Smart traffic light proposal and review

1. Executive Summary

Smart traffic lights are a product innovation designed to help alleviate and mitigate traffic congestion. Traffic congestion is particularly troublesome in large cities as it results to large amounts of productivity loss through various delays. Congestion can also adversely impact the environment as vehicles are in operation much longer that should otherwise be warranted through the use of smart traffic lights. This contributes to higher costs associated with wear and tear on both vehicles and roadway infrastructure.

Smart traffic lights are used to help lower congestion by using artificial intelligence and data analytics to proper regulate traffic flow. Through proper regulation of traffic flow, congestion can be reduced allowing for a much more seamless travel and commute experience. In addition, smart traffic lights can help reduce the impact on carbon emissions on the environment by lowering the overall time vehicles are operated on the road (Dhole, 2014).

2. Company Description

Blyncsy is a privately company that operates a network of traffic sensors that are used to measure congestion within urban areas. The company leverages a variety of technologies to help monitor congestion. In certain cities the company leverages electronic signals from mobile devises to measure traffic. The network of devises is stored within protective cubes and mounted on traffic lights. Through internal analytics that company can then measure congestion, lower energy costs, monitor pollution, monitor roadway and infrastructure damage. This data is that used by various transformation departments, engineers, and planners to make better informed infrastructure decisions (Tian, 2018).

3. Strategic Focus and Plan

The mission of Blyncsy is to alleviated the burden place on infrastructure. The vision of the company is to become the premier, data driven, infrastructure monitoring company in the world.

The goals of the company are first to continue expand its network of traffic and weather monitoring products throughout the nation. In addition, the goal of the company is to continue its fund-raising efforts as the company is currently not profitable. In addition, the goal of the company is also to provide expanded services to achieve economies of scale.

The core competency of the company is its proprietary software and hardware. Here, the company has unique and patented products that help to mitigate of imitation products. The competitive advantage of the firm is its ability to establish strong connections with municipal planners and other infrastructure providers through its “first mover advantage.” Once its products are adopted, it is difficult for competitors to dislodge the company as it would be too difficult for consumers to switch. The reason is that once its products and software are set up, consumers often become accustomed to the product. Likewise, the infrastructure used to monitor congestion would also need to be removed causing a massive disruption to municipal consumers.

4. Situation Analysis (SWOT Analysis)

Strengths

1. Strong technological background

2. Business with a captive customer and entrenched customer base

3. Very strong management team

4. Attractive unit and business economics

5. Strong patents with large useful lives

Weaknesses

1. Not profitable

2. Reliant on continual equity funding

3. Very large setup times

4. Heavy reliance on continual R&D investments

5. Large legal and regulatory hurdles

Opportunities

1. Weather monitoring services and ancillary revenue streams

2. Artificial intelligence and data analytics innovations in the industry.

3. Strong political and consumer tailwinds related to infrastructure investments and ESG standards.

Threats

1. Technological obsolescence

2. Competitors with more financial resources

3. Limited budgets from governments and municipalities

4. Restrictive regulatory hurdles

5. Market-Product Focus

Marketing objectives are related to securing long term, stable, and diversified contracts with municipalities and governments around the world. The product objectives are to allows customers to make better, data-driven decisions related to infostructure investment. The target markets are governments and municipalities with over 1 million residents and have very high levels of net migration growth. The points of different related to the product are related to the technology, artificial intelligence and data analytics that the company provides to consumers. The product is positioned as a premium product offering that leverages an annual subscription model.

6. Marketing Program

The product strategy is discussed above in detail. Here, the strategy is to leverage artificial intelligence and data analytics to provide consumers with a seamless method to make better informed infrastructure decisions. The pricing strategy will revolve primarily around an annual subscription model based on the number of users, the number of monitoring devices in service, and the length of the contract. Currently the product and the business losses money as the company uses a variety of promotion techniques in order to entice consumers to purchase the product. These strategies include free usage periods, lowered annual fees, free installation of monitoring devices and more. The break-even point will be well into the future as the company currently relies on venture capital funding. The pricing strategy will be designed to steadily increase price annually with consideration given to the number of users, the number of devices in use, and the length of the contract (Tubaishat, 2017)

7. Financial Data and Projections

The company is new founded and currently has maintained revenues of $32 million for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. Sales revenue growth moderated somewhat in 2021 due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and governments using their budgets to focus on more urgent matters such as COVID-19 testing, personal protective equipment investments, and healthcare investments.

8. Organizational Structure

The organizational structure is extremely flat and decentralized. The primary and largest departments are related to sales and product development. The CEO oversees the strategic direction of the firm and guides the sales and product development teams. Each department has a department head in charges of strategic leadership.