could be addressed as part of an iterative design process. PropertyTour.ie were able to avail of the services of three Web Design professionals whose input and critiqing proved invaluable to the testing process. Tadhg Toomey was elected as the evaluation manager and his delegation and inspection of the usability testing sessions were the basis of the final results and conclusions. Each of the evaluations took place over a period of one hour, and they were repeated over two consequtive weeks. There are several conceptualisations of usability design heuristics and best practices that are widely used. These are not mutually exclusive and, in fact, cover many of the same aspects of user interface design. The most pervasive is a set of user interface design principles that were elucidated by Nielsen (1994), based on a principal components analysis of the usability problems found in a number of studies of various user interfaces. However, it was a second set of usability principles proposed by Constantine (1994) that were used as the basis for our testing:

• Structure Principle - Organize the user interface purposefully, in meaningful and useful ways that put related things together and separate unrelated things based on clear, consistent models that are apparent and recognizable to others.

• Simplicity Principle - Make simple, common tasks simple to do, communicating simply in the user’s own language and providing good shortcuts that are meaningfully related to longer procedures.

• Visibility Principle - Keep all needed options and materials for a given task visible without distracting the user with extraneous or redundant information.

• Feedback Principle - Keep users informed of actions or interpretations, changes of state or condition, and errors or exceptions using clear, concise, and unambiguous language familiar to users.

• Tolerance Principle - Be flexible and tolerant, reducing the cost of mistakes and misuse by allowing undoing and redoing while preventing errors wherever possible by tolerating varied inputs and sequences and by interpreting all reasonable actions reasonably.

• Reuse Principle - Reduce the need for users to rethink and remember by reusing internal and external components and behaviours, maintaining consistency with purpose rather than merely arbitrary consistency.11

11 Constantine, L. L. (1994). Collaborative Usability Inspections for Software. Software Development ‘94 Proceedings, San Francisco: Miller Freeman. http://irm.cit.nih.gov/itmra/weptest/app_a3.htm


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Website Heuristic Evaluation Summary

• Evaluator – Tadhg Toomey • Location – DCU Library • Session 1 Date – 06 July 2005 • Session 2 Date – 13 July 2005

Issue Solution Cross Browser Usability: Website not fully visible/proportional for FireFox browser, thus eliminating an increasingly wider audience.

The structure of the appearance of images was re-designed using percentiles as opposed to strict measurements (pixels), maintaining proportions regardless of browser.

Consistency: Relative hyperlinks were of different colours, therefore, confusing the user into which links were relative to that particular section of the page.

A strict colour scheme was introduced, and all hyperlinks were created in subsections, signified by the standard “underline” feature.

Web Standards: The link that allows a user to contact the agent was not significantly promoted on the website, and some even ignored it as an advert.

The banners for each section were increased in size, and promoted by a coloured pointer image. The instruction was made more apparent, and the “download” button (Skype) was presented as a standardised hyperlink.

Consistency: Similar text was not displayed in a similar manner.

All relative text was altered to convey similar meaning, and was kept in the same style (ex. Contact Link).

Features: Although each of the other features of the “Contact” service worked successfully, the voice communication was not featured successfully due to a lack of primary funding for software licenses.

The “Skype” application was introduced as a freeware service that provides the user with each of the same features provided by “CallSite”, albeit requiring a download for the time being.

Usability: The Virtual Tour was originally controlled via the mouse, but this was not obvious to users, and caused navigational problems of the footage.

The Virtual Tours were assigned a navigation bar, whereby the user can click on a standard video-based system allowing them to control each aspect of movement.

Download speeds: Each Virtual Tour was taking far longer than expected to download form the server, causing the user to become uninterested, and often annoyed.

All files were converted to .jpg, reducing their size significantly. The next generation of images will be created using the .ipix format, reducing the file size with an even greater compression rate.

Readability: Some of the font sizes were seen to be too small, and often their colour rendered them unreadable to some users.

The font size was increased, and the colours were altered to enhance the readability of text.

Response time: Some pages were taking longer to download than others, and were affecting usability.

Cascading Style Sheets were introduced to minimise the time required to download.

Consistency: The banner ads were inconsistent in their positioning on the page, often being displayed in the centre of the screen.

A side bar was designated on the Website, whereby any advertisements would appear in this area, in a non-obtrusive manner.


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Appendix D

Notes on Accounts Income

• Sales figures show the number of customer’s accounts achieved that month plus the total amount sold to all customers that month. The sales amounts will vary depending on the number of licences sold to each customer:

Expenditure

• Rent is €503 per month for 25m2 in INVENT • Hosting is with Hosting 365 and is for our own server for hosting our site and

tours. • Tour costs represent the average cost for producing each tour. These include

travel expenses, cost of maintenance equipment, and any additional expenses that may occur.

• Marketing costs are mainly attributed to our direct mail campaign for the first year; these include brochures at €1,100 for five hundred 210x210mm full colour copies. Additional costs including associated phone and travel costs. Marketing costs will rise as we reach certain milestones, including taking the service public and beyond.

• Wages are being kept low at the early stages to ensure we have sufficient working capital to survive. We have agreed to accept a wage of €22,000 in year one, rising to €30,000 in year two, with wages for the founders rising to €36,000 in year three. In addition to this, we shall be taking on additional staff in order to fully service customers; we will be hiring one member in year two and a further five in year three.

Documents

PropertyTour - DCU School of Computingasmeaton/MECPracticums2005/PropertyTo… · PropertyTour.ie PropertyTour.ie Name: Class: ID: Tadhg Toomey MECT 54158605 David Dolan MECT 54156921