Genieomics Operational Model

Led by the executive group, the Genieomics operation consists of four core entities:

This section outlines the general responsibilities, internal communication channels, and high-level workflow for each group.

Contrary to the popular approach of most companies introducing new technologies, Genieomics is actually a customer-driven enterprise - all customer requests will be treated as the highest priority, driving marketing, engineering, and third party relationships. Cross-functional teams will collaborate to create new product offerings while refining or retiring existing ones, as required. The tactics needed to accomplish this seem simple, but will require constant attention. They include:

Careful hiring practices that build teams with multidisciplinary skills;
The creation of an agile corporate culture where all citizens are encouraged to participate;
Workflow tools to track and manage collaborative efforts;
Firmly held values that bring the customer's needs into priority;
Compensation, advancement and reward for stakeholders that encourage loyalty, passion, and diligence.

Business Development is responsible for building long-term relationships with Genieomics' customers that ensure steady revenue growth. The key to this task is listening to the customers' wants and needs, and translating them into requirements for the engineering department. Another important task for this group is to introduce practices and technologies that should benefit the customer, whether or not that solution is actually created by Genieomics. In this fashion, the customer comes to rely on the Genieomics account executive as a knowledge base of the industry, and to trust them to understand the causes and effects of changes in the retail environment.

The tools given to the business development staff should ensure that:

they have access to up-to-date industry news, trends, standards and research
they understand the offerings of their partners and competitors.
they can convey business requirements to the technical group in the form of rudimentary models, root causes, and measurable outcomes.
they have a thorough and continuously updated profile of the customer
the sales process is automated with workflow logic that ensures the timely and consistent follow-up with each prospect

The internal communication responsibilities of business development staff include:

Exchange of data with the engineering department (requirements);
Budgetary expenses and sales projections with finance;
Dialogue with relationship management on offerings, competition and ROI (in advance of crafting the sales pitch);
As owners of the brand, acting as the clearinghouse for public communications, including marketing information, financial performance and press releases.

The performance expectations of the business development department are:

increase revenues to the company by generating, following, and closing on sales leads for new sales.
sustain revenues year-over-year with existing customers by encouraging product expansion throughout the chain, and introducing new applications to the customer regularly.
Maintain brand image and customer trustworthiness by engaging in regular dialogue with customer stakeholders in a professional and consistent manner, which will be measured through customer surveys on a quarterly or semiannual basis.

The business development team will consist of the following players:

Sales Researcher
Responsible for assisting Account Executives with industry specific research and knowledge support.
Lead Manager
Responsible for generating cold-calls into prospect companies, and scheduling value-rich meetings (either in-person or over the phone) between the retailer and an Account Executive. They will also manage the lead database for any direct marketing campaigns initiated by the Company. After initial contact with a prospect, this key player on the business development team will have little interaction with the end customer.
Account Executive
Serves as the industry expert to prospects and clients. Responsible for educating customers on the positive impact they will experience by implementing a Genieomics' solution.
Sales Engineer
Serves as the technical expert on the team. The Account Executive introduces the Sales Engineer into the sell cycle only after a prospect has been fully qualified as the appropriate type of Genieomics target. The Sales Engineer is responsible for developing the technical requirements document for each potential sale, and interacting closely with Engineering to ensure the client's exact needs will be met with the solutions being presented.
Sales Coordinator
Supporting several business development teams simultaneous, this key position is responsible for limiting the amount of unproductive but necessary tasks required to complete the sell cycle. For example, the Sales Coordinator will arrange all travel, track expenses, and handle other critical administrative tasks so that the other players on the team can focus more on our clients' and prospects' businesses.

The Engineering department will be responsible for creating the software and hardware products that fulfill the requirements brought to them by the customers (through the Business Developers), standards bodies (Retail Technology Associations), partners, integrators, and our own internal research.

The tools given to the engineering staff should ensure that;

their models are consistent with the business requirements, and constructed components directly address those requirements in a measurable fashion. Hardware, software, and process engineering will be based on the Rational method to help assure this goal.
components are incremental enough to provide technical flexibility, and therefore business agility to respond to changing customer conditions. Software constructed using an object-oriented language, and managed with an object repository, should help to ensure this goal.
quality and testing can be completed to satisfy the requirements of customers and standards bodies alike, which may include ANSI, IEEE, and other organizations.
a knowledge base of support issues will be directed back into development so that future releases of the products can focus on eliminating the issues faced by clients.

The internal communication responsibilities of engineering staff include:

Preparing the business development and marketing groups for the deployment of new releases;
Maintaining dialogue with key stakeholders through the relationship management group and the various Genieomics partners to ensure that integrated systems are kept current;
Assessing budgets with finance to assist in projections and buy-versus-build analyses;
Relaying critical technical issues to business development regarding feasibility, competitive products, and customer-specific installations.

The performance expectations of the engineering department are:

To complete all projects on-time and on-budget.
Provide only the highest quality of support to customers and partners using Genieomics' products.

The engineering team will consist of the following players:

Device - Hardware Group
Responsible for the initial and ongoing development of the consumer-held Genie device. This group will provide access to experts on device usability and potential integration functionality.
Device - Software Group
Working closely with the Device - Hardware Group, this team will be responsible for programming the system functionality (per the requirements documentation from the Business Developers) for the Genie.
Back-Office Software Group
This team focuses on applications that power the business logic throughout the Genieomics product suite. In addition to creating the actual product modules, they will also be responsible for programming the custom integration between a client's existing POS and inventory control systems and the Genieomics platform.
Documentation Group
Responsible for developing the standard user guides and help files for any product released by Genieomics, in addition to documentation related to custom solutions created for specific clients.
Media Library Group
Responsible for creating and maintaining the audio library for all of our clients. This group will have access to a professional quality recording studio.
Infrastructure Group
Responsible for the design and deployment of the physical network meeting the specific and unique needs for each client. This group will provide access to experts on wireless networks, secured server clustering, and multi-tier application integration.
Support Group
This group responds to all inquires from customers and third-party integration partners. Out ability to address our clients' needs quickly plays a key role in the overall goals of the company, and this group will need be provided high-quality support tools and be staffed with experienced professionals.

The Finance department will be responsible for developing the pricing structure associated with each proposal generated by the Business Development team, as well as tracking the actual costs associated with the build and deployment of a solution. Additionally, members of the Finance team will manage the day-to-day fiscal activities of the Company.

The tools given to the finance staff should ensure that:

they can accurately project the cost to develop a solution based on the response provided by the Engineering team to a request from the Business Developers.
they can easily track all expenses in the company to specific client or corporate activity.
they can manage the corporate finance needs associated with a growing venture.

The internal communication responsibilities of finance staff include:

generation of the cost section for each sales proposal (working closing with Business Developers)
regularly released job-cost reports detailing the actual expenses associated with each client and corporate project throughout the company
standard monthly financial statements related to the overall operation of the Company

Compensation for finance department personnel will be consistent with industry norms, with pay scales in the upper middle third range. To attract and maintain the appropriate personnel, and to craft an amicable environment, a mentoring program and training cycle will also be available so that recent graduates are exposed to various parts of the company's financial tasks.

The Relationship Managementdepartment will be responsible for establishing and maintaining partnerships and strategic alliances with the various players that may be involved in a Genieomics solution. The nature of those other companies may be as an implementation channel (i.e., KPMG, Accenture) or a key manufacturer with an extensive media library (i.e., Sony Electronics).

In addition, all legal related activities for the Company (including internal human resources) will be managed by this group.

The tools given to the relationship management staff should ensure that:

all contracts and informal relationships are well documented and maintained and adhered to in a professional manner.
corporate working procedures and employee manuals can be easily maintained and distributed.

The internal communication responsibilities of relationship management staff include:

educating the Business Development group about the nature of the relationships with outside companies.
all human resource related activities (policies and procedures).

The relationship management team will consist of the following players:

Relationship Managers
Responsible for establishing and maintaining business relationships with external companies that offer solutions that extend Genieomics' product suite. Also responsible for the long-term relationships with manufacturers that have audio files stored in the media library. To attract and maintain the appropriate personnel, and to craft an amicable environment, relationship managers will receive some commissions based on revenue exchanges with partners and associates, enjoy substantial travel, flexible working conditions and time off.
Legal Counsel
Responsible for reviewing and approving all legal documents for the Company, and overseeing human resource activities.

Compensation for relationship management personnel will be consistent with industry norms, with pay scales in the upper middle third range.

Executive Management will be responsible for establishing the direction of the company with regards to customers, competitors and partners. The ultimate goal of this team is to sustain the company's operations and profit objectives through industry cycles, and to provide the shareholders with consistent returns. The executive team should provide leadership to the various groups and set the standards for all operational tasks, such as hiring, training, project management and quality. At times, members of this team will also be responsible for critical customer communications, and to appropriately craft public and local community relations.

The tools given to the executive team should ensure that:

they can easily and accurately track the performance of each business unit throughout the organization;

The internal communication responsibilities of the executive staff include:

Balance priorities among customer needs, financial constraints, and engineering resources.
Create a corporate culture that will attract the right kinds of human resources for the industry, the geography, and the existing team.
Keep all teams motivated through any
tough times
during the growth of the company.
Consistently lead by example.

The performance expectations of the executive staff are:

to align the company's overall performance so that growth is achieved in a manner consistent with or greater than the industry's trailing indicators.
to maintain low staffing turn-over and high customer retention.

Executives compensation is usually a combination of base salary, bonuses for performance, and stock options. We are consulting with Cathey Cotten of MetaSearch Inc. for the latest compensation and incentive techniques for the industry.