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Receipt Tracking Assistant 10.0 Special Information/Supplementary Documentation 10.1 Risk Assessment The following is a detailed risk assessment for the Receipt Tracking Assistant (RTA). The risks for this project are divided up into four categories including customer risks, technical risks, and financial risks. Within each category, the risks are ordered by level of impact and probability starting with the highest of each. RISK ASSESSMENT GRAPH L I K E L I H O O D 7 2 1 5 3, 4 6 9 8 CONSEQUENCE Figure 10.1.1 This graph emphasizes the varying levels of severity of our risks. Green signifies low risks, yellow medium risks, and red high risks. The y-axis represents the likelihood of risks occurring and the x-axis represents the severity of the consequence should that risk occur. 35 Receipt Tracking Assistant RISK ASSESSMENT TABLE Rank Likelihood / Consequence Risk Title Risk Exp Mitigation Risk Type 1 5/4 High End User Cost 20 Minimize cost of product, excellent marketing for mass production FINA 2 5/3 Limited Financial Resources 15 Good funding proposal, find partner company FINA 3 3/5 Employee Acceptance 15 User-friendly interface, saves time on creation of expense reports CUST 4 3/5 OCR Errors 15 Manual input and confirmation screen TECH 5 4/3 Limited Primary Market 12 Good marketing strategy, possible future release for private use CUST 6 2/5 Illegible Receipts 10 Manual input capabilities TECH 7 5/1 Software Bugs and Database Errors 5 Extensive testing of software functions, database, and communication TECH 8 1/2 Security Issues 2 Optional alpha-numeric passwords TECH 1/1 Customer Must Have Computer 1 Most companies have computers, provide list of recommended hardware CUST 9 Figure 10.1.2 This table shows a summary of our risks with a short description of the mitigation method we will use to address each risk. 36 Receipt Tracking Assistant Customer Risks Employee Acceptance Potential customers may be unwilling to use a new product that would change the way they do things. Some people may also be hesitant to have all their financial transactions tracked by a single device. Impact: Very High Probability: Medium Mitigation: The amount of time spent on organization of receipts and creating expense reports will be reduced by use of our product, which will make people more willing to try our product. And as an option users are able to place passwords (alpha-numeric or fingerprint) on the receipts scanned and documents made by our software in order to reduce the chance of unwanted viewing and tampering. Limited Primary Market Our targeted customers are businesses and employees of businesses which require travel. Should some of these companies be unwilling to purchase our product then we will lose money. Impact: Medium Probability: High Mitigation: Many companies require at least some traveling for their employees. Also, our software may be helpful for private users to help them keep track of their spending habits. Customer Must Have Computer A potential customer may not have anything which can use the software we have created and therefore will not get the product. Impact: Very Low Probability: Very Low Mitigation: Almost every potential customer (businesses and traveling employers) will have computers so there is nearly no possibility of this occurring. Also, should someone without a computer wish to use our software, we will provide a list of recommended hardware to be used with our solution. Technical Risks Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Errors Sometimes OCR software can misinterpret images and process them incorrectly. And any errors dealing with incorrectly processed data can be damaging to the customer. 37 Receipt Tracking Assistant Impact: Very High Probability: Medium Mitigation: While OCR errors can causes severe problems in parsing data from receipts there is a low chance of this happening. Current OCR technology is very accurate, especially in the case of most simple text documents, which receipts can be considered to be. In the case of an OCR error, we have included the ability to manually input/edit information so any discrepancies can be addressed by the user. Illegible receipts There are several cases in which receipts will not be legible enough to able to be parsed for data, such as damaged receipts, faded receipts, and handwritten receipts. Impact: Low Probability: Very High Mitigation: To alleviate problems related to this issue, we have included the ability for users to manually input data, thus helping to ensure the accuracy of the data on a receipt. Security Issues All receipts being stored on a single device may lead to tampering and abuse should the device be accessed by unwanted individuals. Impact: Low Probability: Very Low Mitigation: There will be optional alpha-numeric password settings which will restrict viewing of the digitized documents only to people that know the password. Software Bugs and Database Errors Whenever there is any programming done there will always be a chance for human errors in the logic and coding of a program, which can cause several errors in the future. Impact: Very Low Probability: Very High Mitigation: We will be doing extensive testing on our software before initial release to help ensure a minimum of bugs and errors. Also, should any occur that we were unaware of there will be future patches released to deal with the problems. 38 Receipt Tracking Assistant Financial Risks Limited Financial Resources The cost of creating a portable scanner along with creating software that works on multiple platforms will be very high, and may require more funding than allotted by our chosen funding agency. Impact: Medium Probability: Very High Mitigation: To reduce development costs, we will consult with experts on the best methods of development for our software and hardware. We will also contract out the portable scanner design and the OCR software to other companies which are already experienced in their respective fields. High End User Cost Potential customers may be unwilling to pay high prices just to track receipts, or they may be unable to afford the product. Impact: High Probability: Very High Mitigation: Since we anticipated this issue, our company has decided on several purchasing packages for our solution. These packages will include a full package with PDA, scanner, and software, partial hardware packages with either a PDA or scanner with the software, and a software only package. We believe that the availability of several purchasing options at lower prices will reduce the risks of customers being put off by the price of our solution. 39 Receipt Tracking Assistant 10.2 Scheduling Plan Phase Zero Figure 10.2.1 This figure shows the work breakdown structure for phase zero. Phase zero is the research and development phase. For our purposes Computer Science 410, Computer Productivity Initiative, is phase zero. Here we learn about what exactly needs to be researched, designed, and written up. For our project, Receipt Tracking Assistant, we have had some main milestones to go by to help us along in our research and development. I. II. III. Feasibility Presentation A. Defining competition B. Defining market C. Can/Should it be done Milestones Presentation A. Work Breakdown Structure B. Preliminary Budget C. Resources D. Evaluation E. Risks F. Refining Market G. Define Funding Agency SBIR Proposal Presentation A. SBIR Documents B. Project Website completed C. Gantt Charts 40 Receipt Tracking Assistant The first one is proving the feasibility of the project. Researching whether something like the RTA has been done or not. In order to make specifications we had to find out what competition is out there and what exactly what is it they are solving. Finding out how do we match up to the competition by comparing their features with the features we would like to provide and trying to find what kind of edge can we gain over them. Defining who is our market is critical. By doing interviews we hope that our market is right. If we are trying to target the wrong market then our efforts may have been a waste of time. After defining the previous we have found that this project can be done and we believe that we should press on because there is a need and it should be done. Then this information is presented in a feasibility presentation. Second is the milestone presentation where we plan for the future of our product, the RTA. Here is where our team develops the Work Breakdown Structure(WBS), which is a breakdown of all of the individual tasks we believe will be needed to develop and produce this project in the rest of the phases. Once the WBS is completed, we are able to come up with a preliminary staffing plan for all phases which includes our team and any outside help we must bring in. An initial budget plan can be put together based on the staff and their pay and hours. A resource list can be predicted along with an educated timeline for the project phases and tasks. An evaluation plan of how we will know success and marketing plan of how we are going to go about getting to this success. An extensive evaluation of risks and how we plan to mitigate them is also provided. A demo on “Taking you through the front door” we provide by the showing of what the current method looks like and of how the process would look when using our method We also have a base plan of who we will be submitting our SBIR to for funding. The milestone presentation will sum up all of this material. The final presentation is our proposal for SBIR funding to the review board. Here is where we have attempted to refine everything as much as possible and try to solve all of the problems found in previous presentations. Fine tuning everything to the point that hopefully it is SBIR worthy material. A final budget plan, evaluation plan, marketing plan, resource list, risk mitigation plan, development plan, and a final display of what the process will look like with our RTA involved. The final step is the SBIR proposal presented to a review panel of professionals from the corporate world. Our hope is that we have developed this enough to gain the approval of SBIR funding to continue on to the next step. 41 Receipt Tracking Assistant Phase One Figure 10.2.2 This figure shows the work breakdown structure for phase one. Phase one is the development of the prototype and for our experience is Computer Science 411, Computer Productivity Initiative II. This is where we actually use the funding from the SBIR agency gained in phase zero. Here our team is prepared to move on to the development of the prototype. This course requires a large amount of writing and documentation. Some of these documents will include for the individual: 1. 2. 3. 4. Writing Paper Descriptive Writing Paper Technical Support Contracts Writing Budget White Paper. Some of these documents for the team include: 1. 2. 3. 4. A Product User’s Manual Project Web Page Product Prototype Production Development Specifications of the SBIR II proposal for funding The basic goal is to provide lots of documentation of our development and provide the required documents. Also to prove that the development of our product is feasible to build by our team developing the prototype. At the end of the course our group will piece together all of our documentation and findings in the development of the prototype and put it together in a document and presentation for SBIR funding in phase 2. 42 Receipt Tracking Assistant Phase Two Figure 10.2.3 This figure shows the work breakdown structure for phase two. In Phase Two, the RTA undergoes the critical design process. The very first step in the critical design process is to update the documentation created in Phase One. The system design of the entire RTA product is developed with requirements first and then moving on to coding the functionality of the RTA product. The functionality of the RTA product includes the following: I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. GUI Implementation Scanner Recognition Implementation Database Profile Handling Implementation OCR Usage Implementation Expense Report Creation Expense Report Validation Database Operations Image Validation Customizable Report Algorithm The functionality of the RTA product will all be coding in this critical design phase of the RTA product design process. Functionality of the RTA product will be tested thoroughly after it has been implemented. A full system verification process is involved where the team tests the product as a whole. The starting of the marketing plan is also in the critical design process. The team will setup contracts with ODU and other departments to beta test the RTA. The beta test will last six months to ensure proper testing procedures and to fully gain all necessary information. Once the beta test is done, the results will provide valuable information and the RTA team will address those concern or problems. Debugging the software will last for three months where all the bugs and problems are addressed. The marketing plan also includes advertising at tradeshows and conventions as well as solicits large companies and other universities. The final steps of the critical design process are to investigate potential investors and begin finding customers for our production sales. 43 Receipt Tracking Assistant Phase Three Figure 10.2.4 This figure shows the work breakdown structure for phase three. In Phase Three, the RTA project will begin production and provide the services for our customers. Any additional materials and resources that are required will be purchase to accommodate for the increasing employees. The team establishes Customer Support and Tech Support in this project’s life cycle. Customer Support is there to take orders and provide any basic information. Tech Support is there to provide any technical issues with our RTA product. When establishing these two services, the RTA team develops a list of positions that are needed and interview the qualified applicants. Hiring new employees will also require us to train the new employees as well. In this particular phase of the project’s life cycle, legal representation will also be established. A lawyer will assist the team to obtain patents and copyright protections for the RTA product. The majority of the phase’s efforts will be the mass production of the software and setting up individual contracts for other companies. An organizational production plan is drawn up to provide the tasks need to be done during the production phase of the project. We will hire and train more employees to assist us in making more quantities of the RTA product. The individual contracts with large companies provide a better market for our project ensuring a steady flow of production sales. 44 Receipt Tracking Assistant 10.3 Budget Plan Phase One Figure 10.3.1 This table shows the phase 1 costs for personnel, hard resources, and miscellaneous expenses. 45 Receipt Tracking Assistant Expense Total: $97,000 Employee Overhead $15,000 Salaries $37,000 15% 38% 47% Resources $45,000 Figure 10.3.2 The phase 1 budget pie chart, showing a simple breakdown. 46 Receipt Tracking Assistant Phase Two Figure 10.3.4 This table shows the phase 2 costs for personnel, hard resources, and miscellaneous expenses. 47 Receipt Tracking Assistant Expense Total: $670,000 Employee Overhead $146,000 22% Evaluation $100,000 54% 15% Salaries $363,000 9% Resources $61,000 Figure 10.3.5 The phase 2 budget pie chart, showing a simple breakdown. 48 Receipt Tracking Assistant Phase Three Figure 10.3.6 This table shows the phase 3 costs for personnel, hard resources, and miscellaneous expenses. 49 Receipt Tracking Assistant Expense Total: $678,000 Marketing $250,000 Salaries $252,000 37% 37% 15% 11% Resources $75,000 Employee Overhead $101,000 Figure 10.3.7 The phase 3 budget pie chart, showing a simple breakdown. Phase 1 $97,000 7% Phase 3 $678,000 47% Expense Total $1,445,000 46% Phase 2 $670,000 Figure 10.3.8 This is the all phase pie chart breakdown. 50 Receipt Tracking Assistant Interviews Kim Davis Computer Science Fiscal Technician 1.) Can you give me an estimate of how many people this company employs? 23-26 2.) Could you give me a percentage of how many employees travel for (this company)? There are a third of the employees that travel regularly 3.) Average length of the trips? 2-5 days, average 10 receipts per trip 4.) Average number of trips per month? During the summer, 1-2 times every 2-3 months. During the school year, 3 times per year 5.) Can you describe the reimbursement process and the approximate time it takes for each? The process starts with all the receipts being handed to Kim. Then she puts them in order by category. Sometimes they come ordered, but usually they do not. Then the receipts must be checked for its validity and then must be taped to paper for faxing purposes. After filling out the expense report by hand, a signature must be acquired. Lastly, the expense report must be filed and put away. 6.) How long does processing a reimbursement request take? 20 minutes (without interruptions); up to 2 hours; average is an hour to an hour and a half 7.) What requirements must be met for an expense to be reimbursed? CI Travel looks up quotes first. If it happens to be local then your spending must be within the allotted amount. For example, $8 for breakfast and $20 for lunch per person. The State needs approval before you go (travel request). 4.) What kind of receipts are the hardest to validate? Tolls on highways, payphone calls, taxi rides 5.) How are the receipts organized in the expense report? By category 6.) How are different currencies handled in the reimbursement process? She looks up the exchange rates and puts the date and amount on from the receipt. 7.) Are exchange rates taken from the time of transaction or the time the request is processed? Yes, it has to be looked up by the date on the receipt. 51 Receipt Tracking Assistant 8.) Does your company accept digital reproductions of receipts? Yes 9.) Is there anything you would like to see that could help you in this whole process? The exchange rates aren’t always great. There needs to be copies made and mailed or faxed out. 10.) Would your company be interested in a product such as ours? Yes, I would definitely be interested in this product as it would save me time. 11.) Would you mind if we contacted you again with any further questions? Yes 12.) Would you mind if we cited you as an expert and/or resource? No 52