23/01/2015
new deal it tool: STUDY ON
COMMERCIALIZATION POTENTIAL
527878-LLP-1-2012-1-IT-LEONARDO-LMP| IFOA
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improvements and possible commercial usages
The New Deal Platform belongs to the category of
the software for the Knowledge Management and
is realised according to the typical logic of such
tools, which can be represented according to the
following scheme:
USER
VOCATIONAL
PROFILE
COMPETENCES
TEST AND
FEEDBACK
POSSIBLE
FOLLOWING
ACTIONS
TRAINING UNITS
1. Features and Criticalities
New Deal was born as independent project
(meaning that it does not integrate IT modules
available on the market) and moreover it is at its
starting development stage.
It contains therefore a set
criticalities, which are basically:
-
-
-
of
are
still
few
Thinking about the spread of the New Deal tool,
without working on the topics above mentioned,
could lead to poor results.
potential
ND is a “closed” system.
The system does not dialogue with the
outside; the input data (for example, the user
anagraphics) must therefore be included one
by one or by means of the software
developer. The same is valid for the output
data.
Functionalities
developed.
The system, as it is now, would be already usable
by the New Deal partner by means of a direct
management; from the commercial point of view,
it is instead barely appealing.
and
not
It depends from the initial development stage
The logic for the users management (Trainer,
Tutor, Trainee) is little structured.
Now, only the users authorized by the project
partners, which oversee and manage all data
inserted indifferently, enter the system.
2. It tool provision to the client: types
The tool will be provided to the client in two
different modalities, Client” or “Resident”.
Client mode
The Service will foresee a monthly fee, which will
be:
o
o
To user (*) with possible fee reduction
according to the number of users
registered;
On a lump sum basis for cluster users
(for example, up to 50, from 51 to
100, etc)
NEWDEAL - New Employees Development And Learning - LLP / Leonardo da Vinci / Multilateral / DoI
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(*) user is meant as trainee
-
Pros:
-
-
-
-
Client retention;
New updatings immediately usable by
everybody;
Possibility of installing new functionalities and
get them available (or not) to the client by
means of a flag “active” or “ not active” on
the profile client;
Possibility of conveying new services or info in
the network.
Cons:
- Initial Investment to improve the tool in order to
get it usable by the “client” (see after)
Resident mode
A purchase cost and a yearly fee of maintenance
are foreseen.
Pros:
-
No initial costs for the client customization;
-
3. possible interactions between ND
partner/client by means of the ND platform
The provision of the IT tool to the client
considered in this document will be the Client
mode, being the Resident one more demanding for
the New Deal partners at equal commercial
turnover.
There are two types of interaction between the ND
platform and the Client: the first (type A) provides
the Client access to a specific part of the
Database; the second (type B) allows the client
access to the Database by a third body (for
example, training provider to whom the users
training programme is assigned – for the period
and paths defined).
In scheme:
Cons:
-
-
Updatings installed by connecting to each
clients;
Impossibility to convey new services;
The client can choose to not activate (or
renew) the yearly maintenance contract;
Commercial type unusual.
Clients
management
functionalities;
with
different
TYPE A
CLIENT
CLIENT
PARTNER
CLIENT
CLIENT
NEWDEAL - New Employees Development And Learning - LLP / Leonardo da Vinci / Multilateral / DoI
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TYPE B
THIRD BODY
(EX. TRAINING
PROVIDER)
CLIENT
CLIENT
PARTNER
CLIENT
CLIENT
In order to keep the procedure simple we will
make reference to type A, considering type B a
further implementation regarding authorization
level.
To improve platform usability for ND partners
there is a need of a more detailed exporting
function allowing data search according to defined
parameters, ex.:
client
timing
professional profiles
training courses
etc.
Exported data may be used by clients or for
analysis and statistics, or for invoicing services for
the ND partner.
-
4. Minimal modifications for system usability
of clients and partners
In order to make New Deal compatible to a
company system it will need some minimal
modifications allowing:



data exchange with existing client’s
systems
data tracking to the involved company
platform access for company staff
4.1 Data export
Export function will allow exporting data to a .csv
file, which may be imported in any data base (or
read in Excel tables).
Exported data will be different according to the
user: client or partner. Client will be authorized
only in exporting data connected to related users.
4.2 Data import
ND platform will need an “import data” function
making platform use easier for clients. The client
will be able to export data from any system (using
.csv file format) and import them in the New Deal
platform.
4.3 New possible parameters
In case Client mode is selected, we will need to
take into consideration the fact that the system
will contain data from various clients, therefore to
NEWDEAL - New Employees Development And Learning - LLP / Leonardo da Vinci / Multilateral / DoI
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have a one-to-one data reference the ND platform
will need some new parameters:
-
Company name
-
VAT number
-
Identification number (geographically related)
It is foreseen that company data will work in
various directions: Client DB (export function)
ND Platform (import function)
Client DB
(export function), so thanks to this parameter the
client will be able to update any user data of the
company.
→
-
→
Historical archive or user roles and profiles
This parameter will show all roles covered by the
user from the first step registered into the
platform. This function is very useful for the ND
partner in order to track companies’ developments
and staff developments.
Company Name and VAT number will be
automatically connected to data imported by
clients.
The Administrator of the ND partner will have the
privileges to create, modify and delete profiles
Trainer and Tutor of the Company.
The case (b) will be more suitable for network
structures and / or with human resources
territorial divisions; in this case, you will also need
to create the functionality that allows the
assignment of "final" user groups (Trainee) at a
given Tutor and / or trainer.
4.5 Database of Professional Profiles and Skills
The current organization of the application
provides access to the list of professional profiles
in
alphabetical
order;
in
view
of
commercialization it is appropriate to structure
the management of and access to the profiles on
the basis of the areas to which the profile is
associated.
In that case, the area "Sales" would include such
profiles:
- Responsible for selling;
4.4 User authorization levels
The current authorization levels (Trainer, Tutor,
Trainee) will also be provided on the customer
side.
- head of department;
- Senior Account;
- Junior Account;
One could opt for the following solutions:
- Etc.
a) company trainer and tutor can view and edit
(each with its privileges) all profiles trainee
inserted;
Similarly, it should also create a database of skills,
divided by category, to which the user will have
access to tap the items of interest.
b) company Trainer and tutor can view and edit
(each with its privileges) only profiles trainee
assigned to them.
The archive can be divided into general and
specific skills, as shown in the image below.
NEWDEAL - New Employees Development And Learning - LLP / Leonardo da Vinci / Multilateral / DoI
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With these databases available, the user can then
access the profiles and skills to:
changes to a minimum but also for the study of the
code by the same supplier.
- Use the items already present as they are,
combining them as needed;
Needed man/days expected are:
- Change the entries already present, generating
specific profiles.
New entries - depending on how much you want
from the ND Partners - will be for the exclusive
use of the customer that generated them or
alternatively may be added to the archive of
Professional Profiles (or skills).
-
Study of the initial source code
 8 md
Implementation minimum changes and
creation additional fields
 1 md
-
Functions of export/import of data  3 md
-
Implementation authorization levels  2 md
-
Creation DB profilees/skilss and change
functions
 3 md
Total expected:
(man/days) 17 x (€/day) 400,00 = € 6.800,00 + VAT
5. Cost estimate for the minimal changes
and possible outside hosting
Autonomous development of the application by
each Partner ND foresees that the partner entrusts
copy of the source code to its supplier; one should
then only take into account the man / days
needed not only for the implementation of the
In the event that there was a need for external
hosting and relative connection bandwidth one will
have to take into account an additional
expenditure of approximately € 2500.00 + VAT per
year (NB: prices in Italy) , assuming that the ND
partner does not have agreements already active
with external providers for other services,
including space on servers, firewalls and dedicated
bandwidth for the connection (2Mb / s) sufficient
NEWDEAL - New Employees Development And Learning - LLP / Leonardo da Vinci / Multilateral / DoI
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to ensure multiple connections without slowdowns
or blocks.
6. Potential market applications
The potential commercial applications of New Deal
are
many:
therefore
implementations
or
developments after the application will depend on
the commercial direction that the ND Partner will
undertake.
The possible opportunities can be summarized in:
6.1 "internal" use
The ND Partner accesses the system and
through the application provides the
service to customers and manages the
data; it has to be evaluated in this service
hypothesis to authorize access of clients
only in consultation and unloading /
printing data of interest.
6.2 "external" use
The customer accesses the system through
the levels Trainer, Tutor and trainee.
The customer may be either the Company,
a training center, an employment agency.
6.3 New Deal as an additional module for the
Human Resources management softwares already
on the market (which do not provide the
functionality of the New Deal).
In such an event, and according to the
producers of the software, ND would be
equipped with all the automatic (and
graphics) to exchange data with the
applications above, without the customer
perceiving to be on the external module.
The supply of the module would be by the
house of the HR management software,
which would purchase it from ND Partner
then sell it to their customers with the
desired margin.
It is obvious that the commercial appeal of
this hypothesis for the manufacturer of
management applications would be in the
know-how that the ND Partner has in the
field of training, expertise lacking to the
manufacturer.
7. Comparison with competitors
It was not possible to make a comparison with
software potentially competing, as applications
dedicated produced and marketed in Italy concern
mostly the operational management of training
(we speak of those searchable on the web with the
label of "Software for the management of
knowledge" and the like ); they allow the
management of classrooms and training courses
already defined.
On the other hand for the applications more
structured and diffused (for example those
produced by well-known brands as Zucchetti in
Italy, which is a software of Human Resources
management, or others abroad,) it was not
possible to find demos or presentations that would
allow us to make a detailed analysis to check the
existence of any kind of Knowledge Management.
From the analysis of the various sites and
information you could still get ideas for the
proposed improvements, as in the case of software
produced by HRSG (www.hrsg.ca), which provides
a structured database skills.
8. Simulation of revenue potential for the
application
To get information on the market potential of the
New Deal we made a simulation of potential
revenue basing on the customers database of Ifoa,
therefore starting from the data contained in the
CRM of the Institute.
NEWDEAL - New Employees Development And Learning - LLP / Leonardo da Vinci / Multilateral / DoI
The database of client companies of Ifoa is
segmented based on the following range of
employees:
A prudential simulation will assume as the number
of employees of the range considered only the
lower end of the range:
1-9, 10-24, 25-99, 100-249, 250-499, 500
Range
Nr. Employees considered
1–9
1
10 – 24
10
25 – 99
25
100 – 249
100
250 – 499
250
oltre 500
500
With these assumptions we would have a potential
pool of about 600,000 users; the range 1-9 is poor
on the sample considered.
The services taken into consideration are 6.1 and
6.2 mentioned above, which are assigned
hypothesis of
service
Unit price
Hypothesis of
distribution on
services
respectively the unit prices of € 1.00 and € 2,00
per user entered.
Assuming a rate of acquisition equal to 5% of the
total, fractionated on the two services mentioned
above:
Total users
Total revenues
€
TOTAL
A
€
1,00
5%
29.250
29.250,00
B
€
2,00
0%
0
A
€
1,00
4%
23.400
€
23.400,00
B
€
2,00
1%
5.850
€
11.700,00
A
€
1,00
3%
17.550
€
17.550,00
B
€
2,00
2%
11.700
€
23.400,00
A
€
1,00
2%
11.700
€
11.700,00
B
€
2,00
3%
17.550
€
35.100,00
A
€
1,00
1%
5.850
€
5.850,00
B
€
2,00
4%
23.400
€
46.800,00
A
€
1,00
0%
0
B
€
2,00
5%
29.250
-
€
29.250,00
€
35.100,00
€
40.950,00
€
46.800,00
€
52.650,00
€
58.500,00
€
58.500,00
These numbers demonstrate the sustainability of a
possible action of commercial deployment of the
New Deal and give covering to initial costs of
adaptation
and
management
(software,
infrastructure, human resources).
NOTE: these calculations have been done using
IFOA databases but they are applicable to each
partner context using the same method.
9. Source code and rights of use.
At the present stage of development the New Deal
application does not have features and functions
for a copyright.
The source code of the application will be
provided to each New Deal project partner, that
can freely modify it to suit its commercial and / or
internal objectives.
Recipients interested to New Deal platform will
take contacts with the ND Partner in your country
to determine the conditions of use of related
services.