This week in E-Commerce, Each team has entered the initial phase of developing and understanding the full view of what MergeMaster needs to be. To help identify our main strengths and weaknesses, the business plan team has been working on developing a SWOT/PEST analysis. In working on this, our team has been able to identify our core strengths and gain a better understanding as to “what we do.” To help assist all teams get the necessary knowledge they need, the marketing team and the research and development team have been working on beginning research and understanding our target market and competition. Within the research and development team though, team leader Levi has began to develop a working prototype for our product. Within the accounting team, they have began research on finding the prices of other helmets and find where ours will fall. In doing this, the accounting team will be able to judge where we stand in terms of pricing and where we can have a competitive advantage over other helmets currently for sale. The website team and the social media team have both began the start up process for our online presence. The website team has began to organize documents and get necessary photos that will be implemented onto the website. To go along with that, the social media team has created each of the social media accounts (Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter) and are starting to create content that can be posted.
Weekly Blog 3/01/19
This week in E-Commerce, The MergeMaster team is continuing to get research and begin getting into the depth of the MergeMaster identity. The business plan team is heading this process by completing the SWOT/PEST and completed a mission statement for our company. Along with this, they have identified the specifics as to what we provide as a product and identified many of the “what if” questions we need to solve. The research and development team has taken these “what if” questions and answered many of them for the entire team. Along with this, they have identified and ordered the parts needed to create our working prototype. Team leader Levi has been working night and day to create the coding for the helmet and we expect to have this prototype working within a few weeks. Moving over to the marketing team, they are continuing the research for identifying and knowing the competition MergeMaster has and the demographic market we intend to hit. The team leader of this group (Bailey) has also began work on creating a survey to be given to the general public to help the team understand what they may like in a motorcycle helmet. With this going on, the website team and social media have been working hard to make sure that all of this hard work is represented in our online presence. The website team is continuing to update photos on the website and have begun making many of the tabs that are needed. The social media team has made many posts showcasing the work done in class each day and have put it up on each of the 4 social media platforms that we are on.
Weekly Blog 3/08/19
This week in E-Commerce, The presenters have began their work for the IBM conference that we have next week (March 12th). They have written the speech and are now working before, during, and after class to revise and memorize the speech for next week. In doing this, they hope to get over many of the detours that come with the speech and get the crucial practice they need for Expo come June 1st. The booth team has also gotten together and began initial booth planning. They have began checking prices and getting ideas for potential booth items that can be used come June 1st. The business plan team is still hard at work and is now comparing our own product to our two main competitors: LiveMap and CrossHelmet. They looked at areas such as quality, service, reputation, reliability, price, and many others. This comparison not only helped them gain perspective on where we stand with our competitors, but about the progress of our own product as well. They also looked at our location of the company and how it's beneficial to customers. Marketing has finished the survey they created and sent it it to gauge interest in our product. They are analyzing the responses to this survey and have been putting them into a spreadsheet to see the most common/popular answers. The team is also finishing competition research and beginning to create our official logo. Research and Development has productively spent the last week completing significant documentation questions and aiding the Business Plan team with their competitors chart. They have also continued to work on the prototype and installing the necessary parts. The website is coming along nicely--the development team is setting it up with all of the pages we need and is making it look really nice. We are hoping to soon implement much of the content such as the meet the team and financial projections. Social Media created our YouTube channel and uploaded the first video, which was a vlog where the team went around checking up on all the teams and their progress. They also updated on all of our social media accounts.The photographer for MergeMaster has documented and uploaded the progress of each of our individual teams, and the class as a whole. Many of these photos are the basis for our social media posts.
Weekly Blog 3/15/19
This week in E-Commerce, The team had a big visit to the Expo prep event at IBM. This occurred on Tuesday the 12th and we had a blast expanding our knowledge on what expo will entail for us. The presenters got their first taste of presenting the product in front of an audience and to judges at the event. They received helpful feedback that they will look to work on and have mastered by the time expo rolls around. Along with the presenters, the entire team got to attend mini conferences with heads from Skills21 to gain even more knowledge about the entire expo process and to what can make our business truly stand out. While the expo prep conference took up a lot of our time this week, each section for MergeMaster continued to work hard at the tasks needed to get done. The business plan team has completed their competitive analysis table and spent time reviewing all work completed by them and other teams and making all necessary revisions. The marketing team continued to work with social media on creating a finalized logo for MergeMaster. After meeting together and discussing each of the proposals, we were able to create our final logo. The sleek design of the helmet with black and white coloring allows us to market the MergeMaster helmet in that same way; sleek and cool. The accounting team mainly worked with the booth team for this week. They went through a multitude of catalogs to decide on which items to order for the booth and to get the exact costs on the amount purchase. They decided on sunglasses, a phone wallet, and lanyards. Finally, the research and development team continued their work on the prototype. With much of the coding done, it has entered the development stage and team leader Levi has began its assembly. Along with this, they also did research on market analysis and manufacture based products to help further all team members knowledge on our product. We have learned so much and still have so much to learn! We will keep grinding away!
Weekly Blog 3/22/19
This week in E-Commerce, The MergeMaster team is continuing to move along nicely and is starting to get to the details as to how to get the MergeMaster product off the ground and onto riders heads. The business plan team and the accounting team this week worked to complete the legal environment work. This entitles getting the numbers down for creating the MergeMaster product and all of the necessary materials. In doing this, we also nailed down where and how production/distribution of MergeMaster will occur. Accounting along with all this work finished the personnel and credit policy aspects of their own plan. Needless to say, accounting had a very busy but productive week. The marketing team conducted research this week as to the most effective strategies we can incorporate into the marketing for our helmet. They have also worked to create ads and upload photos that can be incorporated by the website team. The social media team continues to update on all platforms and put out content created by the marketing team. They have also worked with our photographer to allow us to put many pictures of the day to day activities that occur in the work room. These photos as stated earlier also have been going to the website team. They have been working with the photographer and all teams to ensure that the website reflects the completed work done in class. With all of this going on, we were also very grateful to have Brendan Nickson come and speak to the senior members of the MergeMaster team. Being a presenter and a member of the R and D team for the product Alco-Lert, he provided the seniors with many tips as to how to avoid “senioritis” and to keep working hard till the June 1st date. For this information and for taking the team to see our team, we are beyond grateful
This week in E-Commerce, With only two work days this week, the team was a bit short on time. However, instead of using this as a set back, the team instead embraced the time crunch schedule and not only were productive, but completed necessary work that will help us succeed come expo time. The business plan this week split up and tackled different parts of the business plan and helped others. This work including completing the parts we can for the executive summary, creating pictures for each team leader for the website, and work with accounting and marketing teams. The accounting team worked on start up costs. In conjunction with Ella on the business team, they researched and combined many of the financial aspects to come up with the final sheet that shows what the true costs for the start up of MergeMaster will be. Research and development has began the search for a mentor(s) for MergeMaster. Currently, they are in the talks with Bobby Fitzmayer, a safety class teacher on motorcycles in Pennsylvania. In talking to him, we hope to set up a skype call so we can interview him and get information to put into our product. The hope is to get this done before our spring break comes up in only two weeks! Marketing has focused on finding information on a DOT sticker. Our research has found that this sticker is needed on all helmets and is necessary to get the helmet on Connecticut roads. With Connecticut being one of the first places we want to sell, it is critical that we get the information on this sticker and actually get the sticker ASAP. Both the website team and the social media team are doing what they do best; updating and uploading the day to day activities of MergeMaster. They have continued to upload ads and put up pictures from both days classes. Along with this, the team also finalized editing and uploading a vlog showcasing what occurs everyday in class
Weekly Blog 4/5/19
With spring break fast approaching, each team is crunching in work that they feel needs to be done before break eventually rolls around. However, before the week could begin, half of the MergeMaster staff took the time to attend an E-Commerce junior achievement presentation and project hosted at Chase High School. At this event, we got to listen to many of the great professors from Post University share information as to what they think makes a great business. Along with this, our team was split into 3 separate teams that got to create a “mini” business plan based on a made up product. Not only did we learn a lot from this, but it was a fun way to put out some of the things we have learned from the MergeMaster product. The team leaders also met after hours to discuss with Bobby Fitzmayer, the mentor the research and development team contacted. With Bobby, we called him and asked him questions revolving around the motorcycle helmet. We learned about the different helmet styles and the many safety regulations that are required on motorcycle helmets. This information has helped shape the further research we must do to help MergeMaster succeed, and we thank Bobby for being a partner with MergeMaster. The business plan team has put their focus on creating an organizational chart. While it looks simple at first, the talented members of our team being on multiple teams makes the chart quite a process to put together. However, the business plan team has been working through the detours required to create this chart and are hoping to complete it before break. Accounting has also put their focus on one key part; the break even analysis. In doing this, we can figure out what is required in order to do exactly what the analysis states (break even). At the end of the week though, the team began plans on creating the three year projections Marketing has began work on making the final marketing plan that will be submitted to the business plan team once completed. In kahoots with the website and social media teams, they have also worked on the ads that have been put up for MergeMaster. Research and development has began writing the pre labs for two experiments. In conducting these experiments, they both look to find out how successful the helmet is and necessary changes that may need to be done in order to improve the helmet. The team does not have a set date yet for conducting the experiment, but they hope to complete it to show its results in full view at expo. Social media has began creating the advertisement for MergeMaster. They hope to incorporate the strategies marketing has gave to them to create an eye catching and effective ad that will be seen at our booth. The website team has also helped in ways with ideas for the video and are continuing to put in work from accounting and marketing onto the website. With us being in crunch time, we are still working as hard as possible.
This week in E-Commerce, In the final week before break, each team has allowed themselves to be comfortable heading into break by getting a lot of work done. The first day of the week saw our time consumed by our newest mentor - Bob Paolella. Bobby is currently a general manager at Harley Davidson and has been with the company and working with the helmets they sell for over 20 years. With this great experience, he not only brought in the many types of helmets, but helped us to further understand DOT standards and provide us with much of the information that we can use during our presentation at expo. He also walked around to each of the different teams to offer his advice/expertise as to how they can improve what they were working on. For this expertise and in depth level of help, we thank you Bob. The business plan team has begun creating the final business plan document. Before this document, each of the documents that need to be on the business plan were organized in a folder and kept to be implemented later. With a majority of the work done, the team feels confident to put it in this final document and organize it in the correct fashion. The team in joint was this has worked on and completed the organizational chart. After many drafts being made, the team was relieved that this chart showed the team as accurately as possible. The Accounting team focused their attention on the three year projections for the company. They hope that in identifying these things, they can set forth the path for MergeMaster to be as successful as possible. The Marketing team worked on the research need to obtain a snells certification. They have also worked with the business plan team to help implement the marketing plan into the final business plan. The Research and Development team is working with the prototype in order to figure out the best way to go about the experiment. To sum it up, they believe that having one person wear the helmet and having people in the hallway walk by is the best way to simulate how the helmet will work. The team is planning on setting a date for the experiment once they return from break. The Website team uploaded accounting updates and photos from Bobby coming in to visit the class. These photos have been put on the mentor page and under the financial part of the website. The Social Media team updated Instagram posts/stories, updated the Snapchat story, updated Twitter posts, updated Facebook posts, and uploaded the advertisement for the MergeMaster team. With our social media team gaining more and more experience, we plan on blasting out our social media handles to gain more followers once we return from break.
4/26/19
This week in E-Commerce, The team was able to sit down for the first of many times with our new mentors: Paul Siciliano and Susie DiVierto. Susie is a Research Scientist at Connecticut Injury Prevention Center in the Connecticut Children's Medical Center at Hartford Hospital and Paul Siciliano is Co-chair at Heads First-CT. With Heads First large social media presence and both Paul and Susie’s years of experience in both riding and motorcycle safety, they are the finest of people to be mentors for the MergeMaster team. In their visit to our class, they helped to initiate discussions about any and all possible improvements and tweaks we can make to our product to make it more appealing to both the consumer and to make it safer. They have also offered themselves for any and all help they can provide between now and expo, and MergeMaster will definitely follow up with to get even more knowledge from. For this openness and willingness to be an active mentor in our business, MergeMaster sends a huge welcome. Along with meeting our new mentors, the team returned from our week off to continue the hard work that needs to be done before expo. The Business Plan team reflects this through their work on the final business plan. The team has been getting involved with all of the other teams work completed thus far and began the long process of revisions so they can be implemented into our final business plan. The accounting team has worked on and completed an initial balance sheet. This will only further enhance our ability to market ourselves to investors with an in depth analysis of the financials for our team. The marketing team has started the new week by creating a new round of advertisements that can be used by our social media team. In conjunction with the business plan team, they have submitted a few examples for the business plan team and they have been put into the business plan. The research and development team continued to work on the prelab for the experiment based on new tweaks to our prototype. With the mentorship of Paul and Susie, we hope to soon conduct the experiment with their presence to ensure that the helmet can be optimized for safety on the roads. The booth team is now in full swing and is working towards optimizing the booth. They have created a schedule for each of the team members to be at the booth and their responsibilities when they are there. The Website Development team worked on the investors page by updating the accounting information to reflect the accounting teams hard work. The website team is also preparing an area for which the experiment can be showcased once it is done. The Social Media team updated the posts, stories, videos, etc. on all of their platforms and implemented elements given to them by marketing and our photographer.
5/3/19
This week in E-Commerce, With Expo now only one month away, MergeMaster and its team are truly entering crunch time. With lots of work already done, the team is now beginning to piece everything together to try and meet their first deadline of May 20th. This “piecing together” mentality has truly began with the business plan team. With much of their writing and revisions complete, they are beginning to bring this towards the final business plan. All of their attention has been shifted towards it and they plan on showcasing the work done by MergeMaster in the plan. The marketing team is also entering this stage as well. They are currently focusing on revisions needed to be made to the “master” marketing plan. This is crucial for the business plan and thus the entire team has also shifted their focus on making sure this looks as great as possible. The research and development team has conducted their experiment! With almost no hiccups, the team was able to find out that our prototype is successful. This prototype is huge for the MergeMaster team because it helps to validate that we truly have an attainable and smart product. The team hopes to showcase at the start of next week when our mentors Paul and Susie return to visit the class. Along with the experiment, the team also took a look at possible app development at the end of the week. The booth team is continuing planning the best booth experience possible for MergeMaster at expo. They have finalized and discussed with each member of the MergeMaster team what their personal schedule will look like for the day. Along with this, they have continued looking at the best setup to utilize the space we have for our booth at expo. The website and social media teams have continued to reflect the hard work done by the team. They have been continuously updating our platforms to show off what has been happening at MergeMaster. The social media team has began to look into ways to gain more attention on all of our social media platforms as well. They hope that in conjunction with the marketing team this can be implemented in the next couple of weeks
5/10/19
This week in E-Commerce, As we have talked about all year as a team, roadblocks are just apart of the process in perfecting MergeMaster. Unfortunately, our team hit one of these roadblocks this week. When we went to showcase our prototype to our two mentors and “tall” Gary from Skills21, the prototype didn’t work. Despite our research and development’s team leader Levi’s best efforts, we had no success in getting it to function how it was supposed to. For many teams, this is considered a failure and almost embarrassing because we couldn’t showcase what we have worked on for so long through this process. However, at MergeMaster, we see these roadblocks as opportunities. This experience has given everyone on the team extra motivation. We at MergeMaster will now work tirelessly to ensure that we are never caught by surprises or mishaps like the one that took place on 5/6/19. This also means that each team will be doubling down on their efforts to produce their best work. This is still being reflected in the business plans work on the final business plan. They are taking the challenge of creating an accurate table of contents for the entire business plan and organizing each of the sections in a way that makes most sense to showcase our work. The research and development team made the necessary tweaks to the helmet that needed to be done in order for it to function properly. When they tested the helmet on Wednesday (5/8/19), the helmet not only functioned how it did before, but it wa even more accurate in detecting all sorts of objects in someone’s blind spot. As for the rest of our teams, they are continuing to finalize the work they began last week and making sure the updates are produced each and every day on social media. With only 3 weeks to expo, we are truly entering a challenging but exciting time. We hope that with everything we learned this week and with the many ways we were challenged to persevere through a problem that we can use it to put our best forward come expo
5/17/19
This week in E-Commerce, With our website due in just a few days, the MergeMaster team is dedicated to working as hard as possible to make sure everything is done and completed for this due date. This includes the business plan team. This week, the business plan team completely finished putting together the business plan and all of the necessary parts that need to be in it are in the plan. While more revisions still need to be done and will be completed over the weekend and on our work day Monday, the team is very proud that their hard work can be seen and shared with the world. The research and development team completed a lab report on the experiment they conducted last week. This lab report has been inserted into the business plan and showcases how effective our prototype is. Along with this, the team continued to look into app development to coincide with the helmet. The marketing team, similarly to the business plan team, finished their marketing master plan and submitted it into the business plan. This plan reflects all of the research and strategies we have researched and learned about that will make MergeMaster successful in its marketing presence. This plan is crucial for the entire team. The booth team continued its work creating a plan to enhance the space at the expo. They are looking at how the table should be set up and many different ways to try and attract people to our booth. The website team has been quite busy this week. With the website due May 20th, they have been hyper focused on making sure all areas of the website look crisp and complete. As a result, they have had a bombardment of work brought to them by ll teams to be put on the website. However, the team has rose to this task and the website is looking better and better each day. And, as per norm at MergeMaster. The social media team has been updating each and every day about our progress and with marketing materials. They have also began a contest to gain more followers on Instagram. They have stated that those that repost a photo and tag some of their friends would be entered into a raffle to win a free gift card. If you are interested in joining, go to the MergeMaster Instagram for details on how to join the contest.