Executive summary
Panpan Company is an offline or in-person gaming company that facilitates the formation and organization of teams by helping customers to form teams to play board games. Through such facilitations, the organizations provide the activity and the platform besides providing the venue for board games, board game hosts (DM), and different locations and places where they would like to unite and play their games. Other areas allow prospective players to choose where they feel they should play their games.
Panpan mainly plays games on the LARP while providing popular boards such as werewolf, dominoes, chutes and ladders, traffic jam, trouble, the ticket to ride, trouble, Carcassonne, Uno, and cranium among others (Bartlett, 2022). With a vast number of board games spread across several locations, Panpan Company is fast growing, and the demand for several services is fast witnessed across different centers. The need for eateries for fast food for players, accommodation rooms, and other factors that come up with busy places is rising. However, before venturing into such procedures, PanPan must check into essential elements of SMEs like value creation, marketing, sales, value delivery, and finances (Kaufman, 2022). Since board games are primarily favorites of the Chinese people, they are our target customers. Major Chinese-dominated cities in Canada, like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary, will be considered first for implementation and expansion. These cities are ideal for operations since they harbor Chinese students between 18 and 24 years old. The second target clients are young Chinese Workers from 24 to forty years old. Without targeting a specific customer group, there will be no viable sales. Due to the group’s diversity, Panpan must look for ways of marketing its products to its broader market. Online platforms like Facebook, WeChat, and GroupMe have become essential for service delivery.
The Need for Digital Adoption
Even with the stated platforms, Panpan has to manually organize customers and formulate and match teams that slow operations. To overcome the challenge, the organization is looking to build a robust app that will pool together all operations from management, communication, formulation, and selection of teams. The proposed App will enable customers to post requests, look for teammates, and play board games online. The App will include customer services besides displaying locations for offline board games. The App will leave leeway for further development and expansion to help the SME in its growth and expansion journey. To adopt the digital option, the following requirements are mandatory.
- UI Interface design.
- Front-end development includes HTML, CSS, and part of the Controller Code.
- The front-end users fake data to assist in page information display and jumping.
- The grey or grey-blue color of the mini program is eye-catching.
- A simple interface that does not accumulate too many functions.
There should be a complete UI interface design, page jump flow chart, UI cut and color number, and front-end development source code on the delivery end.
SME business and technology current state analyses
Essential business information
Irrespective of the sector in which a business may operate, enterprises are classified as small, medium, or large depending on the number of paid employees. Businesses with between one and ninety-nine paid employees are considered small, while those with a hundred to four hundred and ninety-nine paid employees are considered medium. Companies with over five hundred paid employees are significant (Canada, 2022). From the definition, it is evident that serious growth is still taking place in businesses. Such developments present companies with unknown challenges that must be dealt with amicably for success.
To witness such growth, businesses must do adequate marketing to reach as many people as possible. The call for marketing calls into action the mode for operations. SMEs predominantly focus on offline operations and use online and offline techniques to market their goods and services and operate. First, the SME will connect high-quality LARP game creators and studios to lay the foundation for game playability; the revenue will be shared with the author to stimulate the author’s enthusiasm for creation further. After that, the SME establishes high-quality player groups in major cities in Canada and creates a high-end board game social ecology. The core team cooperates with a local, regional agency to actively organize various offline activities.
At the same time, the SME actively opens offline channels, cooperates with cafes, milk tea shops, and other stores, and organizes or introduces users to use the store’s unique authentication code to play games on the App for sales; the store will earn commissions. The SME also cooperate with various Chinese organizations in North America (student associations, interest associations, social platforms) and collaborates with them to organize offline social activities. Cooperate with North American brokerage groups, business promotion agencies, and Chinese companies, organize or guide customers’ offline promotion and company team-building activities.
The SME’s current business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
Generally, SMEs from different sectors measure their standard SWOT dimensions based on environmental perceptions. Canadian managers more often consider reacting to external opportunities. In most scenarios, the managers study the prevailing conditions within the business’s premises and locality and identify weak links that, if exploited carefully, result in several lucrative results. While on a mission to identify these opportunities, Panpan faced several challenges due to their target markets, although some beneficial conditions came with such studies. The points can be grouped into either advantages or disadvantages.
To begin with, advantages are like entering the market early. Team members who are more experienced and have worked in the Werewolf App team. Team members are also mature relatively mature and have experience in Werewolf board app games. Lastly, the user system is complete and the stages develop rapidly. At this stage, more effort is put into creating the App to make it wholesomely complete. Despite such efforts, several disadvantages, like the language barrier where the primary language is Chinese, so the targeted customer volume is low. The script creator (of the board game LARP) is mainly Chinese; thus, the story/script is culture restricted and might not be competitively attractive. The market visibility is low. Several Canadians may be left out due to language restrictions.
Conclusion
In general, this business is not as well-known and occupied as competitors in the domestic market. Still, because the industry is widespread, the demand is high, and there are many market opportunities. Competitors also have many deficiencies in game mode fluency and experience and are still in the entry stage in the North American market. As long as we focus on market promotion, building brand awareness, and exerting our advantages in the later stage, it should be easy to manage with the competition. However, extra efforts are needed to counter the challenges that might arise due to the progressive growth of the business or stiff competition in the already-filled market.
Recommendations
SME’s external issues
In examining the opportunities, external factors identify strategic weaknesses and shortcomings of the business. These challenges are compounded in every company by difficulties accessing finances and other factors like corruption, competition, and unfavorable government policies. Difficult access to loans results from a poor network of entrepreneurs and skeptical actions financiers who majorly view the business to be in its financial growth, where it can suffer several severe financial setbacks due to simple business mistakes. To overcome the barrier, Panpan must formulate serious strategies that can be accessed both online and offline in a bid to build its financial strength. The future key goal should be to remain the most prominent but easily accessible business globally. The strategies will only work with more effortless cash flow eliminating any barrier to the cash floor within the system. With exemplary services, the customers will be easily retained, while finding new ones automatically becomes an issue. The diversity will help spread the risks of relying on one customer and helps generate good revenue through an organized app with exemplary services.
Key IS/IT information
The proposed App with powerful end features will enhance access to business information for various people and allow them formulates their teams at a click of a button. With advancements in technology, there are limited chances that any third party can easily access information without the prior knowledge of admins. However, security features and constant updates to counter any cyber-attack that may intend to manipulate anything on the App should be on standby. With the overall progressive development, the App will function conveniently, sealing any confidential information from unwarranted third parties. By protecting the customers’ privacy and allowing them easy access, customers’ trust is boosted, and their confidence that is healthy for business growth is won.
Digital adoption analysis and recommendations
With the digitalization of its operations, Panpan enhances its forecasting abilities, streamlines its processes, strengthens its network with suppliers and consumers, and reduces its transactional costs. Developing the App significantly saves the company from spending on different personnel to keep the business running. In return, the industry uses less input while increasing production and revenue generation. At this end, the company shall have achieved the central goal of any business to generate profit. Decreasing production costs while enhancing productivity is the ultimate goal for any business enterprise.
Implementation roadmap
Developing an app can be a pleasant experience depending on the approaches one takes. To begin with, a developer has complete control and freedom over what to create, unlike other entrepreneurs who expand the already-developed App. The ability to choose from various apps will depend on the target customers, comprehension of what content should be delivered, details of the user requirements and a UX strategy, paying additional UI, designing appealing graphics, and working on the efficiency of the App. However, it should be noted and accepted that each specific App has specific requirements depending on its use.
Optional Elements
Since every SME has different needs, the digital adoption plan can be tailored to their specific needs. Possible additional elements could include, but are not limited to:
Skill requirements
Digitalization of business operations requires knowledge Java, react and HTML which are three basic principles. Without these three basic principles of digitalization, the kick of journey of promoting the business through the business through digitalization will not have been fulfilled. Therefore, in the spirit of success, such skilled laborers must be engaged to ensure everything works smoothly.
Key digital solution characteristics
To succeed, each App requires high-level business requirements specific to business goals, objectives, and needs; user requirements revolve around why the user requires the product; and system requirements, which are functional and non-functional requirements. With these functions in mind, the business will thrive in its kick-off journey. In implementing these high-level requirements, highly skilled laborers who identify with the challenges must be engaged for success.
References
Bartlett, J. H. (2022). Have a Family Night In with the 50 Best Board Games of All Time.
Canada, G. o. (2022). Key Small Business Statistics.
Kaufman, J. (2022). What are the 5 Parts of Every Business?