Business Plan Malaptop Malaptop is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, Charity Number SC043621
Contents Section 1: Executive Summary Section 2: The Project 2.1 Business Objectives 2.2 Business Description 2.3 Business Operations 2.4 Business Structure Overiew Section 3: The People 3.1 Key People 3.2 Training Needs Analysis 3.3 Business Strategy and Structure Section 4: The Market 4.1 Market Research 4.2 Test Batch 2012 4.3 Customers 4.4 Competition Section 5: Strategy an Implementation Summary 5.1 Competitive Edge 5.2 Marketing Strategy 5.3 Strategic Alliances 5.4 Future Strategy and Growth Section 6: Financial Plan 6.1 Start Up Costs and Funding Package 6.2 Operational Forecast 6.3 Running Costs Malaptop 1
1. Executive Summary Malaptop is an organisation aimed at improving educational opportunities available in Malawian schools by providing I.T. equipment that will enable the students to undertake Computing studies. Malaptop seeks to do this by collecting donated laptops in Scotland, refurbishing them and sending them out to partner schools in Malawi. Malawi is developing and has a great future ahead of it. Technology is beginning to play a large part in the lives of Malawians and the introduction of mobile phones has already had a visible impact in urban and rural Malawi. To make sure that the technological development of Malawi is sustainable the IT skills of the population need to be raised so that Malawians can get technology to work for them. Currently in Malawi Computing Studies is part of the curriculum, but the main obstacle facing schools is the lack of equipment. Many schools are eager to teach Computing but do not have the resources available, in the way of computers and laptops. Pupils who have are unable to learn basic IT skills in schools often find it difficult to obtain employment in any position that requires computer literacy. In Scotland laptops tend to have a lifespan of 4 years before they are upgraded, meaning the old laptop sits in a cupboard somewhere. Malaptop aims to bridge this gap and put these laptops to good use. Malaptop 2
2. The Project 2.1 Business Objectives Malaptop aims to improve the educational opportunities available in Malawian schools by providing I.T. equipment that will enable the students to undertake Computing Studies. Malaptop seeks to work closely with local communities in Scotland, as well as other organisations in order to create and strengthen links between Scotland and Malawi. 2.3 Business Operations Members of the public shall donate the I.T. equipment to Malaptop. Malaptop will refurbish this equipment into a usable condition before sending it in batches to the recipient schools. Equipment that is unable to be refurbished into a usable condition shall be recycled for parts. The provision of I.T. education in Malawi will increase the opportunities available to the pupils and encourage the economic development of the nation. The operations of Malaptop shall be categorised under two broad categories: donation logistics and equipment preparation. Donation Logistics Donation Logistics shall include: - Co-ordination of all Drop-off Points to ensure that they have everything that is needed to collect the laptops, are well known in their area and records are kept up to date. - Co-ordination of the schools programme to ensure that the schools who wish to participate and set up a Malaptop group can do so. Also talking to schools to discuss the importance of both global citizenship and I.T. - Centralised storage of laptops prior to shipping. Malaptop 3
- Organisation of shipping either in collaboration with other charities sending equipment to Malawi or on our own. - Finding recipient schools, ensuring that they are suitable. Equipment Preparation The preparation of the laptops shall include: - Securely wiping the data that is on the donated laptops. This will be done without the need to boot the laptops with their original operating system. - The installation of the Lubuntu Operating system and various programs chosen to enable the pupils to learn a wide range of skills. - Identifying laptops that are unable to be refurbished for hardware reasons and deciding which parts of the laptop can be recycled internally and commercially. 2.4 Business Structure Overview Our charity comprises of three Trustees who will be working on a part time basis, each of them having full time jobs and devoting their spare time to the charity. Two of the trustees will take on specific roles including chairman and marketing officer. The Charity will be looking for volunteers to fill other specific roles as detailed in section 3.3. Malaptop 4
3. The People 3.1 Key People Simon Cleary - Simon Cleary is a co-founder of Malaptop and shall be both a Trustee and Member of the SCIO (see Business Management section) Clare Ridler - Clare Ridler is a co-founder of Malaptop and shall be both a Trustee and Member of the SCIO (see Business Management section) John Cleary - John Cleary is a Trustee who will be providing organisational assistance and bringing his experience as a Chartered Accountant working with charitable organisations for over 20 years. Michael Weatherston - Michael Weatherston has provided legal advice regarding the registration of the charity and will be supporting Malaptop with regards to legal issues in the future. Fr Titus Bayani - Fr Titus Bayani is a Malawian priest and teacher. He is the main contact for Malaptop in Malawi, and has overseen the installation of the test batch in St Paul the Apostle School, Mangochi. Alasdair Welsh - Alasdair Welsh has provided graphic design support for our website, logo and has and will be consulted on technical issues. 3.2 Training Needs and Company Roles We have highlighted roles within the charity that we will be looking for volunteers to fill. At present the Trustees are undertaking these roles but as Malaptop expands we will be looking for more people to come on board and take on the roles detailed in section 3.3. Malaptop 5
3.3 Business Strategy and Structure Malaptop shall be registered as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. There shall be two tiers to the organisation structure, with members and trustees. However it shall be possible for individuals to be both a member and a trustee. The day to day operations of Malaptop shall be carried out by a volunteer committee. This committee shall be recruited by the Trustees to fulfill various roles including the following. Role Description Key skills needed Chairman Simon Cleary Responsible for the Malaptop s overall operations and overseeing all aspects. Treasurer to be filled Responsible for allocating every action.event in budget, and ensuring that these funds are available, keeping close records of accounts of Malaptop and reporting the financial situation of the charity at the start of each committee meeting, experience of managing finances, either within another voluntary organisation, professionally or at school. Knowledge and confidence with spreadsheet programs, such as excel, or a willingness and ability to learn. Schools Officer to be filled Responsible for ensuring that the Malaptop program in Sottish schools works smoothly. This will involve ensuring that the Preferred experience of working in Malawi teachers responsible have the or similar country, confident at public necessary knowledge and tools speaking, calm under pressure, knowledge to run the groups, the laptops of the Scottish education system. are collected and dropped off for data cleansing, and schools are interested in getting involved. Malaptop 6
Role Description Key skills needed Marketing Officer Clare Ridler to support the other committee members in ensuring that as many people as possible are aware of the benefits their old laptops can bring. Supporting the fundraising officer in the promotion of Malaptop's fundraising activities. Also responsible for coordinating and implementing social media strategy. Distribution Officer to be filled ensuring that all the laptops are moved form the Drop-off Points to the place that they shall be refurbished and form their to Malawi. This role will be one of the most challenging because it will involve the importing of the laptops to Malawi. Excellent organisational skills, previous experience with importing/exporting would be preferable. Fundraising Officer to be filled Technology Officer to be filled The Fundraising Officer aim to ensure that Malaptop has enough funds coming in to cover its operational costs. This will Enthusiasm, good writing style, good include organising fundraising organizational sills events, writing to companies and trusts, commercial recycling of unsuitable laptops and the online solicitation of gifts. To ensure that the laptops are sent out to Malawi in the best possible condition and with the best possible software. This will Good knowledge of Open Source software involve collaborating with and Linux operating systems. a good Malawian teachers, using writing style for writing guides feedback form the trial run to see what additional support the teachers need to successfully teach IT. The recruitment of these volunteers is currently being undertaken under the guidance of Stirling Volunteering Enterprises (www.sventerprise.org.uk) to ensure that the Trustees are able to recruit individuals that have the necessary skills and attitude to carry out what is Malaptop 7
expected of them. It is anticipated that the committee will be recruited before the end of January 2013. Malaptop 8
4. The Market 4.1 Market Research On-the-ground research by Simon Cleary was carried out in 2009 in rural schools in Malawi. This found that the pupils were severely limited in their ability to compete for higher paying office jobs. There was also a desire from the headteachers of the schools to improve the facilities available to their school. Subsequent telephone, email and face to face discussions with other headmasters have highlighted the benefits that these laptops could bring to pupils. See Appendix for correspondence from Lonely Magreta who works in the Malawian Ministry of Education, highlighting their interest in the project and the need for laptops. Further market research that will be to be carried out will be with the Malawian Ministry of Education, to gauge the number of schools that could accommodate I.T facilities. There will also need to be ongoing updates form recipient schools to see how the programme can be refined. 4.2 Test Batch 2012 In order to test the market and to ensure we have the skills and resources for Malaptop to be successful, we embarked on an initial test batch in the summer of 2012. After spreading the world at our parish as well as family and friends, we were able to receive an initial donation of 8 laptops. Out of these initial 8, two were unable to be refurbished which left us with an initial test batch of 6 laptops. Through our contacts within Malawi we were able to create links with a secondary school, St Pauls and Apostle Seminary School, in Mangochi. After long communications with the school we were able to send out our first batch of 6 computers. Malaptop 9
Initial feedback form the school has been fantastic, they are already integrating the laptops into their lessons. We are seeing continual feedback form the school, as its extremely important for us to know how the laptops are being used, f there have been any problems, in order to ensure our future partner school receive the best experience possible. Please see appendix for feedback from the first school. Having done our first test batch, we are certain that we have the experience, skills and connections to make Malaptop successful. We have proven their is a need for these laptops in our market research and have taken steps to fulfill this need. Communication is the key and ensuring we have strong links with the partner school both before and after the laptops have been sent out is vital. 4.3 Customers The Malawian Ministry of Education shall be the main recipient of the I.T. equipment. However Malaptop will aim to liaise directly with the recipient school to ensure that the equipment is suitable and that the school is suitable to enhance direct accountability. Another advantage of direct communication with the schools is that it allows community groups in Scotland to connect directly with school communities in Malawi. Malaptop 10
4.4 Competition Malaptop is a charity organisation and therefore those other organisations that are working between Scotland and Malawi are seen as potential partners rather than competitors. We are aware of other charities that aim to increase the I.T. infrastructure in developing countries, such as Malawi. The largest of these is Computer Aid, although there are smaller ones such as IT Schools Africa that do a similar thing. However all of these organisations are primarily based in England, particularly in London and the South East. Malaptop is the only organisation that is based in Scotland and with Drop-off Points in each of the major towns/cities, making our locality an asset, particularly or individuals who are reluctant to post their laptop to the other end of the UK to be donated. Malaptop will also aim to increase the connection between the donors and the end recipients. This will be done by keeping track of each of the end points of the donations so they can be traced on demand. The donors are required to give an email address when they make a donation and they can sign up to e-newsletters. Within the schools program the Scottish schools will know which schools they are going to be donating too, and the recipient schools will be encouraged to send images and letters back to the donating school once they have put the donations to use. Direct Competition Indirect Competition High - IT Schools Africa Low Computer Aid - Malaptop 11
5. Strategy and Implementation Summary 5.1 Competitive Edge As mentioned in the previous section, Malaptop has the advantage over other charities in direct competition in that they are the sole charity to be based in Scotland. Both Computer Aid and IT Schools Africa are based in England and do not offer the convenience of local Drop-off Points that Malaptop does. This allows the donor to drop off the laptop free of charge, rather than the hassle of packaging it up and posting it off. We believe this is one of Malaptop s key assets, being to integrated with the local community and getting local business and schools involved in the project. Not only will this increase prove convenient for the donor, but also increase word of mouth referrals from businesses who are involved. 5.2 Marketing Strategy Initially Malaptop s marketing will be to local organisations and other charities in order to drum up support. More detail of the organisations we have already contacted are in section 5.3. With regards to donations, Malaptop has identified three main market segments to target for laptops donations. - Local Individuals - Schools Malaptop 12
- University students This year there are 96,364 students are applying to go to university in Scotland. This has been steady for the past few years and there are currently over 220,000 students in Scotland s 15 universities. Studies have shown that 80% of students have their own laptop for university, while others use desktops and tablets. This would suggest that there are 176,000 laptops in Scotland owned by students. The average lifespan for a laptop is around 4 years so we could conservatively estimate that there are around 40,000 laptops are replaced each year as they become too old. The thing is, the majority of these laptops will be recoverable and could be used with Lubuntu, which is designed for slower machines! If just 10% of Scottish students who replaced their laptops this year were to donate their old one, we would have enough to provide each of the 77 state secondary schools in Malawi with a 20 unit computer classroom. In order to target these segments Malaptop will undertake various marketing activities across various platforms. The Marketing of Malaptop will be undertaken in two strategies, 1. Online Marketing Malaptop currently has an online presence across multiple platforms which centre around the website www.malaptop.org. The website was designed by Simon Clearly and shall be managed internally. Following on from this was the creation of our Social Media Platforms on which we now have a strong presence which is already being used to solicit donations of I.T. equipment as well as support from other individuals and organisations. 2. Print Marketing Print marketing will be used to target individuals in local press, as well as within schools and universities. These channels shall be used with the aim of increasing awareness of the charity to drive donations, as well as support from other organisations wishing to get involved. Malaptop 13
5.3 Strategic Alliances As a charitable organisation, the key to our success will be in the collaborations with local individuals and organisations. We have already highlighted and contacted various organisations who have pledged their support to Malaptop, and who we hope to work closely with in the future. Stirling Volunteering Enterprises Stirling Volunteering Enterprises assisted with Malaptop in the sending out of the initial test batch by providing contacts and advice. Stirling Volunteering Enterprises are continuing to assist Malaptop by giving guidance regarding recruitment and management of volunteers and providing a platform for promoting opportunities to people in the local area. 2e-volve 2e-volve are a Stirling based IT company that provide B2B services. 2e-volve are providing technical support for the preparation of the laptops and are also supporting Malaptop through the use of equipment and meeting space. 5.4 Future Strategy and Growth We hope to expand at a steady rate over the next three years. As detailed below we aim to partner with another 3 schools in year 2, then continued support whilst adding 5 schools per year thereafter. Year 2-2013 - Sending 5 batches out and create alliance with 5 schools in Malawi Year 3-2014 - Continue supporting out existing schools and reach out for potential 10 more schools. Year 4-2015 - Again 10 more schools Malaptop 14
6. Financial Plan 6.1 Start up Costs and Funding Package Due to the nature of Malaptop relying solely on donations there are no initial costs. Word of Mouth has provided us with the initial laptops required for the test batch and by focusing on local press and schools we hope to keep out initial marketing costs to a minimum. 6.2 Operational Forecast - Income Commercial Recycling - Laptops that are unable to be refurbished due to hardware problems shall be commercially recycled. In the trial run approximately 30% of the laptops received were unable to be refurbished and we anticipate that this proportion will continue. Commercial recyclers of I.T. equipment pay approximately 50-100 per laptops with 1 hardware problem. This would result in approximately 30 available for every laptop that is sent off. Charitable Fundraising - A committee position of Fundraising officer will be created. The position holder will be responsible for organising fundraising events and soliciting fundraising donations from other organisations. The fundraising will be done through Virginmoney Giving, which has a 100 set up charge and is free thereafter. 6.3 Running Costs The laptops shall be provided to the schools in Malawi free of charge and all costs shall be covered by Malaptop in Scotland. Malaptop will not aim to make a profit, however it will aim to comfortably cover costs to mitigate any unseen future costs. Malaptop 15
We will target local press in order to keep costs down, as well as schools individually so marketing costs will not me massive. Malaptop 16
Appendix Email Correspondences --------- Forwarded message ---------- From: davie mambo <dvmambo@gmail.com> Date: Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 10:38 AM Subject: Re: Laptops To: Simon Cleary <simon@malaptop.org> Dear Simon, Despite the difficiculties of our network to down load pictures, be informed that computer lessons had started and a good progress is being made. The teachers were finding the operating system(ubuntu) hard but with time they are getting used. I have asked Fr. Titus again to try sending you the pictures, maybe he will be successful. I will also try in this mail. If I fail to be successful, please accept this mail though without the attachment. Thanks for your efforts, we are very happy to have computers and the students too are excited about it and they are making a good progress. I will be giving you up to date info as we go along. Fr. Davie Malaptop 17
From: Lonely Magreta [magretalv@yahoo.co.uk] Sent: 06 December 2011 15:12 To: Cleary, Simon Subject: Re: Fwd: LAPTOPS FOR SCHOOLS - Failed Message Simon Cleary, Sorry for that. I was sayimg most of the schools having electricity offer Computer Studies as a subject. Unfortunately, most of them do not have adequate supply of computers to allow students acquire enough hands-on experience before sitting for the national examinations. For the start we could identify a school within Monkey Bay area (either Nankhwali Community Day or Lisumbwi secondary schools, but l'll need to verify on availability of electricity at Nankhwali). How many computers would you provide in the start-up, and how would the shipping/transportation be done? It would be necessary for the donation to go through the Ministry to enable it do the monitoring on usage and care. Could you also spell out what would be expected of the beneficiaries other than what you already mentioned? Looking forward to hearing from you. Zikomo kwambiri. Lonely Magreta Malaptop 18