Jefe de Equipo Adjunto de SCOP

3.1. Business Opportunity

The OIBN offers each of its potential member groups an attractive value proposition that can be developed individually or in partnership with other network members. For academic institutions the network offers the ability to publicise research funding opportunities, seek management support for early stage ventures, and promote licensing prospects. It additionally enables academic entrepreneurs to undertake business planning for investor consideration. For entrepreneurs and industry the network will offer the opportunity to promote offerings to the network as well as seek collaborators and support. Both groups will also be able to work individually or in teams to produce business plans for investor scrutiny. Network members will be able to gain greater exposure by publishing their business plans across the network to a much wider investor audience, increasing the chances of real interest. Investors will be offered the ability to scan the database of business plans available through the network in a proactive manner to find suitable investment candidates for further exploration. This will increase potential investment opportunities and significantly speed up the scanning process. Finally, government information will be made freely available through the network targeted at supporting new business development. This will include access to funding guidance through the different regional development agencies.

3.2. Background

The idea for the business has been developed since April 2009 and has been based around offering a network with a value proposition beyond that of existing online business networks, that being the availability of real business opportunities as well as business planning services.

3.3. Current Status

At present designs have been developed for the overarching network, the business planning tool, business opportunity brokering tool, and the two key databases. These designs are now ready to be embodied into website form.

targeted in the first instance toward the East Midlands region and will involve interaction with the East Midlands Development Agency as well as engagement with entrepreneurs, industry, academic institutions, business support organisations, management support providers, and investment groups, who will be accessed through contacts held by the managing director as well as through Nottingham University and the East Midlands Development Agency.

3.4. Management Team

The management team of the business consists of the three founding members who currently own an equal share in the business:

Simon Ling Ð Managing Director (33):

Simon holds a Masters in Systems Engineering from Loughborough University and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Nottingham University Business School. He brings experience of leading large scale business planning and financial management activities from a global FTSE100 company as well as customer, supplier, and partner engagement expertise. He has also been personally responsible for setting up numerous internet and intranet websites on behalf of his previous employer.

Simon Dibble Ð Technology Director (29):

Simon holds a Masters in Systems Engineering from Loughborough University as well as a PhD in Sonar. He brings a significant amount of process engineering experience to the firm and is skilled in hands on database driven website design and development.

Rhys Ling Ð Operations and Finance Director (29):

Rhys holds a Bachelors degree in Ergonomics from Loughborough University. He brings experience of website process design to the business and has been responsible for the development of several complex websites. He also brings several years of operations and financial management expertise to the organisation.

3.5. Organisation

Based on the particular attributes of the founders, the organisation will be divided into two value streams underpinning a central management function as shown in the figure over the page:

Figure 1: InnDie Ltd Organisational Chart

The OIBN Management stream will focus on the development and support of the network website and will be managed by the Technology Director. In the first instance this stream will be responsible for building the beta version of the website, followed by testing and improvements ready for formal launch. After launch the stream will focus on support of the overall network and developing new tools and wider functionality as required to maintain a differentiated position.

The Customer Engagement stream will be concerned with user and advertiser engagement, with the Managing Director responsible for user engagement and the Operations and Finance Director responsible for advertiser interaction. Prior to the formal launch of the network, user engagement will be undertaken covering all major groups. In parallel with this, advertiser engagement will be undertaken ready for beginning the beta testing phase. The stream will focus on bringing onboard advertisers that target the business market with products and services needed by start- up and early phase businesses.

The Managing Director will be responsible for the overall management of the organisation with the Operations and Finance Director charged with the day-to-day management of the Central Management Function.

InnDie Ltd  Simon Ling  Managing Director  Customer Engagement  Simon Ling  Rhys Ling  OIBN Management  Simon Dibble  Technical Director  Central Management  Function  Rhys Ling  Operations and Finance  Director 

3.6. Core Competence

InnDie Ltd has two core competencies underpinning the business; these are systems engineering process design and customer engagement:

3.6.1. Systems Engineering Process Design

Systems engineering expertise is the key core competence of the business and is utilised for the process design of the entire network as well as that of the business planning and business opportunity brokering tools, the business opportunity database, and the business plan database. Rigorous process design has enabled the entire network to be modelled prior to developing the website itself and will significantly increase the speed of development.

3.6.2. Customer Engagement

The founders of the business bring significant customer engagement experience covering customer, supplier and partnership relationships. This expertise will be leveraged to build the network membership and will be used to understand the ongoing needs of the different user groups in order to be able to continually develop the services offered through the OIBN.