Competitive and sustainable growth

EVITherM Internet Platform Outline

Conference Directory

EVITherM

Password

Members only

“About us”

Constitution

Membership

By Card or

Post

News Page

Trade Directory

Search by product

or product group

with links

500 entries

Contact us

Seven technology areas each with data in central database, best practice guides, frequently asked questions, contacts, links etc

Database search by topic, material, industrial sector

Links to related topics such as humidity, refrigeration etc


Membership

Directory

industry sector links and contacts

e-mail information hotline & feedback

Notice board and news page

Reports, papers etc

Technical Data Bases

Level 3

Membership only
Member to member interactions – partner search

Training courses – conferences

Information exchange

Problem solving

Level 1

Homepage free

Level 2

Membership only

Resource Directory Institutions and groups by Interest and expertise

(500 entries?)

3.1.3.2 Income sources

For EVITherM to be financially independent and self-sustaining three years from the commencement of the EC funded project it is essential that it has a strong business plan which is realistic and achievable. The main source of income must be membership in which individuals and institutions would pay an annual fee for access to levels 2 and 3 of the website. Despite the scepticism of many e-based business ventures there are many examples of viable knowledge based websites that are sustained on membership fees. A good example is the Institute of Nanotechnology, www.nano.org.uk, a private charity-based virtual institute that has been viable since the mid-1990s. We would propose a similar membership structure based on company size but with the accent on modest fees, especially for SMEs:-

Individual - 75 €//year

SME<200employees - 350 €/year

>200<600 - 600 €/year

>600 - 1000 €//year

The number of individual members within each business or institution would not be limited, so as to encourage the widest possible usage by representatives of industry.
A second source of income would be from businesses that wish to be included in the thermal products and services directory. An annual charge for the inclusion of their links would be made. This would again be of a relatively modest figure – of the order of 500€/year. However, the history of e-businesses indicates that it is very unsound to base a business on link income so this would be very much a secondary source of funding.

3.1.3.3 Promotional Activities

The key to achieving sustainability and serving the mission is, for EVITherM, a matter of connecting with its market in industry. This is no small task partly because of its diverse and distributed nature. However, nearly all engineers in industry with interests in thermal technologies are already known to manufacturers and suppliers of thermal equipment and services, some of whom are already in our consortium. By negotiating co-operative link arrangements EVITherM would endeavour to have its own link on the majority of suppliers’ web pages. Similarly, it would approach vendors with the prospect of sending information about EVITherM, within the bounds of the privacy of information laws, to customers on a mailing list.

Technical conferences throughout Europe are another vehicle for promotion of EVITherM over a wide range of disciplines, via presentations, demonstrations, literature and e-mail address collection. All recruiting of membership would be connected electronically by e-mail. Membership would not be limited to member states and would be open to individuals and countries in the rest of the world, albeit for an appropriate level of membership fee.

3.1.4 EVITherM Business Plan

The following three sections contain tables of the target income, expenditure and the balance sheet of the outline business model of EVITherM. The need to demonstrate self-supporting status in year 3 of the project demands that the business plan is at the focus of the attention at all times. The intention is that the business entity would be set up early in year two of the project. This would be supported by a prototype web platform, partially populated with initial core data. It will not be feasible to compile and review all the data that will be generated in the project before commencing membership however by the end of year two sufficient information must be available to allow the membership to be established and rapidly expanded. Regular reviews of the business performance against plan will be carried out and changes will be made to the business plan and if necessary the project activities and priorities to ensure that EVITherM delivers the information required by industry and achieves self- supporting status at the end of year 3.

3.1.4.1 EVITherM Income

The EVITherM business plan income is shown in the table below. This shows the contribution from the EC funded project (WP1 & 2) for activities specifically related to setting up and running the EVITherM business. These include legal advice, personnel costs and dissemination of VI benefits to industry. It also shows expected income from membership starting in year 2 and progressing sufficiently with the promotional activities in the EU funded project to achieve viable levels at the end of year 3. The target for membership is deliberately conservative with a total of 42 members in year 2, 135 in year 3, 265 in year 4 and 428 in year 5. Note that the majority of income, around 60% of the total, is based on membership fees. However, once EVITherM is established (year-3 onwards) and is recognised by industry as a valuable and trusted resource it is expected that income from other sources such as links, conferences, training and publications, whilst still not matching membership income, will nevertheless make a significant contribution to the funding of the VI.

3.1.4.2 EVITherM Expenditure

The EVITherM business plan expenditure is shown in the table below. Owing to the highly web based nature of the business the personnel, capital and office space costs are relatively low. An important expenditure item is the on-going cost of sub-contracts, from the end of the EC funded phase of the project, with NMIs and other centres of excellence to provide new information to be published via the VI. This is essential if the VI is to keep industry informed of the latest information, technical data and research outputs.

The expenditure on computers (capital equipment) in years 2 and 3 and the accountancy costs incurred in year 3 are standard business costs that are not covered by the EC project. These costs are therefore EVITherM overheads that have to be covered by income from the business.
The expenditure on personnel to run the VI during year 2 (the first year of EVITherM as a legal entity) will be provided by some of the EC funding currently allocated to Member PLG in WP1 and WP2. The expenditure on VI specific legal advice is also provided by EC funding from WP1. Any other ’standard’ legal costs related to setting up the business would, in the first instance, be paid for from the income generated by the business. The constitution of the VI will however be designed so that backup sources of funding can be made available in years 1, 2 and 3 to cover business related costs, including additional legal costs, that can not be covered by EC funding from the project or from income from the EVITherM business.

3.1.4.3 EVITherM Balance Sheet

The EVITherM business balance sheet is shown below. This shows a predicted overall loss in year 1, caused by expenditure on legal costs in excess of EC income from WP1 for this activity. Mechanisms will be set up in the constitution of the EVITherM business to fund this expected additional cost during year1 and also to cover any other costs not matched by EC or EVITherM business income during the 3-year project. The first year loss should be recovered by the end of year 3 from the cumulative surplus generated by the EVITherM business and over the longer term the balance sheet shows a gradually increasing surplus. In practice the EVITherM Board would decide the level of surplus required to sustain the business whilst making sure that sufficient funds are invested in further information gathering projects with NMIs and other institutions to keep the EVITherM knowledge base up-to-date and to continue to grow membership.

The actual performance of the EVITherM business will be reviewed and compared with the current business plan at approximately 6 monthly intervals in order that any significant departures from plan can be identified and addressed. Revisions to the business plan and appropriate actions will be carried throughout the project to ensure that EVITherM achieves its goal of independent self-financing status at the end of year 3.

3.1.5 Internal SWOT Analysis

Internal SWOT
Strengths	Weaknesses
Large potential membership available (>10,000) Information required is readily available to NMIs NMIs strongly motivated to support EVITherM since it is already their mission to disseminate knowledge and services Create a single focal point for information – especially via links Committed to being a leading provider of authoritative, up to date and pertinent information Instant access for all members, 24 hours a day, every day Provides essential and topical information on industry needs	Difficulty of managing international research bodies to a unified purpose against a short time scale and strong fiscal target Short timescale to achieve viability Project depends on defining common objectives for the Internet platform, data etc early in the programme The business entity must be provided with enough freedom to address at all times the needs to pursue a policy which will maintain its viability Large number of interested bodies wishing to participate in the management
Opportunities	Threats
Other thermal based technologies also have a need to be represented e.g. refrigeration, humidity and environmental control Bench mark for industrial/research information flow Early recognition of industry trends Having established a strong connection with individual engineers in industry the potential for satisfying other information needs exists	That the project is subject to a pan European committee approach to decision making – it needs to be tightly focused on the needs of the EVITherM entity Industry does not always like to pay for information. The membership fee scale should reflect this, especially for SMEs Link income may be difficult to establish – this is a minor component of income

3.1.6 External SWOT Analysis

External SWOT
Strengths	Weaknesses
Strong need in both industry and institutions for thermal information Large market which is not currently addressed Knowledge transfer to and from European Industry IS a headline issue – this makes EVITherM’s activities crucial and urgent Win-win situation for research bodies and industry Single-point 24 hour thermal help line to industry	Existing bodies provide some information already EVITherM must engage effectively with industry. This is critical to the success of EVITherM and must always be a high profile objective
Opportunities	Threats
The boundary between research and industry in Europe is still poorly developed – EVITherM will establish itself as a major presence in this field EVITherM can become a model VI for industrial communication Can provide e-based specific training courses for industrial members with a European qualification Because the gap in information flow does exist, when institutions realise the power of this sort of communication it will become a must-have in the near future	Competition or conflict with other web-based information sources – these must be linked to and acknowledged and EVITherM must build respect through the quality of its outputs The established tendency for businesses and institutions to prefer national, own-language information must be challenged – barriers must be overcome