Dublin City University - School of Computing

Practicum Commercialisation Project (CA550) Msc. in Electronic Commerce (B/T) 2011/2012

Student Name
Euan Callow Guillaume Bonnevay John O'Rourke Pablo de la Vega Pierrick Barreau

Student Number
56386385 11210962 11212079 11211937 11211509

Advisors:
Technical: Prof. Alan Smeaton Business: Teresa Hogan

Date 20/08/2012

Title of Project

SenseAnalytics
Please visit us at:

http://www.sensanalytics.com/

Declaration
I hereby certify that this material, which I submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of M.Sc. in Electronic Commerce is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work followed by each team members name, signature, student number and date. I also certify that I have read, understand and am in compliance with the DCU Guidelines on Best Practice in Research Ethics.

Euan Callow

56386385

Signed .....................................................

Guillaume Bonnevay

11210962

Signed .....................................................

John ORourke

11212079

Signed .....................................................

Pablo De La Vega

11211937

Signed .....................................................

Pierrick Barreau

11211509

Signed .....................................................

Date ..........................................................

Acknowledgements
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those who aided, supported and encouraged us in the completion of this project whom without we would not have been successful. Prof. Alan Smeaton Teresa Hogan Cathal Gurrin Jack Hyland All our Research Respondents Dublin City University & Our Friends and Family

Executive Summary
SensAnalytics is a multidisciplinary team of entrepreneurs from Ireland and France with in-depth competences in software engineering, business development, and digital strategy. Our concept is to provide parents with a Smartphone application that acts as a central hub to record all of the important information about their childs development. The product has three core features: real-time baby monitor from a Smartphone with customizable alerts, sleep pattern analytics, and an infant development milestone diary. The baby-monitoring feature works by using two Smartphones, one placed with the child as a monitor, and the other with the parent as a receiver. The monitor detects auditory events, in particular crying and talking. The receiver can be setup to notify parents about activity, and allows them to listen to the monitor in real-time. Unlike traditional baby-monitoring solutions, our product works over WIFI and 3G, and parents can therefore monitor their child from any location. As the monitor is a Smartphone application, we can store and analyse the audio that is collected from the child, therefore allowing sleep pattern analysis. Through the application, parents can track sleep developments over time and examine a particular nights sleep. The sleep pattern development automatically feeds into the final feature of the application: the milestone manager. The milestone manager is a place for parents to keep track of important and development events in their childs growth. Commonly recognised growth milestones relating to mobility, physical growth, speech, and emotions, are preloaded onto the app. Parents can simply mark when a milestone is reached, this will then be stored along with the date in the childs developmental history. Users can also create custom events such as medical visits and special occasions. Through effective monitoring and insights we strive to become an essential tool for parental peace of mind. The above product specification was only realised after conducting extensive analysis of industry characteristics, competitive landscape, and customer needs. Smartphone ownership is steadily increasing, a 70% penetration rate is observed in both the UK and Ireland. When cross referenced with birth rates we established a market size of just over 415,000, of which a large majority would have more than one Smartphone per household. This opened us to the prospect of a baby-monitor product that used two Smartphones rather than a dedicated hardware monitor. This concept was further compounded with in-depth analysis of the traditional baby-monitor market. We found that established brands such as Phillips, BT, and Motorola controlled the majority of the market share. These findings

were further supported by our customer survey. Coupled with the high barrier of development costs, entering the hardware-based baby-monitor market became an unrealistic proposition. Our customer research highlighted some important indicators that went on to shape our most recent business model iteration. 78% of survey respondents said that they had previously purchased baby products online, and nearly 65% said that they had turned to online resources to seek information about their child's development. This provided a strong indicator towards a software-based baby monitor solution that provided developmental tracking. It was then crucial to identify the existing apps that provide similar characteristics. We found that most offers on the market offered either baby monitor or development tracking functionalities, but never both. Where a baby monitor was offered there was little inclusion of insights or analytics, and where development tracking was offered, the user interface was complex and did not encourage regular use. With a product specification to work towards, we then examined various revenue models and strategies. Based on our research into app monetization and the competitive landscape it was essential for us to offer the application as a free download. Keeping this in mind, three income paths were pinpointed. Firstly offering a paid subscription for unlimited use of child development log feature, which would otherwise be limited. Initial free use of the development log will allow users to engage in the feature to a point that they feel committed to it, and then monetize based on that commitment. Secondly, ad revenue from free app users will be sought through the Google AdMob network. Finally we aim to offer brand partners the ability to connect with parents when development milestones are reached in the app. In order for this model and product concept to succeed, there are two distinct marketing objectives: drive downloads of the free application and increase free to paid user conversion rates. To drive traffic to the app download page, the SensAnalytics team would engage in active social media campaigns, and conduct paid mobile ads campaigns through Googles AdMod network. An average cost per click of $0.62 has been established. To convert free users to paid plans we will be heavily reliant on metrics and testing. Cohort analysis will be used to segment users into groups based on usage length and habits. We can then establish the user groups that are most likely to convert, and which groups require reengagement marketing efforts. Such efforts include dynamic in-app prompts, and targeted email campaigns highlighting the benefits of various features. From our product specifications, the R&D team concluded on the technical requirements of our solution. They identified the need for an in-house reliable and secure network architecture, an optimised activity recognition system (ARS) and an intuitive app design. Deploying an efficient architecture necessitates 5

server configuration and maintenance planning. The development of an ARS involves two steps, feature extraction and recognition algorithm followed by extensive testing and optimisation. Designing an intuitive application demands a constant interaction with user and ergonomics assessment. Considering these tasks and our resources, we plan the first app release within the next month and estimate realistic R&D costs. Finally, to establish financial projections we first simulated three varying user acquisition models. Considering the reach, download, retention and subscription rates, we were able to estimate potential user base growth scenarios and thus revenues. Analysing our cost structure, we identified R&D as our largest expenditure segment; this is expected to observe a rationalisation of expenses after 2 years. When comparing revenues with costs, we have built a 3 year financial projection which results in being cash flow positive after 2.5 years for the average scenario, and with a capital requirement of 180,000. To raise this funding we have planned a progressive 3-step fundraising strategy beginning with founders resources and local enterprise board grants for the initial product development. Next we will need to improve product/ market fit, funding efforts at this stage will focus on the Irish angel investment community and matched funding programmes from Enterprise Ireland (CSF). Finally, with an extensively tested product and business model, and in order to scale, we will look to raise a round of series A funding from venture capital firms (Excel Partners, DFJ Esprit, Delta) and government-backed development schemes (HPSU).

Table of Contents
Report Updates history ........................................................................................................................ 1 Section 1: Team organisation ............................................................................................................. 4
1. Team foundation ....................................................................................................................................... 4 2. Team organisational chart ......................................................................................................................... 5 3. Internal processes ..................................................................................................................................... 6 4. Team Communication ............................................................................................................................... 7 4.1 Social project management platform: Teambox ................................................................................. 7 4.2 Meetings organisation ........................................................................................................................ 8 4.3 Documents sharing .............................................................................................................................. 8

Section 2: Genesis of our idea .......................................................................................................... 10

1. Innovation and success factors ............................................................................................................... 10 2. Technology selection ............................................................................................................................... 10 3. Market Identification............................................................................................................................... 11 4. The SensAnalytics initial project definition ............................................................................................. 12

Section 3: Market Study ..................................................................................................................... 14

1. The process.............................................................................................................................................. 14 2. Market selection ..................................................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Country selection ............................................................................................................................... 15 2.2 Customer profiling ............................................................................................................................. 17 3. Survey design and results analysis .......................................................................................................... 19 3.1 Defining Survey Objectives ............................................................................................................... 19 3.2 Determining Who to Sample ............................................................................................................. 20 3.3 Creating and testing the instrument ................................................................................................. 20 3.4 Layout and Question Order ............................................................................................................... 21 3.5 Contacting respondents..................................................................................................................... 21 3.6 Analysing the Results ......................................................................................................................... 24 4. Competitive landscape analysis .............................................................................................................. 28 4.1 Hardware Baby monitoring segment ................................................................................................ 28 4.2 Application Segment Analysis............................................................................................................ 31 5. Justification of Product specification ...................................................................................................... 41 6. Product Specification............................................................................................................................... 42

Section 4: Industry and environmental analysis ...................................................................... 48

1. Macroeconomic Analysis U.K vs. Ireland................................................................................................. 48 1.1 Political .............................................................................................................................................. 48 1.2 Economic ........................................................................................................................................... 49 1.3 Social.................................................................................................................................................. 50 1.4 Technological ..................................................................................................................................... 51 2. Industry Analysis...................................................................................................................................... 53 7

2.1 Barriers to Entry (Low - Medium) ...................................................................................................... 53 2.2 Determinants of Supplier Power (Medium) ....................................................................................... 53 2.3 Determinants of Buyer Power (Medium)........................................................................................... 54 2.4 Threat of Substitutes (Medium)......................................................................................................... 55 2.4 Rivalry amongst Existing Firms (Low - Medium) ............................................................................... 55

Section 5: Technical specifications ................................................................................................ 57

1. Methodology overview ........................................................................................................................... 57 2. Functional Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 59 2.1 External analysis: The Octopus chart........................................................................................... 59 2.2 Internal functional analysis - FAST (Functional Analysis System Technique) .................................... 64 3. Network architecture & app-server communication .............................................................................. 69 3.1 Network architecture overview ......................................................................................................... 69 3.2 Inter-App communication .................................................................................................................. 72 4. Mobile application design ....................................................................................................................... 76 4.1 App Functionalities ............................................................................................................................ 76 4.2 App design ......................................................................................................................................... 78 5. Baby waking and cry detection ............................................................................................................... 86 5.1 Baby activity recognition: Characteristics and Challenges ................................................................ 86 5.2 Current state-of-the-art ..................................................................................................................... 87 5.3 Final solution overview ...................................................................................................................... 98 6. Solution Implementation......................................................................................................................... 99 6.1 The development environment.......................................................................................................... 99 6.2 Development milestones ................................................................................................................. 104

Section 6: Business Model ..............................................................................................................108

1. Customer Segments .............................................................................................................................. 108 1.1 Traumatised parents: ...................................................................................................................... 109 1.2 Second time parents ....................................................................................................................... 109 1.3 Parents of twins or close aged children .......................................................................................... 110 1.4 Single mothers ................................................................................................................................ 110 2. Value Proposition .................................................................................................................................. 110 3. Channels ................................................................................................................................................ 111 4. Customer Relationships......................................................................................................................... 111 5. Revenue Streams ................................................................................................................................... 112 6. Key Resources........................................................................................................................................ 113 7. Key Activities ......................................................................................................................................... 114 8. Cost Structure ........................................................................................................................................ 114

Section 7: Marketing .........................................................................................................................117

1. Objectives .............................................................................................................................................. 117 2. Marketing Mix ....................................................................................................................................... 117 3. User Acquisition Marketing ................................................................................................................... 118 8

3.1 Social Media Marketing................................................................................................................... 118 3.2 Facebook.......................................................................................................................................... 118 3.3 Blogging ........................................................................................................................................... 120 3.4 Search Engine Advertising (SEA) ...................................................................................................... 120 3.5 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) ................................................................................................... 122 4. User Conversion Marketing ................................................................................................................... 127 4.1 Social Media Marketing................................................................................................................... 127 4.2 Email Marketing .............................................................................................................................. 127 4.3 In App Prompts ................................................................................................................................ 129 5. Product launch period ........................................................................................................................... 129

Section 8: Finances ............................................................................................................................131

1. Product release estimation ................................................................................................................... 131 2. User Community Modelling .................................................................................................................. 132 3. Costs estimation .................................................................................................................................... 136 4. Financial projection ............................................................................................................................... 137 5. Funding strategy .................................................................................................................................... 139 5.1 Seed stage ....................................................................................................................................... 139 5.2 Start-up stage .................................................................................................................................. 140 5.3 Growth stage ................................................................................................................................... 140 6. Conclusion on business viability ............................................................................................................ 141

Section 9: Risk Management ..........................................................................................................143

1. Methodology overview ......................................................................................................................... 143 2. FMECA Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 144 3. Top risks mitigation plan ....................................................................................................................... 146 3.1 Customers do not perceive value in our functionalities (Risk Rating = 200) ................................... 146 3.2 Low user Retention (Risk Rating = 210) ........................................................................................... 146 3.3 Malicious Attacks & System Blackout (Risk Rating = 210 & 256) .................................................... 148 3.4 Data Breach (Risk Rating =210) ....................................................................................................... 149 3.5 Usability and Reliability (Risk Rating = 210) .................................................................................... 151 4. Risk mitigation tools .............................................................................................................................. 152

References ............................................................................................................................................212

Report Updates history

Date
15/06/12 21/06/12 08/07/12 15/07/12 16/07/12 20/07/12 21/07/12 24/07/12 06/08/12 10/08/12 12/08/12 15/08/12 17/08/12 18/08/12 20/08/12

Updated section
1, 2 1, 2 3 3 4 5 3, 5 3, 6 7 3, 5 9 6, 7, 8 3, 4 6, 7, 8 /

Changes
Add first draft Team organisation and idea presentation from practicum proposal. Update processes in Team presentation. Conclude section 2. Add introduction, market selection and questionnaire design Add key findings of the questionnaire and product specification Add industry and environment analysis Add functional analysis and network architecture Add Activity recognition system. Refine product specification Add Business model. Refine product specification Add Marketing plan. Refine Business model Conclude the R&D section. Conclude Team Organisation. Add the risk analysis and risk mitigation plan Add Financial forecast. Refine Marketing & Revenue model Conclude market study. Conclude industry analysis. Conclude Business model, Marketing, Finances Add executive summary, references, appendices. Final Layout

Figures summary
Section 1: Team organisation
1.1 1.3 1.5 2.1 2.3 3.1 3.3 3.5 3.7 3.9 3.11 3.13 3.15 3.17 3.19 3.21 Team presentation General process map Meeting process map Population segment and goal Action plan overview Market study process Market selection indicators Customer profile highlights Addressed forums Survey results weighting indicators Survey result Brand repartition Survey result Baby online reviews Survey result Baby monitoring price Survey result Sleep cycle online search Hardware baby monitor segmentation Hardware baby monitor SWOT analysis 1.2 1.4 1.6 2.2 Team organisation chart Management process map Folder architecture Initial project definition

Section 2: Genesis of the idea Section 3: Market study

3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 3.10 3.12 3.14 3.16 3.18 3.20 3.22 Market selection process Statistic results normalization Survey design milestones Survey results weighting formula Survey result App spending Survey result Technological habits Survey result Brand repartition Survey result Emotion online search Survey result Development milestone online search Hardware baby monitor GE-Kinsey matrix BabyCam logo

3.23 3.25 3.27 3.29 3.31 4.1 4.3 4.5 4.7 5.1 5.3 5.5 5.7 5.9 5.11 5.13 5.15 5.17 5.19 5.21 5.23 5.25 5.27 5.29 5.31 6.1 6.3 7.1 7.3 7.5 7.7 7.9 7.11 8.1 8.3 8.5 8.7 8.9 8.11 8.13 8.15 9.1

Bungat logo Baby Connect logo Kidfolio logo SWOT analysis Android Product specification plan UK economic factors Wireless availability 2011 Average sale price per app per platform App Store Membership Costs R&D process overview Octopus chart Inter-app communication techniques comparison REST communication protocol Activities Actions paradigm Use case 2 : Settings section Use case 4 : Analytics section Use case 2 : Settings section Use case 4 : Event section Pre-processing system overview STZC formula Signal frequency domain representation Weighted differential addition formula Neural network model Activity recognition system overview Development environment overview Customer segments Business Canvas 4C marketing mix Facebook organic links Most promising keywords Mobile considerations Mail strategy phase 1 In-app prompts examples Market entry timeline Reaching rate modelling scenario 2 Downloading rate modelling scenario 1 Downloading rate modelling scenario 3 Retention of app users Revenue forecast Cost structure breakdown Cumulated profit evolution Risk management process overview

3.24 3.26 3.28 3.30

Baby Monitor logo Baby steps logo SWOT Analysis iOS Comparison of UK Smartphone use

Section 4: Industry and Environmental analysis

4.2 4.4 4.6 Ireland economic factors Ownership of SmartphoneUK repartition Avg. Price iOS vs. Android

Section 5: Technical Specifications

5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8 5.10 5.12 5.14 5.16 5.18 5.20 5.22 5.24 5.26 5.28 5.30 5.32 6.2 Internal analysis conclusions Network architecture overview SOAT communication protocol SOAP vs. REST comparison Use case 1: First time login Use case 3: Events section Use case 1: First time login Use case 3: Analytics section Use case 5: Settings section STE formula Cry signal detection examples Feature extractors comparison SVM principle overview Matching function algorithm comparison Android component overview Development Gantt chart Other customer segments

Section 6: Business model Section 7: Marketing

7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8 7.10 Facebook sponsor links EdgeRank principles Keyword traffic summary SEO examples Mail strategy phase 2

Section 8: Finances
8.2 8.4 8.6 8.8 8.10 8.12 8.14 8.16 9.2 Reaching rate modelling scenario 1 Reaching rate modelling scenario 3 Downloading rate modelling scenario 2 Retention rate modelling Subscriber community growth Cost structure evolution Net profit evolution Funding strategy overview Top risks analysis and mitigation

Section 9: Risk Management

Section 1:

TEAM ORGANISATION
3

Section 1: Team organisation

At SensAnalytics, we strongly believe that people are the most crucial factor in any start-up creation. Therefore we would like to introduce this document with a presentation of our team, our values and our motivations.

1. Team foundation
At the roots of SensAnalytics is a multidisciplinary team of young entrepreneurs passionate about high technologies. Composed of two French Telecommunication engineers, a French manager and two Irish businessmen, our management board is an association of strong personalities and competences joined around a common goal: offering valuable services to focused market segments using the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The founders met during a Master programme at the Dublin City University. Following the Belbin theory (Belbin, 1981) which formalizes several roles within a team to ensure its completeness and the success of its projects, they decided to gather their competences in programming, telecommunications, business and marketing to create a start-up which reflects their philosophy (See Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Team Presentation Coming from different countries and different social and educational backgrounds, our team is able to interact with professionals from a broad range of domains in most major European languages, giving us strong international and multidisciplinary advantages. 4

2. Team organisational chart

In order to give each of us a speciality domain and associated responsibilities, we formed a board of managers. Each manager is in charge of a set of teams related to its domain. Each team is composed of at least two people in order to follow the agile development guidelines (Cockburn, 2006), which states that maximal effectiveness is achieved with 2 to 3 individuals. Moreover, people are the less associated with the same individual allows information to flow easily from one team to another. Once these rules were defined and considering our background, interests, Belbin profile and personalities summarized in Figure 1.1, we split up the workload according to the following organization chart (See Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2: Team Organisational chart

The project manager is in charge of the animation of the project; forecasting the tasks, assigning them to teams, and interacting with each individual. Thanks to the Gantt chart, the project advancement can be monitored and reported to the board. The quality and risks manager ensures that organisational and quality guidelines are followed by the team. The role is also responsible for the risk team which 5

constantly gather, analyse and respond to risks identified throughout the course of the project. The Business development manager takes care of the business sections of our activity. Through the experience gathered by working on the business model, they able to efficiently coordinate the team assigned to the financial section. The R&D manager is in charge of the technical solution development, which is split between front-end and back-end parts. Finally, the Marketing & Public relations is responsible of interacting with the external world. Understanding our customers lifestyles and philosophy, they are able to design and adapted the marketing plan to launch our project. As for the teams, their names are self-explanatory. However we would like to outline the association of the Marketing and R&D ones to design the customer-facing application. For us, this cross-domain partnership is critical to bring to market a product that fits the best the gap between the clients needs and what the technology can currently offer.

3. Internal processes
With each SensAnalytics member knowing their speciality domain and related tasks, the next step is to give them a big picture of what needs to be accomplished throughout the project. The project manager, in association with the quality department, designed a set of general purpose processes to guarantee a successful project. Independently from our idea, this framework allows us to understand at any time where we are on the project and what broad tasks are left to be performed. In order to keep it as simple as possible, we do not follow the general process mapping guidelines but prefer a lighter version with just step-by-step actions, expected results and identified stakeholders. The general process and the management process are

presented in Figure 1.3 and 1.4. The rest of the diagrams can be found in the

introduction of each related section. They present our methodology throughout the different conducted. Figure 1.3: General process map 6 studies we

The role of our manager board is summarized in Figure 1.4. It maps interactions and how each responsibility feeds to others and creates a coherent

organisation. Once those broad processes have been defined, the project manager is in charge of adapting them to our specific project and to assign them to each team. Figure 1.4: Management process map

4. Team Communication
4.1 Social project management platform: Teambox Communication between team members is a key factor for the success of any project. However, ensuring that every piece of information is passed to each relevant team member is a task that an active entrepreneur, already assigned to other activities, cannot totally guarantee. Moreover people easily forget tasks and the thoughts and discussions they had in relation to them. Therefore our team opted soon after the beginning of the project to rely on a web application to create, share and report on our tasks: a social project management platform. After benchmarking some of them (Asana, Wunderlist, Teambox, and Yammer), we chose Teambox as it provides an environment which is coherent with our organisation. The project manager creates and assigned all the tasks, giving each member a view of all tasks and the task owners. Team members can post status updates to inform the team on advancements, they can also add notes, Dropbox documents, images or videos relating to the task. Once a task is finished and closed, the information pertaining to it is automatically forwarded to the relevant team members.

The project manager can assign deadlines and monitor the global advancement through an integrated Gantt chart (see Appendix 1.2). Thus Teambox allows having a central access point to the projects life and a quick insight on what is going on for any advisor or external person. 4.2 Meetings organisation Meetings are also an important part of communication within or outside the team. To ensure that they are efficient and focused, the quality department establishes a strict 3-step process (See Figure 1.5) and provides associated tools. Before a meeting, the project manager gathers the information that teams needs to discuss and produces an agenda (See Appendix 1.1). While the meeting takes place, a secretary randomly picked among the board writes the discussion in a meeting report (See Appendix 1.1). After, the same secretary organises his notes and adds it to the meeting folder. If the discussion involved an external party, the document is send to him for feedback. This process allows us to keep track of every discussion and subsequent decisions that we made along the project. It also provides us with a tool to communicate with advisors and get confirmation on the understanding we have of their advice. In total we conducted 13 official recorded meetings over the course of the project. 4.3 Documents sharing Once project information flows efficiently from individual to individual, the final concern is about the report documentation files. To seamlessly share them among team members, we use Dropbox. However, not only is the tool important, but also the file classification policy. The quality department constantly enforces a strict folder organisation which can be seen in Figure 1.6. Each numerated folder is related to a section of our activity. The rest reflects our internal organisation with meetings, brainstorming. Then in each top folder, the associated team has to create a folder for each task and order them to reflect its logical advancement. 8 Figure 1.6: Folder architecture Figure 1.5: Meeting process map

Section 2:

GENESIS OF THE IDEA

9

Section 2: Genesis of our idea

After the team, the most important factor of a start-up creation is the initial idea. SensAnalytics aims at building an innovative product upon its core business competences. This section highlights the genesis of our idea by introducing key concepts related to innovation and success factors, and presenting the technology and market selection processes. It concludes by defining our project and approach.

1. Innovation and success factors

At SensAnalytics, we believe that a company can be defined as innovative if it brings to market a new product that fits the best the gap between the customers needs and what the competitors are currently offering. The first problem lies in the fact of knowing if the idea actually meets a real need for which users will be willing to pay for, and if the improvement is sufficient to convince consumers to change their purchasing habits. The second step is to evaluate if the market is suitable for a profitable commercial implementation. Thus, the potential of an innovative idea is dictated by its ability to be sufficiently distinct from what exists and its ability to attract a large, reachable and solvent enough market. That is why the research process of our idea has involved a choice between several promising technologies around which we can build a product and the identification of a specific market.

2. Technology selection
The first step of our ideas definition process consisted of benchmarking new technologies and technical fields currently in expansion, and which of those have potential to become more frequently used and developed as part of new products or services. We especially identified sensor networks, cloud computing activities and green issues. After some research and surveys analysis to compare each future projection, and also aligning to our personal interests, we decided to focus on the sensor network technologies, in particular, wireless sensor networks (WSN). According to the research group IDTechEx, wireless sensor networks will be increasingly used in a range of application. The study estimated that the world market will evolve from $0.45 to $2 billion from 2011 to 2021 (Harrop, 2011). This growth is due to the democratization of these solutions and their use in various fields, such as the discrete manufacturing, the process control, the control-measurement in factories and buildings, but also the automatic monitoring of forests, avalanches, urban infrastructure, traffic, hospitals, etc. This technology can be integrated in each field where it is possible to capitalize on data acquisition. 10

However, specialists assure that the simplification of the solutions standardization is a prerequisite to ensure that market growth. The United States dominates this market thanks to large computing companies (Microsoft, IBM, etc), and the interest of the defence industry in such solutions. The main technological challenge faced by manufacturers concerns the development of less power consuming electronic systems. Despite the recent advances in wireless sensor networks and embedded computing technologies, we can observe that current solutions mainly concern environmental monitoring activities. However, a new trend tends to emerge: acquiring human data. It is known as Body Sensor Networks (BSN). In todays Big Data phenomenon, data production, and especially information sharing, greatly increases the amount of data that can be processed, and also presents interesting prospects for interpreting such. Being able to acquire human data in order to give it a meaning and a representation represents several technical challenges but also an undoubted area for products or services development. Aware of that opportunity which fits with our competences and interests, we selected the Wireless Sensor Network technology, currently still at research stage, because it ensures us a limited competitive environment and gives us the opportunity to secure our position through partnerships with the actors of the field, thus developing technical barriers to entry.

3. Market Identification
As explained previously, it is necessary to address a large, reachable and solvent enough market. The task was to identify which population segment could represent an interesting source of data acquisition in terms of market interest and potential profitability. The Tables below summarize our brainstorming conclusions.

Table 2.1 : Population segment and goals We selected the baby segment because it represents a high potential for innovation in product definition, a large and accessible market, and an industry with a high propensity for spending. Indeed, the intrinsic nature of babies lies in the fact they are not able to express themselves properly. That is why being able to give a baby a voice and acting as relay for a better communication between parents and infants represents an innovative and differentiable basis for a product or service definition. 11

While the current products in the market provide raw data, our strategy is to go beyond by giving this raw data a sense and turning it into useful information. By using disruptive technologies and this novel way of seeing the market, multiple features can be imagined such as emotion recognition, sleeping patterns, growth monitoring, concentration rate, social development etc. In consistency with the baby segment opportunities, our strategy is to target the parental market, especially first time parents. The new parental generation is more comfortable with high technology, therefore are ready for adopting technology as an element of parental activities. The current Irish parental market is promising: according to CSO statistics, birth rates stand at 17 per 1000 of the population in 2011. The population of Ireland being 4.5 million means the largest potential market is at the moment of 76,500 individuals. As a result, we defined a strategy consisting in using Ireland as a test market to gather data on the usage and the customers response to the product. If successful, we may look to expand our market reach, starting with the U.K due to similar market features and trends as our own.

4. The SensAnalytics initial project definition

SensAnalytics is introduced as an innovative and high-tech start-up whose core activity proposes to acquire complex human data and turn that data into human readable communication. Our first product seeks to empower babies to communicate with the ones that matter to them, from anywhere in the world by capturing data, processing it and presenting the baby status in a simple and understandable format that can be accessed via any web-enabled device. It is intended for parents and will help them more effectively monitor and care for their child at the most precious time of their lives. Thus, the initial project definition is to provide an advanced baby-monitoring product offering real time reactions to babies activities while producing and keeping track of advanced analysis of their growth evolution. Figure 2.2: Initial project definition

However, the idea will evolve as we go through the different stages of our action plan (See Figure 2.3).

Market Study

Business modeling and Marketing

R&D

Financial Study

Risk Management

Figure 2.3: Action plan overview 12

Section 3:

MARKET STUDY

13

Section 3: Market Study

In order to answer at best the parenting markets needs it aims at serving, SensAnalytics first task has been to analyse the worldwide market in order to identify and gather all the positive business drivers to help settling its products.

1. The process
Following the process outlined in Figure 1, the whole team began by defining what the core elements of its offer were. Taking into account the work and feedback produced from the practicum proposal, we summarized our project as an improvement to existing baby monitors that allow parents to get access to valuable analytics at any time and any place. The core element of the value proposition is the access to

comprehensive data helping parents in their daily decision-making. As we intend to deliver a product which reflects the final users needs, we did not chose the specific functionalities at that stage but preferred to postpone these decisions until we had a complete view of the market. As a small start-up, the first market we target has to be the appropriate one. Therefore before opting for one or another, we gathered indicators
Figure 3.1: Market Study Process

about

the

different

countries

markets

and

compared them to conclude on the most suitable for a first implantation. Demographics, data about the local market, the baby and specifically the baby care market, media trends, and competitors strength analysis were aggregated to constitute an indicators chart justifying our choice. Then, we drew the typical profile (age range, number of children, current habits) of our customer in order to reduce the population scope of our study.

14

Having a deeper understanding of our target customers, we then designed a survey to collect their demographics, habits and needs. With the help of our advisors, the DCU research ethics committee and a panel of parents, we assessed and refined it to ensure that it followed the ethics guidelines1 and provided comprehensive and usable data about the market. After sharing it on multiple forums and blogs, we gathered the data and analysed it. From the needs and feedback expressed by the parents, we extracted the most important features our product has to present and the constraints it will have to cope with. Then we analysed the competitive landscape to see what needs are currently answered by our competitors value proposition. We developed a SWOT analysis to identify the different segments of the baby monitor market. Considering the market needs and the opportunities led by the main players, we formulated a final offer to parents through our website sensanalytics.com.. Thanks to the emails collected through the survey, we were able to contact them through a newsletter in order to have their final feedback and establish our potential offers. The process being explained, we will now present and examine our findings when conducting the market study.

2. Market selection
France and UK have some of the most promising birth rates in Europe with respectively 12.4 and 12.6 per 1000 habitants (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2011). Additionally, our team have

stronger connections and networks in these markets than in others. Therefore a choice between these two options seemed to be the most plausible idea. 2.1 Country selection In order to further verify that they are
Figure 3.2: Market Selection Process

suitable for our products implantation and compare them to decide which one seems to be the best, we gathered several data summmarized in Chart 1.
1

Research Ethical Approval Form can be seen in Appendix 3.2

15

Indicators Country market indicators GDP growth (Avg. 2012-16) Private Consumption growth (Avg. 2012-16) Consumer Price Index growth (Avg. 2012-16) Purchasing power parity conversion factor (2011) Expenditure per Household (Couple with children, 2011) Baby market indicators Birth rate (2011) Birth rate growth (2010 11) Fertility rate (2011) % Country weight in baby market share (2010) Baby market growth (Avg. 2006-11) Baby monitoring market indicators Baby care market share (%Country / Europe, 2011) Baby care market share growth (Avg. 2006-11) Baby care market share growth (Forecast 2012-16) Baby durables market share (%Country / Europe, 2011) Female employment rate (2011) % Exp. Per H. on Health Goods (2011) Technological indicators
% Smartphone sales (2010)

Weight 1 2 -1 2 2 7 6 4 4 5 5 3 2 5 3 3 3 2 2 3 3 2
3 3

Statistic UK 1,16 0,94 3,1 0,7 73731 12,6 0,89 2 8,58 1,13 12,47 -0,33 -0,37 12,36 65,7 1,32 48 44,2 43,8 75 32,6 21,3 20,1 48 32 3,4 / / Have been Done for Each Competitor /

Statistic FR 1,06 1,22 2,12 0,9 79364 12,4 -1,56 2,1 8,41 1,63 11,94 -0,89 -0,9 11,78 59,4 3,43 30,7 82 39,4 65,7 33,8 20,3 24,5 39 21 4,9 / / Have been Done for Each Competitor /

% Volume Growth in Smartphones sales (2009/10) Per capita spending on Smartphones (2011) % Households with Internet-enabled devices (2011) Broadband subscriptions (per 100 inhabitants) Broadband access subscribers growth (Avg. 2009-14) Media trends
Google search for "baby monitor" (% Search Zone / World) Nb tweets related to baby monitor on Twitter

Competitors Analysis Nb Competitors (implanted in retail) Competitors growth (Avg. 2008-12) Operating income (2011) Operating income growth (2011) Net income (2011) Seniority Management experience Degree of similarity with our product Number of Employees
Chart 3.3: Market Selection indicators

-3 -3 1 2 2 3 3 4 1 16

As these indicators do not have the same range of values, we used the Formula below to put them on the same scale, thereby weighting them without distorting the result.
( )

Formula 3.4: Statistic results normalisation

For the statistics concerning competitors, we compared more than 2 elements, so the derivative formula proposed above does not effectively apply. Thus, we decided to use a method similar to those used in Key Performance Indicators (KPI) dashboards. We fixed ranges of values and associated a normalised number from 1 to 5 to those ranges (e.g. Net incomes ranging from 1 to 2 M is associated with a normalised value of 4). This step allowed us also to gather multiple detailed information points about our main competitors (Philips Avent, Tommee Tippee, TOMY and Angel Care) and rank them according to the threat they might constitute to the success of the project. This data will be used in the marketing campaign to identify their internal and external strengths and weaknesses and design our packaged product and communication accordingly. To evaluate the impact of each indicator on our projects success, we used a derivative of the Simos method. All members of the team agreed on a static pool of weights we could give to any indicator, then each of us weighted them individually and we discussed to take a final decision. The final score is calculated by multiplying the normalised statistic (see Formula 1 above) with its associated weight and by adding the scores together to obtain the countrys rank. This framework can be used as the basis for further comparison among European countries. The indicators table presented in Appendix 3.1 shows that the United Kingdom is more likely to be a good market to establish our product with a score of 3,06 against a French score of 2,49. The gap between the two represents 18.6% which is mostly explained by the huge weight of the UK in the baby / baby care markets and the development of their broadband and mobile networks. However, France presents a good overall economic health and a slightly less aggressive competitive environment. Both markets seem mature but the English one guarantees the access to a bigger audience with more chance to reach profitability and spread our brands reputation. 2.2 Customer profiling Having determined our target country as the United Kingdom, we have then further studied the characteristics of its population to conclude on what type of customers match the most with our offer. To do so, we took two different approaches: the study of parents (because they are our core users), and the study of Smartphone owners (because our product relies on apps to interact with the clients). We 17

merged the results to determine the mean age range, social background and family profile of our target markets population. This will be used afterwards to weight the survey results and design an adapted marketing campaign. European women have been entering motherhood at increasingly mature ages. The United Kingdom has the most elevated mean age of woman at the birth of their child with 30 years old (Euromonitor [1], 2012). At this age, mothers are more likely to have better skills and experience and to continue working after their childbirth (Euromonitor [2], 2012). In addition to this, the country features one of the biggest female employment rates in Europe with 68% of active women (and 90% of active dads) in 2007 (Euromonitor [3], 2011). We can thus infer that there is a strong working class population who can benefit of a live reporting baby monitor who give them anytime comprehensive information on their children anywhere in the world. Moreover, first-time parents constitute an adapted target for our product: Inexperienced, they would benefit from our analytics to help them in these new decisionsmaking processes. Not equipped yet, they wont be curbed by any baby monitoring exchange costs. Young, they are more likely to be comfortable with high technologies.

Indeed, the Smartphone penetration rate for age 25-34 (73%) is even greater than for age 18-24 (72%) (Euromonitor [4], 2011). However, Smartphone ownership is strongly correlated with income, as only households featuring revenues ranging from 45k to 75k+ present a penetration rate greater than 60% (Euromonitor [4], 2011). Compared to the average family income of 32,779 before tax in 2007

(Euromonitor [3], 2011), the requirement for this advanced technology lead us to address our product towards higher income

households.
Figure 3.5: Customer profile highlights

18

Considering the Regional Gross Disposable Household Income (GHDI) per head UK Map 2010 [7], we can conclude that our marketing efforts will geographically be more efficient in the South-east (especially near London) and North of United Kingdom. Therefore we can conclude on our ideal customers profile (see Figure 3). They are first-time parents with age sector 25-34, both with a working activity and presenting a comfortable lifestyle (household income > 40k). They are familiar with high technologies and more specifically Internet and Smartphones. In order to determine our market size we looked at statistics which aligned with our target market in both The U.K and Ireland for 2011. Our results concluded that in the U.K had a total of 377,302 births and Ireland had 25,200 births to first time parents, who had an income of 40,000 + (40,000+ in Ireland) and who were Smartphone enabled (determined by penetration mentioned earlier). In total our highest possible target market between the two nations consisted of 402,502 births. As we will only need one app to be downloaded per child we concluded that this figure is our maximum target market, (ONS, 2011 & CSO, 2011). Our target audience being determined, we have then designed a questionnaire to gather their opinions, needs and feedbacks regarding baby monitoring.

3. Survey design and results analysis

We opted to use an approach developed by (Schonlau et al, 2002) which is specific to online and email questionnaires, the steps we followed consisted of the following:
Figure 3.6: Survey design milestones

Defining the survey objectives

Determining who would be sampled

Creating and testing the instrument

Contacting respondents

Analysing Results

3.1 Defining Survey Objectives We set ourselves 5 objectives we wished to achieve from using this research method in order to determine how to approach the development of our product and gather information on our target consumers; these consisted of the following: 1. General information (to categorize results according to population) 2. Technological Habits (to see if market is technologically mature) 3. Purchasing habits (to see who makes the decision, what triggers the most purchase) 4. About the product (to see baby monitoring trends, failure, implementation and customers will) 5. Advanced functionalities (assess the infographic and social game ideas) 19

3.2 Determining Who to Sample As our target market consists of parents who have a familiar knowledge to current mobile technologies, we opted to approach our sample as being parents in the past 3 years. We selected our sample using both random (forum and blogs sharing) and self-selection techniques (contact through email and Twitter). We did not restrict the respondents profile too much as we target over 100 answers in order to have sufficient data to process. To guarantee a finer-grained analysis, we weighed the answers according to the matching of respondents demographics with our customer profile (see Figure 3.5). 3.3 Creating and testing the instrument We generated our questionnaire using Google Docs. This gave us the ability to format the instrument that suited our needs, it put us in a position to deliver the survey online, log and analyse the results through Microsoft Excel. Closed Ended Questions This style of questions limits the participants answer to a set of alternatives given by the researcher, (Reja et al, 2003). We used both scales and multiple-choice answers where the respondent could either choose only one response or could have the option for multiple answers. Open Ended Questions - We opted to use this style of question in order to get a stronger understanding of the participants opinion on functions they would like in the application, we also found this would be the best option to gain a further understanding on their needs from their perspective and not giving them all the possible functions to choose from. We found that using open-ended questions could give a more spontaneous response and give an option to avoid any bias from suggesting responses to the participant, (Reja et al, 2003). Scales - We used this 5 point technique because it gives each item an equal value so that the respondent is scored and not the actual item. In addition to this it is highly reliable, easy to read and complete for the users, (Ghauri et al, 2010). As a general rule, a questionnaire should not be used in the field study without extensive pretesting, (Malhotra, 2006). Pre-testing can limit many errors in the questionnaire including design, layout, question wording and greatly reduce non-response rate. After the initial pre-test has been conducted, it is important to test the Questionnaire again as to make sure that the changes that have been made are suffice and have resulted in a better formatted research tool and to spot any final adjustments that need to made, (ibid). To do so, we contacted 4 parents we personally know and asked them to complete the survey and provide some feedback. This allowed us to correct 2 misspellings and refine a question which was not expressed in easily-understandable vocabulary. 20

3.4 Layout and Question Order (Malhotra, 2006), states that questions should be arranged in a logical order, organized around topic areas and questions that could be perceived as difficult should be placed late in the sequence after a relationship has been established and the respondent is involved in the process. We broke our survey into 6 sections, using each section to approach a specific topic set. In addition to this we used a technique where the respondent could not move onto the next unless the current section was complete. According to (Evans et al, 2005), for online surveys, a great way to reduce non-response rates and have a higher completion rate is to construct it so that the respondent must answer a question before advancing to the next question or completing the survey and avoids the necessity to throw out answers that that been entered improperly. Section 1 Opening questions should be interesting, simple, and nonthreatening, which is why we opted to use simple, small closed questions to gain basic demographic information of the respondent, (Malhotra, 2006). Section 2 Technology Habits In this section we aimed to find out about the participants online and mobile phone habits. For example, in doing we gained information and what social media websites they use, which will be helpful for advertising in the future. We also Section 3 Purchasing habits on Baby Products Here we tried to assess the purchasing motivators, in particular if parents researched products online and their affinity to purchase online. Section 4 Baby monitor products information Here we looked to gain information on the participants current baby monitor, its price, its functionality and where they first heard about it. Section 5 Information related to childs well-being In this section we looked at how people approached when their child was having any problems, what aspects of their childs growth are important and are monitored continuously by the parent/parents. Section 6 Additional Features The final section is to do with understanding the features of a baby monitor in that a parent would like. This will come into play later on during development stages. 3.5 Contacting respondents After getting the ethical approval form (See Appendix 3.2), we defined an online strategy to contact respondents and address potential customers in order to obtain enough survey results and to build an initial customer base. The strategy is built on four main online tools: emails, website, forums and Twitter.

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3.5.1 Email The first tool we have to contact people is to email acquaintance such as friends, family, etc. We contacted as many people we know as possible by insisting on first times parents. Also we asked them to forward our survey to their own acquaintance to create a chain effect. It is a very efficient tool since friends and family members are always ready to help especially when it concerns professional projects. 3.5.2 Website Design Process (www.sensanalytics.com) The website design process has been performed in three steps: identifying the objectives of the website, defining a strategy related to these objectives, and making design choices to enforce the strategy. We decided to consider customers opinions during the entire creation phase of our project and especially to integrate users feedbacks in the product R&D process. Designing and hosting a website which presents our brand and our product has been identified as an effective way to increase the public awareness of our offer and to build a pool of potentially interested customers. Thus, the main goal of the website is to attract visitors and make them interested enough in the project to sign up e.g. to provide their email address and allow us to use it for future contacts and surveys. We defined a strategy to achieve this goal which defined the basis of our website requirements and direct our design rational. The website should contain a description of the product by emphasizing on the novelty of the idea and the benefits to parents compared with existing devices. More specifically the main features (identified as being those which differentiate the product) have to be exposed. The choice of the wording is very important since it represents the first interaction between our brand and potential customers. It should provide efficient and catchy messages. Secondly the website should insist on the quality of our service and help spreading the image of a high quality product through a professional website design. It should also make the audience trust in our brand by including a description of our team and by providing contact features. Finally, once the visitor is attracted they are invited to be evolved in the product development process and we offer them some extra privileges such as priority access to demo (prototypes) versions. We opted for a minimal and focused design to convey our core value proposition. The website is organized into five pages to answer the identified strategy requirements. Each page is built on the same template with a header, content section, and footer. The header contains the logo and the menu while the footer serves to support this. The colours (dark blue, bright blue and grey) have been chosen as they reflect clarity and professionalism as well as respecting the brands graphical identity. We have also used this colour scheme to differentiate the various content areas (buttons, links, and forms). 22

- Home page The main objective of the home page is to attract visitors curiosity and generate their interest through an effective graphical description of the concept of our service. Thus, we have included in the central content part a potential view of our future application, a catchy slogan (Turn data into communication and Give your baby a voice), and a form to allow visitors to directly provide their email addresses in case they would like to be involved in the R&D process. The lower portion of the content part highlights the four most important features of our product: child activity detection, real time alerts, advanced configuration, and baby diary. Each is designed with a title, accurate photo, and text description. The overall home page aims to emphasize the quality of the provided service through giving the image of a high level and a sophisticated product. - Product page Making people understand our idea is critical for an accurate assessment and the word spreading of our idea. Thus we summarized the main aspects of our offer in a few lines and use a scheme to visually present the different development step we aimed at reaching. This page will be refined at the end of the market study when the product that fits the best the market demand will be identified. - About Us page Generating credibility is a key point to attract visitors and draw them into collaborating on the project either by providing their email addresses or responding to our survey. That is why we included a page presenting our team and our project by insisting on the potential and the feasibility of our work. The organizational chart aims at highlighting our serious and our professionalism. We opted for a complete but brief textual description and an attractive colour scheme in order to engage visitors - Help us page The Help Us page contains our survey and allows visitors to respond online through our website. It is more accurate and more professional than just providing a link to this survey. We decided to decompose the survey into several pages so as not to deter potential respondents. - Contact us page Finally, the Contact Us page allows visitors to send us a message for any question or more details about the project. It is important to create interaction with clients and facilitate communication and feedback.

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3.5.3 Twitter We also posted our survey on our own Twitter account in order to address our followers. Twitter represents a big opportunity to create a network and quickly spread information addressing a large spectrum of people in a free and efficient way. 3.5.4 Forums We also posted our survey on several forums related to parental activities and aimed at the United Kingdom market. For each website we created an account and posted a message containing a link to the survey and insisting on the professionalism of our project. Most of these forums are listed below:
http://www.rollercoaster.ie/ http://www.pregnancyforum.org.uk http://www.twinmums.co.uk/ http://www.askamum.co.uk http://www.boards.ie http://www.mumsnet.com/ http://www.ukparentslounge.com/ http://www.pregnancyforum.org.uk http://www.babyclub.ie/ http://community.babycentre.co.uk/ http://www.emmasdiary.co.uk/forums/ http://babyworld.co.uk/ http://www.mummypages.ie http://www.parentschat.co.uk/ http://www.theparentforum.co.uk/ http://www.bubbalicious.co.uk/ http://www.eumom.ie/Forums.aspx http://babyandbump.momtastic.com/ http://www.pregnancyforum.co.uk/ http://www.mumstown.ie/ http://www.mumszone.co.uk/ http://www.lone-parents.org.uk/ http://thegreenparent.co.uk/forums

Chart 3.7: Addressed forums

3.6 Analysing the Results 3.6.1 The method As we were targeting 100 answers for the survey, we could not restrict the respondents population to fit our customer profile. However we wanted the answers according to the respondents matching with the public we aim at serving. That method would allow a finer-grained analysis of the results. Thus we needed a way to give more weight to people who fall in our target population and to downgrades the needs of those who do not match. For example, the answers of 45-50 years old former parent are accurate and interesting, however they should not be considered with the same importance as the needs formalised by 25-34 years old parents. To do so, we used a formula that is a derivative of a differential function used in KPI charts. It gives a percentage of accuracy (or weight) w, which is inversely proportional to the difference between the indicators (here it would be age range, social background, demographics) of the respondent and those of the ideal customer. Because some indicators are more important than others (e.g. not all generations have the same approach to technology, so age should be more important than revenues), we also gave 24

them a weight meaning a percentage of importance in a typical user profile. By considering all these different aspects, we ended up with the formula described below (see Formula 3.8).

Formula 3.8: Survey results weighting formula

With w: answers weight n: number of indicators wn: indicator weight vn: Difference between respondent and ideal customers indicator value

For our analysis we considered 3 indicators summarized in the chart below (see Chart 3.9). Indicator name Age range Nationality

vn value computation vn = abs(Age(ideal customer) Age(respondent)) vn = 0 if UK citizen

1 if Irish 2 if other UE citizen 3 if others

Weight 0,75 0,5

Smartphone-enabled

vn = 0 if respondent have Smartphone

1 otherwise
Chart 3.9: Survey results weighting indicators

0,5

Applying this formula gave an average 23% higher importance weigh to the answer of our target markets respondents and biased the results by an average of 19%. We observed that it did not change the key findings of the study, but changed the magnitude of the trends phenomena our market research rises. In the following section, we present our key findings and conclude on the market needs. 3.6.2 Key findings of the survey In a similar fashion to most early-stage concepts, we had developed a set of basic assumptions about the habits of our target market in relation to our potential product. Weve assumed that our target demographic is Smartphone enabled, uses apps, seeks information about their child online, and records their childs development is some way. As these assumptions are untested, we turned to our quantitative research to identify some positive and negative indicators. Alongside assumptions about our market and their needs, we have developed some possible business models, it was important for us to test if such business models could actually work with our target market. For example; does the market pay for products on subscription? How much do they spend on apps? Where do they seek information about products?

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Our approach towards distributing our survey proved to be a strong method as we attained 157 respondents before

terminating access to the survey as to analyse the results. Of the 66% of respondents who use Smartphone
Figure 3.10: Survey result App spending

applications (our target market), only 17%

have ever spent over 5 on applications. It is evident that parents are not keen on spending much for Smartphone apps. This means that direct sales of the app alone may not be sufficient for a sustainable revenue model. iPhone was the main phone with over 40% of respondents, and second was android with over 16%.
Figure 3.11: Survey result Brand repartition Figure 3.12: Survey result Technological habits

We found that the Internet plays a significant role in decision-making and purchasing habits of parents with infants. Over 80% of respondents read online reviews before buying baby products. Furthermore, we found that parents are quite likely to purchase baby products online, 78% of respondents said that they had done so in the past. This affirms an aspect of our potential business model, to have our distribution channels solely online.

Figure 3.13: Survey result Baby online reviews

Figure 3.14: Survey result Baby online purchasing

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We have found that price is not a major factor when it comes to purchasing a baby-monitoring product. Over 65% of respondents who owned a baby-monitoring product said that they paid over 100 for it. The survey also indicated that price was the 2nd least important consideration when charted against size, usability, sound quality and range.
Figure 3.16: Survey result Emotion online search Figure 3.15: Survey result Baby monitoring price

A childs development is extremely important to parents. The first years of their life can be an anxious time, and they often seek and track information to put them at ease and reassure them. Weve found that 96% of respondents have turned to the

Internet

to

find

such

information. We asked if parents sought information online about their childs emotions, sleeping patterns, and developmental norms.
Figure 3.17: Survey result Sleep cycle online search

Figure 3.18: Survey result Development milestones online search

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4. Competitive landscape analysis

Once we had identified the market needs, we assessed the competitive landscape to know if the competition currently fulfilled those needs, or if they could constitute a sustainable advantage for our offer. At the same time, we studied each main player and concluded on the strengths and weaknesses of their value proposition. To do so, we first considered a segmentation of the market between hardware baby monitor and pure software Smartphone app-to-app baby monitor segments, following that we looked at Baby Milestone applications. We will study their stakeholders, their main products category and conclude on the current environment with a GE Kinsey matrix and on the market attractiveness with a SWOT matrix. The ultimate goal is to discover which segment has the most potential for initial implementation, and afterwards to design an offer which best fits the gap between the market needs and the current competitors value proposition. 4.1 Hardware Baby monitoring segment This segment as concerns all baby monitors needing external devices for sensing as opposed to an appto-app product which uses the Smartphone and contains only software. This segment is crowded with big consumer electronics manufacturers (including Philips Avent (subsidiary of Royal Philips Electronics), Motorola, BT, TOMY) and well-implanted baby-focused companies (such as Tommee Tippee, Angel Care, Hisense). In terms of value proposition, we can distinguish 4 different segments: A mass market, cheap baby phone segment with only audio monitoring and 2-way audio talk. A mass/premium market video monitor segment with audio/video monitoring, specialised alerts, and remote-controlled camera orientation and nightlights intensity. A premium market movement sensor segment containing audio/video/movement monitoring with sleep quality and duration analysis. A niche market respiratory monitor aimed at infant with sleep-breathing diseases.

Their main characteristics are outlined in Figure 3.19. The competitive landscape of this segment is hostile with multiple innovations in the recent years and an average R&D budget for the main players around 2% of their net income (see Appendix 3.1). This means that competitors can easily catch up most of the technical lateness their product could have compared to new entrants.

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The baby phone and the video monitor segment are mature. The manufacturers benefit from the financial barrier-to-entry of setting up a production chain and having rationalised costs. For example,

Figure 3.19: Hardware baby monitor segmentation

Philips Avent (n1 in UK) runs one of the most advanced factories in Suffolk. It represents 20M in investment and is adapted to the baby monitor productions specific processes. Thus such big players benefits also from economy of scale and can launch a new product at a cost-effective price. The respiratory monitor segment is a niche market. Hisense, the main player, has built a technical barrier-to-entry by partnering with medical experts to design a high-quality reliable product. It is wellimplanted in retail and has a strong brand reputation. Thus this market would be difficult to conquer. Finally the movement monitor market and multisensory monitoring market seem to be the most promising ones. There are important stakeholders but with an acceptable size. The market is globally in growth. Even if the innovation pace is high, there are recent companies (5 to 7 years) which manage to reach an acceptable market share. Thus the possibility of an implementation in that market is conceivable. To limit the financial costs of designing a hardware product, just a light external device monitoring audio and movement should be considered.

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In order to have a visual view of the current market environment state, the evolution trends and where we could establish our product, we mapped the different segment in a GE Kinsey matrix (see Figure 3.20).
Figure 3.20: Hardware baby monitor GE Kinsey Matrix

Our potential opportunity on that market would be a multisensory product which features technical barrier-to-entry through the partnerships with body sensor specialists. To conclude of on the the

potential

hardware baby monitor segment, performed analysis we a have SWOT which

summarizes the pros and cons of an implantation on that market (see Figure 3.21)
Figure 3.21: Hardware baby monitor SWOT Analysis

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4.2 Application Segment Analysis 4.2.1 Approach In order to analyse this market segment and the Baby Milestone segment we looked at the application stores (Google Play and Apple App Store) to determine who would be our main competitors. We looked at different elements of the applications including their features, price, and download rate and user ratings. In doing this we were able to get an overview of who our primary competitors would be. It is important to note that not all of the above information we looked for was available depending on OS, information provided by developers and user feedback. In addition to this segmenting the applications proved to be quite difficult as a result we will not be using the GE Kinsey Matrix for determining market attractiveness and competitiveness. 4.2.2 Smartphone App-to-App baby monitoring segment Our initial specification will be a baby-monitoring product that uses two Smartphones, one being the monitor in the childs room, and the other being the parents receiver. This style of product removes the need for a dedicated physical piece of hardware, and allows parents the ability to instantly use the product once they download it. The reason we have decided to develop the initial product in such a way is based on a number of internal and external factors. It also allows us to peruse a business model that suits a small and unknown start-up team with limited funding.

4.2.2.1 Findings
The app to app baby monitor market is highly competitive and offers a huge variety of monitors offering different features, all at a very low cost. From analysing and locating the app to app baby monitors we were able to determine what functionalities these monitors provide, (Appendix 3.5). From looking at the chart, we determined the most common features to be the following: Sound Monitoring is the most used element in the app to app segment. Here the phone monitors the noise level in the room. With certain monitors you are able to set the sensitivity level of the noise and the duration it lasts for before alerting the parent. In addition to this, certain apps also offer a listen in option, where you are able to listen to determine if the baby is crying before deciding to go and tend to the infant. Video Monitoring provides video surveillance on the room in addition to sound. This gives parents the ability to use Facetime and look at the room when an alert is received. Alerts seem to come in three different forms, either through email, text, phone call or video. Phone was the most dominant as it allows you to listen and hear the baby. In addition to this Facetime offers a video option where you can

31

also see into the room. A number of the apps also offer an activity log, where pictures, sound recordings and video recordings can be stored and looked at again later. Other features which are used can be seen in Appendix 3.5. We couldnt determine a common trend between price and functionalities or abilities of the app. It seemed to vary while the most expensive apps having just as many attributes or less than the apps which are less costly. From our own perspective by looking at app descriptions and reviews on the apple store seemed to have influenced the price, with those with positive and a high number of reviews were more expensive, while those with no reviews and ratings were the least expensive, excluding two apps.

4.2.2.2 Main Competitors

BabyCam Monitor & Receiver The developers promote the concept of keeping an eye on your baby wherever you are. They use two different application one being a receiver of the video and audio and the sender, streaming these functions so continuous tracking of the
Figure 3.22: BabyCam logo

baby can be achieved.

Strengths The application has very strong customer base and brand image. Analysing the user comments, 70% would prove to be positive influence potential customers who look for information before downloading the app. In addition to this they will see at a first a rating 4.1 based on the user voting. The app has also had a good download rate ranging between 5,000 to 10,000 downloads in the past 30 days, as result there customer base is quite moderate in comparison to a number of similar apps available. In order to lure customers into downloading the app they offer a free trial to test the product and upgrade the full version. As our figures are based on the paid application, it shows a number of people are satisfied with the large variety of functionalities and features of the app and convert to the paid version. The customer comments showed a lot of positive feedback towards the usability of the app and its operability, which is crucial element towards customer retention (Hadden et al, 2007). Weaknesses As mentioned a high majority of the user comments have been quite positive, but there have still been complaints about potential bugs in the application focused highly towards camera and audio interruptions and also at times the phone freezes while the app is in use. These are essential elements to the success of the app and need to be reliable. Negative reviews can affect brand recognition and 32

peoples enthusiasm to download the app. The pricing model can cause confusion because you have to download to different apps on two different phones, one being the receiver and one being the sender. As a result the user has to pay 1.50 per app, which could have an impact on customer retention and ease of the transfer from trial to pay. Bungat Baby Monitor Bungat offer a high values product with a high range of features in which the user can take advantage of. It offers a variety of remote features which enable the parent to interact with their child while not being physically present.
Figure 3.23: Bungat logo

Strengths Similar to BabyCam Monitor and Receiver it offers a free trial, but unlike the latter the ease of transfer to the paid app is a much easier process and doesnt involve downloading two new apps and is a simple in app transfer. User recognition is also very high, have a rating of 4.7. The app provides a high number of different functions, offering the user a number of different ways to monitor their child. In addition to this the reviews are very positive and there is a high amount of download this app recommendations. The download rate can speak for itself being between 10,000 and 50,000 in the past month, again based on the information for the paid version charging at 1.45 and not the trial version. From testing the trial version of the app ourselves we found the layout and design of the app to be very user friendly, this is again backed up by user comments on Google Play. Weaknesses There have been certain complaints related to bugs within the app about the product being licensed. This could result the user losing trust in the app and thus switching to a competitor. It also is also not very battery efficient and the developers recommend using a dock in order to sustain battery life and make sure monitoring does not cease. We would have though adding a battery life notification to the app would have been an addition which could aid people who do not possess a dock. A number of competing products do offer this. Maintenance and updating the app the does not seem to be a priority of theirs in order to fix bugs and improve the app. The last update was over a year ago, not fixing the bugs could lead to further negative comments and decrease in download rate.

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Baby Monitor - Baby Alarm and Sleep Diary Baby Monitor is an app that helps you in watching your baby even when you are not around. If your baby is asleep and you are in another room, the baby monitor will detect if your baby is crying and alert you by a call or a text message, (Google Play Description).
Figure 3.24: Baby Monitor logo

Strengths The application is completely free, which is a huge advantage for the developer. This element is reflected in the extremely high download rate they have received in the past 30 days (100,000 500,000). Have a strong download rate increases the number of advertisements that other companies want to display within the app. With a high download rate like this, they have the ability to rely on advertising revenue and offer a highly functional application free of charge. Due to this, they have received a strong brand recognition, having a user rating of 4.5 and positive user comments. They also are continuously maintaining the application with regular updates and improvements, the latest being July of this year. Weaknesses The application did fall short on its usability and user friendliness, but with the application being free, users have commented on overlooking this and taking the extra time to learn how to use the app in order to avoid paying for the app. In addition to this they again state potential issues with battery life when using this application, but in order to manage this they give a low battery notification feature. We feel that these will be our strongest competitor in terms of the Baby Monitor app to app segment, with similar features and the app being free. 4.2.3 Smartphone Baby Milestone Apps2

4.2.3.1 Findings
When looking at this market we found it not to be as hostile as the previous market segments. It also had a different dynamic towards download rate. Those with a higher user rating and user reviews had a strong baring on the download rate, more so in the Android market as this information was more available for users to look at in comparison to the Apple App store. In terms of features, the apps had very similar characteristics. The main features available on the apps included: The ready to go milestones feature had possible milestones already implemented into the application where the user could simply tick a box to state that the milestone was complete. We found the main
2

Further Analysis and Competitor profiles can be seen in Appendix 3.6

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achievements focused on physical, intellectual, social and sleep pattern development. In addition to this, all of the applications gave an option where the user has the ability to add milestones which were not already installed, providing the user the ability to add spontaneous events about their childs development. Once these milestones were achieved, if the parent had a media recording (picture or video), they were able to add this to the event which had taken place. What we noticed was none of the apps provided a printed book or diary which the parent could purchase or was provided free in order to have a physical log for their memories, it was all digital and could only be accessed either through the application or the company website. A day to day tracking of activities in which need to be done and logging of daily habits was a feature which was available on 80% of the applications. This included activities such as feeding, bathroom and sleeping. We also found that this was the focus point of the analytical element and only 30% of the apps provided analytical feedback on the milestone feature.

4.2.3.2 Main Competitors

Baby Connect (Activity Logger) This application is a daily activity logger and diary. The user sets what tasks that needs to be done on a daily basis, the app also provides certain everyday activities in which the user can tick off when, it also has an option for adding events of the childs activities from that day. Even though this is not focused on
Figure 3.25: Baby Connect logo

milestones and overall growth development of the child, we still they are a strong competitor.

Strengths Some of the main advantages and strengths we came across while analysing the app is its connection function, were an option is provided that parents and child care staff can interact and communicate via the app. On top of this app has a very comprehensive list of features available and is available on multiple operating systems, (Appendix 3.6). The application also has a very strong user rating of 4.7, but we felt that even with this the monthly download rate was moderate of 5,000 to 10,000 installations at 3.80. It does offer a trial version to test the app, but the rate of downloads greatly exceeds that of the paid version (10,000 50,000) Weaknesses Even with these low installation figures, we found it difficult to find any information to reflect this, as all reviews were extremely positive. From downloading the trial version, we found some difficulties. It mainly focused towards the difficulty of finding and reading the already done activities. It doesnt give an easy interface in order to see what was done the day or week before. It is an extremely long process. 35

Baby Steps This application provides a guide on what to expect each week of a childs growth. In provides tips and different milestones in which aid the user to track height, weight, sleeping habits and many more, (Appendix 3.6). They explain their product as having all the important information about your baby at your fingertips to share with your paediatrician, family and friends, (Google Play).
Figure 3.26: Baby Steps logo

Strengths The strongest element of this application is the having no charge for the app. Even though it may not have a huge variety of different features for the user, it has provided the principle functions that match what the user wants. This can be acknowledged in the high download rate it has of between 50,000 and 100,000. The appeal of this in terms of others wanting to advertise on the app has been discussed earlier in this section. In addition to this, a substantial amount of the user comments given highlighted the importance of being able to add your own milestones to the app if they are not ready available. In other applications this was only available in the subscription or paid version of the app. Weaknesses There are a number of issues towards the accuracy of the application. For example it promotes the ability to give the information gathered to medical professionals. As the app is free, in this case they had to sacrifice on certain areas such as reliability and interface design. The graphics seem not be at the highest quality of competing apps, first appearance will play a large role in the potential users first impression of the app. The rating of the app is only average in comparison to others at 3.5. It is lowest ranking application mentioned in this section. Maintenance of the app seems to be done rarely as the last update was in January and the Android platform has been updated twice since then. This also leaves open the possibility for bugs within the app, which could result in users not using the app as mentioned earlier. Kidfolio Parenting and Baby Book Kidfolio is a social network and digital scrapbook for parents. It's the simplest way for parents to capture and share their childs precious first memories, (www.alt12.com). It gives the parent the ability to generate a timeline of the childs development and memories and the growth in milestones. It is also has created a community around the product, where parents can interact.
Figure 3.27: Kidfolio logo

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Strengths One of the main strengths of the app and company is that it has created a community around the product, where parents can interact with each other, sharing media and child growth and seek advice from fellow parents. In addition to this the download rate has been quite high in the past 30 days ranging between 10,000 and 50,000. This shows that they are attracting a decent amount of users to the application at a monthly basis, if this is the download figure. The amount of visitors to the application is higher. Brand recognition is strong. The app has a decent customer response section having a rating 4.0/5.0 and a majority of positive comments. Potential customers will rely on fellow users to gain an insight into the application and having a strong review section and user rating can influence the visiting user to download the application. Finally the application has been updated recently. This is important because the user can see they are fixing bugs within the app and keep customers for a longer period time due the operability of the app and the app is subscription based. Weaknesses Weaknesses seemed to be limited with this app, as it is subscription based quality is an essential element for this application. It still featured a few flaws in the functionality. This included social media interaction and the ability to upload media content to either Facebook or Twitter. There also were a certain number of negative comments towards difficulty to understand the application, but they were in 2011 and there have been a number of updates to the app since then. Even say that, as users trust fellow user feedback it may influence hesitation if they will be paying 23 a year for the app. 4.2.4 Analysis of iOS & Android The App to App IOS segment has a number of potential opportunities as well as strengths (see Figure 3.28). As you can see the development costs for an application is not expensive when not outsourcing the development. If outsourcing is chosen, it can cost between 5,000 and 10,000, depending on complexity and development requirements, (Wooldridge et al, 2010). App technology is continuously improving and increasing the number of potential functionalities for apps. This provides the opportunity to develop baby monitor apps which suit your target market. Using the 3G network offers high speed access and usage of applications. This also has the opportunity to improve with the implementation of the 4G network between now and 2016, (Govil et al, 2007). The App Store also offers a large amount of analytical data on the progress of your app sales, downloads, country

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amongst a number of other features3. Working with IOS apps have shown certain limitations, which would play an important role in using the operating system as a baby monitor.

Figure 3.28: SWOT Analysis iOS

The main two being that when for example you use the Facetime or Listen in options on the app, it disconnects and has to be manually reconnected, which will cause the person to have to go to the second phone physically each time they use the functions mentioned. In addition to this there have been a number of reviews on the app store of the consumption of battery life when using the app for a full night.

Source: (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/navigation/index.html).

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Figure 3.29: SWOT Analysis Android

The app to app Android segment has a number of similarities but there are a few elements which separate them from the IOS market (see Figure 3.29). These main benefits come in terms of development and the ability to continue to run the application even when functions such as a listen or video in are being used. This plays a huge part in a baby monitor as it avoids the parent from having to physically move to reset the app. The main weaknesses of using the Android platform are the higher risk of viruses including Malware and Trojan horses. The growth of Android Smartphone in use and installation in the UK has been substantial even in the past year, in June 2011 Android had a market share of 48.7% and grew to 57.2% in 2012. IOS on the other hand saw a minimum growth in market share just improving by 5.4% from 20.2% in 2011 to 25.6% in 2012, (see Figure 3.30).
Figure 3.30: Comparison of UK Smartphone Use Source: Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, 2012

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When developing Apps for the IOS Apple platform, developers are limited to needing a Macintosh system with a powerful software system, the limit being Mac OS X 10.6, (Goadrich et al, 2011). In contrary to this, when developing for Android there is a number of options which can be used, (Appendix 3.7), in addition to this Android Apps can be used on many different hardware devices seen in the above mentioned Appendix 3.7, (ibid). IOS Apps are written using Xcode. This Integrated Development Environment (IDE) covers the main aspects of Application development including coding, debugging and interface layout. As Android is much newer than IOS, as a result development is standardised on one screen size and operating system (OS), to create adjustable real life scenarios of cross platform development, unlike IOS were alterations need to be made, such as resolution when developing for either tablet or mobile, (ibid). Eclipse is the most popular IDE used for development as it enables the user to create a project, code and sign Apps for release on the Android Market. Also, it has a strong access for immediate download of the SDK with an extremely easy use of the emulator or phone and an integrated debugging environment. XML is used for GUI layout which has layout and view elements, Java constructor. Eclipse provides an easy to use editor for creating and editing App properties, as well as the option to be done manually through XML code. With using Eclipse you have access to Development Widgets and libraries, which provide numerous amount of code, interface design and many other elements used for Android App development, (ibid). IOS on the other hand uses Xcode with Cocoa Touch. This provides many unique design patterns fitted specifically for Apple products. These include: Interface elements Object allocation and initialisation methods Delegation (reference system for objects to a particular protocol) Blocks (simpler version of Delegation)

The two OS also have distinct languages used for development. IOS uses Objective C. When using Cocoa Touch and Xcode you have access to a large set of collections, similar to Android Widgets, which provide much help. Android is written through Java, which provides customable libraries for graphic and mobile development, and an open API set from Google. In addition to this The App inventor has been created with a partnership between MIT and Google to help developers generate Apps using a block sequence providing an easy to use development platform, (ibid). A strong facility provided when developing for Android, something, which IOS have still yet to provide, is Garbage Collection. This is automatic memory management were any memory which is not being used is freed and no memory is freed unless the program will cease to use it. This means debugging, memory storage and processor usage is much more 40

efficient. On IOS this has to be done manually, causing development delay and increased workload, (ibid). In the future for our product we would like our app to be present on both Android and IOS platforms due to the two having a combination of 82.8% of the market share of Smartphones in current use in the UK, for this project we opted to develop an for the Android platform. This decision was made through both reasons acknowledged in Appendix 3.7, including an open source platform, development costs and application testing, along with reasons mentioned in the above analysis, such as Android gaining a strong momentum of market share, but we also looked to the skills the team possess. These skills include familiarity with Java and Eclipse, access to Android Smartphones for development and previous App development for Android Smartphones. *For further comparison of the two platforms please consort Appendix 3.7.

5. Justification of Product specification

Our initial specification will be a baby-monitoring product that uses two Smartphones, one being the monitor in the childs room, and the other being the parents receiver. This style of product removes the need for a dedicated physical piece of hardware, and allows parents the ability to instantly use the product once they download it. The reason we have decided to develop the initial product in such a way is based on a number of internal and external factors. It also allows us to peruse a business model that suits a small and unknown start-up team with limited funding. We thoroughly examined the baby-monitoring market and found that the market was almost entirely consumed by a small number of big brands with a strong reputation for quality dedicated hardware and useful features. This finding was supported by our questionnaire data, which showed that 100% of respondents, who owned a baby-monitor, in fact, owned a brand name baby monitor. Brands that appeared in our data included Tommee Tippee, BT, Angel Care, Motorola, Phillips, Summer, Fisher Price, Chicco, and Safety First.

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6. Product Specification
In order to generate a viable product we analysed and compared the different application features, price and potential development time from both the Baby Monitor and the Baby Milestones application markets. We then compared this with our survey responses in order to determine how the respondents needs compared to what is already available. We concluded in combining the two applications and offer a new application which corresponded to the needs of both segments. The In order to achieve this, we developed a three stage development process illustrated below (Figure 6.1). The first stage is focused on developing a baby monitor application and stage two is the addition of the milestone features. We also opted for a third stage of developing a dock for the baby monitor for a possible future development if we proved to be successful with stages one and two. We could use this to provide further features which could be used to provide further analytics and an additional revenue stream. In order to develop stage three, it will require us to do a separate industry and market analysis. As a result the concept will not be considered until year three and when we have proven to meet our targets with the application. This will show us we have the ability to be successful, sustainable and the potential for growth. The features outlined below are our initial ideas and are due to change with the growing innovation of technology if we decide to return the concept.

Figure 3.31: Product specification plan

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6.1 The App to App Baby Monitor Stage 1 As mentioned, this relates to developing a simple baby monitor application. We opted for a number of different features and combinations and concluded on the offering those outlined in 6.1.1. Baby Monitoring is a very sensitive and important area for parents. As a result, we will need the app to be highly reliable and have no problem with its functionalities. If this is not achieved the customer will lose faith in our product and we will not be able to push on to stage two. Also, the application will have to extremely user friendly with an easy to use interface. We will need the customer to enjoy using the app as well as knowing that it works to a high standard. 6.1.1 Features Simple audio Monitoring: The user can listen to his child at any time anywhere 2 way audio talk: the user can talk to his baby anytime anywhere via his Smartphone Alerts when the baby is awake and crying with sensitivity control Customizable events associated with actions: if the baby cries, the user can configure the application to automatically play a song or other audio track. Sleep cycle analysis via auto generated tables.

6.1.2 Drawbacks We found the main difficulty we will face in this stage one is establishing ourselves within the baby monitor application market. From our analysis outlined in section 3 we found the market to be very saturated and competitive. As a result an emphasis is put on the reliability and user-friendliness of the application in order to have a large download rate and establish ourselves as a trustworthy and dependable application. 6.1.3Advantages The main advantages we will gain from achieving the above is first of well we will establish ourselves within the market. Second of all we will start to build our customer base giving us access to a large amount of data to develop a stronger customer profile and on how they use the application. This will also enable us to roll out stage two and offer a higher valued product than a simple baby monitor, with an already installed user community. 6.2 The baby diary service (milestone development log) Stage 2 - The second core feature of the application is the development of a milestones log. This would contain preloaded commonly recognised stages in a childs growth. Parents can mark when their child has achieved certain milestones. The date and the achievement will be recorded by the application for 43

future reference. This means that parents will always have access to details on how their child is developing. In addition to preloaded milestones, parents will be able to keep track of custom events such as medial visits or special occasions. 6.2.1 Features Data analysis: o Mental development information will enable an analysis of the babies emotions (e.g. if the baby has a strong tendency to cry at night) and a comparison with established averages will be provided (to know how often and how long other babies cry during the night at this age). o Medical information can be entered such as doctors visits, medical treatments, vaccination and blood type. o Special events such as first baby word, first crawl, first steps can be stored and compared to community averages in order to keep track of the important steps of the babys growth. - Data comparison with world medical infant standards from WHO and expert paediatricians and those on our platform. 6.2.2 Drawbacks The biggest barrier to the success of this feature is the willingness of parents to keep an active record of milestones achieved. If parents dont use the app regularly then they are less likely to gain value from it, and therefore less likely to convert into paying users. 6.2.3 Advantages: Users who actively engage in this feature will have a higher prosperity to seek extended features, features that are only available through paid subscriptions (unlimited usage and advanced sleep cycle insights). Furthermore, data inputted via this feature will give us statistics regarding average age for completion of milestones. This is a feature that could provide us with an additional revenue stream in the future, which is discussed later in the report. 6.3 The baby monitor dock If the baby monitor dock proves to be achievable and financially viable it will be the last step of our development process. It will integrate additional functions and technology to improve the main existing features and offer new advanced options for demanding parents. The dock was also designed to be used by the parents as a simple alarm dock when the baby grows up and the application is no longer necessary.

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6.3.1 Features Battery charger Wi-Fi connected device controllable from any Smartphone via Wi-Fi or 3G. Support for video monitoring with revolving base, controllable with a Smartphone which enables parents to follow their baby when he/she moves. High quality speakers with special attention to voice peculiarities in order to recreate as best as possible the parents voice played to calm the baby. Temperature sensor to monitor the room temperature with customizable alerts if the temperature rises or descends under a specific temperature. Night atmosphere light with colour and intensity control from any Smartphone to calm the baby when crying or during bad weather such a thunder. 6.3.2 Drawbacks An important focus must be given to the negotiation with the dock manufacturer regarding the final price of the device and the quality of the components and sensors. The main risk lies in the possibility of intense competition with powerful actors of the market that could easily offer similar products on the market. 6.3.3 Advantages The multiple additional features and the perfection of the existing ones improve the usability of the product and offer great marketing opportunities. This dock will ensure the completion of a promising baby monitor with every necessary feature to reach and sustain as a leading position on the market.

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6.4 Product Idea Feedback Once we determined the product we aimed at developing, we contacted potential users through email in order to get feedback on the potential and viability of the application, how they would use it and clarify if the features we opted to use were in line with theirs. Seventeen respondents who took part in our survey analysis provided email contact details and expressed interest in taking part in further research on our project. Out of the seventeen people, we received replies from six. We gave an introduction to our idea, but limiting the description to the necessities, such as excluding the features we have decided upon. We then constructed a number of open ended questions, so the responses would be purely spontaneous and based on their opinion and not prompted by us. This gave us the ability to compare our concept with their answers. Many of the answers aligned with the product specifications. All respondents expressed an interest in logging their childs growth in a digital form as they currently do it in a traditional manner of pen and paper. The main function in which a Smartphone played in their parenting role was taking media memories (image and video). This backed -up providing a feature where parents could upload digital files towards milestones achieved by their child. Medical history also proved to be an important feature they wished to have. As a result, we added this as a milestone section to our application. Some of the respondents, in terms of the baby monitor, expressed that offering too much information and monitoring can result in parent anxiety. Therefore, we reduced certain functions as to avoid parents possibly becoming over paranoid. For a further look on the key findings and responses to this research please consort Appendix 3.8. Once we had determined that we had a potentially marketable product, we were able to start adapting our business and revenue model and how we could approach marketing towards end users. In addition to this we had to further analyse the application industry and review our decision to target the Android market. In order to achieve this we again looked back at our previous survey analysis and the new feedback we had received and started making adjustments to the first draft on how we could develop a sustainable business.

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Section 4:

INDUSTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

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Section 4: Industry and environmental analysis

1. Macroeconomic Analysis U.K vs. Ireland
1.1 Political U.K The U.K follows a democratic, parliamentary system of governance. It has been deemed one of the most successful nations in terms of application of the rule of law gaining a 91.0 rank of government effectiveness in 2011 and regulatory quality (DataMonitor U.K, 2011). Some of positive governmental actions which have been witnessed in the past few years are their strong measures taken to reduce the fiscal deficit of the country. But in saying that, the increase in government borrowing has increased the debt of the country, being one of the highest in the E.U. They have also witnessed a high amount of corruption in the country, which raises the prices the cost and the risk of doing business. This has also had an impact on the willingness of foreign investment and the progress they have been making in economic growth. Early in 2012, the government did announce a new SEIS (Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme) initiative which aims to aims to offer incentives for investments made into new Start-up companies offering 50% income tax relief on investments and a capital gains tax exemption on gains made in 2012 and 2013 and then invested through the SEIS in the same year. Outside this initiative, in the past year the government has increased VAT rates to 20% and Capital Gains Tax to 28% and the top marginal income tax rate to 50%. Ireland Ireland is represented by a democratic republic, and its constitution abides by liberal democratic principles (DataMonitor Ireland, 2011). Some positive outlook towards the economy that the government has played a part in, is cutting over 21 billion in expenditure, equivalent to around 13% of the nations GDP. This though does have a negative effect on the population including consumer purchasing power, which will be discussed later in this section. In 2010 Ireland was given a 92.4 and 84.4 percentile ranking in terms of voice, accountability and political stability. In addition to this they received a 95.2 rating for government effectiveness (ibid). In comparison to the U.K who received a 91.6 for voice and accountability and a rating of 54.7 for political stability. An element which has had a positive impact on international relations between the two countries was the cut of interest rates on loans given to Ireland. Furthermore, there are a lot of initiatives towards to start-ups including a similar SEIS initiative as the U.K, but we have identified further Tax exemptions towards generating new jobs; start-ups under

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two years old are exempt from corporation tax and capital gains tax up to a sum of 960,000 taxable profits over a three year period (Grant Thornton, 2012). 1.2 Economic U.K

Figure 4.1: UK economic factors

Some of the main figures in terms of inflation, national GDP and unemployment rates can be seen in Figure 4.1. It also includes potential forecasts up to the year 2015. The U.K is the second largest economy in the EU and is one of the highest ranked in terms of social welfare, standards of living, unemployment, interest rates, inflation and inward and outward foreign investment. But some of these areas to still remain weak in comparison to Ireland. The country has been recognised as the fourth best country to do business in, even with some of the concerns already mentioned, such as corruption. The country has been growing slowly, due to increased government loans. Last year it had a small increase of 1.6%. This has had a correlated effect on employment rates which can be seen in the above diagram. The budget deficit in 2010-2011 fell by just under 20 billion (DataMonitor U.K, 2011). Banks have reduced lending out gives, with little approaches to capital formation. The government has warned them of this and state that if this isnt increases that they will succumb to more levies, taxes and bonus taxes, which shows a positive approach for small companies to receive loans. The U.K has seen a dramatic fall in FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in relation to Ireland especially in relation to technology and Start-ups. Even with the SEED initiatives put in place investment has been minimal for new emerging enterprises. Inflation rates can be seen in the above diagram. The U.K has had a strong focus for growth in this area and to implemented initiatives to keep this at the desired level. Unemployment has been at a record low but is aimed to fall in the coming future. 49

Ireland

Figure 4.2: Ireland economic factors

Some of the main figures in terms of inflation, national GDP and unemployment rates can be seen in Figure 4.2. It also includes potential forecasts up to the year 2015. Ireland witnessed some of the worst affects as a result of the economic crisis. This has had a huge impact on consumer purchasing behaviour, ability and national economic conditions. In recent years the country has been challenged with unemployment, deflation, budget deficit and almost zero credit availability. But as can be seen from the above diagram, the country has been starting to see growth in these areas. They have been meeting EU requirements to reduce their budget deficit, which has displayed the countrys improvement of trade competiveness. The ICT sector has been at the forefront of economic return for the country and a main element of the internationally traded services sector of Ireland. In addition to this FDI for the country has played a significant role in expanding job opportunities, spreading technological knowhow and promoting various skills within the economy, boosting industries, and underpinning export growth. The strong FDI that flows into the country reflects the strength of the countrys economy and business environment. 1.3 Social U.K The residents of the U.K experience a high standard of living and ranks 26th in terms of human development. Even with this, there has been a high percentage of child poverty in the country. This is an aspect the country has declared to eliminate by 2020. Last year, the nation saw over 13 million people living in poverty, 3.8 million being represented by children. This is an element in which the nation greatly needs to improve for future progress and output of skilled workers. They have a strong educational

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system, but the introduction of increased third level fees has had a great impact on student abilities to attain a 3rd level education. This will result in lower qualified workforce in the coming years. In addition to this, the speedy growth of the ratio of children and those over 65 to the working age population has become a concern for the nation. With this rise in an aging population, effects could be seen in the future which could affect our company and the nations workforce, statistics have shown that this will continue to grow till 2041 (DataMonitor U.K, 2011). The country is welcoming digital products with open arms such as Smartphones and Tablets having a 70% penetration rate for Smartphones and 39% ownership rating for Tablets, with the primary use being at home at 89%, (Ofcom, 2012). Ireland The country has huge growth in terms of the social climate. In 2010, the governments revised spending plan had a strong focus and increase in expenditure towards education aiming to augment the higher education infrastructure of the nation. In comparison to the U.K, the country has relatively low 3rd level tuition fees, even though they have been rising in recent years. This has played a huge role in the strong and educated workforce being released into the nation, and the creation of jobs through FDI, has seen a strong employment rate coming out of university. Many ICT firms have made Ireland their European headquarters and are still coming in, creating even more jobs for the young workforce. Unlike the U.K, the Irish population is relatively young with approximately 40% of the population being less than 25 years old; the European average is 30%. This shows high prospect for a young, educated and determined workforce in the coming years. Even though unemployment has been at an all-time high in the past years, this is starting to change and has a positive forecast for the future as seen in Figure 4.2. Again the digital adoption of the Irish community has been large with a 70% Smartphone penetration rate by December 2012 and 16% Tablet ownership rate. 1.4 Technological U.K The U.K is one of the innovation leaders of the EU. It has implemented a number of regulations towards Intellectual Property (IP), in order to enhance protection and is continually adding new legislation in accordance with developments in the sector. A great downfall is that they are not producing a high amount of qualified personal to work in the IT sector. This is a major shortfall as IT is very important towards the improvement of the economy and could face a serious challenge if this is not altered and maintain a strong competitiveness in this area.

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Ireland Ireland similar to the U.K has been enhancing its IP legislation as this IT sector is growing at a rapid rate within the nation and the laws need to be compliant with EU regulations. A very promising aspect in the development of IT in Ireland is the alterations to the countrys budget aimed to enhance the sector. From 2010 2016 has emphasised its development in academic research, FDI in high tech companies and research in Start-up companies. The IDA will receive 602 million, Enterprise Ireland will receive 589 million and other programs a total of 109 million in the coming years till 2016. This allocation of funding will hope to create 63,000 new jobs and the possible development of 100 new start-up businesses by 2016. Platform Cable Broadband LLU FTTC Superfast Broadband 3G U.K Availability - 2011 44% 99% 31% 60% 99.1%
Figure 4.3: Wireless Availability 2011 Source: OfCom Report, 2012

Figure 4.4: Ownership of Smartphone, Tablet PC and Smart TV UK repartition

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2. Industry Analysis
2.1 Barriers to Entry (Low - Medium) If the application development is not outsourced the costs are quite low, in this case the ability to enter the baby monitor application market is quite low. A key aspect in which will aid increasing this barrier is the level of functionalities and reliability of the app, an aspect which we have focused on throughout the development analysis and process. Also, applications can be developed quite easily and quickly, which increases the ability to enter the market within months. We found our target market to be brand loyal, once they had tested the different applications which were available on the market, in accordance to this we have a heavy focus on establishing our brand as a high quality and reliable product which is discussed in the Business Model section. Switching costs for customers can either be extremely high or low. If the buyer wishes to change platform, i.e. iOS to Android, the cost to this is substantial, but if the customer is switching to a new app, the cost is low, depending on the buyers requirements, but would still pay no more than 6 for an app. An interesting aspect to the SensAnalytics product is that it increases user switching cost over time. The more parents use the application to track their childs development, the harder it would be for them to move to a replacement service. 2.2 Determinants of Supplier Power (Medium) On both the iOS and Android platforms there are moderate to high number of suppliers for app to app baby monitors, and separately, baby development logs, but if we look at in terms of the functionalities in which we aim to provide in relation to competitors with the same characteristics this number decreases, giving us a higher degree of power. Taking into consideration the high volume of baby monitor apps with any variety of functions, this number is quite high, making the availability of substitutes high. We also take into consideration the decreasing price of apps which has taken place over the past couple years and the average sale price per app per platform (Figure 4.6), in addition to the feedback of the spending amount which the respondents to our survey gave, the cost to purchase an app from either market is relatively low if not free. For SensAnalytics, we will have a low dependency on outside suppliers, as all development will be kept in within the current team, but in terms of the buyers, they do have a large dependency on the current suppliers within the market to provide a reliable and high functioning app to meet their needs. In relation to distribution, there are many directions in which we can take, especially for the Android Market. For 53

Figure 4.7: Avg. Price iOS vs. Android Source: Koekkoek, 2011

Figure 4.6: Average sale price per app per platform

iOS, the only distribution method is through the Apple App Store, where we would have to pay in order for Apple to host our app. Android provides a number of different channels, including Google Play, Amazon and through our own website. For the latter hosting the app will be free, but for hosting on Android stores mentioned above we will have to succumb to a fee. The fees for both platforms include:
Figure 4.5: App Store Membership Costs Sources: www.apple.com, www.google.com, www.amazon.com

Store iOS Apple App Store Google Play Amazon SensAnalytics Website

Membership Cost $99 (Per Anum) $25 (Once Off) $99 (Per Anum) N/A

Transaction Fee 30% 30% 30% 5%(Paypal)

% Payment Received 70% 70% 70% 100%

2.3 Determinants of Buyer Power (Medium) In relation to the number of suppliers vs. the number of potential customers, it is highly in favour of the supplier if the market share is relatively high, which is a key goal of ours. There is a very wide access to information for buyers, be it through selling platforms i.e. Google Play or App Store, or through social media. Open forums, blogs and social networks will play a huge part in buyer decision making towards 54

their baby monitor app. Many parents look for recommendations online, for example; www.rollarcoaster.ie is a forum where parents discuss different products they have used and their quality, in this particular website there is a number of threads open for baby monitor apps. As mentioned earlier our target market have a wide variety of suppliers to choose from and are not loyal until they have found the product to suit their needs, this is a key element we would have to address in order to firstly gain market share and also to sustain competitive advantage over other suppliers. 2.4 Threat of Substitutes (Medium) The availability of substitutes is quite high, with prices being relatively similar, however, over time and use of our development tracking feature, threat of substitutes will decrease as switching costs increase. The quality of the substitute is dependent on features, user friendliness and security. If we look at substitutes in which will offer similar functionalities as our own, this number greatly decreases, which firstly increases our ability to gain a sustainable amount of customers, if we create a strong, positive, reliant and trustworthy brand. This as mentioned previously will be essential for operational success. 2.4 Rivalry amongst Existing Firms (Low - Medium) Even though the relative amount of competitors who are offering the same service as us in accordance to quality, reliability and features, the market is still being targeted by a high number of app app baby monitor companies. Even though these firms may not adhere to the same success, they still gain a certain amount of the market, making competitive rivalry high and lessening available market share. From our research the market looks to be still growing, but at a slower rate. Firms have to continuously upgrade their product and develop new and different functions in order to differentiate their product, but again reliability of these features is one of the most important factors to consider, as it is a sensitive product, quality outweighs price in terms of customer choice. As the majority of development and business operations will be conducted by the current team and the relative cost to test our product on the Android market, we have determined Exit Barriers to be low, as SensAnalytics will have minimum losses and expenses if the decision was made to leave the market. This again influences the rivalry amongst the firms to be much lower, than if the Exit Barriers where high.

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Section 5:

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

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Section 5: Technical specifications

This section will outline the most important technical issues involved in the development of our product. The aim is to give a complete specification with all identified technical solutions, some background information about them and the way to implement them. It concludes on the current state of the product development, and presents the development milestones and an approximation of the efforts needed to complete a full version 1.0 (see Section 3).

1. Methodology overview
In order to ensure that all issues raised by our product have been clearly identified, answered and reported in this section, the R&D team followed a strict process summarized below in Figure 5.1. The first step aims at translating the features and constraints identified in the market study section into functional and nonfunctional requirements the

product would have to comply with. This is done using the functional analysis tool and helps us identify the key technical problems to address (see 2). Two of them concern the which

network

architecture

supports the application. Thus we describe in that part (see 3) the internal network architecture design and how we link together the Smartphone application with the back-end server to forward alerts to parents.

Figure 5.1: R&D process overview

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Another requirements identified by the functional analysis are related to the Smartphone app design. Therefore a complete report concerning how we followed specific Human-Computer interaction guidelines to assess several alternative designs of the app will justify why we end up with that final version. On the same section, we will also review our development environment with all the software used in the process and explain how we configure this environment to optimize the implementation (see 4). Once the design is established, the next step is to study how the activity recognition can be done. The part 5 will outline the background information needed to understand the field before presenting different technical solution, comparing them and conclude on the most adapted for our product. After this theoretical part, a practical section will present what tools and libraries we use and how we develop, integrate, test and deploy our activity recognition algorithm within the Smartphone application frontend. After the full specifications (front-end apps graphical charter, apps back-end activity recognition algorithms, communication architecture between Smartphone and server) have been consistently described and the current advancement of the mock-up development has been outlined, we conclude on the future development milestones and the technical difficulties and challenges we face on our path towards version 2.0 of the app. This study is followed by the estimation of the time needed to reach a complete version. This will help defining the key development costs that might rise over the next 3 years.

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2. Functional Analysis
In order to translate the identified users needs into technical requirements and solutions, we use a methodology called Functional analysis which is mostly employed in France in the mechanical engineering field. It is composed of two different steps: the external and the internal analysis. First the external analysis allows aligning the product offer with the market requirements and constraints, all summarized in one diagram, called the Octopus chart. On this chart is presented all the technical and non-technical requirements needed for the realisation of the project in the form of functions. These functions are then used for the second part of the analysis. Indeed the aim of the internal analysis is to translate these functions into sub-functions and finally technical solutions using the FAST diagram. All these different tools will be further explained in the following. 2.1 External analysis: The Octopus chart As previously explained the aim of the Octopus chart is to translate the market needs and constraints into functions of 3 different types: The principal function summarizes in one sentence the core value proposition of the product. The service functions summarize the actual services offered by the product to the clients. The constraint functions draw the requirements driven by the market and the environment.

This analysis is the first step to transform subjective information into objective and concrete development milestones. Here are our conclusions. Principal function FP: Provide a unique and mobile access point to monitor baby activities and evolution. Service functions FS-S: Security-related functions

FS-S1: Help parents configuring actions (play song, voice messages) to launch on response to detected activity (waking, crying ) and considering sensitivity level. FS-S2: Acquire data about baby status. FS-S3: Recognize baby activity considering sensitivity level. FS-S4: Trigger actions on response to baby activity and according to parents settings. FS-E: Evolution-related functions

FS-E1: Gather important moment of baby evolution. FS-E2: Compare evolution indicators with norms.

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Constraint functions FC1: Constraints related to parents

FC1.1: Need an intuitive interface FC1.2: Need an interface easily accessible everywhere FC1.3: Need reliability and security guarantees FC1.4: Need quality certifications (ISO) FC2: Constraints related to baby

FC2.1: Should not be dangerous for health FC2.2: Should not be reachable from the bed FC2.3: Should be strong FC2.4: Application on baby side should not disturb his sleep FC3: Constraints related to Smartphones

FC3.1: Should be hosted in Smartphone with enough battery and computation cost FC3.2: Should be optimized to use few computation cost FC3.3: Should be optimized to use little battery FC3.4: Should keep at any time the top priority on the Smartphone scheduler FC4: Constraints related to the server

FC4.1: Should have good response time and high availability (no downtime) FC4.2: Should have enough space to store baby data on database FC5: Constraints related to physical environment

FC5.1: Should adapt to different background noises FC5.2: Should be resilient to interferences FC5.3: Should provide good enough acquisition range (i.e. distance Smartphone-baby) FC6: Cost-related constraints

FC6.1: Cheap app purchasing cost FC6.2: Should only use Smartphone resources (no extra need for external hardware) FC7: Legal constraints

FC7.1: Medical data should be stored anonymously FC7.2: All sensitive data should be secure FC7.3: Customers should be acknowledged of all data stored in easy way 60

FC8:

Constraints related to mobile network

FC8.1: Should be always connected to Wi-Fi or 3G network FC8.2: Should ensure that alerts will always be forwarded on time to parents All these functions are important to the success of the project and are summarized in Figure 5.3 (see next page). However, in order to translate their importance and to give concrete objectives to development teams, the internal functional analysis requires that each of them is given weights along with an indicator of success and a target range the product has to comply with at the end of the development. The following chart (see chart x) summarizes it and gives inputs for the R&D risk assessment (with constraints and weights) and for the development specifications (with constraints, objective indicator and target range). N S1 S2 S3 S4 Service functions (FS) Help configuring settings Acquire baby data Recognize baby activity Trigger actions accordingly Weigh 2 5 4 3 Objective indicator(s) Learning time Data loss Positive recognition rate False positive rate Nb possible actions Nb possible events Nb milestones info Nb medical info Nb monitored info Nb comparison indic. Comparison time Objective indicator(s) Learning time Language supported Access supported Application downtime Security guarantees Range 1 5 min < 10% > 70% < 30% 5 5 10 5 All possible All possible < 10s Range 1 5 min ENG, FR Wi-Fi, 3G, Internet < 48h / year Interferences resilience, Battery monitoring ISO 9001

Related to baby security

Related to baby evolution E1 Gather baby evolution information 2

E2 N 1.1 1.2 1.3

Compare with norms Constraint functions (FC) Intuitive interface Interface accessible everywhere Need reliability and security guarantees

4 Weigh 4 3 3

Constraints related to parents

1.4

Need quality certifications

2 61

ISO norms

Constraints related to baby 2.1 Should be harmless for health 5 Intensive test phases Smartphone size Toxic products Min acquisition range Resilience to shock Block calls & messages Ensure silent mode Battery life Processor power CPU use rate Battery impact Priority downtime Server response time Server downtime Database initial capacity Database capacity growth SNR Intersymbol interference Max acquisition range Price Extra device Anonymous storage Development security guidelines Communication protocol Terms and conditions Alerts to parents Message loss >3 H > 6cm, W > 6cm 0% > 50cm Yes Yes 100% use time > 10h > 1.5 GHz < 15% < 10% < 5% < 1 sec < 48h / year > 1 To > 5 To / year

2.2 2.3 2.4

Should not be reachable from bed Should be strong Baby-side applications should be silent

2 2 4

Constraints related to Smartphones 3.1 Should be hosted on Smartphones with good battery life and computation power Should use few computation cost Should use little battery Should always keep top priority Should be hosted on server with good response time and high availability Should have enough space to store data 4

3.2 3.3 3.4 4.1 4.2

3 3 2 4 3

Constraints related to server

Constraints related to environment 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 Should adapt to background noises Should be resilient to interferences Should provide good acquisition range Cheap app purchasing cost Should only use Smartphones Medical data stored anonymously Sensitive data are secured 4 5 3 5 3 Legal constraints 5 5 Yes Common criteria level 2 SSL-TLS Yes Yes < 2% > 5 dB BER < 15% > 5m 0 0

Constraints related to price

7.3 8.1 8.2

Customers informed about stored data Should be always connected Should ensure alerts always forwarded

5 4 5

Constraints related to the mobile network

Chart 5.2: Internal analysis conclusions 62

Figure 5.3: Octopus Chart

Parents

Baby FP

FS-S1
Cost

FC2 FC1

FS-S2 FS-S3 FC3 FS-E2

Smartphone

FS-S4 FC6

FS-E1

FC5
Physical Environment

FC4

Server

FC8
Mobile Network 63

FC7
Legal environment

2.2 Internal functional analysis - FAST (Functional Analysis System Technique) The FAST technique aims at defining the hierarchical decomposition of the systems functions. Firstly, the main function of the system is defined and divided into several service functions which are linked with the external environment in which the constraints have been identified previously. Each of these service functions are translated into technical functions (systems internal functions), and then physically into constructive solutions. Designing the FAST diagram of our system allows us to have a better overview of the organization and the role of each evolved function: Why a function should be ensured? Reading from right to left. How a function should be ensured? Reading from left to right. When a function should be ensured? Vertical reading.

The first step of the FAST diagram design process is to consider the service functions identified during the internal analysis. Considering the complexity of the entire system, we provide a FAST diagram for each of these identified service functions to ensure readability. Detailing all service function evolved in the system allows to identify the set of technical functions the system should perform and to define the corresponding solutions. Finally, it allows us to specify the systems architecture and to identify the technical challenges and design constraints we face. Main Function (FP)

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Service Functions (FS) FS1: Configure Settings

FS2: Acquire baby data

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FS3: Recognize baby activity

FS4: Trigger actions

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FS5: Gather evolution data

FS6: Compare with norms

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2.2 Functional analysis conclusions The FAST diagram highlights the main function of the system performed through six service functions. Each of these service functions evolves technical functions internal to the system and corresponding to physical and hardware solutions. Considering the set of identified technical functions and selected solutions, the FAST diagram imposes several features for the implementation: The product architecture Two main technical challenges: o o Implementation of Activity detection functions Communication application/server

Constraints on the application design

These four points will be further detailed in the product specifications.

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3. Network architecture & app-server communication

This section aims at presenting the network and telecommunication part involved in the project. It will outline the main components of our solutions, what stakeholders interact with them and what tasks are performed by each of them in order to build a general view of the architecture. Then we will describe how we solve the communications problems between the application and the server to reliably synchronize settings changes and forward alerts to parents. 3.1 Network architecture overview Taking into account the functional and non-functional requirements identified in the internal analysis (see 2.1) along with the technical solutions identified in the FAST diagram (see 2.2) we map the functionalities needed to provide our service to parents into the physical components of our architecture.

3.1.1 Own server vs. Virtual server

Two options are available concerning our back-end architecture: owning our own server or using virtual services through a company such as OVH. The virtual ser oriented solution presents many advantages in terms of architecture complexity and cost reduction. Indeed, owning our own server includes significant expenditure and resources uses, mainly related to the physical hardware (hardware purchase, maintenance, and high-level connexion subscription) and the implementation of the architecture. OVH proposes a range of dedicated server solutions according to your needs of processor, RAM, storing, and network capabilities (Appendix 5.1). However, these solutions do not offer any guarantee in terms of quality of service (QoS) and data protection when transmitting on the network. Considering that our core activity includes critical data related to babies security, we cannot overlook these requirements. Thus, we decided to build our own network architecture and to privilege a powerful enough infrastructure from the start in order to meet the evolution of users needs. It ensures the avoidance of any architecture adjustment and costs independent from users evolution. In addition to the physical hardware and the network implementation, our solution requires a highavailability connexion to ensure that resources are constantly able to meet users demand (server availability, reliable and secured data transmission, etc). It requires contacting ISPs to get quotes according to our overall needs (traffic and QoS requirements). We contacted (by phone) B&T; they simulated our potential users traffic and estimated the related subscription price (Section 7).

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3.1.2 Final architecture

Figure 5.4 provides us with a clear overview of the tasks performed by each component, their interaction and the stakeholders involved around them. Let us briefly go through the data flow. To avoid sending too much data over the mobile network, the activity recognition is directly performed within the baby-side application. It will thus have to acquire sound, process it and trigger actions according to the recognized activity if any in a computation-efficient way. In that case, alerts will be issued over the network back to the application server and then forwarded to the parents. On the parent side, we provide both a Smartphone application and a website to fit at best to parents habits and needs. These components will provide parents with a mean to configure settings (i.e. actions to trigger on response to the detection of a particular event), listen and talk to their baby if needed, report on his evolution and compare his development milestones with the norms. When updated, the settings are sent to the application server which will take care to change them in the database before forwarding the changes to the baby-side application. In order to both guarantee a high availability of the application and a reliable security of the sensitive information stored in the database, a customer-facing web server is provided in a Demilitarized zone (DMZ) which means in a non-secured area of the network. At the edge of the DMZ, a first firewall filters the requests to access to the application servers resources. It guarantees that only requests issued by the web server and defined for a specific purpose will be accepted within the corporate network. The application server will then ensure that data changes transactions follow the ACID guidelines and do not violate the corporate policy. Finally a second firewall will filter the requests to access to databases resources in order to ensure that only queries issued by the application server are processed by the database. This security architecture along with a strict Service Level Agreement (SLA) signed with the Internet Service Provider (ISP) will ensure that the application will always be present when parents need it.

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Figure 5.4: Network architecture overview 71

3.2 Inter-App communication Some actions triggered by the baby side application when detecting a baby activity may involve communication with the parent side application. Indeed, the product specifications (version 1.0) impose the transfer of specific alerts to parents. Two solutions bring out to perform this inter applications communications: - Directly between the two applications: Use the telephone network to communicate between the two applications via calling or SMS sending. - Via a common web server: Take over the communication by the central server using web services. Positive factors Direct communication (3G network) - Easy to implement - Use of existing Android applications (call, texts, ...) Negative factors - Depends on the 3G network state - additional costs - Restricted type of transferred data - Ephemeral transferred data - Depends on the internet connexion state - More complex implementation

Web services

- Logical architecture with a centralized point - Based on architecture data (xml) - Storage - Manage data loss - Evolutionary: video ...

Chart 5.5: Inter-app communication techniques comparison 3.2.1 Using the Mobile Network Communicating between the two applications by using the telephone network is the easiest method. Indeed, the applications which perform phone calls and SMS sending are already implemented and integrated in Android Smartphones. Thus, it is possible to trigger calls or sending SMS by calling appropriate activities implemented in these applications and by passing appropriate parameters. Moreover, it is possible to extend these activities in order to modify existing methods or to add functionalities and get the desired behaviour. However, the use of the telephone network imposes some limits. Indeed, the ability to make calls or sending text messages depends on the telephone network state and it may include additional costs. Moreover, this kind of communication limits the type of transferred data and does not offer the possibility to keep a record of this data. 3.2.2 Via a common web server by using web services An alternative to transfer data between the two applications is to take over the communication by the central server. Each application may update data on a database via the server and the each of 72

them may access these data in real time using web services. A web service is an element of logic distributed computing (most frequently available on the Internet) allowing data exchange between applications and heterogonous systems. The idea is that a program can research a specific service in a directory. Once it has localized the server, the program contacts the service and gets its specifications (input parameters and output form) and is thus ready to invoke it. Two philosophies are available to perform web services: Web services based on the SOAP protocol REST services

3.2.2.1 The SOAP protocol

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a protocol based on XML which allows messages transmission and is mostly used in Service Oriented Architectures. The transfer may be performed through the HTTP protocol. A SOAP message is composed of three parts: An envelope which contains information about the message to route and process it. A header (within the envelope) which contains directives or contextual information related to the message processing. A data model in XML format (within the envelope) which contains transmission information.

The SOAP protocol presents several advantages. It is directly embeddable in HTTP requests and facilitates the communication. It is based on XML which is an interoperable standardized language for transmission and fosters the exchange of structured data. It is client/server platform independent and offers a set of standards for transactions, encryption, orchestration (ability to enchain several services). However, SOAP is often accused of being too wordy and resource intensive. Here is the organizational chart of SOAP messages exchange:

Figure 5.6: SOAP communication protocol

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3.2.2.2 REST Services

The Representational State Transfer (REST) has gained widespread acceptance across the Web as a simpler alternative to SOAP-based Web services. Key evidence of this shift in interface design is the adoption of REST by mainstream Web 2.0 service providers (including Yahoo, Google, and Facebook) who have deprecated or passed on SOAP and WSDL-based interfaces in favour of an easier-to-use, resource-oriented model to expose their services. REST defines a set of architectural principles by which you can design Web services that focus on a system's resources, including how resource states are addressed and transferred over HTTP by a wide range of clients written in different languages. A concrete implementation of a REST Web service follows four basic design principles:
- Use HTTP methods explicitly. - Expose directory structure-like URIs. - Transfer XML, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), or both. - Be stateless.

Figure 5.7: REST communication protocol

This basic REST design principle establishes a one-to-one mapping between create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations and HTTP methods. According to this mapping:
-

To create a resource on the server, use POST. To retrieve a resource, use GET. To change the state of a resource or to update it, use PUT. To remove or delete a resource, use DELETE.

Finally, a resource representation typically reflects the current state of a resource, and its attributes, at the time a client application requests it. Resource representations in this sense are mere snapshots in time. This could be a thing as simple as a representation of a record in a database that consists of a mapping between column names and XML tags, where the element values in the XML contain the row values. The last set of constraints that goes into a REST-based Web service design has to do with the format of the data that the application and service exchange in the request/response payload or in the HTTP body. This is where it really pays to keep things simple, and human-readable. 74

3.2.2.3 Comparison and solution definition

The table below summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. Positive Factors - Relies on XML format - Can be carried out in any platform and SOAP can be implemented in any language. Negative Factors - SOAP coding is complex - Requires the parsing of envelope all the time: it may be an issue when large messages are sent. - Easy technology: relies on HTTP and - Data is sent as parameters in URLs: it does not need any toolkit - Requests and responses can be short - Supports XML and JSON data format REST - Provides improved response times and - Security: REST calls go over HTTP that server loadings - Improves server scalability by reducing the need to maintain communication state. Chart 5.8: REST vs. SOAP comparison We decided to focus on the REST solution due to its reduced complexity and speed advantages. Moreover, the type of data we want to transmit (features, events, etc) between the mobile applications and the central server are compatible with the JSON data format which supports collection of name/value pairs. It is a lightweight data format for exchanges which needs a reduced processing time and generates a reduced volume of data compared to the XML format. creates not reliable messaging may be not adapted for large amounts of data

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4. Mobile application design

This part of the specification aims at defining the content and user interaction within the mobile application. Considering the technical requirements defined in 1, we first identify the key functionalities offered to the user by the application, i.e. recognizing baby activities, actions to trigger based on the activities, the provided analytics and events and the general navigation through the application. After this first draft we have gathered feedback from a panel of young parents and another group of application designers. Based on this feedback, we have designed the final version of our application. 4.1 App Functionalities 4.1.1 Activities and actions As previously explained, the core value proposition of our mobile application is built on an association baby activity recognition / triggered action in response. Thus we need to define what actions and activities will be recognised and the way they will be expressed and presented to parents. By reviewing the field of auditory event recognition, we identified 3 accessible baby states to monitor: when the baby wakes up, when he/she cries and when he/she talks. Moreover the state Baby sleeps can be deduced from these 3 states. There are other possible functionalities such as emotion recognition or the distinction between different babies cries (e.g. hunger vs. pain cry). However, considering the market study results, they did not seem critical enough to be implemented in version 1.0. To express these functionalities to parents we used the direct form which gives Baby cries, Baby wakes up and Baby talks as it appears to be the most common way to talk about the baby in infants product. More explanations on baby activity detection techniques will be given in 5. To decide what actions to provide on response to baby activities, we considered the competitors analysis of our market study and the functional requirements of the analysis conducted in 2.1. We opted for common features such as playing a song or a recorded message and calling the parents as they bring the more value to parents and because we aim at distinguishing ourselves from our competitors through the analytics and not through the basic baby monitor functionalities.

Baby Activities
Baby wakes up Baby talks Baby cries

Triggered actions
Play song Play a voice message Call me
Figure 5.9: Activities Actions paradigm 76

4.1.2 Events Considering the market needs, we aim at providing a means for parents to record all important information about their babies. This information would be stored in the form of events, i.e. important moment that occur in the babys early life. Thanks to our market study we have distinguished 3 different types of events to focus on: Events related to our monitoring: based on the activity detection we can automatically conclude on some events such as The first time baby sleep through the night (based on the waking detection) or The first time baby said a word (based on the baby talk detection). These events will be added to our database after asking the parents for permission and without needing any effort from them. Development events: based on parents inputs, they represent important development milestones of the child, such as First time baby crawls, First time baby walks, Babys first tooth. These development events will be tailored and minimised based on the childs age and completed milestones. For example, parents will not see the first walk milestone unless the first crawl has been completed. This aligns with our value proposition of having a minimally designed product, while maintining the features our market requires. This also fits with our UX ethos of not overloading users with unnecessary options. Medical events: based on parents inputs, it allows turning the application into a health log gathering vaccinations or check-up dates, height and weight chart.

Means to report on those events will be provided to parents on a special part of the application and through specific-purpose buttons. Alongside pre-defined medical and developmental logs, users will also have the ability to add their own events within these sections. 4.1.3 Analytics Finally, the fourth main feature offered to parents is the analytics, i.e. some statistics summarizing by an infographic their childs life and growth. This part is dependent from the activities and events inputs because without detecting the baby state, no conclusion can be deduced. Therefore we opted to report on two main things to parents: The child sleep cycle: as we detect when the child wakes up, we know when they sleep, and therefore can analyse sleeping patterns, and how they evolve over time. This can provide useful insights to parents such as; the best moments to wake the child for feeding, what prebed activities result in a fuller sleep, how diet affects sleep and any other variables parents could change to alter the childs sleeping patterns. The best way to summarize the sleep

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cycle would be a pie chart representing the 24 hours of a day with colours corresponding to baby activities and key moments to wake him up. The child development milestones: as we collect numerous events through continuous monitoring and parents inputs, we can present a histogram of the childs life and evolution through its first year. This can act as a reminder to parents (e.g. vaccination dates, first time walk) when they consult doctors or speak to their relatives and as a scrapbook for the development of what is the most important stage in a childs life. 4.2 App design 4.2.1 Practical design goals The content of the application being defined, the next step is to design an interface that provides all these functionalities with a pleasant user experience. The functional analysis conducted in 2 raise two main constraints on the interface: - It has to be intuitive, i.e. require the less effort from the user to install and learn how to use it. To help us considering all design aspects of the interface, we follow the general humancomputer interaction (HCI) guidelines enounced by Ben Schneiderman [1] and the Android user interface guidelines [2]. - It should consume the less computation power and battery possible, which means that the source code and the access to resources should be optimized. The Android Application Programming Interface (API) guidelines [3] provide us with a strong understanding of best practices concerning app resources and components, location and sensors, data storage and connectivity. Once we have gone through these documents, we formulate our practical design goals as being: - The first-time use should be easy. App installation and settings configuration should be quick. - Users should access to all functionalities through the least clicks possible. - The vocabulary used within the app should be directly understandable by parents. Use of metaphors or images could help. - Users should always be guided and have feedback while they use the interface. This is particularly stressed the first time the user launches the app. - The sensors are accessed the least possible as they are the first resources consumers. This means that sound acquisition must be optimized to be just sufficient for good enough event detections. A trade-off between reliability and consumption should be found. - The network resources are used the least possible as they are the second resources consumers. This means that messages sent over the mobile network should be aggregated at

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most to avoid sending multiple messages where one summary can suffice. A trade-off between consumption and security (fast settings changes and alerts forwarding) must be found. These key practical design goals will help us assessing the different alternative designs we will imagine by giving us the main points of focus that drive value to end-users. 4.2.2 Design Draft & assessment Design 1 This design is based graphically-speaking on the main colours of SensAnalytics (grey and blue). The main ideas of the interaction design are to provide: a quick setup through minimal sign-up requirements, extensive explanations to parents thanks to a first-time user walkthrough, And to display a lot of information while avoiding too many user clicks using sliding windows.

Let us review four use cases (first-time login, settings configuration, events reporting and analytics display) to describe the interaction scheme.

Figure 5.10: Use case 1 First-time login When the user installs the app for the first-time, they have to create an account and install the app on both Smartphones. We explain it right the login page so they are guided during the whole process. Once they have selected a mode for one application, the other is sent a message and is automatically configured to be the other mode (monitor / remote). The users can then listen directly through the other Smartphone and verify that the app works. The user is presented with the homepage that provides all the functionalities of the app at a glance. 79

The settings functionality allows the user to associate baby activities with actions. When the user clicks on Activity or Action a sliding window appears presenting the different possibilities. Multiple actions can be added to one activity and add as many settings as there are baby activities. A help button is provided to explain what are the actions and activities. To avoid user errors, the activities or actions already selected are hidden as shown in the third image of the use case below.

Figure 5.11: Use case 2 Settings section

Figure 5.12: Use case 3 Events Section

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The event reporting functionalities can be accessed on the homepage when clicking on Events. To avoid the user clicking too many buttons to access the different type of events, we use sliding windows. Each window contains a type of event represented by a specific logo and a text label. This logo will be used in the analytics section (see next use case). On the final version of the app, the parents will be able to compare the age of their child when a specific event occurs against the norms, but it will not affect much the design of this part and it is not the main focus of this first version, therefore we did not include it here. Finally the Analytics section is also directly accessible through the homepage. We use sliding windows for the same reason than in the Events part. The main challenge of this section is to provide comprehensive statistics in a small space. For the sleep cycle, we opt for a pie chart representing the 24 hour of a day and with colour coding for the sleep phases. For the events, a simple histogram summarizes the temporal succession of the development milestones.

Figure 5.13: Use case 4 Analytics section To assess the design, we asked two external classmates who have strong competencies in design and 2 parents that we previously contacted during the market study to give us their feedback and advices. This allows us to have both the objective visions of specialists and the subjective impressions of our target market. Here are the main recommendations: - From parents: The colours are too serious. The application looks professional, but we would prefer something more enjoyable and colourful for a baby product. The vocabulary is 81

also too technical. It is understandable but it makes the product appears too scientific. Mothers would prefer simple and intuitive vocabulary. - From designers: This design does not provide any easy reversal of actions. Once a user enters functionality he cannot go back to the homepage. A simple home button at the top would solve the problem. Moreover, the interface does not adapt to the user. There is no reminder of the account name, no customized photos. It could replace the SensAnalytics banner at the top: the logo is replaced by a photo of the baby, which is also a link to the homepage and the account name is displayed instead of SensAnalytics. Final Design We have worked on this second version with the objective of integrating the feedback from Parents and designers on the first draft and have therefore integrated a simplified usability through menu bars, reversal of actions and an improved design.

Figure 5.14: Use case 1 First-time login The login interface was simplified and graphically improved so as to offer a better first impression of the app. The Register and login pages appear under two visible tabs so as to help first users situate them quickly and intuitively. The fields titles appear inside the boxes and disappear when users enter their details enhancing the global design. The design has been improved with users recommendations. Softer colours were chosen for backgrounds, buttons and text. The blue, grey and white fit the graphical identity of the brand and logo.

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Figure 5.15: Use case 2 Settings section The listen page can be considered as the application homepage: The mode button on the very top lets the user quickly change the function of the device as Monitor or Remote. This option also allows the user to know quickly the device state: if the application was exited or isnt synchronized, the according text will be displayed. The state area will appear when the device is monitoring, will shows what the baby is currently doing and since when he has been doing it. The state image will help the user know if the baby is going well in a glance. The virtual monitor will display the sound level and a green light if the monitor is on or a red light if it is off. The sensitivity bar will enable a quick adjustment of the number of alerts sent when the child is noisy. The action menu will enable parents to listen to the baby, watch him or play audio on the monitor instantly. The application menu on the bottom provides a simple and efficient way to switch pages with visual mark-ups (listen; analytics; events; settings).

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Figure 5.16: Use case 3 Analytics section The analytics page was simplified with sub-menus to change parameters. The time parameter was added to provide quick useful and customizable usability to the user and help him understand the data. The events analytics page was added a time parameter and a list parameter as well for detailed information.

Figure 5.17: Use case 4 Events Section

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The event section was added a sub-menu on the top to quickly brows between development, medical and special events. Events appear on the main screen with a picture and title in a logical order. When the event is realized and the box is ticked by the user, the date of the event is automatically added. Social media buttons allow users to share each event on their social media profiles with the option of adding a picture.

Figure 5.18: Use case 5 Settings section The settings page was changed in order to have every feature easily changed on one screen. The left column of the upper part lists the activities that the baby could do while sleeping (wake uo, cry, talk) and the right column shows the actions that the user has chosen for this specific activity (call, text, play a song or voice). Up to 2 actions can be chosen per activity via a radio menu that opens as shown in the second screenshot. This option considerably simplifies usability and design of the settings page. The bottom part contains the action options: which number to call, what text to send, what song or voice to play. Session information on the very top of the page shows the session name and picture and a button to edit the session setting. When we click on the edit button, the third setting page appears and lets us change session details.

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5. Baby waking and cry detection

This part of the specification defines how the baby-side application will process sound in order to monitor the childs activity. As we have previously said our goal is to recognize 3 baby status: when the baby is awakened, when he cries and when he talks. We will focus here on the two first activities as they are the most important and will constitute the set provided at version 1.0. In order to explain progressively our solution, we will briefly highlight the main aspects and challenges of the baby activity recognition field. With a clearer understanding of the domain, we review the most useful sound features and the most common techniques to consider for waking and cry detection. By assessing them according to the products functional requirements, we conclude on the solution that fits best our needs. Finally we explain how we actually implement it using Java libraries. 5.1 Baby activity recognition: Characteristics and Challenges As every human activity recognition field faces difficulty, the baby one is no different in relation to translating the complex stimuli information of the human body into computer-understandable data, (Bao et al, 2004). What our brain is able to perform innately through cortex and synapse interactions demands many computation power from machines and a lot of careful studies from scientists, (Stikic et al, 2008). Moreover, on the same way that our understanding of someones behaviour is not entirely reliable, computers algorithms can only be partially trusted when concluding on emotions or activity recognition. Therefore it appears that the two main domain characteristics inherent from the human nature are: - The complexity of the computation algorithms (regarding both implementation and execution). - The uncertainty of results, which make any solution only partially reliable. The fact that we only use sound as an input for the recognition is also a determinant. The auditory environment surrounding the baby can be at any moment polluted by noises coming for different sources that we cannot identify upfront, (Wasz-Hockert et al, 1988). These noises can trick the algorithms by presenting the same characteristics as a baby cry or waking signal and thus alter the results (this situation is called false positives). They can also overlap and distort an actual baby signal, thus causing the algorithm not to detect the activity (that situation is called false negatives), (Clarkson, 1998). Therefore, a major challenge of our solution is to reliably differentiate baby signals from any background noises. A first processing step will thus isolate and amplify this signal to ensure that recognition algorithms will always be passed good enough quality signals. Other difficulties are inherent to the voice evolution at the early stages of the childs life. All humans have different vocal attributes but some frequencies are similar and thus retrieval of activities based 86

on sound can be done quite reliably. However, during the 6 to 12 first months of the infant existence, the voice evolves to get its first stabilized form. This initial state influences greatly his cry or voice signals and is variable depending on his ethnical origins, (Murry, 1980 & Wasz-Hockert, 1985) the diseases he may have (Michelsson et al, 1976 & 1977), but also considering the prenatal conditions of his birth (drugs, (Blinick et al, 1971) alcohol consumption (Cacace et al, 1995) by the mother, preterm/full-term (Murray et al, 1985)) and its auditory capabilities (Oller et al, 1985). This can be seen as a problem as it creates a requirement for specific case recognition, but as the research field is currently well documented on sound characteristics it can also be seen as a future opportunity as the application could be turned into a disease detector, (Michelsson et al, 1976 & 1977). However, even giving these slight changes, the neonatal cry is a reasonably patterned vocal behaviour considered to have innate biological function. To sum up, our product need a pre-processing signal segmentation step and to take into account the sound features that are relevant to the major part of the baby population. Considering that the activity recognition aims at triggering alerts and actions, false negatives (when a real cry signal is not detected) are far more critical that false positives (when the algorithms is tricked into recognizing a fake cry signal), because parents would prefer to be alerted more than needed instead of missing an important moment. The solution will thus be selected according to 3 characteristics: Its false negatives rate. Its ability to recognize specific cases. But also its computation power demand.

To conclude, even if this research field is still full of technical challenges yet to be answered, there are some solutions that are able to recognize a baby cry and waking status with a promising success rate. Let us review the current state-of-the-art and compare them considering our products requirements. 5.2 Current state-of-the-art Generally, infant activity automatic classification process is a pattern recognition problem. It comprises two main stages that are: signal processing and pattern classification, (Saraswathy et al, 2012). However, concerning our product, a first stage is added and consists in detecting infant cries from audio records. Once cry samples are detected and extracted from audio records, it is possible to apply the signal processing and pattern recognition steps. The signal processing step aims at normalizing, cleaning and filtering the raw signal before using the suitable feature extraction techniques to build a vector of relevant values. This vector serves then as input for the classification algorithms which will compare them against their norms to conclude on the recognition or not of a given activity. 87

Each step has its own set of technical solutions that can be then associated together to form a complete baby activity recognition system. We will analyse the different techniques available at each stages and conclude on the most suitable association for the product. 5.2.1 Signal Pre-processing The pre-processing step is about isolating the baby sound signal through filtering and amplifying it. The challenge here is to design a digital filter which can process the sound in real-time and without too extensive resources. We opt for a low-pass Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter at the highest frequency of the baby cry spectrum. As it ranges from 0.1 to 10 KHz for the fundamental frequency and the formants, we opt for a FIR at 10 KHz with an attenuation of -30 to -50 dB in the stop-band and a ripple of 3 dB in the pass-band. It will filter the high frequencies coming from mobile networks or home apparels surrounding the baby [4-5]. By computing a time domain convolution, we end up with a filtered signal. Associated with a peak detector and an amplifier, the resulting sound is then altered to only amplify the frequencies coming from the infant.

Figure 5.19: Pre-processing system overview The audio has also to be sampled with an accurate frequency in order to reduce the computational complexity while keeping a sufficient sound quality for future cry detection and feature extraction steps. The 8 kHz sampling frequency is generally used for infant speech analysis, (Kuo, 2010), but a 20 KHz sampling with 16-bit quantization has also be used with success by (Robb & al, 1998), for the determination of fundamental frequency and formants of baby cry (ibid). Both will be tested during the implementation. 5.2.2Features extraction Once the signal has been cleaned, we can study the most important features for baby activity recognition and their extraction techniques. Most techniques found were related to cry detection. The waking process is well described in theory but has not been addressed by scientists. However we suggest our own way to detect it at the end of this section.

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5.2.2.1 STE and STZC approach Because of the physical limitations of human beings, speech analysis systems have to consider short duration speech segments. Indeed, speech over short time intervals can be considered stationary, overlapping these 10-30 ms segments by half is a method used to reduce the amount of computation needed to analyse the infant cry signal, (Kondoz, 2004). The combination of two mathematical tools may be used to detect cry events from a pre-processed audio record: the Short-Time Energy (STE) and the Short-Time Zero Crossing (STZC). Short-Time Energy (STE)

Short-time energy (STE) is defined as the average of the square of the sample values in a suitable window. It can be mathematically described as follows, (ibid): Formula 5.20: STE formula

( )

( ) (

where w(m) are coefficients of a suitable window function of length N. As previously mentioned, short-time processing of speech should take place during segments between 10-30 ms in length. For signals of 8 kHz sampling frequency, a window of 128 (which represents a segment of 16 ms) is suitable. STE estimation is useful as a speech detector because there is a noticeable difference between the average energy between voiced and unvoiced speech, and between speech and silence (ibid). This technique is usually paired with short-time zero crossing for a robust detection scheme. Short-Time Zero Crossing (STZC)

Short-time zero crossing (STZC) is defined as the rate at which the signal changes sign. STZC estimation is useful as a speech detector because there are noticeable fewer zero crossings in voiced speech as compared with unvoiced speech. It can be mathematically described as follows, (ibid):

( )

| {

( (

)) ( )

( (

))| ( )

( ( )) ( ( ))

Formula 5.21: STZC formula

Figure 5.20 displays the results of short-time signal detection using both STE and STZC tools. STZC allows to envelop periods when the signal changes sign with a significant rate (which is identified as speech events) while STE allows to detect significant normalized energy within these envelops to conclude on infant cry events.

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In order to consistently pick up desired cry events, a desired cry was defined as a voiced segment of sufficiently long duration and sufficiently noticeable STE. We can express it by using two quantifiable threshold conditions that need to be met to constitute a desired cry: (1) Normalized energy > 0.05: to eliminate non-voiced artefacts and cry precursors (breathing, whimpering). (2) Signal envelope period > 0.1 seconds: to eliminate impulsive voiced artefacts such as coughing.

Figure 1 (a)

Figure 1 (b)

Figure 5.22: Cry signal detection examples In Figure 1, each cry envelope is bounded by the STZC and the voiced portion of each cry is bounded by where the STE meets the t = 0 axis. Figure 1(a) contains two faux signals where STZC suggests an infant vocalization has occurred. However, there is no significant STE to indicate the presence of a voiced infant cry until the third vocalization. Even though this third vocalization meets the

normalized energy threshold of a voiced event, the duration does not meet the minimum time period. This third vocalization was in actuality a cough and from the threshold conditions removed from considering for analysis. The STZC in Figure 1(b) suggests that five vocalizations have occurred, four of which meet criterion for a voiced cry. However, two of these voiced vocalizations are impulsive and of too short a duration and thus are ruled out as cries through the envelope period threshold. vocalization lacks the energy to be analysed as a cry event. The final

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5.2.2.2 Frequency domain approach Another approach to cry detection is to study the frequency domain of the signal by extracting: - The vocal fundamental frequency (F0), which is the lowest frequency of the voice waveform. - The formant frequencies, which indicates the acoustic resonance of the human vocal tract. They are measured as amplitude peaks in the frequency spectrum of sound (see Figure 5.21). - The Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) features which allow capturing the spectral discriminant of each signals.

Figure 5.23: Signal frequency domain representation

To study the spectral domain, a first step is to transform the signal representation from time to frequency domain using the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). This allows picturing the main frequencies of a signal. Our product requires a fast and computation-efficient algorithm to compute the DFT, thus by reviewing a benchmark of existing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithms (Balducci et al 1997), we choose the solution of (Pei-Chen et al, 1999), as it allows real-time FFT computing using few computational resources. Once the frequency domain of the signal is determined, the fundamental frequency and the formants can be measured using a peak detector, i.e. a function that finds maxima in the value range. To increase the reliability of the detection, some techniques aims at smoothing the signal to help real maxima appear. The Smoothed Spectrum Method (SSM) seems the most promising with an efficiency of 97.99% against 95.50% for a classical local maximum value detector and 96.86% for the Cepstrum analysis, (Vrallyay et al, 2004). The idea is to use a weighted addition to smooth the spectrum and increase the detection reliability.

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To determine the MFCCs, we follow the more complex process proposed by (Vempada et al, 2012): Divide the cry signal into sequence of frames with a frame size of 20 ms and a shift of 10 ms. Apply the Hamming window over each of the frames. Compute magnitude spectrum for each windowed frame by applying DFT. Mel spectrum is computed by passing the DFT signal through Mel filter bank. DCT is applied to the log Mel frequency coefficients to derive the desired MFCCs.

The computation of these coefficients is CPU-intensive and is only supported in real-time on important and optimized infrastructures. Yet it can provide further interesting development as new initiatives to improve the algorithm are under development and because it allows distinguishing the cry cause among 3 main types (hunger, pain, wet diaper) with a good reliability (ibid). 5.2.2.3 Rhythmic organisation of the sound A final approach to cry detection is to consider it as a dynamic signal. The rhythmic organisation analysis of the sound takes a look at the infant noise bursts and pauses durations. By monitoring the magnitude spectrum of the infant expiratory sounds over time, an algorithm proposed by (Sandford et al, 1993), which tries to find temporal features correlation among different individuals. However, even if this solution can be run in real-time without the requirement for an efficient hardware, recent investigations have proven that rhythmic organisation is not yet a reliable indicator for cry detection. 5.2.2.4 Waking detection system In the literature, the detection of infant waking is mainly addressed by recognizing cries. However, we believe that parents can find value knowing when their child is awake, not only when they cry but to feed or change them. The current research attempts focus mainly on the sleep stages recognition using complex biometric sensors such as Electro-encephalogram (ECG), accelerometers or Galvanic Skin response (GSR), (Sadeh et al, 1995 & Heiss et al, 2003), but no dedicated auditory study of the temporal waking process of an infant can be found. According to (Karraker, 2008), the waking process has some detectable auditory events such as giggles, sheets movements, or shocks. These are sudden noises, thus sudden changes in the signal spectrum. This gave us the idea to monitor the signal spectrum changes over time. When sudden peaks appear in several previously determined frequency ranges (e.g. voice spectrum) at repeated instants over time, then conclusive evidence of an infant being awake can be inferred. To support the idea, one approach would be to compute the spectral density (PSD) of the signal sample and to keep track of the past PSD. If a sudden change appears at a specified frequency, then a variable is incremented. If after a number of samples, no other change is detected then the variable is set to zero. Otherwise, if the variable exceeds a threshold value then the waking activity is recognized. 92

The frequencies and variables involved in this solution will be defined during test sessions with baby as it is a rather empiric system. The assumptions surrounding this idea will also be further tested with different baby noises and environment before adding it to the customer-facing application. 5.2.2.5 Sound features extractors comparison As we previously said, any feature extractor can be coupled with any classification algorithm in order to form a complete activity recognition system. Therefore before examining the pattern detection techniques, we decide which of the following features will be chosen for the final solution considering our product requirements: reliability rate, computational cost, adaptability and evolution potential towards new features. With a false positive/negative rate of 75.6/86.5% (used on a real database), (Kondoz, 2004), the STE and STZC approach seems promising, but need to be completed by another solution in order to improve its reliability. It can be run with few resources if optimized and is adaptable and evolutionary for further functionalities related to speech. It could for example detect when the baby pronounces its first intelligible words, (Kuo, 2010). The frequency domain approach is a very interesting solution. Detecting the fundamental frequency can be done at a reliable rate (97.9%) using the Smoothed Spectrum Method (SSM) and helps successfully detecting a cry at 99% (associated with neural network and used on the Baby Chillanto database), (Saraswathy et al 2012). It does not require extensive computation resources, but its only drawback is that the solution can only be used for very specific detection. As for the formant, their determination characteristic is similar to the fundamental frequency. Their computation can be done in real-time but can impact the Smartphone performance. Extensive testing will be done on this part after implementation. The formants being a good indicator of the human vocal tract, they could constitute the basis for further development of functionalities related to emotions and speech. Moreover, by monitoring the signal frequency spectrum, changes can be found and the waking recognition system could be subsequently implemented and tested. The MFCCs are too CPU-intensive to be kept for implementation, (Saraswathy et al, 2012 & Garcia et al, 2003 & Mansouri Jam et al, 2009). With the rise of Smartphones CPU power in the upcoming years, the implementation of a real-time computation could be imagined, but it is currently unfeasible. However, they would be really interesting to classify the cry causes and the emotions. Finally, the rhythmic organisation is also not chosen, because of its low reliability rate (30-40%). If further investigations are made in that area and new reliable temporal indicators are found, this solution could be interesting as it does not require a lot of computational power, (Zeskind et al,

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1995). It would also bring more contexts to the cry signal and, with the study of expiratory bursts, open new perspectives for safety risks and diseases detections. Considering these points, we choose to implement the extraction of the STE/STZC, the fundamental frequency and the formants as features used for childs status detection algorithms. The techniques comparison is summarized in the chart below. Technique STE/STZC Frequency F0 Formants Mel frequency Rhythm Reliability rate + ++ ++ ++ -Computation cost + ++ + -++ Adaptability + + ++ ++ Evolution potential + + ++ ++

Chart 5.24: Feature extractor comparison 5.2.3 Pattern recognition algorithms Once the features have been extracted and form a vector of value, there are two main approaches to recognize a pattern from this data: - A static matching function which compare the values against known and identified norms giving a matching score between the signal and an ideal activity-related signal. If the score is greater than a decision-threshold, the activity is recognized. - Machine learning algorithms which, rather than processing the data, act as a black box that learn from precedent outputs its own classification and regression model and conclude directly on a recognized activity giving the vector position in the data space. Let us further detail and compare them. 5.2.3.1 Matching functions The design of a matching function is empiric and involves three decisions that can severely impact its performance. Firstly, different functions can be employed. The most simple and adapted to our case is the weighted differential addition (see Formula 5.25). Giving a set of features that we have previously determined (Normalised energy (STE), Signal envelope period (STZC), fundamental frequency (F0) and formants (F1 Fx), the function is the weighted sum of differences between the features values of a given signal and an ideal activity signal.

With w: output ( ) n: number of indicators ( ) wn: feature weight vsignal: feature value for the studied signal Formula 5.25: Weighted differential addition formula vnorm: feature value for the ideal signal

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Once the function has been defined, the feature weights and the threshold values should be determined. The weights attribution can be done considering: the importance of the features for the activity recognition, their reliability (increased if reliable, else lowered), but also the usual gap range between the signal and the norm in order to reduce the unwanted impact of a non-determinant feature difference. The threshold value is defined through testing and experiences in order to lower the false positives and negatives rates. Once the matching function has been designed, it can be deployed anywhere. Considering our small set of features, it uses little computational power. The only drawback is that the determination of the weights and threshold values should be done every time a new feature is added. However, once the matching function class has been implemented, it can be used for other functionalities without the need for any other development. 5.2.3.2 Machine learning algorithms Machine learning is the branch of artificial intelligence that studies and develops architectures and algorithms to equip an agent (a machine which is usually a computer) with certain behaviour and an ability to build internal models from empirical training data in order to solve a certain task, (Martel, 2013). Among them we distinguish the Support Vector Machine (SVM) and the Neural Network (NN) that are often used for auditory event and activity classification. Support Vector Machine (SVM)

A SVM is a two-categorical classifier, i.e. it can be used to conclude on the recognition of a given activity or not. It is composed of an internal regression model which separates the value space into two parts: the recognised pattern space and the rest. When the SVM receives a feature vector, it projects it on the value space and concludes on the recognition or not of the activity considering the position of the resulting point compared to the regression model. In order to build its internal regression model, training algorithms (see Figure 5.26) are used to make it learn (i.e. build) it.

Figure 5.26: Support Vector Machine principles overview

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These algorithms are based on training samples. At each iteration the SVM is presented with a set of sample feature vectors and its associated activity (e.g. crying / not crying). By processing these examples, the SVM maps them into its internal value space and computes the regression model (e.g. segmenting the space between crying and not crying activities). Once the SVM is trained, when unmarked feature vectors are given to it, it is able to recognize the pattern in a time and computation-efficient manner. Neural Network (NN)

A neural network is a multi-categorical classifier. It is composed of an interconnected multi-layered set of entities called neurons, where each neuron can be activated outputting its activity which is a level of confidence in the recognition of a pattern. Each neuron is connected to the neurons at the next layer by weighted links.

Inputs of previou s level

y1 y2

w1

( )

w2

Neuron Weights

()
Output for next level

yn

wn

Figure 5.27: Neural network model

The whole concept relies on the firing function (). When the sum of all inputs multiplied by their affected weights exceeds a certain threshold, the neuron is activated and outputs a value y j as explained in Figure 5.27. Thus the decision-making algorithm is the combination of multiple neurons decisions. Initially, scientists configure the network hierarchy and the firing rule of each neuron. The training algorithms then teach the network by changing the weights affected to links. For each data samples, some neurons will fire (ie. say to the next level that they recognize the pattern) and some not. During training time, data samples are marked as belonging to one category or another. Their features are extracted and serve as inputs in the neural network. The objective of training algorithms is then to minimize the quadratic error of the output by reducing the weights of neurons that went wrong and improving the others depending on the level of confidence they output. 5.2.3.3 Pattern recognition algorithm comparison As we have previously said, the matching function is an interesting solution because it does not require much computation power and after a careful design and testing stage can achieve pattern 96

recognition with good false positive/negative rates (around 90%, (Saraswathy, 2012)). Moreover once the Java class has been implemented, it can be easily reusable for other functionalities. Its only drawback is that the design stage (determination of feature weights and threshold values) should be performed again for each new functionality, thus requiring expensive experiences and testing. On the other hand, the machine learning algorithms feature better recognition rates (from 95 up to 99%, ibid). Their main advantage is that once the neural network (NN) has been designed and once the SVM or the NN training algorithms and procedures have been defined, the deployment of new functionalities over these solutions only requires computation power and time. No extensive development is needed. The only drawback is that every time a new feature is considered, since the value vector form which serves as input is changed, the algorithm will have to be trained again from the start to build its internal model. Moreover, the training algorithms complexity (e.g. feed-forward) leads to strong requirements on the computation power of the infrastructure that will support the operation, (Martel, 2013). However, once they have been trained, these algorithms are able to recognize quickly and efficiently complex patterns and can be deployed on a Smartphone platform. Thus it is possible to consider the integration of training algorithms on an on-demand cloud computing platform to solve the need and avoid huge infrastructure costs at the foundation of our start-up. Deployment and integration of pretrained recognition algorithms would then be directly performed within the mobile application. Nevertheless, other ethical issues are also raised by the training phase. To have a good-enough performance, the algorithms need to be trained with samples recorded in real-life condition. But as stated by (Robb et al, 1998), the techniques employed for eliciting cry vocalizations and their subsequent use for research purposes can be subject to ethical questioning. Moreover, it could form the basis for a communication and marketing problem with parents if the technical principles at the roots of our technology are publicly denounced. However, auditory databases of baby cries have been gathered by scientists and could be used. Thus, these solutions raise extra requirements for transparency and careful definition of the techniques employed for the samples collection, along with a special risk strategy. To conclude, considering that our actual product has just to recognize between 3 activities and would mainly perform cry recognition, we choose the SVMs over NNs because they need less design and computation power for training. If the app activity recognition functionalitys importance increases on the future, we might consider migrating to a neural network solution. The chart below summarizes the assessment of the different solutions. The matching function solution is chosen over the SVM for a first attempt because it is simpler to implement and allow performing most of the job.

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It would allow a faster release of the first version of the mobile app and does not raise the extra risk of communication problems related to ethical issues. Techniques Reliability Computation power Evolution potential Ethical issues Development Simplicity 5.3 Final solution overview Matching function + ++ ++ ++ Support Vector Machine ++ + + -Neural Network ++ + ---

Chart 5.28: Matching function algorithm comparison

Figure 5.29: Activity recognition system overview

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6. Solution Implementation
This section of the specifications aims at defining how the application will be developed. We will first define the development environment used to gather coherently all the software components needed for the implementation. Then we will define the development milestones of the project, including the steps to follow with time and resources to spend on it. Finally we will conclude on the current advancement of the project and considering the development milestones will conclude on the financial and temporal effort needed to complete version 1.0 of the app. 6.1 The development environment 6.1.1 The Android platform Android is a complete, open, and free mobile operating system designed for mobile devices (e.g. mobile phones, tablets, laptops, interactive terminals). The platform is a multi-layered architecture: - A Linux kernel which especially offer multitasks functionalities - A set of libraries including multimedia, graphical, etc. - An accurate Java virtual machine: the Dalvik Virtual Machine - An application framework offering a range of functionalities (e.g. windows & content management) - Applications including a web browser, a calendar, contact management, etc. The main components of the Android platform are summarized in the following diagram.

Figure 5.30: Android components overview

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6.1.2 The development environment components Before starting to develop any application, it is important to install and configure an accurate and an optimal development environment. Google provides (in addition to the Operating System) a set of tools for application development projects. The development environment we use is composed of several layers with specific roles: - A Java runtime environment - JRE - A Java development Kit - JDK - An Android development Kit - SDK - A development platform Eclipse - Modules and libraries related to the project - An Android device

The architecture of the development environment is detailed in the following diagram.

Figure 5.31: Development Environment overview

Each of these components has specific roles and provides a set of services to the layer up. Ultimately, we use the software Eclipse with add-ons for Android development and a library called jAudio to perform the auditory features extraction (see 5.2.2). We define all the components in the chart below.

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The JRE is a Java Virtual Machine which allows executing Java application on a JRE device. Most of users have a already an installed JRE on their computer especially to browse the Internet and execute specific Java application. However, a JRE does not allow creating Java applications. The JDK (Java Development Kit) includes development tools such as compilers, JDK debuggers and Java libraries to create Java applications. We can notice that a JDK often includes a JRE, so installing a JDK is sufficient to have a JRE. The SDK is a development kit provided by Google that includes a set of tools for SDK Android development projects. Especially, it includes APIs (a set of classes with available functions for developers), code examples, technical documentation, and an emulator. It is freely available on the Googles website. Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising Eclipse an integrated development environment (IDE) and an extensible plug-

in system. It is written mostly in Java. It can be used to develop applications in Java and, by means of various plug-ins.

ADT

Google provide a compatible module with Eclipse to assist Android application development projects. It is possible to import additional Java libraries to the project to take advantage

Additional Java Libraries

of existing Java classes and functionalities. For example, in our project we have imported the JAudio library to perform audio treatment. It is possible to test an application either on the emulator provided by the

Test Devices

Android SDK or directly on an Android Smartphone. It is necessary to configure an emulator before being able to use it. It especially means to specify the screen type, the size of the SD card, etc.

6.1.3 The jAudio library 6.1.3.1 Presentation and reliability JAudio is a new framework for feature extraction designed to eliminate the duplication of effort in calculating features from an audio signal. This system meets the needs of audio processing researchers by providing a library of analysis algorithms that are suitable for a wide array of sound analysis tasks. It provides an easy-to-use GUI that makes the process of selecting desired features straight forward but also a command-line interface to manipulate its services via scripting. 101

Here is the common process of using jAudio. The system takes a sequence of audio les as input. In the GUI, users select the features that they wish to have extractedletting jAudio take care of all dependency problemsand either execute directly from the GUI or save the settings for batch processing. The output is either an ACE XML le or an ARFF le depending on the users preference. In order to address issues related to audio feature extraction, jAudio was designed by taking into account technical specifications and several design decisions were taken. Many of these design decisions match our needs for the implementation of the cry detection system presented above: Java based

JAudio is implemented in Java in order to capitalize on Javas cross-platform portability and design advantages. A custom low-level audio layer was implemented in order to supplement Javas limited core audio support and allow those writing jAudio features to deal directly with arrays of sample values rather than needing to concern themselves directly with low-level issues such as buffering and format conversions. By importing the jAudio library within our project development environment it is possible to directly use implemented jAudio classes and feature extraction methods. It permits to have a homogenous Java based code between the Android application development and the backend audio treatment implementation. XML & ARFF output

JAudio supports multiple output formats, including both the native XML format and the ARFF format. Both of them provide structured data easily extractable and usable as input for matching functions. Handling dependencies

In order to reduce the complexity of calculations, it is often advantageous to reuse the results of an earlier calculation in other modules. JAudio provides a simple way for a feature class to declare which features it requires in order to be calculated. An example is the magnitude spectrum of a signal. It is used by a number of features, but only needs to be calculated once. Just before execution begins, jAudio reorders the execution of feature calculations such that every features calculation is executed only after all of its dependencies have been executed. Furthermore, unlike any other system, the user need not know the dependencies of the features selected. Any feature selected for output that has dependencies will automatically and silently calculate dependent features as needed without replication. It is especially interesting in terms of calculation speed and power consumption reduction.

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Extensibility

Effort was taken to make it as easy as possible to add new features and associated documentation to the system. An abstract class is provided that includes all the features needed to implement a feature. Moreover, meta-features are templates that can be applied against any feature to create new features. Examples of meta-features include Derivative, Mean, and Standard Deviation. Each of these meta-features may be automatically applied to all features without the user needing to explicitly create these derivative features. It allows us to establish exactly the features we have previously selected. 6.1.3.2 How to import the library? The compiler uses the Java Build Path to locate Java classes referenced in a Java source code. It is possible to add an external JAR file containing a librarys elements to this Java Build Path. Thus, we just have to download the free jAudio binary and source distribution package (zip or tar.gz format) and to add it the projects Java Build Path. The Java Build Path is modifiable using Eclipse in the projects properties section. 6.1.3.3 How will we use it? As previously stated, jAudio will allow us to define our own feature extractors using their low-level audio characteristics extraction library. This will allow us to implement the STE and STZC computation components. There are already in-built functions to extract the fundamental frequency and the formants. However, we will need to perform tests on a benchmark of Smartphones to verify that the jAudio solutions do not use too much computation power and memory resources. 6.1.4 Library linkage The Eclipse IDE allows us linking transparently all the libraries. Thanks to the ADT plugin, a direct interaction between the Android SDK and our software development platform is possible. And once we have added the JAudio library to the Java Build path, the compilation of a code gathering functionalities from Android, JAudio and standard java libraries is successful.

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6.2 Development milestones In the following we identify the key steps to complete version 1.0 of the app. The following chart also outlines what has been currently done (% Advancement) and what time is needed to do the rest. This will allow us identify realistic numbers for the development costs needed in the financial section. Bundles to implement Bundle 1: App interface (4.2) - Login page - User registration process - Homepage - Settings page - Analytics page - Events page Bundle 2: App/server communication (3.2) - Server configuration - JSON data model - REST service - Integration with app Bundle 3: Sound forwarding (Listen mode) - Sound processing (subsampling on Smartphone) - Sound sending (Smartphone to server) - Sound forwarding (server to Smartphone) - Testing and optimization - Integration to existing app Bundle 4: Activity recognition system - Sound pre-processing system - Features extraction - Matching function - Testing and optimization - Integration with existing app Bundle 5: Sensitivity control - Update of pre-processing system to include sensitivity control - Testing and optimization - Integration with existing app Bundle 6: Profile management - Account data model - Update settings using app-server communication - Web customer-facing interface - Integration with existing app % Advancement 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 30% 100% 100% 25% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 20% 50% 50% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% Time left estimation 0h 0h 0h 0h 0h 0h 0h 15 h 0h 0h 12 h 3h 30 h 5h 8h 8h 6h 3h 60 h 3h 5h 10 h 40 h 2h 10 h 3h 5h 2h 40 h 5h 15 h 18 h 2h

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Bundle 7: Server Architecture - Application server configuration - Web server configuration - Linkage App Web server - Linkage Web server Application server - Linkage Database Application server - Firewall configuration - Testing and optimization - Deployment of the new architecture

0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

50 h 5h 5h 7h 7h 7h 9h 5h 5h

Considering the steps outlined in the chart above, we identify the need for four main competencies to develop successfully our project: - A web designer in charge of the graphic implementation of the mobile app and the web application. This role needs 23 hours to perform its tasks (Bundle 6 minus task 2). - A network architect responsible of the configuration and implementation of all the network components and of their communication over a secured link. This role needs 101 hours left (Bundles 2, 3, 7 minus the integration and sound processing tasks, and Bundle 6 Task 2) to finish its tasks. - A signal processing engineer who will implement the activity recognition system and its sensitivity control while also designing the signal subsampling of the sound forwarding section. This role has 70 hours left (Bundle 4, 5 minus the integration tasks, and Bundle 3 Task 1). - A software architect who will animate the project, while ensuring that the integration of the parts are coherent and follow the specifications. This role has 9 hours of integration and 40 hours of project management, meeting organisation and reporting to the management board. Thanks to our multidisciplinary team, we already have these competences within SensAnalytics without the need to hire external resources. Considering its past experience in web design, Pablo De La Vega takes the role of web designer. Being in charge of the R&D since the beginning of the project, Guillaume Bonnevay carries out the role of network architect using its competences acquired during its Network & Telecommunication engineering formation. Finally, Pierrick Barreau takes the roles of software architect and signal processing engineer as he has done a master thesis on the subject and because his role of quality manager is compatible with animating the development project around themes related to specifications. Once we have define all these tasks and split them among different roles, we are able to simulate a Gantt chart which summarizes the best repartition of tasks over time (see Figure 5.32). It allows us concluding on the release date of the first version of the application. Being currently at the end of August, we hope to have a complete version for the beginning of October (considering possible delays). 105

Figure 5.32: Development Gantt chart

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Section 6:

BUSINESS MODEL

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Section 6: Business Model

In this section we will outline and detail all of the necessary elements that will enable SensAnalytics to pass value from our product offering to target users and therefore develop a scalable and revenue generating business. To structure and map all of these elements we are using Alex Osterwalders Business Model Canvas (Business Model Generation, 2010). The Business Model Canvas is a visual representation of how nine core elements of a business model interact with each other; by clearly identifying these relationships we can strengthen key differentiators and develop on weaker areas. The business model canvas is intended to be an iterative process that moves according to the current stage of the business. For SensAnalytics, we are in the pre-development stage and are therefore detailing a model that is both forward looking and relevant to the product and market testing that is to follow this stage. The SensAnalytics business model begins with offering a product that meets a wide audience need (baby-monitoring), at a speed of delivery quicker than traditional hardware solutions (instant download), with a user experience that is more effective and natural than existing app solutions, and at a price that is both lower than competitors and highly appealing to users (free). Then we aim for a small percentage of users to engage in the additional features of infant milestone/ event tracking and sleep cycle insights. Due to interactivity and regular updates, these features should have a higher retention rate than the monitoring feature. Furthermore, they will allow deepen relationships with regular users and eventually monetize aspects of such. Our aim is to make it very easy for parents to input and keep track of their childs development therefore becoming a necessary tool for infant well-being.

1. Customer Segments
As stated in the customer profiling section of the market selection analysis, we have determined our target customers based on both parent sociodemographic studies and Smartphone consumption data. Therefore our main customer segment will be first time, active parents between 25 and 34 years old who earn over 40 000 a year and are Smartphone enabled (see Figure 6.1).
Figure 6.1: Customer segment

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We have however felt the need to identify other promising customer segments in order to improve the service and profitability of the product. These other segments present slightly different needs, problems and characteristics positioning the companys customer segmentation as Diversified.

Sleep Apnea

Traumatised parents Alarm and sensitivity options

Machine learning / Differentiation between babies

Twins / Second child

Improve baby and parents Sleep quality

Single mothers

Sleep quality and emotional analysis with one phone

Figure 6.2: Other Customer segments

1.1 Traumatised parents:

Parents who have witnessed Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome from their first child or who have heard of it through friends will feel the need to monitor their babies in their sleep in order to prevent this potentially life-threatening condition that requires immediate medical attention. Certain competitors such as Hisense have targeted this specific niche market with hardware products (BabySense range) that monitor the child breathing and sound an alarm when the baby doesnt breath for more than 20 seconds. We have considered this niche segment when designing our product and service and have planned to integrate alarm options along with sensitivity configuration based on Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome studies to offer accurate medical settings in terms of sleep phase, breathing, and sound intensity.

1.2 Second time parents

Second time parents also represent a promising customer segment. Parents who have had bad experiences monitoring their first child and have lost sleep quality or developed sleep problems causing negative impact on energy, emotional balance, and health will be very likely to invest in a powerful and accurate service that will help both their babys sleep quality and their own. Furthermore, the accurate analysis of the babys sleep cycle and emotional state provides parents with a great tool to understand their babys sleep and adapt their activity around this data.

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1.3 Parents of twins or close aged children

This Second niche market presented an important but interesting technical challenge. After investigating this matter, we have discovered that most of the time, twins or close aged babies sleep in the same bedroom. Therefore the challenge was: Is it possible to monitor two babies with one device? In the long term, a recent technology called machine learning that will be integrated in the application will enable the device to differentiate between multiple breathing and provide separated sleep and emotional analysis of multiple babies. Furthermore, multiple features have been thought of in the long term to continue providing accurate services to this important customer segment. The dock will offer a moving base controllable from the remote Smartphone in order to move the camera and see both babies with pre adjustment options to switch quickly from one child to another.

1.4 Single mothers

Single mothers are an increasing customer segment that must be taken into account. The main difficulty when targeting this segment was the fact that two Smartphones where needed for the service to work fully and of course, single mothers. However, the possibility of analysing the child sleep activity with one phone only and being able to analyse and compare it to the SensAnalytics database represents a powerful feature on its own that could convince the purchase. Furthermore, we have discovered that many single mothers from the age of 25 to 34 had a working old Smartphone that could be used to monitor or remote the child.

2. Value Proposition
The SensAnalytics product offering has a complex structure from a business and technology perspective, however in terms of the user, the value propositions are simple and understandable; Cost, functionality, usability, and novelty. The product offers Smartphone-enabled parents the ability to instantly access and utilize a quality baby-monitoring solution for free. Similar products are available on various app-stores for a fee ranging from 0.79 - 10.00 +, meaning that initial user attractions will be based on the product being a free app. For the user there is little risk in downloading the application, as there is no initial cost associated with it. Design and usability are focal points of the product value proposition. From researching over 100 baby related Smartphone applications and surveying parents, we found that current offerings required too many stages to setup, contained unnecessary information, and were not designed to a professional standard. Our product will be active as a working monitor and receiver in just four clicks. 110

On a users initial signup they will be prompted in clear English exactly how the application works. Our intention is not to overload the user with too many options and features. Once they have used the basic monitoring feature they will be guided towards settings that they can apply to it. Regarding the diary section of the application, we will preload a number of milestones that can be marked as complete, this will inform the application about which milestones are likely next for this child and only show them. Parents will also be able to add their own custom milestones. Insights and analytics are an important value adding aspect of the product offering, and have been recognised as both novel in respect to the current app landscape, and important to parents in respect to our quantitative research. The app will offer custom reporting on the childs sleeping patterns, which is a well-documented pain point for parents with infant children. We will offer users the ability input a change in the childs daily routine, they insights will then report if a change in sleeping pattern has been observed. For example parents may wish to test if feeding this child closer to bedtime will affect their sleeping pattern. In essence we are highlighting to parents the benefits of tracking and documenting their childs development through offering a product with wide market appeal.

3. Channels
The channels were chosen taking into consideration the nature of our product and the main online application markets: IOS Apple App Store and Google Play. These two leading platforms will represent our first revenue source and are critical to the product success. Other channels will consist of our companys website and the amazon application store. These two channels will play an important part as information and ranking platforms. Our website enables us to present every aspect of our application as we have full liberty and space to detail all features. The priority remains to integrate the Google play market for Android as it presents various advantages and simplifies the launch process.

4. Customer Relationships
This element defines how we, as a product and service provider, will interact with our users to further the objectives of our business model. Three motivations for how we manage our customer relationships are user acquisition, user retention, and driving premium plan subscriptions. User acquisition will be mostly driven by the attractiveness of the free baby-monitoring feature. Secondly we aim to increase user retention with the baby diary feature, which will be simple and intuitive for parents to input their childs development. The nature of the diary feature is that over time and use, parents will develop a stronger relationship to the application. This is a similar 111

structure to how Facebook have achieved strong user lock-in; dedicated users now have so many contacts, photographs and content that it is very hard for them to justify leaving the service. It is important that we identify the various groups of users that download and use our product; some users will want to use only the basic features, others will want to use more advanced aspects and of those, so will be likely to pay for premium features. Understanding how people use the application, and grouping them accordingly, will aid us in moving users towards paid features, and increasing user retention. For example if we identify that people who use only features x and y are most likely to stop using the app, then we can target them with re-engagement efforts to increase their likelihood of continued use. Monitoring our user segments will also allow us to understand which usage habits are most likely to lead to a paid subscription conversion. We can then focus our user communications to boosting such habits. We have identified an application plugin called Intercom.io that will easily allow us to segment users into habit related groups and communicate with them in a dynamic way. In the early stages we aim to employ a dedicated personal assistance relationship with users of the diary function. This enables us to carry out much needed customer development and pinpoint what will turn a free user into a revenue generating user.

5. Revenue Streams
Our product is built on a freemium revenue model; this is a model wherein a free version of a product is offered to a user, but without 100% functionality (Niculescu et al, 2011). The intention is to secure a large user base that initially come for the free product, and then convert a small percentage of those into customers who pay for advanced features, and greater usage limits. There are a number of desirable aspects to a freemium model that suit the SensAnalytics product offering. Firstly it lends itself well to user acquisition due to the lack of a cost barrier, from that point our key performance indicator is based on converting free users into paying customers. Gaining a paying customer is far easier when you have already established contact with them (they will have the app and a registered account with us). Furthermore we have validated their intention to purchase based on their usage habits. In essence, basic free users give us a pool of qualified leads to which we can focus our sales efforts on. The difference between free and paying users will be based in the milestones and diary section of the application. We chose to monetize this as it is the section of that app with the highest potential for lock-in and therefore a higher switching cost (Klemperer, 1987), this is the degree to which users feel they are so invested in a tool that it is hard for them to leave. If I have 100 videos hosted on YouTube that have taken my personal effort to upload over a period of time, then it may be tough 112

for me to walk away from, or relocate, that content. We aim to achieve something similar with the diary function of the app. We are planning over 160 built-in infant development milestones, and parents will also be able to add their own to suit their needs. At what point to place the free user limit is an important consideration for our business model; if it is placed too soon, users may not feel committed to the app and have little issue discontinuing use of the app. Conversely, if the free plan is too generous with features and usage, the move to a paid plan would not leave much else to offer, therefore making the move hard for users to justify. We plan to extensively test this during the beta period of our application. Our initial price point will be 4.99 per month for the premium plan that will unlock all off the app features and allow unlimited use of all of these features. Similarly we will need to test this pricing model, we may in fact split the paid plans in to should our testing indicate that it would be more profitable. Aside from developing a revenue stream from app users, we have explored some advertising models that would suit our product and hold appeal for advertisers. Today digital advertising such ad Facebook and Google AdWords are largely based on refinement and specific targeting, made possible by users inputting a wealth of data to these services (Klever, 2009). SensAnalytics will be in a position to target parents based on the exact age and development stage of their child. This is something that will be very appealing to advertisers. We plan two methods of advertising, firstly offering sponsorship opportunities that can be aligned with developmental millstones. The ability to sponsor certain developmental milestones will provide baby product vendors the opportunity to connect with the app user about a product that would be suited to their childs growth stage. Not only does this allow fine-grained targeting to parents needs, but can actually position a brand at a small moment of achievement for a parent. This we view as a powerful value proposition to brands in this industry. Secondly and only directed towards the free users, would be in-app ads from the Google AdMob platform.

6. Key Resources
This is what assets we require in our company to create and deliver our proposed value proposition. The most important resources to our business model are financial and human. The human element is required to develop and test the areas of software development, design, and user experience. Most of our user interaction will be in the form of automated services; this is similar to self-service, however it is dynamic based on the users past habits. For example a user will only see milestones that are logically possible for their infant at that time, a realization of this is not displaying the first

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walk milestone before the first crawl milestone has been reached. To build an interaction scheme such as this we would need to hire top talent in this field. Regarding financial resources, we initially require angel round funding to hire the necessary experience, to develop a prototype, and to test the market. Subject to successes in those three areas, we would then require significantly more capital to grow and scale the company. This will be detailed in the funding and finance section of the report.

7. Key Activities
This can be described as the essential actions that we as a company need to carry out in order to create and capture value for our customer segments (Osterwalder, 2010). We have highlighted three of these activities as software development, marketing, and customer development. For product development we plan to use the agile development methodology. This approach allows for evolutionary development and maintains prompt reaction to product changes. It is a simple and dynamic method of keeping track of various tasks and the stage that each is at. The attention to development flexibility is a cornerstone of agile methodologies (Agile manifesto, 2012). Such affordance is deeply aligned with our business model and will allow us to integrate customer development feedback in to our product specification at pace. Marketing will be employed through various channels and strategies to add new potential users to our conversion funnel, and to convert free app users into paying subscribers. We have segmented our activities into paid advertising, social media marketing, and in-app metrics and testing.

8. Cost Structure
Our cost structure has two distinct facets; one for the product development and testing phase, and the second for product launch and scaling. While in the product development stage we will be operating a fixed cost model, this includes hardware, labour, marketing spend, and customer development. This includes the financial requirement needed to allow us to iterate the product to be positioned for the best possible market fit. The second aspect to our cost structure will come during the product launch phase. We will then employ a variable costs model based on the acquisition cost of expected user increase, while seeking economies of scale from our resource suppliers. Finegrained cost projections are available fin the finance section.

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Figure 6.3: Business Canvas

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Section 7:

MARKETING

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Section 7: Marketing
1. Objectives
In designing our marketing mix we focused on the core business objectives that need to be achieved at this stage. The two objectives we identified as being critical to the success of the business model are; free app user acquisition, and conversions to paid plans. Along with aligning marketing objectives with overall business strategy, we ensured that the strategies to achieve such were both within our financial resources and human resource capabilities.

2. Marketing Mix
In order to be diligent in our approach we needed to structure our marketing mix into a framework. First we examined the traditional four Ps marketing mix framework, which is made up of product, price, place, and promotion (McCarthy, 1960). It became apparent to us that this model would not be suitable for a free digital media product that focuses on a niche market. We decided to draw from the four Cs model adaptation of the four Ps model; consumer, cost, communication, convenience (Lauterborn et al, 1993). This model aligns more suitably the modern web products such as ours, most importantly by replacing product with consumer. As highlighted in our business model, we aim to practice market testing and customer development to ensure that we are not building a product solely to our specification, but what our target user require.

Figure 7.1: 4C Marketing mix

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In terms of digital strategy, knowing where to reach customers is a challenge for 77% of surveyed marketing executives (BCG, 2012). Our task of knowing where to direct effort and spend has been lessened as a result of our research within our market segment. We have identified that a large volume of parent seek answers from Google search queries, we also know that they participate in forums and are influenced by their Facebook friends.

3. User Acquisition Marketing

3.1 Social Media Marketing Social media as a marketing channel is much like any other in that goals must be set, and metrics must be defined to measure success in regard to reaching those goals. In the context of user acquisition, the objectives on social media channels are simple; reach new potential users and encourage them to download the free application. Key performance metrics should be total reach of activity and direct referral downloads. Tracking referrals on mobile devices isnt as straightforward as on the desktop web; Android marketplace doesnt have access to web cookies that would be usually be used for tracking and analytics. However Android passes the referral URL link to the application once it is downloaded, and there are a number of services that can be easily integrated into the application to track those (Hasoffers, 2012). 3.2 Facebook Like many other social networks, Facebook for brands can be limited in its organic reach potential. Most content and interactions, from a brand page, will only be seen by people who like that page. Consequently, there is an emphasis on growing page likes in order to reach more people with content posted. To increase page likes we must achieve two things, firstly focus on getting people who currently like the page to share our content with their friend network. This is not an easy feat, however can be driven by engaging and compelling content. Secondly, when people arrive to our page, we must give them a reason to like the page. We will ensure this by posting regular relevant content, optimizing timeline images such as highlighted and pinned posts, and custom tab application. Custom tabs are an excellent way to drive like conversions on a page as you can make certain content unavailable to people who dont already like the page. We plan to run a Facebook competition early in our beta testing phase to boost interaction and likes on the page. We would develop the competition as a 3rd party application that would require the user to like the page before entering, and would post details back to their own page. Such a competition structure would align perfectly with both people to spreading our message and encouraging new visitors to like our page.

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In order to improve the number of likes on our business page, a Facebook sponsored campaign will be created. Sponsored stories have about 10 times more probability to appear on the target users page (right column and news feed) for a cost of approximately 5 to 7 cents per click.

Figure 7.2: Facebook sponsored link

Figure 7.3: Facebook organic link

We can see in the example above that the sponsored link on the right side has the exact same design as the organic one (except from the sponsored mention) and is therefore considerably efficient. These sponsored stories should significantly increase Facebook community and the number of active users of the application. If a persons friend likes the SensAnalytics page, he will see the post in his newsfeed and potentially see it on the right-hand column on Facebook. These sponsored stories, once included in a Facebook ad campaign, amplify significantly the target audience interaction with the brand and product. The simple fact that a persons friend has shown interest for the brand brings legitimacy and encourages the person to take action and visit the SensAnalytics page. Growing likes is only one aspect of Facebook marketing, we must both reach these likes with out content and convert them into free app downloads. Facebook have a ranking algorithm that means the average post only reach between 7% (PageLever, 2011) and 17% (AllFacebook, 2012) of people who like the page. EdgeRank (below), the algorithm Facebook uses to filter content, ensures that users are not overloaded with posts from someone they are not connected with. It gives every content object (status update, photo, link, video) a weight, then each time someone interacts with that object (likes, tags, comments, shares), a score is added to it. Finally it uses this score to establish the affinity between a user and a piece of content, and thus affect to how many users

the content is shown to.

Figure 7.4: EdgeRank principles ((Digital Organics, 2012)

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With EdgeRank in mind, we have crafted out a Facebook posting strategy to gain the highest potential reach from our followers; Use mostly photos, links and videos in posts Encourage user response through questions. XyZ, do you agree? Have you had the same experiences? How else do you solve this problem? Include strong calls to action. AbC, Like if you agree. Respond to users in a timely manner and engage them in a conversation.

All of these posting tactics will improve both our weight and affinity scores with the people that like our page. As a result Facebook can be a more effective communications channel that it would otherwise be. 3.3 Blogging We plan to maintain a blog for content marketing purposes. A blog can be an excellent source of quality traffic if a strategy is there to support, define and road map for it. Unfortunately none of our team is experienced in early infant parenting; however we plan to blog about the role of technology in parenting and how metrics can be used to support modern parenting. The readers of such content are more likely to download our app than parents that have little interest in technology or metrics. The blog will be part of our website. We will organise our post titles according to Google keyword analyses. This provides two major SEO benefits for our site, the first being fresh content, the second being blog post titles being the URL of the specific post, which Google ranks highly for search terms. Should our blog gain credibility through quality posts and regular readership, we would hope to engage in guest blogging for online publications related to our field. This would provide referral traffic to our site and quality backlinks for increased PageRank (Page et al, 2009). 3.4 Search Engine Advertising (SEA) SEA or keyword marketing or pay-per click advertising (PPC) is a technique which allows

advertisers to place bids on specific keywords or phrases and have their advertisements show up alongside the organic search engine results, (Boughton, 2005).
A decision we had to make was which approach to take towards our payment scheme. Cost per Click (CPC) involves paying your bid price for every ad that is clicked on when it is displayed either on the Google search engine, mobile advertising or display advertising. The other approach we could take is a Cost per Mile (CPM) payment scheme, this involves us being charged for every time the ad is displayed when set to a specific number of display (normally 1000), (Google, 2011). As we have mentioned our first goal was customer acquisition, we opted for a CPC strategy and use the ads to either connect the viewer directly to our website or landing page. One of the key benefits of using 120

this service is the ability to bid for keywords and ad placements. This enables us to adjust our budget as time goes on and we view the analytics towards the time and placement of the ad. If we use unique words but also align to our business, we will be able to advertise at a lower price than if we are using CPM strategy, (ibid) Using Search Engine Advertising gives us the ability to target our market, whether it being; Location City or Country Device Mobile, Laptop, Tablet, PC Demographics Platform Website, In app, mobile browsing, Search Engine (ibid)

This gives the power to place our advertisements aligning with our target customers habits, meaning that our ads would potentially be viewed by potential customers of our product. This also helps us control our spending towards SEA due to our impressions being mainly viewed with customers whod be interested in using our app, (Goldfarb et al, 2011). In using the Google Search Network our ads will displayed on the Google results page (See Appendix 7.1), pages related to search results and site directory pages on search partner sites. The ads are matched to the search results page based on the alignment of our keywords and the terms the user searches for, (Google, 2011). As we progress with this element we will be able to use Analytics to determine different characteristics of the users who are clicking on our ads in order to adapt our targeting methodology, the times in which to display the ad and altering the times in which our ad is displayed. Using Google Display Advertising will give us the ability to target websites, YouTube, forums, blogs and mobile browsing specific to our target markets interests in relation to their baby in addition align the campaign towards the product we are advertising, (ibid). Using the display network enables us to use rich media formats for advertising towards our market including text, image (see Appendix 7.1) and video. In addition to this we are able to determine where our target market are searching for baby information or reviews on products and target those websites1. Google Advertising as mentioned provides us with the ability to target mobile applications. Using this option we will be able segment what OS, either Android or iOS. As we aim to first release the application on Android this market will be targeted first. Using this option we have a choice in developing either mobile image advertisement or text ads. In addition to this we have the ability to

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search ads on mobile apps to determine what keywords are being used for the ad to be displayed on that specific application4.

Figure 7.5: Most Promising Keywords We will also have the ability to monitor conversion rates from our campaigns from the number of clicks on the ad to the number of downloads resulted on those clicks, enabling us to assess marketing effectiveness and accurately measure our return on investment. We will analyse keywords or terms describing our application to determine when and where the ad will appear. We will select high quality and relevant words to our campaign, also the Ad will appear based on the similarity the users search in relation to our keywords as mentioned. Having a strong keyword list will give us a high performance at a low price and vice versa. It is always better to have keywords that match the words and phrases that appear on the actual ad design and related to the content of our website. We used the Google Adwords Keyword tool in order to analyse what are our strongest keywords in accordance to competition and search rate which can be seen in Figure 7.6. 3.5 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Around 90% of web sessions begin with a search, while 81% of users find web sites they are looking for through search engines, (Chandra, 2011). SEO counts for 90% of Google search results while the remaining 10% is made up of SEA, (Yang et al, 2010). SEO is made up of three fundamental elements: Figure 7.6: Keywords traffic summary

Information attained from the Google Adwords support centre available at: https://support.google.com/adwords/?hl=en

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Site-Wide Optimisation2 - consists of linking and the navigation structure and mapping which is used across the website as a whole. It also includes how often the site is updated, and continuously adding new, current, trending material to the site. In addition, the way in which a user would interact with the site is another component which influences site wide optimisation On-Page Optimisation2- On page optimisation includes the factors which influence where your webpage is listed in natural search results and are determined by factors such as Meta tags, HTML code and so on. If you notice these are things which you are in charge of through the coding on your page. Off-Page Optimisation2 This not determined by you or your code but by the popularity of the links you provide on your site, the social networks that you use and your overall page ranking. But also includes how other sites link to you as well. It is also important to note that our organic search optimisation can play a role in the quality of our SEA ads, as a result we will have to align the two in order to capitalise on both organic and paid search. In our approach to be listed on the first page of the Google search results we have conformed to some of the areas, (See Chart 7.8) in which improve result ranking, in addition to this we have identified areas in which we still need to acknowledge in order to further increase our ranking,. There are many different elements which need to be considered during this process and those that follow5 are some examples of what needs to be done in order to optimise your organic search rank. 3.5.1 Current Conformities URL - Short is good, also it is good if they avoided having numbers and random letters in their URLs because it makes the page easier to crawl by the likes of Google. Headers - Using headings and subheadings are quite beneficial. Search Engines actually consider the heading more important than the actual text because they are supposed to describe the descriptions below. H1, H2 is the order of the importance of the heading. Image Alt Tags Images are good for give a visual aid to help the understanding, but unless they have an alternative text description of what the image is, they can be deemed useless. This is because search engines find it difficult to see into images

The information describing the elements of SEO is based on the following sources: (Google, 2011), (SeoMoz, 2011), (www.woorank.com), (www.hubspot.com), (http://ogp.me/), (Babu, 2012).

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Indexed Pages These are the pages which are indexed by Google. This aids SEO because it makes it easier for search engines to crawl the website. Search Engines look at how you link pages within your website. Meta Tags These tags help search engines determine what your site is about, so are a very important part in terms of Google or Yahoo understanding in which results your site should be shown. A Meta description should usually consist of no more than 160 characters. No Flash - Flash videos are not advised due to the difficulty it hinders when crawling the website. Engines are also not able to see inside the flash, thus they would not know what it is. Mobile Considerations - Trends today are strongly moving toward mobile devices such as Smartphones (iOS and Android). Thus having an adaptable website resolution is very important in todays society. Figure 7.7: Mobile Considerations Submitted our site to Google We submitted our site through Google Webmasters in order for it to be crawled and indexed into Googles database. 404 error page This aids site viewers to be guided back to a working page. It is used when the viewer goes to a page which does not exist on the site. 3.5.2 Future Considerations Robots.txt Having a robots.txt file can aid in SEO greatly. It prevents access of search engine robots that crawl the web, and it can prevent these robots from accessing specific directories and pages. It also specifies where the XML sitemap file is located. XML Site Map- Having a site map aids the ability for a search engine to crawl your website. Including information such as last updates, frequency of changes and importance can only increase optimisation. If the site map is submitted to Google, your websites visibility will increase more. Text HTML Ratio - HTML to Code Ratio - Anything over 15% is considered to be good, but the higher the ratio the better. Fresh Content Content is king, continuous updating of site, blog and overall social media. Having a huge impact on SEO, high-quality content will keep visitors on your website for longer and your page earns points for interesting content.

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Titles - Recommend being between 65 and 70 characters. It contains some of the main keywords for the site which is beneficial for what search engines look for. It is unique to the sight which is also good. For maximisation of SEO, unique titles and descriptions need to be used. Social Media - Social Media links are also another influential element of offsite optimization. But it cant just be there and not used. It needs to be updated regularly with interesting, up to date content. It is quality not just quantity. You need to monitor you social media sites and make sure you listen and engage with your target market. Link Building - The most important aspect of Google Page Rank. Both Internal and External Links are important, but be wary of link farms, can be penalised for who you link to. Link to sites which are relevant and have authority (.edu, .gov). Keyword Optimization - Using relevant keywords is essential to optimising our site. They need to align with what the terms the searcher is using and be placed in the right places including page content, titles, headings, meta tags, URL and so on. We have conducted research into this but a more in depth approach will be necessary in order to improve our ranking. Description Meta tag This provides a unique and short description about the web page as search engines are able to provide a text preview within the results. Keyword Meta tag These are words used to explain the content of the page and usually consist of 7 to 10 keywords.

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3.5.3 Current SEO Code Examples Element Code Example <h2>Sleep Cycle analysis</h2> <html prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head> <title>SensAnalytics - About</title> <meta property="og:title" content="About" /> <meta property="og:url" content="viewsource:http://www.sensanalytics.com/index.html"/> <meta property="og:image" content="http://www.sensanalytics.com/images/logo.png" /> </head> </html> <a href="index.html" title="Home" alt="to home page">Home</a> <a href="http://www.pablodelavega.com" alt="to designer portfolio"> www.pablodelavega.com</a> <title>SensAnalytics - Home</title> <div class="image"><img src="images/article/article-thumb-1.jpg" alt="Sleep Cycle Analysis"/></div> http://www.sensanalytics.com/about.html Chart 7.8: SEO examples

Headers
Facebook Integration (Open Graph protocol)

In-Page Linking External Linking Title Tags Alt Tags URL

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4. User Conversion Marketing

The in-app Conversion strategy is based on user engagement through emailing and in app prompts. These marketing and customer relationship management actions will also play a significant role in the users experience. This style of marketing requires a different approach than previously outlined. For user acquisition marketing were concerned filling the start of our sales funnel by getting people to know about the app and make the easy move to downloading the free version. The barriers to potential users are low therefore justifying the approach. However, converting users from free to paid plans is a different story involving regular interaction with users. 4.1 Social Media Marketing We plan to use Facebook and our blog to deepen relationships with free app users. These channels give us an opportunity to educate users on the benefits of our product and how best to gain value form it. Included in this will be regular webinars that walkthrough the various features of the app. We will also highlight examples of how parents can use the sleep pattern analytics to improve their childs sleep. The re-engagement possibility of social media connections makes it a suitable medium to move users towards a sale over time. 4.2 Email Marketing An automatic emailing process will be insured with different objectives: Information on new features and evolutions will be sent to users whenever a new version of the application is available for download and a new feature is presented. Help on application usage will be sent to users after their subscription by email with series of tutorial videos to watch in order to explain all features of the application and encourage them to maintain an adequate use of the service. Feedback demands will be sent via email to evaluate certain aspects of the app (design, usability, new feature). This feedback will help us improve the service quality and the user satisfaction. A Call for action will be triggered in several situations: o Time triggers on day 3, day 7 and day 14 that provide information, help, tutorials for basic, medium and advanced features before calling for subscription.

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Figure 7.9: Mail strategy phase 1

o Non-activity triggers: when the account remains inactive (the user hasnt monitored his baby in 1,2 and 4 weeks) an automatic email will be sent calling for action via personalized advice from usage data information.

Figure 7.10: Mail strategy phase 2

o Activity triggers: when the account remains active (the user has been monitoring his baby continuously since the application was downloaded) several automatic email will be sent encouraging further activity via personalized advice based on the babies monitored data. For example, an email comparing the babies sleep cycle to the database could advise the parent to take his baby to bed one hour earlier in order to stabilize its sleep cycle and improve its immune system. Emailing Tool: MailChimp MailChimp is an emailing online platform, which provides simple tools to design, share, and track emailing campaigns. This publishing platform provides multiple plugins integration and great 128

portability. Such a tool could integrate our products time and activity triggers and provides a simple and efficient solution to our marketing and Customer relationship management objectives detailed above. 4.3 In App Prompts In App Prompts will be installed for different objectives New feature prompt will offer a guided tour to users when logging at different stages: when the user enters the application for the first time, when the user subscribes to the comparison information and when new features are released. Call for subscription will appear when enough data was accumulated. These messages will appear in the event and analytics section and will be generated according to the main interest of the user. If the user is looking at the sleep cycle analytics of his baby and more precisely the number of cries per night, the catch up phrase will say: find out the average times other babies using the application cry during the night. Figure 7.11: In-app prompts example

These in app prompts will appear in a pop up sliding window on the top of the screen and will disappear automatically after 10 seconds in order to prevent negative usability and user dissatisfaction as illustrated below. Feedback messages will also appear for certain occasions such as an opinion demand to the user regarding new features.

5. Product launch period

The launch period was carefully chosen in order to maximise the products success and return on investment under multiple socio demographic and marketing factors. In order to reach the maximum amount of person at a specific period of time, we have investigated the childbirth activity throughout the year which resulted in a considerable increase during the month of January, February and March. Our product should target new users from this period of time in order to create a significant word of mouth and ensure a successful take off for the application on the market. If we want to reach the new parents in this three month period, an effective communication must be established before then since we need to acquire enough visibility to ensure that a parent looking for a baby monitor application finds our product. Our marketing plan will presents sufficient results after a period of three to four month (creation of a social media community and Search engine optimization) meaning that the optimal month to launch the final version of the application will be in beginnings of October of 2012.

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Section 8:

FINANCES

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Section 8: Finances
This section aims at presenting the simulations we conducted in order to conclude on the financial profitability of the project. To do so, we first forecast the product releases, the functionalities they will offer and their associated revenue model. Then we evaluate three different user growth scenarios (best, normal and worst cases) considering the market size, our market share evolution and external factors such as network effects (e.g. word of mouths). This allows us determining different revenue forecasts. Based on the previous user population evolution model, we are able to estimate the marketing costs involved in reaching that many people. By adding the start-up creation costs (company registration, offices ), the R&D expenses (comprising architecture hardware, design and development) and the budget allowed to risk management, we are able to compare our business cost structure with its potential incomes in order to forecast a 3-year financial projection. Finally by taking the minimum of the financial forecast, we are able to determine the funding we need. Then we study the different funding options and conclude on the best strategy.

1. Product release estimation

The first step into forecasting potential income is to determine when exactly the product functionalities will be released because it affects the user population growth and thus the revenue streams. As we previously explained in the Marketing section, we split up the market entry into 2 phases: user acquisition and customer conversion. User acquisition is about attracting the most possible customers through a free baby monitoring app, thus only monitoring alerts and events are provided at this stage. Customer conversion come with version 2.0 of the app which provides development milestones comparison and in-app purchasing capabilities. Thus the first income would arrive when version 2.0 is released. As we stated at the end of the technical specifications, the version 1.0 will be ready at the beginning of October. Moreover to comply with the risk analysis (see Section 7), we plan to incrementally improve it to commercialize a complete beta version in Ireland before releasing it in the UK two months later in January. This allows us to further test our design and business assumptions on a smaller sized and least critical market. The phase 2 which provide mechanisms for milestone comparison and in-app purchasing will arrive 6 months later giving time to the R&D team to prepare the payment architecture and to the marketing to prepare the selling arguments. It means that first income would at best arrive after 10 months.

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Based on our target market estimation (see Section 3), we are thus able to conclude on the maximum user population at each stage of the

commercialisation (See Figure 8.1). This will help us the

concretely potential

simulate user

community

growth we can have. Figure 8.1: Market entry timeline

2. User Community Modelling

Now that we have identified the size of the market available to us at each stage of the project development, we successively multiply it by four different rates to estimate our final user community: The reaching rate represents the percentage of our entire market size population which is reached by our product offer The downloading rate represents the percentage of the reached population which will actually download the application. The retention rate represents the percentage of the population who has downloaded the application and keep using it after a month. The subscription rate represents the percentage of the regular user population who will subscribe to the monthly paying offer. We estimate these four rates on a 3-years period and we provide three scenarios (worst, medium, and best) for the reachable rate and the download rate. 2.1 The reaching rate The reaching rate estimates how efficiently we reach our target market. It depends on the efficiency and the scope of our marketing activities and the evolution of our customers satisfaction and is also affected by word of mouth. We have identified the three following potential scenarios.

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Scenario 1: The worst scenario would consist in an initial increase due to the

development of marketing activities. It would be followed by stagnation due to a marketing campaign not efficient enough to generate any network effect. Thus, marketing activities will constantly reach a similar portion of the market. Figure 8.2: Reaching rate modelling scenario 1 Scenario 2: An intermediate scenario would

consist in a linear progression of the reached rate. A more efficient

marketing plan would lead to a limited but noticeable network effect. Figure 8.3: Reaching rate modelling Scenario 2 Scenario 3: The best scenario would consist in a very quick and wide acceptance of the product which leads to a very powerful network effect. This scenario would allow us to reach 80% of the target market in 3 years. Figure 8.4: Reaching rate modelling Scenario 3 2.2 The downloading rate The downloading rate estimates the proportion of the reached market population which download the application. We represent it as a percentage of the reached each month of the 3 years projection. It depends on our ability to convince the reached population through our marketing strategy and on the standing of the application generated from users. Once again we have identified the three following potential scenarios. 133

Scenario 1 The worst scenario would consist in an initial increase due to the

development of marketing activities. It would be followed by stagnation and decline due to a defective or

unaligned product. Figure 8.5: Downloading rate modelling scenario 1 Scenario 2 An intermediate scenario would

consist in a linear progression of the downloading rate. The constant

improvement of the website and of the marketing campaign drives new user to the app. Figure 8.6: Downloading rate modelling scenario 2 Scenario 3 The best scenario would consist in a constant and quicker increase due to excellent feedbacks from users and a significant standing generation. It may allow us to reach a 50% downloading rate. Figure 8.7: Downloading rate modelling scenario 3 2.3 The retention rate The retention rate represents the proportion of the population who have downloaded the application and become regular users. Considering our offer, we assume that a regular user will use the application during an 18-months period. To simplify the modelling, we consider regular users as customers who download the application in a giving month and keep using it during the next 18 months. Thus, the retention rate takes into account the potential loss of long-term clients.

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According to the app analytics firm Localytics, users are developing more loyalty toward apps, abandoning them less frequently and visiting their favourite apps more often. 31% of downloaded apps are used more than 11 times (Localytics, 2012). We consider it as the maximum retention rate we can reach in 3 years. Figure 8.8: Retention rate modelling Moreover, the fact that we are proposing a free application has a positive impact on our downloading rate while supporting the number of unfounded downloads (curious

members of the reached population may take advantage of the free nature of the app). It definitely limits our retention rate. Figure 8.9: Retention of App users 3.4 The subscription rate The last rate to consider is the conversion rate or the percentage of regular users who will subscribe to a paid plan. Conversion rates are historically really low for freemium revenue model, mostly because customers chose the application to avoid paying anything. Thus, best company such as Skype or Flickr feature conversion rate approximating the 5% while other less successful freemiumbased firms such as Pandora stagnates near the 1%. One key factor for conversion rate is the interest users will find in the paid plan and the strengths of the conversion mechanisms that have been implemented. When it comes to child, parents do not hesitate to spend more money than on other cost segments. Therefore, also considering that we put in place a strong marketing campaign towards user conversion, we can hope to reach a subscription rate of 5%.

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3.5 User community growth simulation & Potential revenues

20 000 16 000 12 000 Scenario 1 8 000 4 000 0 Scenario 2 Scenario 3

By taking into account the different rate

scenarios, we end up with 3 subscriber growth in

community cases

presented

Figure 8.10.

Figure 8.10: Subscriber community growth scenarios Considering our pricing strategy for the in-app purchasing revenue
70 000 $ 60 000 $ 50 000 $ 40 000 $ 30 000 $ 20 000 $ 10 000 $ 0$ Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3

Figure 8.11: Revenue forecast

model, these scenarios allow us forecasting

revenues (See Figure 8.11). We can also

conclude that we need to wait at least 2 years before knowing if our

product drives a sufficient number of users as the scenarios do not diverge before. Therefore the maximum financial losses we can face correspond to the operating results of the worst case and after 2 years.

3. Costs estimation
Now that we have drawn our revenue forecast, we will examine the cost structure of the project. We divide them among different categories. The Start-up creation section gathers expenses related to setting up a new business, such as company registration fee, domain name reservation, offices, expendables. We also measure the spending on R&D comprising the various infrastructure hardware, the software licence and eventual developers wages. Based on the user community evolution model, we conclude on the costs involved in interacting with them through the Marketing strategy (networking, conference, SEO, paid search ). Finally, we consider the budget needed to ensure that our organisation is ahead of various risks. It includes insurances, security assessment and business continuity plan consulting costs, but also monetary provisions in case of lawsuits or disasters. 136

That breakdown allows us to perform a complete cost analysis which is presented in Appendix 8.1. The cost evolution (See Figure 8.12) shows us that our expenses decrease over time. The initial costs tops 22k mainly due to spending on the network architecture, but we rationalise them over time. Figure 8.12: Cost structure evolution
25 000 $ 20 000 $ 15 000 $ 10 000 $ 5 000 $ 0$

We reach an optimized cost structure after 2 years on with unavoidable salaries,

spending patent,

workforce

network

architecture

improvement and online advertising to maintain our marketing presence. Having efficient network architecture at the start involves important setting up expenses but allow us avoiding

having important cost growth as the user demand increases. Another indicator we extract from this analysis is the cost breakdown (See Figure 8.13) among the different categories. With 45% of the costs, the R&D represents important spending needed to provide a reliable and scalable architecture to answer the growing user demand. 35% 45% 7% 13% Figure 8.13: Cost structure breakdown
Start-up creation R&D Marketing Risk budget

4. Financial projection
By removing our
60 000 $ 50 000 $ 40 000 $ 30 000 $ 20 000 $ 10 000 $ 0$ -10 000 $ -20 000 $ -30 000 $ Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3

costs from the net income, we are able to conclude on our net profit evolution (See

Figure 8.14). We see that we can be cash flow positive after 2 years in the ideal case or 2.5

Figure 8.14: Net profit evolution

years

with

the

average 137

simulation. If we fail to trigger network effects and word of mouths, the worst scenario shows us that we never reach profitability and must consider winding up after 3 years. To conclude, we aggregate the monthly operating results to conclude on our profitability and the amount of funding we need to launch the product. Figure 8.15: Cumulated profit evolution

0$ -20 000 $ -40 000 $ -60 000 $ -80 000 $ -100 000 $ -120 000 $ -140 000 $ -160 000 $ -180 000 $ -200 000 $ -124 453 $ -146 305 $ -183 736 $

Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3

In the ideal case, we need 125k of funding and can reach the financial equilibrium at the end of the 3 years having a highly positive revenue forecast perspective. In the average user growth simulation scenario, we need 150k and start repaying our debts after 2.5 years with a positive revenue growth perspective. Finally, the worst case scenario allows us determining the maximum financial losses our investors and us might face in case of failure, as being 185k. Discussion on financial profitability To conclude this financial projection part, we would like to emphasize that we only considered one revenue model over three possible in this simulation. The sponsored advertising program will be interesting for baby professionals when our database will contain at least 5000 babies information. This number could be reached in Q1 2014 according to the average regular user growth estimation (See Appendix 8.2). Thus we could start monetize our database content 18 months after product launch and further lower our funding needs and increase our revenues. Moreover, as our team comprises three French members, we can easily translate the app and forecast the establishment of our product at the beginning of 2014. This would further increase our target market and subsequent subscriptions. Therefore, we consider the average financial forecast scenario as being realistic considering the risks and delays that might occur in our progression to product development. Thus we study the funding options we have to raise 150k in the next section.

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5. Funding strategy
Funding is a dynamic process. Hoping to directly raise the 150k is not realistic. Therefore we plan to get money at key development steps of our activity and throughout the 3 year period. We identify the 3 initial business lifecycle steps as being: - The seed stage - gathers the investment needs towards the creation and the first month of business activity. It requires 20k as can be seen in the cost evolution (See Figure 8.16). This would typically involve a first fundraising round that would consist of potential early investors, but more likely of funding institutions grants such as Enterprise Ireland or City and County Enterprise Boards, and of our personal monetary resources. - The start-up stage - gathers the investment needs towards the first quarter of activity. It allows us better define our product, test our assumptions and interact with customers. This would need an extra 50 k that could be raised through support funding programs such as the Ryan Academys Propeller Seed Accelerator Fund. - The growth stage - gathers the investment needs towards reaching maturity and scale. It finishes when the company is cash flow positive. So that would typically be our last funding need. As we would have time to increase the awareness around our project, obtaining Enterprise Ireland grants such as the High Potential Start-up or making a new fundraising round towards angel investors seems to constitute a realistic way to raise the last 80 k. 5.1 Seed stage Even if we can raise money from pitching our idea to potential early investors, the most realistic and reliable way of starting a business is to use our personal monetary resources. 3F (Family, Friends and Founders) is a way to take a look at our personal connection environment. By reviewing our financial situation, we conclude that each initial founder will invest 2000 in the business, thus raising 10k. As we considered in the costs analysis that we pay ourselves 800/month at the initial stage, this investment can be reduced to 1200 plus one month time, which seems a rather reasonable amount. As to friends and family, we prefer to have a prudent approach on that matter since the risk of business failure cannot be considered as null and may lead to complicated debt-based situations. To raise the last 10k, we consider applying for small seed stage grants. The Irish government is constantly promoting business creation around innovation and new technologies and various agencies such as Enterprise Ireland or County and City Enterprise Boards propose a wide range of financial supports according to companies needs, objectives, and advancement of their projects. Considering this option, we identify the Refundable Priming grant offered by the Dublin City Enterprise Board as being the most realistic way to finance 50% of our initial costs (representing 10k). As our business would have started since less than 18 months, employ less than 9 employees 139

and as our business plan includes capital and salary costs, SensAnalytics met the applicant criteria. However with this solution, we need to pay back 33% of the grant 2 months after our first sale, which means we have an extra funding requirement of 3.4k during the start-up stage. Our funding strategy to leverage 10k at seed stage is thus to use personal resources in addition to the DCEB Priming grant. 5.2 Start-up stage We need to raise 50k at this stage. As the project is still not advanced enough to make a fundraising round towards angel investors, we aim at start-up development program such as the DCU Ryan Academy. This non-profit joint venture provides the Propeller Seed Accelerator Fund, an accelerator for early stage technology start-up companies, both Irish and international, in Dublin. It has an emphasis on software, Web 2.0, applications and informatics, therefore seems to fit with our activity domain. The programme is a mentor-led, three month incubation with free space and services and an additional 30,000 cash investment in the company in return for 6.5% equity stake. The financial contribution is estimated at 45k, which could give us time to reach the next fundraising stage. To complete this amount or as an alternative solution, we also focus our efforts towards getting the Enterprise Ireland Competitive Start Fund. As our business would have received less than 100k in funding prior to the application and as we would have recently commenced trading (First app is released in Q3 2012), SensAnalytics is eligible for the application. This alternative funding source would contribute for 50k in the project also ensuring that we reach the next stage. 5.3 Growth stage In order to make our business scale, we need another 80k during the year 2013 to be able to reach positive cash flow and a successful business launch. To do so, we sell equities through a fundraising round towards business angels. At this stage, our product will have the ability to actually demonstrate its potential, therefore we hope to sell 10 to 15% equities and raise 40 to 60k through that operation. Finally, as our product is innovative and can aim at the international market, we consider participating to the High growth potential start-ups (HPSUs) program, which is reserved to companies that, in the view of Enterprise Ireland, can develop innovative technologies, products and services for sale on world markets. If successful, this application would cause Enterprise Ireland to invest the same amount of money than external investors through equity selling. This would raise another 40 to 60k over the 12 months period.

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To conclude, Figure 8.16 summarizes our overall funding strategy over the 3 year period with identified program and expected income. It also presents the evolution of the enterprise equity share after each funding operation. Figure 8.16: Funding strategy overview

6. Conclusion on business viability

Through the financial analysis we previously conducted, we are able to prove the profitability of our business plan in an ideal and a normal user community growth scenario. These scenarios are subject to positively evolve if we consider the strong opportunities the international markets and our revenue models can offer to us. Therefore, the project offers promising perspectives to potential investors. Moreover, the funding strategy proves that our business has the resources to raise the necessary amount of money needed to reach its growth stage. Thus, we can conclude that the project is financially viable and has the potential to be successfully launched.

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Section 9:

RISK MANAGEMENT
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Section 9: Risk Management

This section aims at defining the risks that can come along the project development and the strategy implemented to prevent and mitigate them. We first explain the methodology our team followed throughout the project before presenting the findings of our risk analysis and further detailing our mitigation plan towards the top risks we might encounter. Finally we identify the general methods we will use to keep our organisation running (e.g. Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Plan, Information System security frameworks).

1. Methodology overview
In order to ensure that most risks are gathered, the SensAnalytics management board put in place early in the project a risk assessment methodology (see Figure 9.1). Every team is in charge of reporting all risks related to its activities. To animate this task, the Quality & Risks Management department takes 10 minutes at the end of each meeting to discuss about risks identified during the past week. These risks are gathered in an Excel chart and used afterwards for the risk analysis. Moreover, once the R&D and the Business development departments have finished their sections of the report, they had to conclude on the key assets and key risks related to their parts, allowing weighing the importance of the identified threats. In order to follow a strong methodology for the risk analysis, the Risks team choose the FMECA one. This method is mainly used in the mechanical engineering

domain and gives strong tools to assess any potential activity segment. After

identifying the top risks for each segment of our activity, we draft a risk mitigation plan and report it to advisors for feedback. Figure 9.1: Risk management process overview

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2. FMECA Analysis
The development of our project involves several risks that we need to identify beforehand in order to quickly react to them. Here we follow the FMECA (Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis) method and use it to take a look at the market, the product, external/internal stakeholders of the company and the environment, (Lipol et al, 2011). It is designed to identify potential failure modes for a product or process before the problems occur, to assess the risk. In the following we classify the risks according to three criteria (delectability, severity, and occurrence) which give a level of priority (RPN): - Severity (S): relates to the impact it will have on business operations and is described on a 10point scale where 10 is the highest. - Occurrence (O): Occurrence is the rate in which it occurs and can occur and is described on a 10point scale where 10 is the highest. - Detection (D): Detection is our ability to identify the risk and is described on a 10-point scale where 10 is the highest. - RPN= Severity * Occurrence *Detection (ibid)

Then we suggest a preventive solution, an indicator of success related to this solution and a response action in case the risk occurs. For an easier reading, we classified the risks among different categories: - Those related to the market; including risks coming from customers, competitors, but also marketing and commercialisation - Those related to the product lifecycle; including risks related to the R&D, the deployment and running and specific security threats coming from hackers or insiders. - Those related to the broad environment surrounding the project; including economic, politic and legal/regulatory environments. - Those related to the company in itself; including the management, the employees, the offices This framework guarantees us to be ahead of potential failures and contributes to improve the products and processes designs, to cost savings and to the development of control plans, testing requirements, optimum maintenance plans, reliability growth analysis and related activities. (ibid) The key findings (i.e. the top risks identified) of our FMECA analysis can be found in Figure 9.2 below. The complete study is presented in Appendix 9.1. From using this technique we easily identify the highest ranking risks. In the following mitigation plan we give insights on what they are, how they can affect our activities and provide means to prevent or mitigate their impacts.

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Risk The users do not perceive value in our functionalities Our product have a low User Retention (Churn) Rate The marketing campaign do not convince clients Our team fails at analysing the online and social feedback related to our product The final product do not comply with quality and security certifications guidelines (ISO ) Malicious hackers take control of some of the network Employees access dangerous websites and catch trojans Employees naively corrupt the database Sensitive data (medical) are stolen The app does not conform with parents expectations (reliability and usability) We do not reach our financial objectives We face unexpected additional costs The management board fails to understand the market signals

D 5 5 6 6 4 7 8 4 7 7 5 5 4

S 8 7 7 7 9 10 8 10 10 10 8 7 9

O 5 6 4 4 5 3 4 4 3 3 4 5 5

RPN 200 210 168 168 180 210 256 160 210 210 160 175 180

Prevention Organize user meetings before release Constantly analyse customers data to find new functionalities opportunities Organise user meetings before release Assign a member of the marketing team to listening audit Build specifications around quality Forecast R&D time for network monitoring. Enforce the defense in depth principles Enforce user internet access policy Enforce least privilege for employees Implement security policy Conduct usability and security tests Constantly monitor the income Plan a working capital Assign a member of the marketing team to report on listening audit

Action

80 Partner with known baby market company 70 Develop new customized functionalities to attract actual clients

75 Hire a marketing advisor 80 Hire a marketer 60 70 Forecast R&D time to update the software and comply with norms Prepare and follow the Business Continuity Plan

90 Forecast R&D time for troubleshooting 80 Forecast R&D time for troubleshooting 85 Inform the Data Protection Commissioner 80 Change the design and conduct tests again 80 Sell equities 85 Sell equities 70 Hire a marketer

Figure 9.2: Top risks analysis and mitigation plan

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3. Top risks mitigation plan

3.1 Customers do not perceive value in our functionalities (Risk Rating = 200) As we have shown in our marketing strategy we are focused on direct marketing through online mediums. Failure to attract customers to phase 1 of our Smartphone application can greatly hinder the progress of our company is it is phase 2 with our milestone feature we aim to make a high percentage of our company revenue. It also will mean we are taking part in unbeneficial spending in terms of our marketing campaign if it proves not to reach our expected return. How to prevent/reduce risk Our strategy towards this has been discussed in the marketing section; as a result we will give a quick summary. We need to have a strong knowledge of our target customers, such as online habits, demographics, etc. This will give us a strong ability to target them, especially using Search Engine Advertising, as we can set times, demographics and geographical locations in order to specifically target them using key words they use in searching for information about their childs development. We wish to create a buzz around the product and rely on its quality in order to take advantage of Word of Mouth. Response if occurs If we feel our campaign is not showing positive results or is failing to reach our desired outcome, we will outsource the marketing activities to an agency that can conduct further research into our target market and use their experience to develop a strong digital marketing strategy. If this happens our costs will increase, but as we have already mentioned we will not be taking wages in the early stage, but reinvesting our revenue into prioritised activities. 3.2 Low user Retention (Risk Rating = 210) Churn management is the term that has been adopted to define customer turnover. More specifically, churn management is the concept of identifying those customers who are intending to move their custom to a competing service provider, (Hadden et al, 2007). Retaining customers is an essential element to our strategy. According to the (CMO Council, 2012) report a 2% increase in customer retention can affect profits to the same level as reducing costs by 20%. In addition to this they go on say that a loyal customer is 15% more likely to increase spending, than an occasional, more risky customer. Customer churning can occur for a number of reasons, including customer spending ability, quality and reliability of service in comparison to customers, negative word of mouth about the company or change in geographical location where the service is unavailable, (Hadden et al, 2007).

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What affect it could have on operations The affects can have a huge impact on a company, especially in terms of the product we wish to provide. Most of all it greatly influences company revenue and loss in profit. Secondly it increases marketing costs as to acquire or require customers and lastly devalue the company brand image, which can ultimately influence investor confidence in the company and their reinvestment, (CMO Council, 2008). How to prevent/reduce risk In order to prevent this from occurring, continuous analysis of customer data is required. For those with a high potential to churn but also a high profit potential, the strategy should be to aggressively defend and build existing customer relationships, For customers with a low potential to churn and a high profit potential, the strategy is not only to sustain existing relationships, but also target building new relationships. Understanding our customers will be essential to our success and combining all the data attained into a understandable perspective would aid us in knowing who our primary customers are and develop a strategy in order targeting them with personal marketing and engagement as to prevent them churning, in addition to understanding the possibility of why this occurring. One method in gathering and analysing this data is as follows: - Cleanse and identify your customer. Prospect information to ensure that it is up-to-date, accurate, and actionable. - Enrich your information with additional third-party information including non-obvious relationships to add insight and show previously hidden up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. - Manage your insight and establish a process to synchronize it throughout your enterprise and keep it current. (ibid) In addition to this implementing a customer loyalty scheme, such as adding incentives for milestones the baby has had on the application can influence the customer to stick with the product as to avail of these incentives as their child develops. Response if occurs A reaction to low user retention rate would be similar to the one previously proposed for usability and reliability. Through different adaption of features, design, pricing and user cases, we test the customer reaction and subsequently design an adapted mobile application.

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3.3 Malicious Attacks & System Blackout (Risk Rating = 210 & 256) Malicious attacks are a growing concern for digital businesses, especially in relation to ICT start-ups. These attacks could consist of: - Cyber Vandalism committed through hacking and vulnerability exploitation. - Network attacks through viruses, Trojan horses and worms on our website. - Intentional (hacking, data theft) or unintentional threats (human errors, social engineering, Trojan horses) coming from workforce members. - Cyber extortion through Distributed Denial of Service attacks by Crackers. What affect it could have on operations Malicious attacks can have a number of implications on SensAnalytics. First of all it can result in the attacker gaining customer private and sensitive information such as credit card details or social security numbers. If this occurs customers can become victims of financial loss or identity theft. This could have large repercussions on our brand image, which is crucial to our success. Customers may also lose faith and trust in the company and the loss of customers switching to a competitor. This will in turn greatly impact company revenue and our ability to sustain in the marketplace. In addition to this attacks such as a Distributed Denial of Service can result in a system blackout and disruption of company operations. It can also make us open to extortion in order to return to normal operations and financial loss. How to prevent/reduce risk The SensAnalytics R&D team took these threats into account when it designs the internal network architecture. The establishment of a layered security infrastructure composed of two Demilitarized Zones (DMZ) bordered by two firewalls ensures that most attacks will not affect the application server and the databases. The web server might be subject to a number range of attacks but the R&D team took care of the most common (Cross-site scripting, SQL injection ) identified in the OWASP report. However, the security architecture is not sufficient. The network attacks being a dynamic domain, continuous network security assessments must be conducted to ensure that any software containing potential vulnerabilities has been updated and thus cannot result in hackers gaining control of any important asset. A final prevention is to ensure the Defense-in-depth principle. It states that even given all the security policy one can enforce, there will always be a way for hackers to get access to the system. Therefore, this principle gives tools to ensure that even if the system is corrupted at some point, the hackers will only have limited privileges and will only cause limited damages to it.

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Response if occurs Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a disaster recovery method which will cover malicious attacks, but in addition to this, environmental disasters which cant be prevented. The approach to business continuity planning seeks to prepare the company against all major business interruptions of business systems, (Cerullo et al, 2004). Quickly recovering from any type of business interruption, whether from a natural disaster or IT related, is critical to a companys survival and seeks to eliminate or reduce the impact of a disaster condition before the condition occurs and restore business activities to normal level, (ibid). The development of a BCP project typically consists of 5 stages, (Cerullo et al, 2004, EnvoyWorldWide, 2005 & Lam, 2002): 1. Understanding your business and objectives: What activities or processes are essential to ensure continuity of business critical activity to an acceptable level. This can be done through a Business Impact Analysis, where we would look at the potential loss and disruption a disaster could have on the company and what aspects need prioritisation to return to normal business operations. 2. Analyse the Risk and Develop the Strategy: The strategy would consist of a four stage process including initial response, relocation, recovery and restoration. 3. Implementing the Business Continuity Management Response: The initial response is the backbone to a BCP and covers all aspects including BCP team, response time, recovery activities and overall recovery time. 4. Raise Awareness, Embed BCP into Culture and Training: This is a crucial component in order to achieve a successful response if a disaster occurs. Members of our company will need to be informed of the contents of the BCP plan, in addition to the role they will play and their responsibilities and thought how to implement these responsibilities. 5. Test, Review and Adjust: Testing needs to be implemented in order to establish that the plan is the correct response, the team knows what they are doing and the plan can be implemented successfully. It also needs to be continuously reviewed and updated both to align with company goals and with the ever changing environment and generation of new risk. 3.4 Data Breach (Risk Rating =210) A data breach is considered as an unauthorized acquisition of computerized or other electronic data, or any equipment or device storing such data that compromises the security, confidentiality, or integrity of personal information (Romanosky et al, 2011). This includes sensitive and personal information such as name, date of birth, social security number, passport ID, drivers license, biometric, or any other kind of personally identifiable, government-issued, medical, or tax information, (ibid). What affect it could have on operations 149

A data breach can have common implications to that of Malicious Attacks. Losing customer personal data can hinder them liable to identity theft and financial loss. The company can also suffer financial and branding issues. The financial implications of everyday activities can ultimately force the company into closing. But we found if this doesnt occur, the most damaging affect as a result of a data breach is coping with the damage caused to a companys reputation and brand image. Losing customer trust can cost much more as we would have to place a high volume of expenditure to marketing campaigns and regaining customers. How to prevent/reduce risk Forresters Security Programme Framework, (Mclean et al, 2007) is a policy and four step process in order to prevent and reduce the risk of a data breach and consists of the following; 1. Policy Definition It defines what the policy goals are, which procedures need to be followed and whose responsibilities are involved. To succeed, the policy must secure data at a personal and technological level; also managers and top level executives have to conform and communicate on it. 2. Enforcement This involves putting the policy into practice and has to enforced organisation wide for it to be successful and embedded within the culture of the company. Training is a key element in which needs to be implemented at this stage in order to make sure that all individual understand the policy and are confident in their ability to perform its outlines. 3. Monitoring and Response This highlights that policy must be continuously looked at and updated, in order to see if the policy is being followed and that it acknowledges changes in Data Protection Laws of their local and foreign environments. 4. Measure and Report This relates to measuring to the success of the policies in accordance to the goals outlined in the policy and is the most important aspect to ensure the policy is correct, identify possible security issues and the success of the strategy. Response if occurs When an incident happens, the company has legally only 48 hours to respond to the breach. When there are personal data losses or personal financial data unless the number of people who have been affected is under 100, both the subjects and the Data Controller of the company must be informed, the latter having to be informed within two days of the breach. Once this has been done the Data Protection Commissioner must then be informed of the incident and indicates what possible solutions could be implemented. If the company has not already previously registered with the Data Protection Commissioner, strong legal action can be taken. In addition to this processing data in a manner incompatible with your registration and keeping your registration up to data and renewed every year are both offences under the Data Protection Act 2003.

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3.5 Usability and Reliability (Risk Rating = 210) Usability relates to the friendly interface of the application. It is a very important feature for mobile applications and can have a strong bearing on customer retention. It requires the application to be as close as possible to everyday interfaces to be as usable and intuitive as possible, in addition to having small learning curve, (Ivan et al, 2011). This aspect will play a vital role especially during phase two of our development when introducing the milestone feature. Reliability can relate to a number of features on our app, including the validity of the analytical information we will be providing through the baby monitor, the milestone diary and also the security of the overall product. What affect it could have on operations Applications that are difficult to use will consume more time for such use and users will move to other applications more easy to use, considering this one an application with a low quality, (ibid). If the application is not reliable, no customer will have no trust or faith in the product and may switch to a competing brand. As a primary focus of ours is customer retention, we feel these areas are strong priorities for us to acknowledge. How to prevent/reduce risk Conducting usability tests will aid us in improving customer retention, making visible elements of our application that dont work and are difficult to navigate, improve customer experience and the understanding of our customer, (Lindgaard et al, 2007). Even though this is time consuming, especially taking an observational approach it will give us a better view and understanding on the usability of the app and give us the option to get personal feedback from the users, (Kallio et al, 2005). In addition to this having an instruction or tutorial element to the app will decrease the learning curve and inform the user on how to use the application, making this interactive will give the user an opportunity to use all the features and come accustomed to the operation of both the baby monitor and milestone aspects, (Ivan et al, 2011). Response if occurs: If we realise that this risk is the main cause of churning, we would be forced into experimenting with the application layout, design, features and make alterations in order to improve the quality of the app. Further usability studies would have to be performed in order to determine if the new design is liable which could add further costs to the business. Reliability would have to be something we would have to fix from within the company. It would consist of altering and experimenting with how we convert the data into analytics and looking at our code to detect possible bugs which could occur.

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4. Risk mitigation tools

In order to constantly monitor risks, our team will keep the methodology of continuous reporting and FMECA analysis to be able to identify the top risks we face at any time. As we previously said, we also intend to implement a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to be able to quickly react to any kind of business interruptions that could come along our market entry. This document is composed of a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) which is the mapping of risks identified in the FMECA analysis into key assets and of a Disaster Contingency Recovery Plan (DCRP) which identify step-by-step processes to maintain a minimum activity under disaster. This would particularly take care of data loss, network downtime and general security issues. As for network security, in addition to the existing back-end architecture, the Quality & Risk department will ensure that continuous network security assessments will be performed to guarantee an up-to-date protection and that user policy is enforced and followed by the workforce. Considering the development of the app, our R&D team will follow the Common Criteria framework which guarantees a security level certification for the final product. Finally, in order to help the management board easily keeping track of the Information System risk management, we use the Zachman framework. It is a two-dimensional model used to analyse an organization or process by breaking it down into smaller characteristics or considerations. Instead of trying to look at the entire enterprise at once, you break it down into a grid of perspectives and viewpoints facilitating the understanding of the top level executives even if they lack of technical security knowledge.

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APPENDICES S.
161

Appendix summary

Section 1: Team organisation

1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9 Meeting report 01/06/12 Organisation of the summer Meeting report 27/06/12 Market study Meeting report 03/07/12 Meeting with Alan Smeaton 1 Meeting report 11/07/12 Questionnaire sharing Meeting report 18/07/12 Meeting with Alan Smeaton 3 Market Selection Indicators Chart Market Research Questionnaire App Comparison Table Android Vs. IOS 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 Meeting report 05/06/12 Organisation and market study Meeting report 02/07/12 Market study Meeting report 09/07/12 Questionnaire design & website Meeting report 13/07/12 Meeting with Alan Smeaton 2

Section 3: Market study

3.1 3.3 3.5 3.7 4.1 5.1 7.1 8.1 8.3 9.1 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 Ethical Approval Form Website Design - Paper Draft Competitor Profiles Product Feedback Survey

Section 4: Industry and Environmental analysis

Porter 5 forces / Determining market attractiveness OVH dedicated server offers Advertising samples Cost projection (2012/2015) Net profit projection (2012/2015) Risk analysis table 8.2 Revenue projection (2012/2015)

Section 5: Technical Specifications Section 7: Marketing Section 8: Finances Section 9: Risk Management

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Appendix 1.1: Meeting reports

Report 1
Organisation of the Summer
Report 01/06/2012 16h00

ORGANISED BY MEETING TYPE SECRTARY PARTICIPANTS Agenda 0H15 DISCUSSION

John OROURKE Skype Discussion Pierrick BARREAU Pablo DE LA VEGA, Guillaume BONNEVAY, John OROURKE, Euan CALLOW, Pierrick BARREAU

Organisation of the Summer Pablo suggested that we meet all the 3rd July in Paris to start working together. We decided that we will have at least the market study part done by this date Start of work together: Paris 3rd July Market study done by this date

CONCLUSIONS

0H30

Processes Pierrick presented the quality department work on process formalisation.

DISCUSSION

Teams seems happy with it and agreement was made to forward a welcome document containing them to the tutors We also agreed on setting up a Teambox to collaborate online and to add the advisors to the process. Processes OK

CONCLUSIONS

Send them to advisors Teambox to be set up

1H DISCUSSION

Market Study Guillaume presented the work made for the first step of the market study: Market selection. The current spread sheet seems too confusing. Agreement was made to brainstorm first a lot of

163

indicators and then to categorize and gather them into the current spread sheets. Different segmentation will be performed with different indicators at each step: First France vs. UK market Then Age segmentation Social background and other profiling will be done at questionnaire stage John suggested using media trends as a global market indicator. The idea is to survey the main newspapers for occurrence of articles about baby monitoring. He will take care of this part. John also suggested that after the questionnaire, we brainstorm some feature ideas based on the customers feedback, then the R&D department will assess them according to their feasibility. And finally we set up a website or at least a Facebook page to present them 10 to 15 of these features so the users can rate them. The group agreed on that decision and the quality department will update the process to take this into account. Market Study process: Brainstorm indicators Categorize Gather in coherent spread sheet Take decision on market Design questionnaire Send it to relevant market Gather and analyse results CONCLUSIONS Brainstorm features Assess them technically Pick 10 to 15 features Set up a website - Make customers rate the features Conclude on the final offer Go to next steps John will take care of the media trends Quality Department will update processes

TO BE DONE

TASKS TO BE ACHIEVED Brainstorm indicators ideas Categorize indicators into segments Gather all in coherent Excel Spread sheet Search for media trends indicators Update processes Send welcome document to advisors New Skype discussion

MANAGER ALL GUILLAUME PIERRICK JOHN PIERRICK PIERRICK

TIMELINE 4th June 4th June 4th June 4th June 1st June 1st June 5th June 16:00

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Report 2

Organisation & Market Study

Report 05/06/2012 16h00

ORGANISED BY MEETING TYPE SECRTARY PARTICIPANTS

John OROURKE Skype Discussion Pierrick BARREAU Pablo DE LA VEGA, Guillaume BONNEVAY, John OROURKE, Euan CALLOW, Pierrick BARREAU

Agenda

0H45

Advancement & updates 18 indicators have been added to the brainstorm file so far. Before using them, we have to check that the statistics are available online on DCU Library databases, INSA databases and on Internet (Statistic National Offices, Registrars, ) Guillaume has finished preparing the template of the indicators chart. A colour code has been assigned to each section for easier reading. Formulas have now to be found and added to the spread sheet. We need to find a way to normalise the statistics because they have different scale (cant compare percentage with revenues) John did not found reliable media indicators concerning the newspapers articles. The numbers are too different and there is a translation problem. He will continue by taking a look at Google searches and Twitter archives The processes have been updated by the quality department and a welcome report containing our organisation, processes and the beginning of our analysis has been sent to advisors. We need to schedule an appointment with them while Euan and John are still in Ireland. Pablo: Check if statistics available & continue brainstorm indicators

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS

Guillaume & Pierrick: search normalisation formulas John & Euan: Look at Twitter and Google analytics Euan: Schedule appointment with advisors

0H15

ORGANIsation of the following weeks Pablo, John and Euan have to finish their portfolio and thus wont have much time to devote on the practicum. Pierrick & Guillaume will thus take some holidays for 2 weeks.

DISCUSSION

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CONCLUSIONS

New Skype session in 2 weeks

TO BE DONE

TASKS TO BE ACHIEVED Brainstorm indicators ideas Check if statistics available Search and add formulas to spread sheet Search Google and Twitter Analytics Schedule new appointment with advisors New Skype discussion

MANAGER ALL PABLO PIERRICK, GUILLAUME JOHN, EUAN EUAN

TIMELINE 27th June 27th June 27th June 27th June 27th June 27th June 14:00

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Report 3

Market Study
Report 27/06/2012 14h00

ORGANISED BY MEETING TYPE SECRTARY PARTICIPANTS

John OROURKE Skype Discussion Pierrick BARREAU Pablo DE LA VEGA, Guillaume BONNEVAY, John OROURKE, Euan CALLOW, Pierrick BARREAU

Agenda

0H15

ORGANISATION OF THE SUMMER Pablo suggests that we all go to lIle dYeu on the 3 rd to start working on the project.

DISCUSSION

John has to come back in Ireland the 19th and Pierrick have a wedding on the 7th and a concert on the 14th Pablo, John, Euan and Guillaume will go to lIle dYeu from the 4 th to the 15th of July. Pierrick will communicate through Skype with them. And the whole group will meet in Paris from the 16 th to the 19th to have a meeting and synchronize the tasks and data.

CONCLUSIONS

0H10 DISCUSSION

PRACTICUM INFORMATION Euan presented the summary of the F2F meeting with Cathal. The report due date is on the 22nd of August. Presentation will follow during the week. The whole team agrees to stay in Ireland the week before the report due date to interact with the advisors and finish the report and the presentation

CONCLUSIONS

0H35 DISCUSSION

MARKET STUDY Guillaume and Pierrick presented their work on the indicators chart of the market study. The structure is complete but the statistics have still to be found. John and Euan will focus on the Irish part of the indicators while Pierrick, Guillaume and Pablo will

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focus on the French one. We agree that this task will be finished on Friday. A Skype session is scheduled to check the advancement. CONCLUSIONS Indicators chart deadline: Friday Skype session on Friday at 6pm

0H35

OTHER TASKS Pierrick outlined the importance of a quick setup of the Teambox account to get started with task and resources management. John as project manager agrees to perform this task by creating some tasks and learning how the Gantt tool works.

DISCUSSION

Pablo agrees to set up a small website explaining our idea with nice logos and design. He will presents the general design on Friday and will have finished it by the 4 th of July. Pierrick will finish and upload both a French and an English questionnaire to survey the market after the market has been identified. Setup Teambox for John by Friday

CONCLUSIONS

Setup website for Pablo by 4th July + Design presentation on Friday Upload questionnaire on Google Docs for Pierrick by Friday

TO BE DONE

TASKS TO BE ACHIEVED Complete indicators chart (Irish part) Complete indicators chart (French part) Set up Teambox and organize tasks Set up small website Set up questionnaire on Google Docs New Skype discussion

MANAGER Euan, John Pierrick, Guillaume, Pablo John Pablo Pierrick

TIMELINE 29th June 29th June 29th June 4th July 29th June 29th June 18:00

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Report 4
Market Study
Report 02/07/2012 14h00

ORGANISED BY MEETING TYPE SECRTARY PARTICIPANTS

John OROURKE Skype Discussion Pierrick BARREAU John OROURKE, Euan CALLOW, Pierrick BARREAU

Agenda

0H20

TASK COMPLETED Finally, the Skype session has been postponed to Monday. John has finished updating the Teambox account and start to be comfortable using it. The entire team communication should be migrated soon on this platform. Great advance has been done on task definition. The indicators chart is almost finished. The numbers has been found. There is just the competitors analysis left to be done. The customer profiling will follow thanks to the Euromonitor data collected. No insight on the website has yet been done. John has to continue working on Teambox, setting up tasks and ensure a quick migration of the team.

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS

Euan, Pierrick and Guillaume will finish the indicator chart by analysing the competitors. Pablo will work on the websites design and present a final version of the homepage by Wednesday.

0H15

QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN Pierrick shared the questionnaire with Euan and John.

DISCUSSION

John has some ideas on how we can change it to picture easily the features people would like the most to have. He will be in charge to refine it today and present the changes. A skype session has been scheduled tomorrow after the meeting with advisors to finish up the questionnaire.

CONCLUSIONS

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TO BE DONE

TASKS TO BE ACHIEVED Complete indicators chart (Competitors part) Finish Teambox setup and organize migration Finish up small website Refine questionnaire on Google Docs New Skype discussion

MANAGER Euan, Pierrick, Guillaume John Pablo John All

TIMELINE 4th July 4th July 4th July 5th July 5th July 16:00

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Report 5

Meeting with Alan Smeaton

DCU Alans office Report 03/07/2012 15h00

ORGANISED BY MEETING TYPE SECRETARY PARTICIPANTS Agenda

Euan Callow Meeting with Advisor John ORourke John OROURKE, Euan CALLOW, Alan Smeaton

0h15

STATUS UPDATE Presentation of what we achieved so far with survey design and market analysis

DISCUSSION

Feedback: Ensure a wider survey questions relating to general patents-child needs. This is in the hopes of uncovering other issues that we could build into a survey. Suggestion to contact creches and use resources within DCU. Pablo organise communication plan for this

CONCLUSIONS

0h10

Organisation presentation We presented the planned organisation and structure so far, such as the tools, Dropbox and process maps.

DISCUSSION

Alan stressed the importance of organisation. Possibly a blog and also photos as proof. We added that we could have a daily deliverable of a report. We will take photos during some meeting and add them as a proof

CONCLUSIONS

Infographic presenting what time we spend on each task and what topics were addressed during meeting will be added to the report.

0h15 DISCUSSION

[Rubrique de l'ordre du jour] Discussed the relationship between front and back end.

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Feedback: we should not focus too much on the back end, UI and UX are most important for explaining the product. Also do not forget about product market fit. Explain all your assumptions and justify everything Dont spend too much time on techy things

John building customer development, testing, user feedback CONCLUSIONS Ensure not too much time is being spent on the back end if it does not add to the final pitch

TO BE DONE TASKS TO BE ACHIEVED Organise weekly Skype session Organise communication plan Ensure meeting reports and photos are done and added to the report MANAGER John Pablo Pierrick TIMELINE Everytime 13th July Everytime

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Report 6

Questionnaire Design & Website

Report 09/07/2012 17h00

ORGANISED BY MEETING TYPE SECRTARY PARTICIPANTS

John OROURKE Skype Discussion Pierrick BARREAU Pablo DE LA VEGA, Guillaume BONNEVAY, John OROURKE, Euan CALLOW, Pierrick BARREAU

Agenda 0H15 INTRODUCTION AND STATUS UPDATE Pablo and Guillaume have updated the website with photographs and a team presentation. DISCUSSION Euan and John finished refining the questionnaire. Pierrick has thought about a name and a catchphrase for the product Suggestion: Neotalk Learn your child CONCLUSIONS We decide to take a look at names further in the project.

0H20

Questionnaire design Pierrick gave his feedback on the questionnaire. John and Euan justified the importance in having peoples consent at the beginning of the questionnaire and corrected the spelling, vocabulary and grammar along with the style of some parts.

The group is now happy with the questionnaire. John and Euan will send it to a couple of friend for assessment tonight and we will begin to share it on forums by Wednesday. DISCUSSION Pablo is charged to find 8 to 10 blogs or websites which would be suitable for this, to sign up and complete his profile.

Pierrick will contact some teachers and websites administrators to see if he can make them post an article about the product on their homepage.

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Pablo: Find 8-10 websites CONCLUSIONS Euan & John: Assess questionnaire Pierrick: Contact teachers and admin for help

0H15

MARKET STUDY The indicators chart is still not completed. The media trends part is not giving any suitable indicators and will thus be forgotten

DISCUSSION The competitor analysis for UK is almost finished. Guillaume will finish the market analysis CONCLUSIONS Pierrick will write a report to explain the overall process of the market study and begin the conclusion of it.

0H15 DISCUSSION

APP Development Guillaume will start to implement the development chain of the app. He has to install all tools needed and see how they interact in the development process. The expected result will be a prototype compiled on an Android Smartphone displaying something to assess that all elements are installed.

CONCLUSIONS

TO BE DONE

TASKS TO BE ACHIEVED Assess survey Find list of websites Contact teachers and admins Finish indicators chart Write report on market study Install app development chain New Skype discussion

MANAGER John and Euan Pablo Pierrick Guillaume Pierrick Guillaume

TIMELINE 10th July 10th July 10th July 10th July 10th July 13th July 11th July 14:00

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Report 7

Questionnaire Sharing

Report

11/07/2012

14h00

ORGANISED BY MEETING TYPE SECRTARY PARTICIPANTS Agenda

John OROURKE Skype Discussion Pierrick BARREAU Pablo DE LA VEGA, Guillaume BONNEVAY, John OROURKE, Euan CALLOW, Pierrick BARREAU

0H30

INTRODUCTION AND STATUS UPDATE Euan and John have sent the survey to a couple of friends. We had good feedbacks, so we can share it on forums now. Pablo, John, Euan and Guillaume have gathered 20 websites, blogs and forums about parenting. They are categorized as mothers, dads or general parenting. They also have written a report about questionnaire design. Pierrick has sent an email to our advisors asking for help on sharing and scheduling a meeting with Alan on Friday 10am Irish time. Pierrick has almost finished writing the market study report. He has summarized the process and the results of the market selection. Our target market is definitely United Kingdom. He still has to include the customer profiling section and the report about questionnaire design. John and Guillaume have found software which allows developing directly in Android by drag and dropping elements. This will be enough for the presentation app but if we need to record with a Smartphone it might not suffice. They have done a little app which rings when pressing buttons and uploaded it on the phone.

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS

Pierrick: Finish market report, including customer profiling Guillaume, Pablo, John & Euan: Prepare a communication strategy & Start posting on forums

0H10

WEBsite The whole team is very happy with the website. It looks professional and include a contact form and the survey

DISCUSSION

The about us might be refined to have less text. Pierrick proposed to handle that task. In the meantime John, Pablo and Euan will write a report about how they approach the website design

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and a complete SEO assessment. Pierrick: Summarize Team presentation John, Pablo & Euan: Write website and SEO report

CONCLUSIONS

0H15

forum sharing John has write up an introduction message for the forums and blogs. He also suggested that we gather a Twitter user list of people who twitted about baby monitoring and contact them so they complete the survey. We have 28 answers so far.

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS

Contact also twitter users

0H15

further development Guillaume has to leave lIle dYeu for the week-end. We will meet all in Paris on Monday.

DISCUSSION

In the meantime, we schedule a skype discussion on Friday morning before the meeting with Alan to synchronise our advancement and prepare a meeting agenda. New Skype discussion 13th July 10:45

CONCLUSIONS

TO BE DONE

TASKS TO BE ACHIEVED Prepare communication strategy for survey Share survey on forums, blogs and websites gathered Contact Twitter users Finish report on market study (Customer profiling) Summarize Team presentation New Skype discussion

MANAGER John, Euan, Pablo, Guillaume John, Euan, Pablo, Guillaume John, Euan, Pablo, Guillaume Pierrick Pierrick

TIMELINE 12th July 12th July 12th July 10th July 13th July 13th July 10:45

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Report 8

Meeting with Alan Smeaton n2

Report

13/07/2012

11h00

ORGANISED BY MEETING TYPE SECRTARY PARTICIPANTS

John OROURKE Skype Discussion Meeting with advisor Pierrick BARREAU Pablo DE LA VEGA, John OROURKE, Euan CALLOW, Pierrick BARREAU, Alan SMEATON

Agenda

0H10

INTRODUCTION AND STATUS UPDATE Pierrick: Market report is finished, including customer profiling and questionnaire design Findings and conclusion presentation Feedback: Its important to spend time finishing stuff and justify every decision John & Euan: Survey sharing is doing well, 20 forums hit so far + Twitter users

DISCUSSION

Have 31 answers / 100 so far Feedback: The survey should be considered as a live document. Dont close it before you really need to and constantly analyse the trends. Close it at end of the practicum for market writing and analyse it before to take decision and verify that you are on the good path. Pablo: Website is online. Feedback: It looks very professional, slick and impressive Including the survey and a contact form is

CONCLUSIONS

Justify every decisions Constantly analyse results of the survey

0H15 DISCUSSION

Product decision & Market research John stressed out the fact that the market is crowded, a lot of big companies already implanted (BT, Angel

177

Care, Philips) seems to offer the same kind of products. He then presented the alternative we got: - Developing a complete hardware solution which costs a lot of money but can compete on market - Developing an app to app solution which requires to build it on top of Android OS

Feedback: The decision should not be motivated by the practicum rewards we could get from one or another option. The decision should come from the findings of our market research, from facts we can justify, statistics The question to answer is not where will I get the most credits: in a complete viable solution or in an ambitious one but Which one suits the market gap the best?

This decision stresses out a couple of other questions such as: - How big will be the company? - How many employees will I have? All these decisions need to be justified by the matching between the expressed market needs and the market opportunities.

A good example of findings resulting of market research has been expressed by John when he said: We did not thought that it [the purchase of a baby monitor] was so personal) Such insights in customers habits and psychology are exactly the kind of results the Practicum assessment panel will be keen to see.

Analyse the survey results carefully with great emphasis on psychology, motivation factors CONCLUSIONS Assess the current competitive landscape and find the opportunities Develop an offer which suits the best the gap between the two!

0H10

forum sharing We only have 71 answers / 100 targeted after 35 forums posting and Twitter and 3 days of work. We are searching for new ways of interacting with parents so they complete the surveys.

DISCUSSION

Feedback: Young mothers are a tough audience Interact a lot with forum community might not be the most effective way. The contact has to be personal. People dont complete it for rewards but because they know you. Also there might be a bias in asking parents only online because all people present there are Tech savvy.

178

John argued that this bias might be justified because our product addresses them since it requires a Smartphone Its better to keep the mind open Might be good to go to specialised shops with a clipboard and ask parents there To approach mothers, ask a woman you know to assist you because female contact has much chance to work. Wont harm to try and see what ROI we get (ROI = Answers / Time spent)

CONCLUSIONS

Try direct live survey

0H05

further development We need now to find a way of analysing that data. Thanks to user profiling we will be able to weigh answers and have good insight on what our population wants. Feedback: Not evocated. Postponed to next meeting.

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS Next Skype session with Alan on Wednesday 18 at 3pm

TO BE DONE

TASKS TO BE ACHIEVED Constantly analyse survey results Conclude on markets needs Analyse competitive landscape Design solution to fit the gap New Skype discussion

MANAGER All All All All

TIMELINE Everytime 18th July 18th July 25th July 18th July 15:00

179

Report 9

Meeting with Alan Smeaton n3

Report

18/07/2012

13h00

ORGANISED BY MEETING TYPE SECRTARY PARTICIPANTS

John OROURKE Skype Discussion Meeting with advisor Pierrick BARREAU Pablo DE LA VEGA, John OROURKE, Euan CALLOW, Pierrick BARREAU, Alan SMEATON

Agenda

0H30

INTRODUCTION AND STATUS UPDATE The team presented the final product specification to Alan. It will be a 3-step development approach with an app to app baby monitor as a kick-starter. Once parents have been hooked by the free app, a baby diary functionality will be proposed with miscellaneous gathered data (sleep pattern, cries ). Comparison with age norms will be provided ensuring the parents need to check that their infant is normal. Finally a long-term strategy will be to partner with iOS-compatible docks manufacturers in order to bring a special dock to the market.

DISCUSSION

Feedback: For the moment we just detect emergency alerts (cries, wake ) but we should consider monitoring sleep quality and duration as well. This would involve another sensor than the Smartphone as people wont put it under their childs pillow. => Would be interesting to consider the development of a hardware sensor piece through partnerships with big players of the market (LARK, Gear4) as a mid-term strategy => Take a look at Tyndall NAP, its a research lab on sensors that could do some prototypes for free That would allow to do sleep duration, quality and cycle and would constitute the basis of a sensor network. We can imagine using a movement and audio sensor placed under the childs pillow and connected to the Smartphone that sends data back to our server.

CONCLUSIONS Euan will take a look at that (market needs, involved costs and partnerships opportunities)

180

0H10

further development Now the team will finish writing the market research part of the research, backing all our assumptions and reviewing all our reflections steps. This will be done by the end of the week and the market study report sent to the advisors by the middle of next week for revision.

DISCUSSION Once thats done, we will separate into 2 groups: - Pablo, John and Euan will do the business model, the marketing plan and the app design - Pierrick and Guillaume will do the back-end development and the apps communication CONCLUSIONS See tasks to be done

TO BE DONE

TASKS TO BE ACHIEVED Report Contacting respondents Report Analysing results Report Key findings of the survey Report Market overview App to App market Report Market overview Hardware market Report Core product characteristics & Conclusion Take a look at external hardware piece development Development chain Back-end development Business model Marketing plan Send weekly email to advisors New Skype discussion with advisor

MANAGER Guillaume Pierrick John Euan Pierrick Pablo Euan Pierrick, Guillaume Pierrick, Guillaume Euan, John, Pablo Euan, John, Pablo Guillaume

TIMELINE 20th July 20th July 20th July 20th July 20th July 20th July 25th July 10th August 10th August 10th August 10th August 25th July 1st Aug. 14:00

181

Appendix 3.1: Market selection indicators chart

Indicator Statistic GDP growth (Avg 2012 - 2016) (%) [1][2] Private consumption growth (Avg 2012 - 2016) (%= [1][2] CPI growth (Avg 2012 - 2016) (%) [1][2] Purchasing Power Pa ri ty Convers i on Fa ctor 2011 (%) [3][4] Expenditure per Household Coupl e wi th Chi l dren ($) [7][8] Consumer Confidence Index 2011 (%) [5][6] Birth rate 2011 (per 1000 inhabitants) [9][10] Birth rate growth 2011 (Avg 2006-2011) (%) [9][10] Fertility Rate 2011 [11] % Country market share (%World) [12] Baby market growth (Avg 2006-2011) (%) [12] Baby Care market share 2011 (%Country / Europe) [13] Baby Care market share growth (Avg 2006-2011) [13] Baby Care market share growth (Forecast 2012-2016) [13] Baby Durables market share 2011 (%Country / Europe) [14] Female Employment Rate 2011 [5][6] % Expenditure per Household on Health goods and Medical Services Coupl e wi th Chi l dren (%) [7][8] % Smartphone Sales 2010 (%) [17][18] % Volume Growth in Smartphones sales (2009/10) [17][18] Per capita spending on smartphones 2011 [6] (USD) % Households with Internet-enabled devices 2011 [6] Broadband subscriptions (per 100 inhabitants) [16] Growth in Broadband access subscribers (Avg. 2009-2014) (%) [15] Google search for "baby monitor" (% Search Zone / World) [19][20] Nb tweets related to baby monitor on Twitter (June 2012) Nb competitors (implanted in retail) Competitors growth (Avg. 2008-2012) (%) Analysis of most dangerous competitors
Stats

UK

France Weight (-3/7) 1 2 -1 2 2 1 7 6 4 4 5 5 3 2 5 3 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 -3 -3

Score Stats

Country market indicators

1,16
0,94 3,1 0,7 73731 45,6

Normalised Stat (%) 0,086206897 0 0,316129032 0 0 0 0,015873016 0,245 0 0,017 0 0,053 0,629213483 0,595505618 0,058 0,095890411 0 0,360416667 0 0,100456621 0,124 0 0,046948357 0 0,1875

Score 0,086206897 0 -0,316129032 0 0 0 0,111111111 1,47 0 0,068 0 0,265 1,887640449 1,191011236 0,29 0,287671233 0 1,08125 0 0,200913242 0,372 0 0,093896714 0 0,375 -1,03125 0 TOMY
Result Weight Score Stats

Statistic 1,06

1,22 2,12 0,9 79364 83,9

12,4 -1,56

Normalised Stat (%) 0 0,229508197 0 0,222222222 0,070976765 0,456495828 0 0 0,047619048 0 0,306748466 0 0 0 0 0 0,61516035 0 0,46097561 0 0 0,035502959 0 0,179591837 0 0 0,306122449 Angel Care
Score Stats Result

Weight (-7/7) 1 2 -1 2 2 1 7 6 4 4 5 5 3 2 5 3 3 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 -3 -3
Weight Score Stats

Score 0 0,459016393 0 0,444444444 0,141953531 0,456495828 0 0 0,19047619 0 1,533742331 0 0 0 0 0 1,84548105 0 0,92195122 0 0 0,106508876 0 0,53877551 0 0 -0,918367347 TOMY
Result Weight Score

Baby market indicators

12,6 0,89
2

2,1
8,41

8,58
1,13

1,63
11,94 -0,89 -0,9 11,78 59,4

Baby monitoring market indicators

12,47 -0,33 -0,37 12,36 65,7

1,32

3,43
30,7

48
44,2

Technological indicators

82
39,4 65,7

43,8 75
32,6

33,8
20,3

21,3
20,1

Media trends

24,5
39

48
32

3,4
Philips Avent
Result Weight Score

0,34375 0 Tommee Tippee

Stats Result Weight

21
4,9 Babymoov
Result Weight

Competitors Analysis

Operating income 2011 (M) Operating income growth (Avg 2008-2012) (%) Net income 2011 (M) Seniority (years) Management experience (Indicators 1 to 5) Degree of similarity with our project (Indicators 1 to 5) Number of employees (Company size indicator) R&D budget (% Operating income) Competitive strength Score (/Competitor) Rationalised Competitive Score (/Market)

215 1,8 12,7 28 4 2 658 2,5

5 1 5 3 4 2 4 3

1 2 2 3 3 4 1 3

5 2 10 9 12 8 4 9

175 12 5,9 47 3 4 1602 2,3

4 3 4 4 3 4 5 3

1 2 2 3 3 4 1 3

4 6 8 12 9 16 5 9

117 -0,1 2,7 88 5 4 160 1,18

4 1 3 5 4 4 3 2 3,368421053

1 2 2 3 3 4 1 3

4 2 6 15 12 16 3 6

27 33 2 16 4 3 70 4

2 5 3 1 4 3 2 5 3,263157895

1 2 2 3 3 4 1 3

2 10 6 3 12 12 2 15

15,9 19 1,3 15 3 5 10 3,12

1 4 2 1 3 5 1 4 3,052631579 3,228070175

1 2 2 3 3 4 1 3

1 8 4 3 9 20 1 12

117 -0,1 2,7 88 5 4 160 1,18

4 1 3 5 4 4 3 2 3,368421053

1 2 2 3 3 4 1 3

4 2 6 15 12 16 3 6

3,105263158

3,631578947 3,368421053 3,063900797

Country Score

182

2,492407851

APPENDIX 3.2: Ethical Approval Form

183

APPENDIX 3.3: Market Research Questionnaire

184

185

186

187

188

189

APPENDIX 3.4: Website design paper draft

190

APPENDIX 3.5: App comparison table

191

APPENDIX 3.6: Competitor Profiles

BabyCam Monitor & Receiver
Criteria Developer Price Key Features Dooblou 3.00 Motion Monitoring Video Monitoring Sound Monitoring Audio Recording Image Taking Video Taking 4.1/5.0 5,000 10,000 Activity Log Facetime/Video Alert 2 way communication/ Voice Chat Listen in option Phone Call Alert

User Rating Installs Last 30 Days

Bungat Baby Monitor

Criteria Developer Price Key Features Bungat Labs 1.45 Video Monitoring Sound Monitoring Music Playing Image Taking Video Taking 4.7/5.0 10,000 50,000 Activity Log Facetime/Video Alert Phone Call Alert Mute/Stop Listening Mode

User Rating Installs Last 30 Days

Baby Monitor - Baby Alarm and Sleep Diary

Criteria Developer Price Key Features MVA Free Video Monitoring Sound Monitoring Video Taking Audio Recording 2 Way communication 4.5/5.0 100,000 500,000 Activity Log Phone Call Alert Sleep Cycle Text Alert Low Battery Notification

User Rating Installs Last 30 Days

192

Baby Milestone Applications

Baby Connect (Activity Logger) Criteria Developer Price Key Features

User Rating Installs Last 30 Days

SeaCloud Software 3.80 Track medicines, vaccines, sickness, weight, height, head size. Automatically synchronize data between accounts over the Internet Display graphical charts of the baby's activities Timer to track nursing duration. The last nursing side is indicated as a reminder. Log entries with just a tap Email Excel-compatible .csv exports. Enter free-form notes Post events and charts on Facebook or Twitter Upload child photo, indicate birthday, blood type and allergies holds unlimited data More than 100 built-in activities descriptions Send your gps location, display the location on a map Track the average number and amount of sleep per day, and the longest sleeping session Track the average number, total and average amount of feeding and pumping per day. Track the number and average nursing duration per day. 4.7/5 5,000 10,000

Baby Steps
Criteria Developer Price Key Features Corkom Free Achievements over the first year Able to input own milestones Can add media
Receive important tips about baby's milestones Track height & weight, Track feedings & sleeping habits Keep notes about how your baby is progressing

User Rating Installs Last 30 Days

Use your gps location, display the location on a map 3.5/5.0 50,000 100,000

193

Kidfolio Parenting and Baby Book Criteria Developer Price Key Features Alt12 Apps Subscription 2.39/month or 23.99 a year Create a timeline of your childs magical moments store and backup photos, videos and audio clips to the cloud Capture special milestones such as First Walk with custom badges Customise photos with special filters and effects A social network for parents Private family groups: safely share with only family A community of parents like you to exchange recommendations, advice and support Daily and Weekly parenting information to help you learn something new about your childs development and being a parent each day 365 Daily articles on your childs first year Create, print and mail photo memories to family and friends, directly from Kidfolio Get a premium subscription for more cloud storage, new milestone content and badges every month, and discounts on printed books and photos. 4.0 /5 10,000 50,000

User Rating Installs Last 30 Days

194

APPENDIX 3.7: Android Vs IOS

195

APPENDIX 3.8: Product Feedback Survey

Key Findings and Respondent Answers
How a Smartphone plays a role in parenting: Main use is for photos and videos It's always on and at hand so that I can be contacted at all times (in case of emergency) and for quick information searches This is my day-to-day means of mobile communication. predominately for talking, texting, taking pictures/videos (predominately of the children) and occasional (infrequent) web browsing Multiple apps during pregnancy, for tracking breastfeeding etc. with young baby, for scheduling play dates etc and keep track of school engagements. Tracking of childs development: Pen mark on the door frame so an e-log would be very useful. I think movement is always a concern especially for new parents and so is growth and speech development. Manual recording, on paper based media, (diary, growth chart etc).7 Concerns around childs development: Making sure she's is roughly in line with developmental milestones, e.g. crawling, walking etc. but there is such variety between children you need to allow a broad window for these milestones. If child is premature, need to take into account their "corrected" age. No major concerns. That they are healthy, happy, can communicate. Comparison to "normal" growth patterns are not as prioritised once they are eating, can communicate in some way, can play, can relax and can sleep. How would use our product: Logs are extremely useful especially for medical history I can think of a number of times when I wish I had a mobile record of vaccinations. School or crche will ask you, if theres any risk of illness in the school, such as meningitis or measles. Not a lot of free time so speed and operability are important. If there was a function to take photos and maybe enter in heights and weights I may use it, If the interface is user-friendly and not take too much time to setup. Vaccinations reminders would be good. If the reception on the monitor was good then perhaps would have use it as a baby monitor

196

Would utilise all elements - monitor particularly when away from home. Not aware of any other app for tracking progression, be that sleep patterns or doctor appointments

Comparison of childs development with others: Online Forums and Website such as babycentre.com mums on maternity leave tend to meet up at mum and baby groups/classes In the first year weight gain is really important, you want to make sure they're eating or drinking enough. So an online resource would be very useful. In terms of own child's height/weight ratio - look at the child themselves, and review it in what I would take to be normal taking factors like amount/type of food consumed in to consideration. In terms of height for age - visualise compare to other children in the crche If alarmed would probably compare to standard growth charts/consult with GP/Nurse Particularly weight versus friends and also using online graphs supplied by Pampers. Additional Helpful Information: Sometimes too much information/monitoring can cause parents to obsess about their children and can feed into parents' anxieties. So balance is important and better to alert for events. Could require some training as each child would be different. Any type of online record that you can access anytime would be great. Respondents had a notebook of first words, first steps and funny things kids say. Kids will ask what age was I when events happened, so could be great to have a place to log these things when you're on the move. Use it on a Smartphone that is child proof. Useful to have for videos in the car when travelling. Needs to be priced correctly - free at least at the start.

197

APPENDIX 4.1: Porter 5 forces / Determining market attractiveness

198

APPENDIX 5.1: OVH Dedicated Server offers

Source: http://www.ovh.com/fr/serveurs_dedies/ 199

APPENDIX 7.1: Advertising Samples

(Search Network Ad)

(Display Hover Ad for Websites)

(Mobile Browsing Ad)

200

APPENDIX 8.1 : Cost projection (2012/2015)

Time Start-up creation Company registration Domain name reservation Offices Expendables Various hardware (computer, ) Patent R&D Back-end architecture 1x HP ProLiant BL685c G7 Server Blade 1x HP SB40c Storage Blade 2x Juniper SSG5 Firewall BT Professional Internet Access Front-end design Motorola Atrix LG Optimus 2X Usability focus groups Software licences Matlab Adobe CS6 Human resources Network architect (Founder) Software architect (Founder) Signal processing engineer (F.) 1680 720 2400 1680 720 2400 1680 720 2400 1680 720 2400 1680 720 1200 1680 720 1200 1680 720 1200 1680 720 1200 1680 720 1200 1680 720 1200 1680 720 1200 1680 720 1200 0 1000 2000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 249 258 840 0 0 420 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 300 4039 536 1022 900 0 0 0 900 0 536 0 900 0 0 0 2400 4039 536 0 2400 0 0 0 2400 0 536 0 2400 0 536 0 2400 0 536 0 2400 0 536 0 2400 0 536 0 2400 Q3 2012 8540 125 15 0 400 4000 4000 7447 Q4 2012 2200 0 0 0 200 2000 0 13717 Q1 2013 1100 0 0 0 100 1000 0 5700 Q2 2013 600 0 0 0 100 500 0 6236 Q3 2013 4615 0 15 0 100 500 4000 6000 Q4 2013 600 0 0 0 100 500 0 10575 Q1 2014 600 0 0 0 100 500 0 6000 Q2 2014 600 0 0 0 100 500 0 6536 Q3 2014 4615 0 15 0 100 500 4000 6536 Q4 2014 600 0 0 0 100 500 0 6536 Q1 2015 600 0 0 0 100 500 0 6536 Q2 2015 600 0 0 0 100 500 0 6536 88355 45% Total 25270 Total % 13%

201

Time Marketing Human resources SEO consultant (Founder) Marketer Business Developer SEO software (monthly subscription) Conferences budget Risk budget Product liability insurance (Allianz SME package) BCP consultant (Founder) Total costs (/ Quarter) Total costs (Aggregated)

Q3 2012 5200

Q4 2012 5200

Q1 2013 4840

Q2 2013 4840

Q3 2013 8660

Q4 2013 8660

Q1 2014 6660

Q2 2014 4660

Q3 2014 5200

Q4 2014 5200

Q1 2015 4600

Q2 2015 4600

Total 68320

Total % 35%

720 2400 1680 400 0 930 930 0 22 117 22 117

720 2400 1680 400 0 930 930 0 22 047 44 164

360 2400 1680 400 0 1650 930 720 13 290 57 454

360 2400 1680 400 0 1650 930 720 13 326 70 780

180 2400 1680 400 4000 1290 930 360 20 565 91 345

180 2400 1680 400 4000 1110 930 180 20 945 112 290

180 2400 1680 400 2000 1110 930 180 14 370 126 660

180 2400 1680 400 0 1110 930 180 12 906 139 566

720 2400 1680 400 0 1110 930 180 17 461 157 027

720 2400 1680 400 0 1110 930 180 13 446 170 473

120 2400 1680 400 0 1110 930 180 12 846 183 319

120 2400 1680 400 0 1110 930 180 12 846 196 165 196 165 100% 14220 7%

202

APPENDIX 8.2 : Revenue projection (2012-2015)

203

204

205

APPENDIX 8.3 : Net profit projection

Scenario 1 Net profit Scenario 2 Scenario 3 Scenario 1 Cumulated results Scenario 2 Scenario 3

-22 117 -22 117 -22 117 -22 117 -22 117 -22 117

-22 047 -22 047 -22 047 -44 164 -44 164 -44 164

-13 270 -13 243 -13 213 -57 434 -57 407 -57 377

-13 260 -13 169 -13 061 -70 694 -70 576 -70 438

-20 400 -20 197 -19 890 -91 094 -90 773 -90 328

-20 603 -20 167 -19 343 -111 697 -110 940 -109 671

-13 744 -12 773 -10 560 -125 441 -123 713 -120 231

-11 838 -9 663 -4 222 -137 279 -133 376 -124 453

-15 576 -10 605 2 101 -152 856 -143 981 -122 353

-10 937 -2 324 19 223 -163 793 -146 305 -103 130

-9 997 3 675 35 383 -173 790 -142 630 -67 747

-9 946 10 413 54 217 -183 736 -132 216 -13 530

206

Risk

RPN Customers

Prevention

Action

Related to the Market The users are not confident using Smartphone for their baby safety The users are not confident using Smartphone to share their baby information The users do not trust us for their baby safety The users do not trust us to store their baby information The users do not find the overall app intuitive The users do not perceive value in our functionalities Our product have a low User Retention (Churn) Rate The users do not want to share baby information online Display information regarding Smartphone reliability on website Display information regarding Smartphone reliability on website Develop branding based on quality Develop branding based on quality and security Test the mobile app before release Organize user meetings before release Constantly analyse customers data to find new functionalities opportunities Provide settings for social media share Competitors The competitors currently develop similar applications The existing competitors follow our idea The existing competitors engage in a branding/price war Too many new competitors establish their products on the market, hiding our product's novelty Competitors have built networking barriers-to-entry The competitors have built technical barriers-to-entry The marketing campaign doesn't reach enough clients The marketing campaign do not convince clients The marketing campaign do not suffice to develop a strong-enough brand image Our brand loses its reputation Our team fails at analysing the online and social feedback related to our product 5 5 2 2 4 4 2 6 4 3 6 8 6 5 7 5 5 7 7 6 9 7 3 4 5 4 5 3 5 4 5 5 4 120 120 50 56 100 60 70 168 120 135 168 Patent the idea Patent the idea Build personalized customer relations Communicate on social network, build personalized customer relationships Participate to conferences, events Study the current state-of-the-art Marketing Constantly monitor the marketing ROI Organise user meetings before release Organise user meetings before release Constantly monitor and analyse social network feedback (listening audit) Assign a member of the marketing team to listening audit 70 75 75 75 80 Start an aggressive/viral campaign Hire a marketing advisor Hire a marketing advisor Start a communication campaign in response Hire a marketer 80 80 70 75 65 60 Build sustainable advantage through customers data aggregation Build sustainable advantage through customers data aggregation Hire a marketing advisor Obtain press reviews, Participate to parents meetings and conferences Hire a marketing advisor Hire a R&D advisor Provide a web application similar to the mobile app Provide a web application similar to the mobile app Obtain quality certifications and press reviews Obtain IS security certifications and press reviews. Display both on website Organize user meetings to improve design Partner with known baby market company Develop new customized functionalities to attract actual clients Communicate around ethical issues

3 3 5 5 4 5 5 3

9 9 9 9 6 8 7 4

3 3 2 2 5 5 6 5

81 81 90 90 120 200 210 60

70 70 80 80 85 80 70 60

207

Our in-app purchasing price is not competitive Our free revenue model leads to customers not trusting our mobile application for their baby safety

5 6

5 7

5 3

125 126

Organise user meetings about price Obtain quality and medical certifications

70 90

Test different pricing model Design marketing campaign to change brand perception

Commercialisation The baby market expenses per household decreases Our communication team do not suffice to answer customer demands and questions The first commercialized apps are defective 2 2 5 6 6 9 3 5 3 36 60 13 5 / Answer most questions in a website FAQ section Extensive testing before release 0 75 80 Shift the revenue model to monetize baby data. Emphasize specialized add revenues Hire a support team member Offer free monthly subscription to affected users

Related to the Product Research & Development 12 Forecast a Gantt with deadlines and 6 delays 72 Find the solution with researchers 72 72 80 72 56 18 0 80 72 60 96 11 2 Forecast R&D time for optimization Forecast R&D time for optimization Forecast R&D time for optimization Forecast time for platform testing Constantly update the IDE version Build specifications around quality

The R&D team take too much time to develop the product The R&D team is stuck on a problem The preprocessing system is too much resource intensive The feature extractors are too much resource intensive The Activity Recognition System is not performant enough The product is not compatible with all Android phones The Android SDK changes during the development The final product do not comply with quality and security certifications guidelines (ISO ) The servers are down The servers presents a too low response time The mobile network is down The mobile network presents a too low response time Some baby alerts are lost during network transmission

3 2 2 2 2 2 4 4

7 6 9 9 10 6 7 9

6 6 4 4 4 6 2 5

60 75 70 70 70 75 70 60

Hire temporarily a R&D consultant Hire a postdoc to work on it Hire a postdoc to work on it Hire a postdoc to work on it Hire a postdoc to work on it Display system requirements on website R&D fixes the compatibility problems Forecast R&D time to update the software and comply with norms Forecast backup servers Forecast R&D time for troubleshooting App alerts parents when mobile network is unreachable App alerts parents when mobile network is slow /

Deployment and Running 2 4 2 4 7 10 6 10 6 8 4 3 3 4 2 Build reliable infrastructure Build performant infrastructure / Contract SLA with mobile networks Ensure alerts are reliably delivered 70 70 90 90 10 0

208

Security The network is attacked by malicious hackers Malicious hackers take control of some of the network Malicious outsiders physically access to the system Employees access dangerous websites and catch trojans Sensitive information are stolen from employees belongings Employees naively corrupt the database The database content is erased Sensitive data (medical) are stolen The database content is publicly divulgated Parents do not hear the application alerts The Smartphone is too far to analyse baby sound The app does not conform with parents expectations (reliability and usability) The Smartphone run out of battery The application do not recognize a baby cry 5 7 7 8 8 4 4 7 4 7 6 7 6 5 7 10 9 8 8 10 8 10 10 8 6 10 6 9 2 3 2 4 2 4 4 3 2 2 4 3 4 3 70 210 126 256 128 160 128 210 80 112 144 210 144 135 Build security architecture Forecast R&D time for network monitoring Ensure system is locked and protected Enforce user internet access policy Ensure employees do not store sensitive data on personal belongings Enforce least priviledge for employees Constantly save database content Secure the database access Forecast communication plan Use Allow parents choosing alerts signals Display information regarding safety distance on app Conduct usability and security tests Optimize solution to avoid high electrivity consumption Test various scenario before release 80 70 80 70 80 / Alert parents that the app does not detect any baby sound Change the design and conduct tests again Alert parents that the Smartphone is running out of battery Provide feedback button when the baby monitor has not recognized the activity 90 70 95 90 90 80 95 85 0 Forecast R&D time for troubleshooting Enforce the defense in depth principles Inform the Data Protection Commissionner Forecast R&D time for troubleshooting Inform the Data Protection Commissionner Forecast R&D time for troubleshooting Recover the database content Inform the Data Protection Commissionner Start communication plan

Related to Environment Finances The project does not receive enough initial investment Investors quit the project during the initial phase We do not reach our financial objectives We face unexpected additional costs 2 5 5 5 10 9 8 7 6 3 4 5 120 135 160 175 Involve in networking, conferences Gather potential investor community around the project Constantly monitor the income Plan a working capital 65 70 80 85 Suscribe to support funding events Make a new fundraising Sell equities Sell equities

209

Legal / Regulatory Parents sue SensAnalytics for attempting to their baby safety The competitors sue us to block the product release The data protection commission does not allow us to store medical or personal information 5 7 3 9 9 8 2 2 2 90 12 6 48 We remove liability in Terms & Conditions Patent the idea and forecast legal budget Comply with all data security guidelines Company Employees 12 Organise employee training workshops 0 10 Enforce communication processes 8 10 Availability of multiple communication 8 channels 12 Monitor the HR through Gantt 0 Management board 14 0 54 10 8 14 4 18 0 Organise training sessions Organise teambuilding events Ensure constant communication within the management board Interact with specialists on LinkedIn Assign a member of the marketing team to report on listening audit 10 0 85 90 / Use the legal budget Refine the product to comply with the commission feedback

The workforce lack key personal experiences The communication between workforce is bad An important team member is unreachable The workforce is not sufficient

4 6 6 3

6 6 3 8

5 3 6 5

70 85 80 80

Hire a human resources consultant Organise team meetings Contact the other team member Hire a human resources consultant

The management board has not the required experience to run a business in the baby market The management board have relationships issues A member of the management board quit the project The management board fails to hire adapted employees The management board fails to understand the market signals

5 2 6 6 4

7 9 9 6 9

4 3 2 4 5

65 80 85 65 70

Hire a related specialist Organise team meeting Analyse and respond to the possible competences lack Hire a human resources consultant Hire a marketer

210

REFERENCES.
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References
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