Internet Service

Introduction

At first, below is some background information with SWOT analysis, followed with the business plan with the project outline to franchise an internet business in Indonesia, out of the US.

Background Information

I study amidst a team of fellow university graduates who are taking telecommunication course. There is an initiative to open a high-speed internet service in my home country, Indonesia, as a franchise business from a US-based company. The business is going to be based in the cities as it spreads to the other regions. This is a team that will include four men and two women. Most of us are in the late twenties, and some are in the early thirties. We shall assign ourselves different regions where each will work. We shall be gathering every morning before we disperse to give feedbacks on collection and information. Sometimes we shall hold the gatherings in a back of a truck to reduce the costs of renting, and the project will just take four weeks. My primary focus will be on the attainment of the objectives set and their progress.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

• Knowledge in internet promotions.
• Ability to do link building using web 2.0 efficiently.
• Understanding of internet business models.
• Understanding of blog spot and word press.
• Skills in search engine optimization techniques (Fine 2009, p. 32)

Weaknesses:

• High costs of the research, travel expenses, materials, maintenance and the legal charges.
• Being new in the practical internet business.
• Lack of an in-depth understanding of the wordpress.org or the blogger.com.
• Unfamiliarity with some of the areas and the PHP coding programs.
• Lack in capital to purchase automation software.

Opportunities:

• Attractiveness of the investment climate in Indonesia, especially for the foreign investors.
• Highly potential market with a wide area for market tapping: Indonesia is a cross-link of two countries that are Asia and Australia.
• Highly competitive working forces with a large population up to 240 million {census 2010}, adaptable to development.
• Strategic location controls and routes for international communication.
• Positive changes in the investment climate (Pahl and Richter 2009, p. 48).

Threats

• Competition from a Canadian company which has already set up the same business in Indonesia and has become popular with the locals, thus hindering time to capture the market or establish the business.
• Stern measures for internet provision: need to provide license condition for the RIM in the form of a local server for BBM and BIS services.
• Restrictions in place and time to locate and identify the server.
• Strained attitude to the RIM in Indonesia and the Middle East countries resulting from tension around the pornographic sites, which may hinder the effectiveness of enterprise.

Business plan

The new company will allow access to the internet through high-speed modems for both home and business users. This proposal is outlining the opportunity to franchise internet service in Indonesia from the US-based company, the required investment and the marketing strategy on the internet service providers. In addition to this, there will also be the financial projections.

Executive Summary

There have been dramatic changes in the internet business with a rapid increase in the number of users over the years. Major communication companies such as ATT, MCI, and UUNet have increasingly formulated the internet strategies offering dial-up internet access. We shall be using the ATI connections which will allow the ISP to support at least 20 modems at a go. The ISP will offer high-speed services and will be able to purchase one bandwidth from the provider in upstream. The company will provide services out of a single point of presence, with a reliable, high internet connectivity up to 56kbps, a Domain Name Service, a web page hosting many e-mail accounts, network news service and ISDN-T-I business connections.

Every person has become acquainted with the internet so as to expand communication, entertainment or trading. The service is one of the fastest growing industries, facilitating growth in many others adjacent industries. This has led to the rapid increase of internet users as well as web pages day in day out. In the ISP, we shall combine three models namely the topology, the distribution and commerce which will deal with internet infrastructure, the ISP fitting in the market in Indonesia and interface. The goal is to meet customers’ demands to provide a reliable connection at any point of time. In addition, after the business establishment, we shall provide a 24-hour life support through engagement of customer care personnel thus thriving to retain the existing and win the new customer base.

The Target Audience of the Market

Unlike in the US and countries like Canada where dial-up services increase at a rate of 10 percent per month and every third person has a direct access to the internet, Indonesia has a substantial deficiency in internet services. This offers a tremendous opportunity to venture into the market which will rapidly grow so as to satisfy the projected national demand. The biggest group to be targeted is the teenage group requires a lot of information in the current schooling system. The target audience is teenagers who go to schools, colleges and high schools. This group will represent an average of 20 percent of the market share. The market is highly competitive price and the services considering services from ISPs, AOL and cable. The strategy aims to provide prompt and reliable connection and courteous staff support, thus ensuring steady growth and sound profitability.

Online services have attracted new internet customers most of which begin with AOL and then shift away from this provider, due to busy signals, modems which are slow, email addresses, which are unprofessional, insecurity and help desks, which are unresponsive.

Upon the project implementation, the market expected growth rate is at gaining about 100 new customers every third month. The staffing will increase as the need arises to handle the phone calls. In this regard, we will hire university students majoring in computer science, especially from the local universities in Indonesia. As the market grows, the bandwidth shall go up to 10mbps so as to allow cooperation with some of the service providers, like Covad especially in offering DSL services.

Market Research and Market Breakdown

In Indonesia, there has been a shortage of investment to develop telecom infrastructure. The government has not invested in this area, however, has opened the opportunity for the external investors. This has resulted in reduced internet services, in the country, and the gap assumes the best opportunity to capitalize on this market. In addition, there is a low infiltration of the market with the phone lines as it is just 3% off the saturation level. Meaning in a population of 100 people, there are only three people who have phones, with the high level of concentration of the lines in the cities, leaving behind the rural areas or the interiors. The majority of the population has not had a chance to access information via use of the internet or the mobile phones. Lack of knowledge for a long time was an implication of high cost of gadgets and difficulties to access them. This situation is an open opportunity for external investors. The government has had some reforms to improve the telecommunications sector and has made a crucial step by allowing the foreign investors to participate in telecommunications development. This initiative would reduce the obstacles that would have been there if it had not embraced the idea (Mariampolski 2001, p. 162).

In terms of capture and proportion, telecom covers 3 percent totaling 7 million lines, whereas cellular accounts 4.7 million lines. According to the estimate, there are 4 million of the internet users currently, whereas the estimated potential is 61 million, which are yet to access the internet. It is, however, noted that there is an extremely high potential for growth in the rate of usage of the internet. Below is the breakdown of the internet usage.

There are 150,000 accessible internet services through the internet cyber and their cell phones, which can serve a population of 30 million. There are 1600 universities, accounting around 3 million students who need the internet; 4000 specialized high schools {SMK} with a population up to 4 million. Moreover, there are 10000 high schools {SMU} with a total headcount of up to 7 million who require internet services in proximity; 10000 pesantren {religious boarding schools} with populations ranging up to 7 million students.

The rest of the population, which accounts up to 10000, are in offices and businesses and still require the internet services. These are the potential internet users in Indonesia who have not yet accessed the internet services.

In addition to this information, the breakdown of the market is as follows: the dial-up internet market accounts about 511,000 users, while the leased line internet subscribers are 7,200. The market has the following segmentation in terms of access: 43 percent for internet kiosks; 41 percent for offices; 12 percent for residential 3 percent for campuses while schools account 1 percent.

Marketing strategy

Sound ethics and philosophy norms will embrace the marketing strategy. Although these are difficult to measure, they have a substantial impact on the lower price strategy or the issue of value formation. The company will tend to offer quality services, while the leading factor will be ethics and philosophy of quality. In a broader perspective, this can be considered as the corporate integrity of the organization, winning the trust of the employees, consumers, the users or even the buyers of the service or product, through dedicated service fair pricing, compassion and care for others. Although the aim of the business is to earn profits, this will not lead greediness, and offer rather a reward than exploit the customers or the internet users just because we will be the only ones operating there (Schnaars 1998, p. 131).

Marketing of the company will use advertising, engaging the local media and other means. This will use a language that they will understand. Effective advertising will convey complex information in a manner to arise interest of the audience, by being brief, meaningful and easy to digest and remember.

Marketing campaign will also engage the press releases as they are free and mostly perceived to be true by the audience. This will work in line with the radio adverts and the TV stations. Use of surveys and questionnaires will be appropriate for places where above means will not be able to reach, offering a chance to ask questions and explain to the public the products offered. Promotion will also incorporate seminars to make the public aware of the available opportunity and advantages of the value proposition, thus winning eventual partnership of the audience. This strategy will mostly be used in the rural or interior areas, in Indonesia.

Information products are going to be used, as well, such as webinars, the website of DVD information charged for a small fee or for free. In addition, self-publishing printed books and self-recorded videos to be used to deliver tutorials and seminars. They have gained popularity in the recent past years and have an advantage of saving on costs and time.

Leaflets, brochures and printed materials shall be used and distributed via different channels. They will convey an appealing down to the point message for readers and be devoid of fanciful tendencies.