Ticket Generation

XYZ car packing service is a business venture focusing on providing a parking space for both the ordinary and seasonal customers.  At full capacity, the business can hold a total of ten cars. To ease on their methods of operation and provide the best services in car parking business, XYZ has embraced specialization and division of labor. They have attained this by coming up with various departments to handle various tasks which ensure smooth operations in their daily business (Nicholas, and Steyn, 2008). These include:

i) Ticket generation

This is a form of functionality that aims at creating a form of the identity of a car to its owner. By giving out a ticket which is matched with the car, this ensures that there will be no confusion or probability of theft as only the owner with the given ticket can take the car out of the parking position.

The functionality also extends to the type of ticket given. Depending on the type of customer, the regular and seasonal, the company generates two types of tickets. The regular one gets a daily ticket, and a different parking position whereas the seasonal ticket gets a parking space for a specified period. The seasonal ticket also allows for parking of the customer’s car at a particular place all weekdays and his space can only be taken on weekends.

ii) charges

Parking fee is another sector that XYZ focuses on in its operations. These also come with different charging prices depending on the type of customer, the ordinary and seasonal, the day of the week, weekdays or weekends and at what time on the weekends.

For the seasonal customers, the company charges differently depending on the length of the season. It charges 200AUD, 375 AUD and 500 AUD parking for three, six and twelve months respectively. For ordinary customers, those who come from midnight to ten in the morning pay 2.5 AUD per hour and 5 AUD per hour from 10 am to midnight. This is on weekdays. On weekends they pay 5 AUD from 12 am to 10 am, and 10 AUD from 10 am to midnight.

The finance department has also stipulated the mode of payment to be made via debit credits cards such as VISA and Master cards. Cash Is considered an alternative means of pay.

a) Resources required

Resources are the backbone of any business. Without resources, there is no way the business could start leave alone operate. With the XYZ car parking business, they need some resources at their disposal to make their dream business come true (Müller, and Turner, 2007).

Parking Fees

i) Land 

The most obvious resource is the parking space. This is the actual ground in which the cars will be parked. And since they are aiming at packing ten cars they the ground coverage should be able to accommodate ten cars comfortably.

ii) hardware

Hardware is the second resource. Since the XYZ company want to use the ticket system in their business, then technology must come in handy at their operation. To improve the business effectiveness in carrying out the car parking process, the XYZ business should purchase the number plate recognition device. This will ensure that there is a comprehensive management of parking. Installation of number plate recognition cameras that makes use of optical recognition technology to read and interpret each customer’s car via the number plate and then recording it to the ticket that he will be given as he parks his car is the best way that XYZ can embrace technological resources in boosting security and customer confidence in their operations. Equipping these cameras with all-weather condition protective gears will ensure that at no point will they give false information to the XYZ parking team.

The control pillar is also an important hardware equipment in this business. Together with the sensor and the entry and exit barrier, they record data fed to the by the number plate readers, and they print them in the customer’s tickets. The control pillar marks the time you entered and when leaving and records the total amount of time you have spent in the parking. Sending this information through a computer, it delivers the total charges you are to pay (Dollinger, 2008).

iii) Software

The software is an important aspect of the XYZ parking business. The software is used to run the computers that calculate the charges after receiving the duration information from the control pillar. They are also used is controlling the cameras that recognize the customer’s number plates and gives a go ahead for the control pillar to print the information on the customer’s ticket.

Software is also crucial in manipulating figures, taking into account the different types of customers and for regular customers it defines the time of the hour, past o r before midnight, and weekdays and weekend and comes up with the best operating function to calculate the costs that a customer has o pay (Powell, and Dent-Micallef, 1997).

iv) The human resource

Human resource is also an important part of the system as they are the liveware. They are the ones who control both the hardware and the software parts in ensuring a smooth running of operation in the XYZ parking business.

Resources

The human resource can also be useful in times when there are power blackouts, and the operation has to go manual. They can be used to open gates, write tickets and collect cash as they wait for power return. This also occur in situations where the business is upgrading their systems, making changes or a shift in the location of the main offices and nothing can be done electronically (Eriksson, and Penker, 2000).

v) Financial resources

With regards to their financial requirements the business must consider the starting capital with critical emphasis places of the amount of cash to purchase or lease the parking grounds, the startup capital to buy the cameras, control pillars, computers and also pay the human resources working to control the other forms of resources such as the hardware and software. Blanco?Mazagatos et al. 2007).

C) Feasibility

Feasibility tests how viable a business idea is. To carry out the feasibility test for XYZ car parking business opportunity the following must be put in account:

i) technical feasibility

This is the test that considers the hardware, software and human resource. Given that the technical aspect of the XYZ business is largely based on number plate recognition cameras, computers, the control pillars and computer, its feasibility is on the plus side since these are technologies that are readily available in the market (Lam, and Shankararaman, 2004). The software is also available, and with several customizations, it can be personalized as per the desires of the business. It is also made flexible to adjust to the different changes that may arise as the business progresses, say price difference. The human resource is available everywhere and getting the technical computer software engineer, and guards as per their qualification are easy (Kirschbaum, 2005).

ii) Economic feasibility

This con is approached by returns and the expenditure. Does the cost of buying the technical hardware resources such as computers and cameras, the cost of buying the specific software needed and the monthly wage bill outweigh the returns arising from the charges of parking on a monthly basis. What about while filing a year’s statements of account. On this approach, the initial cost might be high on the short run but very cheap in the long run since these cameras and computers once installed they require minimal, if any, maintenance cost. And since there a few employees the monthly wage bill is also minimal. Comparing it to the daily charges of ten cars, this business is highly feasible (Edenhofer et al. 2010).

Feasibility Test

iii) Operation feasibility

The business is very practical with minimal risks involved since most of the aspects of the business is computerized.

iv) Legal feasibility

The business doesn’t break any law by opening up and giving people a place to position their car. In fact, upholds the law by encouraging safe parking.

D) The proposed outcomes

The aspect of the results of many takes a look at the returns the company it is making compared to the expenditure. There is also about the benefits of the business to the society.

i) The business outcome

Upon purchasing of the initial technical resources such as the cameras and software, the business is going to enjoy huge profits since it becomes cheaper on the long run. This is because, the business is not expanding and there are very minimal charges of electricity bill, maintenance, and the monthly wage bill, yet there is a continuous flow of customers parking each day (Xu et al. 2009).

ii) User’s outcome

This business provides a safe place in which customers get to park their cars safely, be it ordinary or regular. Helps them to avoid penalties from the law by irresponsible parking or incidences of theft since XYZ provide the safest place to park your car

iii) Projects outcome

This project is a success, and with the attainment of the initial capital to purchase the three forms of resources: hardware, software and human resource there will be an enormous success in the business. Because the resources are fixed, and very minimal cost of operation are needed on a daily basis, yet there is a complete inflow of customers every day to benefit from the parking service, this puts expenditure at a minimal score while returns at a higher scale hence the project is a success (Katz, and Green, 2009). 

References

Blanco?Mazagatos, V., Quevedo?Puente, D. and Castrillo, L.A., 2007. The Trade?Off Between Financial Resources and Agency Costs in the Family Business: An Exploratory Study. Family Business Review, 20(3), pp.199-213.

Dollinger, M.J., 2008. Entrepreneurship: Strategies and Resources. Marsh Publications.

Edenhofer, O., Knopf, B., Barker, T., Baumstark, L., Bellevrat, E., Chateau, B., Criqui, P., Isaac, M., Kitous, A., Kypreos, S. and Leimbach, M., 2010. The economics of low stabilization: model comparison of mitigation strategies and costs. The Energy Journal, pp.11-48.

Eriksson, H.E., and Parker, M., 2000. Business modeling with UML. New York.

Katz, J.A. and Green, R.P., 2009. Entrepreneurial small business (Vol. 200). McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Kirschbaum, R., 2005. Open innovation in practice. Research-Technology Management, 48(4), pp.24-28.

Lam, W. and Shankararaman, V., 2004. An enterprise integration methodology. IT Professional, 6(2), pp.40-48.

Müller, R. and Turner, J.R., 2007. Matching the project manager’s leadership style to project type. International journal of project management, 25(1), pp.21-32.

Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2008. Project management for business, engineering, and technology: Principles and practice. Elsevier.

Powell, T.C. and Dent-Micallef, A., 1997. Information technology as competitive advantage: The role of human, business, and technology resources. Strategic management journal, pp.375-405.

Xu, T.Q., Yin, X.G., YOU, D.H., WANG, Y.G. and Li, C., 2009. Analysis on functionality and feasible structure of wide area protection system. Power System Protection and Control, 38(3), pp.93-97.