Contemporary Telecommunications: NRN & Co Smartpen Business Plan

This report provides a comprehensive business plan for NRN & Co, a company focused on selling smartpens and related accessories. It begins with a technical description of the smartpen, detailing its components and functionality. The report then analyzes the competitive landscape, examining both market-level and technical aspects of competitors. It explores the Australian market, identifying China as a key export destination and considering potential partnerships and advertising strategies. A detailed business plan is presented, including the company's goals, value proposition, value chain, and strategic trade-offs. The report also assesses the fit of the business within the market and discusses the continuity of direction. Finally, it offers a view on investing in the smartpen business and concludes with a summary of the key findings.

Running head: Contemporary Telecommunications 1
CONTEMPORARY TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Student Name
Institution

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
1. Technical description of Product/service.............................................................................................2
1.1 Parts of the smartpen........................................................................................................................3
1.2 How smartpen work..........................................................................................................................5
2. Product/service Analysis of the competition at the technical level.....................................................6
2.1 Competition at market level..............................................................................................................6
2.2 Competition at the technical level.....................................................................................................7
3. Australia market..................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Export country...................................................................................................................................9
3.2 Competitors.....................................................................................................................................10
3.3 Partnership......................................................................................................................................11
3.4 Advertisement.................................................................................................................................11
4. Business plan.....................................................................................................................................11
4.1 The goal of the business..................................................................................................................12
4.2 Value proportion.............................................................................................................................12
4.3 Value Chain......................................................................................................................................13
4.4 Trade-off..........................................................................................................................................15
4.5 FIT....................................................................................................................................................16
4.6 Continuity of direction.....................................................................................................................17
5. View on investing in Smart Pen business...........................................................................................19
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................20
References.................................................................................................................................................21

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Introduction
Contemporary telecommunications include emerging information technologies that
currently have an impact on the business. There are many different forms of contemporary
telecommunication that has a greater impact on business and globalization in general. One of the
greatest digital technologies that have to impact the business and global platform is a smart or
digital pen. Digital pen offers unique opportunity to scan, capture and upload handwritten work
into the computer without manual transferring these texts. The business idea is to suppose sell
smartpens and accessories such as smartbook or papers used in writing. The proposed name for
the business is NRN & Co and this serves to sell various smartpen related materials. The report
gives various aspects of the business including the business plan. In the report goals of the
business are given, value chain, technical description of the smartpen, competition on the
technical level, fit, and continuity and view whether to invest in the business. Moreover, the
business identifies China as the main international market for smartpens. The report, in short,
explores the business idea of smartpen and accessories business.
1. Technical description of Product/service
NRN & Co sells digital pens and other related products such as digital book and pen
batteries. Some of the key products sold under NRN & Co portfolio are smartpens, batteries,
smart book among other products. Smartpens are designed to scan, import handwritten work into
a more readable text and also with the capability of understanding more complex printed
materials transforming those materials into a more readable text (Lynda.com 2018).

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There are many different types of smart pens and some of these include Scanning pens,
Handwriting pens, and Paper-tracking pens. Firstly, scanning pens allow the user to scan objects
they like so that these data are stored for later uploading into the computer. Secondly,
handwriting pens are those smart pens that capture handwriting as you write on special paper.
These are the most technical pens with the capability of sending written work to a connected
computer via a wireless Bluetooth network. Thirdly, paper tracking pens are other types of
smartpen that are designed to capture writings both on paper and on other objects such as a
computer. These type of pens allow the user to scan surfaces such as websites for easy ordering
of products online (Abrahams 2010).
1.1 Parts of the smartpen
A typical smartpen is Nokia digital pen that comprises a number of parts. Pen cap (1) that
keeps the ink from contacts and also house the light detector. Ink fill (2) that comprises normal
ink fill enable the user to write. Docking connector (3) is another component of Nokia pen and
recharges the pen battery and download data to a computer (Ahrens 2011, pp 22–24). Pen optics
(4) that hold the LED that shines on the paper when writing. Refill holder (5) holds the ink filled
in the right place inside the pen. Indicator lights (6) indicate the need for recharging the battery
and when the pen is full of words. Reset button (7) is used to open the pen when resetting pen
and this enables the pen to start capturing words again. Rechargeable battery (8) is used by the
pen to work remotely within some hours before recharging pen again. Vibrating motor (9) that
enable the pen sends a signal to other devices around it. Indicator lights on pen top (10) shine to
indicate the operational mode of the pen when using the pen (Woodford 2017).

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Figure 1: Parts of Smart Pen
Figure 2: Parts of Smartpen

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1.2 How smartpen work
The technical part of the smartpen comprises some elements. In order to understand the
products and services that NRN & Co deals in, it is important to understand the technical
operation of the smart pen which is the core product. Firstly, the pen has ink (1) that writes
across the special paper designed for the digital pen. The amercing thing is that the pen itself
does not see the ink yet the user sees this ink writing on the paper (Cho 2015, pp. 195–205).
Secondly, the infrared LED (2) placed inside the pen is used by the pen and cannot be seen by
the user except the pen itself when it shines on the page user is writing on. Thirdly, a light
detector (3) detects reflections of infrared while the user is writing with the pens enabling the pen
to pick marks on the paper (Takahashi 2014). Fourthly, microchip (4) is another part of the pen
store data on patterns of reflection as detected on the paper. Fifthly, the pen has Bluetooth
antenna (5) that enable the pen to transmit the data that stored on the microchip through
Bluetooth wireless to storage computer. Lastly, the smartpen has a wireless receiver (6) that
receives, convert data to more readable information in the computer (Haq & Elhoweris 2013, pp
880–885).

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Figure 3: Smart Pen and how it works
2. Product/service Analysis of the competition at the
technical level
2.1 Competition at market level
The digital or smart pen market remains one of the competitive market owing to the little
number of players in the regional market. The market is mostly concentrated in America without
many companies investing in these products in Asia and south pacific market. Firstly, increasing
adoption of smartpens in art and design professions is pointing to the future growth of the
market. Many companies especially those that provides art and design work are adopting the
used of smart pens and this will help widen the market making market good for investment.
Many users need to feel the natural sense of suing smartpens to write or sketch objects and this
makes the pen ideal for art professions (Ormsby 2011).

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Secondly, smart pens are used to reduce manual paperwork and this is increasing the
demand for smartpens. Digital pens reduce the manual writing and make work easier as
handwrite work is directly transferred to a computer system (Shelly & Misty 2009). Moreover,
smart pens eliminate the need to manually fill forms before scanning them into a computer
device. This has increased the market for smartpens globally leading to high demand for the
products. Some of the areas that smartpens have tried to reduce paperwork are banking and
insurance sectors. Banking, for instance, uses smartpen to speed up customer service by
capturing information directly into the computer. Insurance sector also applies the smartpen to
reduce operation cost incurred during entry of data or information from the manual file into the
computer. The overall gain of the pen help to reduce time, cost and the human resource required
to enter data manually into the computer system (Hughes 2011, p. 2).
Digital pen competitiveness has been observed through operation of manufacturing
companies such as Wacom digital pens. Wacom is one of the manufacturers of smart pens and
has been on the market yet due to market share enjoys the economies of scale. The smartpen
market has therefore increased and currently is one of the promising areas that need more players
to create a competitive value system. For instance, Anto is a key player in the market since the
company has pioneered in some technologies that are used to produce pens and this is essential
in values creation in the smart pen market (Andy 2008).
2.2 Competition at the technical level
Smartpen is one of the digital objects that has received little attention outside the united
states of America. This has resulted in the low venture in parts of the world due to little
information is known about the smartpen. The pen has competition at the technical level base on

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a number of competitive objects. Firstly, a close competitor of the smartpen is the manual pen
that is currently used by the majority of people living around the world. Many customers
compared the benefit of the digital pen with the cost and point to the high cost of the pen in the
market. This makes the majority of people opt for the manual pen instead of a digital pen. In
addition, one of the determining factors affecting the market competition is price or the cost as
many customers prefer cheap product hence purchases manual pen and papers. Lack of
knowledge of the operation of the smartpen also contributes to a high number of customer
buying manual pen instead of smartpen (Patti & Garland 2015).
Secondly, as a telecommunication tool, the smartpen has low competition since there is a
limited substitute in the market. The smartpen remains one of the innovative tools that are
important for the current digital world. Digital pen enjoys larger market due to its technical
capability of transforming one form of information to another. For instance, the pen can
transform handwritten data to more readable data in the computer. This is important for current
digital market requires data transformation to add more value to any data set. The function of the
smartpen make the pen competitive in the market and is most likely to be embraced by many
customers especially those in the Asian and South Pacific region (AtKearney 2018).
Thirdly, the smartpen is multisystem digital machines that use a number of software to
function. The smartpen is compatible with the various operating system and some of these are
single operating system and multiple operating systems. For instance, Nokia smartpen is based
on Nokia operation system, Apple smartpen is based on MC operating system and so on. This
makes the smartpen competitive in the market since the pen can be used by a number of systems
to transmit information.

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Technological competitiveness can also be observed through a number of factors. Firstly,
the technological segmentation that is attributed to a feature of the pen that makes it the best of
its kind in the market. For instance, the smartpen has a camera that can be used to capture images
and pictures as a normal camera. This saves the cost of having a camera and other picture
capturing equipment. Secondly, Accelerometer-Based Digital Pen is a technology used in the
manufacture of the pen that makes the pen innovative and digitally advances as compared to
other digital equipment making the pens readily competitive in the technological market.
Thirdly, the smartpen has taken a strategic position in the digital or technological market since
the inception of the pen has resulted in market growth and expansion (Solomon 2010).
3. Australia market
The Australian market studies show various factors that determines the market for
smartpen business. Legal framework that determines the market for smart pen within Australia
has laws that have been regulation the market. For instance, The Corporations Act 2001 regulates
the behaviors of corporation such as NRN & Co that operate and sell digital products. Competition
and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) determines the boundaries of competitions within the market.
These two legal basis plus other laws regulates the operation and marketing of digital products
within the Australia market (IAB Australia 2018).
3.1 Export country
China remains the largest market for the Australian market and the largest investment
country in Australia. Many reports indicate that Chinese market is a good market for most
telecommunication products especially those products that can assist youthful generations. The

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best country to export smartpen is China since China remains the largest exporter of Australia
especially computers and telecommunication equipment. Moreover, in December 2015 China
signed China Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA). This has built good ties for trade
between the two countries. This open door for Australian products that are exported to China
market especially those products that machinery in nature (Simoes 2018).
The smart or digital pen is one of the products that can easily sell in the Chinese market
since China has been reducing exports excluding computer and telecommunication products.
According to Signer (2008), China imported machines of more than $2.06T in 2016. This
implies that the country digital pen can be exported to China as a prospective market for
Australia products. Computers form more than 18% of Australian exports and this indicates that
digital pen is an example of computer products that can be sold to external market. One of the
characteristics of the Chinese market is more educational opportunity indicating that smartpen
has a high market in the Chinese market (P&S Market Research 2018).
3.2 Competitors
There are many different competitors in China that poses threat to marketing of digital
pen in the country. The competition for the market share of digital pen in China is intensive with
some companies such as Alibaba already selling the products within China digital market.
Nanchang Valin Pen Industry Co., Ltd is another company that manufacturer and sell the digital
pen within China and the region (Alibaba.com 2018).

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3.3 Partnership
The company will form partnership with many different companies within the China
market. The company intends to form partnership with companies such as Nanchang Valin Pen
Industry Co., Ltd being a manufacturer of smart pens will be of use as the company will supply
products sold within China market. Secondly, the government of China is another partner that
will also help the business operate in the country since the Chinese government will license the
company to operate within the country. Lastly, China marketing and advertisement companies
are some other partners as they will help in marketing and advertising NRN & Co in the country
(China Manufacturers 2018).
3.4 Advertisement
The advertisement within the Chinese market will take two forms and these include
digital marketing and broadcast marketing. Digital marketing include marketing that will employ
digital media to advertise products of NRN & Co within China. And these may include online
media and other digital media such as website dedicated to NRN & Co in China. Secondly,
broadcasting advertisement involves advertising NRN & Co products in television, radio and
print media to help popularize NRN & Co within Chinese market (Simoes 2018).
4. Business plan
The smartpen business will sell smartpen or digital pens and their accessories under the
proposed name of NRN & Co. The overall strategy for the business is based on the statement of
‘Changing lives through digitally higher and sustainable products beyond boundaries’. The aim
of the business is to change lives of customers through the introduction of digital pens that are