TranSoul A Business Idea: - Vindhyavesh Tripathi

Business Concept Producing a esoteric product or process is mere innovation but to refine an existing system holds potential for greater returns without heavy inputs. This is what "TRANSOUL" is all about.TRANSOUL proposes an entirely new system of management in the delivery of goods and consignment from one place to another, which caters directly to the small and medium scale industries engaged in manufacturing and production business. All our client would need to do is to call us up, answer a few queries via a tailor cut IVRS, and from then on TRANSOUL takes full charge beginning with finalizing a service policy, picking and securing up goods from the source-point; and after that keeping the client updated until final delivery of the goods. TRANSOUL will provide updates on your consignments position and movement status periodically, for impromptu updates all one has to do is reach us via our SMS server or web portal. We propose a robust and efficiently managed logistics service that caters to manufacturing or similar industries of the middle and small scale spectrum, providing logistics for heavy material and industrial goods. We provide guaranteed service delivery of four sigma levels or more, with an equally apt and fully operational customer support system, delivering update cycles of as low as 30 minutes. With this precise management, we could promise minimal downtime, an assured deadline of delivery, and a money-back equivalent of logistics service delivery policy. We plan to provide such high standards of service without burning holes in pockets, by teaming up with Indian Railways on an unprecedented profit sharing basis. Key benefits that your product/service provides, to address the customer's problem/challenge. Robust service with high degree of trust in present day cargo and courier sector could be a lifesaver for growing economies, given the kind of losses suffered by present day manufacturing industries (U.S.D. 50 billion p.a. est.) due to transportation delays, and misdirection. We aim to provide almost real-time information of movement of goods, going by the present Indian logistic standards. Using a clockwork management, we intend to provide the following solutions: Feedback on consignments' position and movement with update cycles of 30 minutes(android, ios, windows apps already under development to achieve this)

Guaranteed delivery of services on time, accompanied by a money-back policy for time critical delivery of service. In stead of spanning the whole network ourselves(and thereby spending on infrastructure), we intend to employ local players who are unbeatable in their own territory, thus ensuring best levels of service delivery, in otherwise tough terrains, by a franchise model of our plan. Provision of a fully operational fail-safe customer support system, with promising customer experience and an on-demand, on-site service. Complete removal of redundant paperwork and time delays: we save effort and resources wasted on redundant documentation formalities by employing a centralized online client authentication system interfaced with the end-user via PCs or cell-phones, also saving on paper used for L.R. receipt. Using the prompt railway freight, we also save on precious time otherwise wasted on formality. Product or service different from existing solutions "Differentiation can make a big difference" Have anyone ever seen a purple cow! I bet haven't. But what if see one ... it will surely grab attention -- very quickly. It's so different ... it stands out from the hundreds of black, brown and white cows. Differentiation means exactly that -- avoiding the trap of convention and creating a unique competitive advantage that helps TRANSOUL stand out from its competitors and in the minds of its customers. The managerial anecdote of being a purple cow truly describes the spirit of TRANSOUL. Our exclusivity is embodied by more than just a single feature, TRANSOUL provides a close to real-time feedback on good's movement, unlike 5 to 8 hours of movement updates by current providers. Our service guarantees the positive delivery of consignments, on the promised date-time, with a money back equivalent of logistical service-delivery policy. TRANSOUL also dedicates itself in making the customer feel welcomed, and provides a user friendly customer care system; one of major parts of the puzzle neglected by courier and cargo services of present day. Employing local freight experts allows TRANSOUL to deliver end-to-end service delivery, providing the complete package, from end-user-pickup to end-user-delivery of goods; this on-site delivery feature gives us an edge over our existing competitors that lack the vision of earning goodwill through total customer satisfaction. We will provide our services to the small and medium scale off-site manufacturing industries situated away from a prime location. Having a factory setup at a remote location is a double bladed sword; the greatest

advantage being cheap land and labor, while the greatest disadvantage being non-availability of raw material as per demand which proves to be the Achilless heel to such industries and many fail to deliver on time. Various media that TRANSOUL employs to deliver updates include SMS based inquiry, web search, email alerts and app updates. TRANSOUL is about to move to a IVRS based query interface to gauge the requirements of the consignee and hence automatically determine the optimum carrying facilities to be used for receiving and transporting their parcel. Since our storage and redirection centers are strategically placed to keep all stations covered, we can have a choice of mode of transport needed to receive the consignment. We are also in a process of incorporating "cycle rickshaw" to our advantage ("cycle rickshaw" have been used in many big cities to cut through heavy traffic and have proven to be very efficient at city levels).

Market Analysis The market in which company will operate TRANSOUL operates in the logistics market, catering specially the workhorse industries as our end-users. We provide services that involve freight of heavy materials, especially industrial goods for time critical operations. The segment of the market TRANSOUL's current operations address the freight requirements of manufacturing industry, transporting raw materials as well as finished components between its clients. We target to serve the heavy material processing industries and workshops that are the driving force behind rising economy. Provide a guaranteed on-time highly efficient service so that our clients can choose industries providing low cost goods to them. Our clients did not consider these industries earlier due to lack of efficient logistics service i.e., SS304 costs Rs 240 per kg in Nagpur and Rs 175 per kg in Mumbai. Our future plan is to expand our network in domestic level also plan to introduce new special service for supply of perishable and non duration agricultural and edible goods. Growth rate and recent trends of market that may represent disruptive changes or opportunities for new players India emerging as the second fastest growing economies of the present times, is the result of many paradigmatic advances, and has caused many process shifts. One such innovation is the adoption of JIT( just in time) methodology of production and manufacturing. One of the reasons cited for the lack of popularity of this production paradigm in India, is the frail cargo and courier services of Indian market. Such new advancements call for refining of time critical aspects of logistics; and TRANSOUL aims to grab a stronghold by being there first. Potential and current, direct and indirect competitors in market Todays market is cramped with hoards of courier and cargo entities even on a pan-India level. Despite their frail sloth services, courier and cargo firms crowd the market, giving end-users lots of choice but little quality. Such firms get away with poor quality service, only because of the unhealthy competition levels in Indian logistics. On the lower end of spectrum are numerous local freight providers, who survive because of their unmatched on time service delivery, especially because of the fact that they know their territory like the back of their hands. The positive reforms brought along by TRANSOUL's service delivery policy, will introduce healthy competition in the national logistics sector; forcing other courier and cargo firms to wake up to world

standards and start serving better. We expect competitive friction from logistics firms that might re-device their operations to meet new paradigmatic needs of the booming economy; but the key is to be there first. Since we plan to use the more efficient services of local freight operators, we expect to feel welcomed; given the fact that we provide them with an opportunity to grow in to the national market, and modernize their operations. The entry and exit barriers Since the primary operations include freighting between industrial hubs, the barriers to enter this market involve cultivating resources to setup operation bases at end points and to scoop in profit sharing based transport support with state railway. The former involves making the local freight provider to link up with our central network, providing them with the required operational infrastructure. All these require development of a large franchise network which is no way a small investment. a large gestation period is required in establishing such an efficient system within already existing frameworks. An initial strong framework will decide the ultimate future of such a system.

Customer Analysis Potential customers/consumers Our service aims to cater the needs of present day India's workhorse industries, which need logistics services for freight operations involving heavy materials and industrial goods. Our customers include a special segment of manufacturing industries, operating in industrial clusters all over the country, who often face the problem of affordable raw material not being readily available.

Target customers located TRANSOUL was conceived as a logistics provider that especially serves workshops and industries offstationed from prime locations. Our first clients will be located around the outskirts of present day India's small scale industry and financial hubs. For the first stage our route of preference is the Mumbai-Nagpur freight link as our first customer are industries in Nagpur and Mumbai. Reach your customers Our sales strategy will be base on idea of gaining customers' attention by placing a remarkable product service in the market--a product that nobody can get elsewhere. TRANSOUL intends to build a market share for itself by employing already operational railway network and expedient local players, without compromising on excellence of services by maintaining vision alignment and implementation of TRANSOUL guideline with local entities Since such proficient service deliverymen have a well populated customer portfolio, we expect a healthy reach to the end-user. We not only aim at providing service but also earning the goodwill of the customer. As our objective is to achieve customer satisfaction, we will attract more clients.

Business System Description TRANSOUL's chief source of cash inflow is the remuneration from the end-user; adding to it are minor inflows from advertisements on flagship containers and on the online forum. Once operational, we will be serving on routes that allow our clientele to obtain raw materials at a price lower than that of local market, such that, they still get to pay less for the material even after remunerating us for our service. Thus, we stand profitable providing a win-win situation for all.

TRANSOUL's chief source of cash inflow is the remuneration from the end-user; adding to it are minor inflows from advertisements on flagship containers and on the online forum. Once operational, we will be serving on routes that allow our clientele to obtain raw materials at a price lower than that of local market, such that, they still get to pay less for the material even after remunerating us for our service. Thus, we stand profitable providing a win-win situation for all. Business generate profit TRANSOUL's chief source of cash inflow is the remuneration from the end-user; adding to it are minor inflows from advertisements on flagship containers and on the online forum. Once operational, we will be serving on routes that allow our clientele to obtain raw materials at a price lower than that of local market, such that, they still get to pay less for the material even after remunerating us for our service. Thus, we stand profitable providing a win-win situation for all. According to McKinsey & Co. India loses over US $50 billion annually all due to inefficiency in logistics; efficient smart logistical infrastructure can help salvage up to 4.6% of national GDP on an annual basis. This accompanied by the adoption of JIT paradigm of manufacturing technology can save up-to 13% of the total manufacturing costs by saving up on stock-keeping. We also have an "employment for the needy" policy, supported by our smart logistics system, which allows us to use less-skilled workforce, not compromising on the quality of service offered. Another employment policy we intend to implement is - women employment & empowerment - because our customer care personnel will consist of minimum 75% female employees. Since TRANSOUL uses an online authentication system, we are also compliant with the 'save-the-planet' ideology, since we save on resources by eradicating the L.R. model of authentication. The present R&D by TRANSOUL is devoted to creating logical extensions to its smart routing system, concerns development of this system to accommodate for perishable and agricultural goods; that too, at a very genuine and affordable price. This is going to be a major aid to farmers and local agriculturists to explore wider markets. Projections for revenue, cost and return on investment (RoI projections). TRANSOUL will be committed to our People-Service-Profit Philosophy. We will produce outstanding financial returns by providing totally reliable, competitively superior, global, time bound,ground transportation of high-priority industrial and agricultural goods and documents that require rapid, time-critical delivery. So far, our major costs include the up-keeping of offices, user-support infrastructure and payments we make for the actual transportation. Our sources of revenue are the actual end-users.

For our first phase projected turnover is in between 60L - 1 crore in first year of processing, increasing annually at about 75% subject to expansion rate. Our finance strategy intends to team up with financiers as a share holders of TRANSOUL so their rate of return would be in percentage Profit sharing basis. And if financiers want to leave within 3 years their share can be transferred or purchased by other financier promising 2.5X returns or TRANSOUL will acquire those shares ensuring 1.5X (at the end of first financial year).

Short-term goals We are in the process of establishing the setup required for our trial run between the workhorse hubs of Mumbai and Nagpur. As have already done market research for it, and found few prospective customer too. Once we have completed our proof of truth experiment, we will expand the system for the routes of KolkataNagpur, and Gujrat-Maharashtra. The development of the schematics for the system expansion is our topmost priority. The lack of competition in the B2B segment of logistics allows us to safely move forward with the service provision reforms. TRANSOUL is paying attention to critical details to its operations, because among our most prior objectives is the establishing of our brand image; because that will provide us with a strong base if we are to diversify to other segments of the logistics market.

Financial Analysis For the initial stages, we need to raise about 20.2 lakh. We are already in talks of raising about 5-8 lacs among ourselves and from our ascociates; and we plan to go for local investors and financial organizations to help with the remaining amount for the short term liquidity requirements. Since we are primarily aiming at dynamic entities who are hot in business with local players, we believe its not going to be very difficult to create and maintain reach. It is going to be an effort trying to get the targeted end-users to switch to our interface, but our efficient service is going to more than cushion the impact. Our only cost of sales stems from advertisements, and remunerations made by us to the intermediaries while providing our services to the end-user. Other than the investment required for setting up of corporate offices and building the IT infrastructure for TRANSOUL's operations, we need to setup liquidity for remunerating local actors, staff salaries and TRANSOUL's money-back policy costs.

Over the next three years, we intend to not only expand our operations but also diversify to other segments of logistics; for this we need to raise funds to pay for endpoint offices at our route terminals, and for the R&D of possible logical extensions of our proposed smart logistics systems. We expect an enhancement of approximately 15-20% per year in the out of pocket expense, along with an increase of approximately 35-40% in the revenue generation part. We expect our prospective investors to provide us a first round of funding with the vision in perspective that more along building a business what TRANSOUL aims at, is building a more productive India. We would expect our first investors to be patient with their investment; and enrich their returns on a stock basis proposition. We prefer to opt for securities offering for primal investments; but once we are done with the first phase, we are willing to welcome venture capital as well because our model should start showing steeper growths. We are looking forward to link up with an investor/institution to be a part of TRANSOUL as share holder so return on investment would be as per profit, for they will be treated as percentage stake holder. The percentage will be decided according to the amount invested. We expect our investors to provide us with a moratorium period that would help us reach our BEP in less time and we can use the fund as reinvestment, which would help expand our scenario.

Team Description
# Planning And Software~Mr. Navdeep Gaur(08459114506), nvdpgr@gmail.com # Creativity And Co-ordination~Mr. Vishal Singh(08291982984) # Sales-Marketing,Customer Feed Back,Industrial Relation ~ Mr. Vindhyavesh A Tripathi (9503813599),vatripathi@rediffmail.com] # Operations and Online Control ~ Mr.Adarsh Mehta

Adarsh is pursuing Electrical Engineering, Puran Murati College of Engineering, Sonipat, Haryana.