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The real time information provision service that SmartRocket provides is something that other similar research companies don’t have. Such timely data is particularly useful during key promotional periods, where companies spend a lot of money in attracting customers to buy their products, so it is imperative that the products is actually there on shelf when customers get there.

Using traditional methods of information collection, it might take weeks to check every supermarket in Hong Kong and identify which locations are out of stock.

For instance, when handling large tracking program for an Infant Milk Formula company covering around 1,200 stores would typically take 6 weeks to know the stock level in each of these stores. The traditional slow data collection process would usually result in late reaction time for MNCs to fix the problem, if not impossible, in any particular location during the course of the promotions. However, with SmartRocket, MNCs can collect such information in as few as 3 days. SmartRockets makes the all the collected data immediately available in real time via online portal. This enables MNCs to use the information not only to track performance but to actually put in place fixes when and where needed, thus improving business performance significantly..

2.3.3 Values of the company

SmartRocket values the idea of ‘real time retail intelligence from any location’ – helping retail companies to detect and fix outages and put in place strategies to see continuous improvement in daily execution over time.

On the other hand, the values for SmartRocket’s crewmembers are all about providing a simple, convenient, fun way to make some money with their smartphones.

2.3.4 Acquisition and Retainment of Customers and Crewmembers

Same as other companies, it is always important for SmartRocket to acquire and retain customer. As a business-to-business company, SmartRocket makes direct calls to potential clients to explain its services. It also organizes trial studies for potential clients, this allows potential clients to experience the power of crowdsourcing. It allows its clients to understand and optimize their retail execution and collect real time information of the point of sale. Once paid engagement is organized, clients can enjoy services provided by SmartRocket. By reviewing with the clients from time to time, SmartRocket ensures promises are delivered to the clients with the best quality.

Despite technological advancements, the existence of the crew members is a crucial part in which crowdsourcing is enabled. SmartRocket, who is using mobile app as the platform to communicate with its crew members, is targeting the crowd to use the app to collect data. As these targeted people are usually living with the digital media, SmartRocket recruits crew members through advertisement via the digital media, such as Facebook advertising, Google, Display Network, recruitment resources like recruit.com, etc. To attract targeted people, SmartRocket also shares reviews by current satisfied crew members on the internet, such as Facebook.

Besides pricing each task reasonably, SmartRocket also retains crew members by introducing Rocket Points. On top of the cash rewards, “Rocket Points” are also given to the crew members after finishing each task. When there is enough Rocket Points, crew members will be promoted to a higher level. The higher the level of the crew members, the more complicated and rewarding the tasks becomes. This format makes the app more interesting and gives more staisfaction to the crew members, which echoes the value the company hopes to deliver. With the above implementations, SmartRockets app has attained over a thousand times of downloads, showing the enormous size of SmartRocket’s crew members.

2.3.5 Differentiation of the company

To differentiate itself from the other crowdsourcing companies, SmartRocket is unique in providing speedy information cost effectively with superior quality standards. Again, the core of SmartRocket’s offer is the idea of “real time retail information from any location”. It is not only about taking shorter time from commission to retail information delivery, but also allowing real time data access for their clients. This is how SmartRocket defines “providing speedy information”.

The quality of the information collected from the crew members is highly concerned by SmartRocket, therefore rigorous quality control measures such as GPS location verification, time and date stamping, photo verification, et cetera are carried out to raise the confidence of clients in SmartRocket. These three differentiated values provided by SmartRocket are enabled by the app and the system. With the help of the app and system, crew members with their mobile phones on hands can always receive and complete tasks timely; with the help of the app and system, a large group of crew members is recruited immediately to work for the clients, which reduces costs for clients as they do not have to collect the information themselves, thus saving time and expenditures on salaries on the comparatively less-productive staff; With the help of the app and system, quality of the collected retail information is ensured by the in-built and truth-telling functions of the mobile phone. Therefore, SmartRocket shows its uniqueness in terms of speed, cost effectiveness and superior information quality standard which are enabled by their app.

2.3.6 Revenue, Cost structure and Profit Margin

As the only source of revenue of SmartRocket is the sales of real time retail information to multinational clients, SmartRocket has been working hard to simplify and minimize its cost structure to maximize its profit. SmartRocket uses a very low overhead model. For example, its database is 100% cloud computing, it keeps its number of permanent staff to a minimum level and even works without any actual office space. However, the software development has incurred the largest expenditure for SmartRocket. To differentiate itself from the other crowdsourcing companies, SmartRocket has developed its own app to enable speedy retail information collection at low cost with high quality. Around 10 full time programmers have been employed to further refine and optimize the platform, thus making SmartRocket superior in crowd service crowdsourcing.

2.3.7 Prospects

SmartRocket has only been launched for 2 years, as the app system is the core of the business to ensure close, timely and accurate communication between the clients and between the crew members, SmartRocket