The Chit is Ours!

Congrats to our group for winning the coveted chit! Dr. Shamp emphasized how far beyond previous years' projects this year's class went, so to be at the top is amazing and exciting. We worked hard on all areas of the project, and we were successful!

Fellow Bloggers Shun Paper Waste

I just found this post from a blogger with the same idea as ours. We took what he said past just a suggestion though, and have made it into a potential product!

Dress for Success

Because it is so important to our group that the presentation of our venture be as professional as possible, we have decided to dress the part! We have decided to wear business appropriate clothing (no jeans allowed) in the color scheme of black, white, or green. Black pants (or skirt), a white button-up top, and a green necklace etc. would be a good example of one suitable outfit. A green shirt would also be fine as well as wearing all black. We feel that it is important that we approach our entire project in a cohesive way. If we want to win that chit, we need to dress the part!!

Judgement Day Nears...

The group held a comprehensive meeting in class today in an effort to push the project toward its completion. The presentation deadline looms near (November 12), and everyone was busy gearing up for the Big Day. The writing group met yesterday to draft copy for the website, which is currently up and running. Though the website is not yet complete and needs some polishing, word on the street is that it already looks great, especially compared to some of the other group's sites. The powerpoint and handout groups are fervently working to get their work finalized before the weekend, when the group will convene to practice the presentation. That meeting is scheduled to be held at 2 p.m. in room 205 of the SLC. The group will be working dutifully over the weekend so that, come November 12, we will be all smiles. Good luck to all.

Research

To get a better sense of our group's product and its benefits, the research team was hard at work providing us with great information:

-allEtronic.com - This company was founded upon the same enviromental and consumer friendly principles as our project product: paperless reciepts. The mission is to not only provide consumers and retailers a cost-effective and convenient way to document economic transactions, but, most importantly, to benefit the enviroment by preventing the unneccessary processing of trees to make receipts and other business/market documents that could be better handled through the basic technology that is at our disposal. Our project's goal is golden; in these dire economic times for a world currently destroying its enviroment, saving money and the Earth are smart aspirations for any company product. But our group must make sure that we build upon this innovative idea expressed by allEtronic and present our product with more strength in comparison.

-The Neat Company - Neat's products are evidence of the shift of our documents from paper to digital. They advertise scanners that organize your documents into digital form and helps you easily manage and organize them.

-ShoeBoxed - Another example of a company capitalizing on the desire to organize and manage our financial documents digitally.

-Amy provided us with some concrete evidence of paper waste and its significant costs on companies, especially small businesses. She asked two Brunswick, GA businesses what they spent on paper for receipts, and they told her that it was high enough that they would think about using a company such as RethinkReceipts.

Wise Words from Dr. Shamp

Kelly, Lizzie and Lauren talked to Dr. Shamp about our project idea after class on Monday. He seemed very receptive to our project and had some helpful input.

• He liked our idea of helping the world become a better place through environmental (paper) conservation, but encouraged us to think in broader terms as far as paper conservation. Just saving receipt paper may not be quite compelling enough to grab the attention of an investor. We should go beyond receipts elimination, like linking to the user manual of the electronic product you just bought when the receipt is emailed to you. Essentially, we need to rethink the idea of the receipt as a whole. A receipt can be so much more than a proof of purchase. 
• It sounds like our PR/Marketing efforts are a step ahead of the game. Building a brand, including the logo, to market to an audience could be a great advantage of our group. We must make sure we are marketing the right advantages to the right audience though. Telling an electronics store that they should buy our product because it will help their customers stay organized doesn't really give them a reason to shell out the money. Since we are marketing this to companies themselves, we need to think of a number of specific advantages for them.
  
• Going along with target audiences, we should market the program to companies as a data collection service. The more purchasing info companies have about their consumers' trends, the better. To consumers (as a secondary audience), market the program as environmentally friendly, helps with organization, ability to keep track of purchases (electronics model numbers, online owners manuals, ease of returns, etc.)
• When asking how in depth we need to get with creating a program, Dr. Shamp said he does not expect us to get too technical. He did say it would be great to go ahead and create a mock up of the program. We don't have to know all the logistics, but ideally what we would like our Rethink Receipts program to do. Essentially something we could show a software engineer who could make it happen from there. A simple screen capture may work.
• "Keep your eyes on the prize." That was the comment when asked how detailed we need to know about pricing and cost. He wants us to focus on the big picture of this project, what we are supposed to learn/get out of the assignment. That said, we should have a general idea of cost (i.e. approximate cost of making any iPhone app), but don't have to have a huge budget breakdown. It would be helpful is someone in our group steps up to create the price breakdown.
• Brett, as keeper of the blogs, email us about blog content. According to him, the blog should be an update of what our group is doing, in case the project blows up at the end. If that happens (which I am confident it won't, because we are too awesome to let that happen), Brett and Dr. Shamp will turn to the blog to see that the group put in some real effort. So our blog sounds good as is.

So it looks like Group 1 is on the right track. We have a bit more direction, a small change of perspective and a lot of  great ideas. Stay tuned for more progress.

And, Group 1 members, your task is to think of ways we can expand receipts to be "more than a receipt" (i.e. link to owner's manuals). Keep up the great work!

Keepin' the Ball Rollin'

Mondays class on 10/21  was dedicated to the group project. Here is the progress we are making:

--Our presentation is Nov. 12 therefore Sunday, Nov. 9 the group will meet to iron out final details and make certain everything is complete, and well, the BEST it can possibly be

--There is now an official outline for the presenation! WAHOO!!! But shhh, this is secret. We can't be giving away our strategy now can we??

--An addition to our overall project is utilizing our group members individually and bring in our PR/Marketing majors to implement new strategies for the sales pitch

--Our work on the web site is currently the focus for the group right now

Things are rollin' to say the least-- we are making great progress!!