SYNCHRONIZE: KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH FRIENDS MADE EASIER FOR YOU
Have you been feeling stifled sitting in your house all day? Found yourself dispirited by the monotony of quarantine? Have you been missing, being able to talk about everything and nothing with your friends? Recently felt like your friends have no time for you?

If your answer to these questions is ‘yes’ then continue reading to find out about a new simple solution to all your scheduling conflicts.

INTRODUCTION

The virtual world is more important than ever in the pandemic and has quickly become vital to our new lifestyle. It makes things like education and business thrive even with people stuck in their homes. However, there is one aspect of life we find ourselves majorly missing out on, and, that is our friends.

Between virtual job conferences, online classes, exams and assignments, we find ourselves having very little time left for socializing with friends. When we do have time, it appears they have none and any common free time is wasted in trying to schedule a virtual meeting.

This is what inspired the idea of “Synchronize”, an easy-to-use, user-friendly plugin to help solve all your scheduling disputes.

“Synchronize” will sync all your calendars into one making it easy to use. It will also allow users to form groups with family and friends and after comparing your calendars, it will notify all parties if they have common free time thereby, saving a lot of valuable time.

You can even set up parameters such as setting some days as “personal” when you do not wish to be disturbed. “Synchronize” will ensure that no meetings are scheduled on such days. You can also set meeting time lengths with the default setting at 30 minutes.

Another beneficial feature is the ability to track your meetings with various groups.

MARKET DEMAND

“Synchronize” benefits everybody, as it can be used for setting up meetings with anybody ranging from family and friends to business associates. It will also benefit all the people who wish to manage time more effectively and keep a track of their virtual meetings.

RELEVANT PRODUCTS IN THE MARKET

Although there are already a few calendars and meeting scheduler apps and plugins such as Calendly, Meetingbird, Doodle etc. none of them offer the integrated simple solution that “Synchronize” will provide. They also have different working principles and concepts.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE OR EXPERTISE

Knowledge on how to create plugins, how to sync calendars, marketing knowledge etc. are must haves. Necessary languages include but are not limited to: HTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript. It is also imperative to conduct polls to receive valuable customer feedback and try and implement useful suggestions obtained.

MY SOLUTION

You can form various groups as per your choice and convenience for different friend circles, family members who live far, business associates, clients etc. and simply allow “Synchronize” to access your calendars and sync them into one.

Then simply set meeting lengths, define personal days etc. and the product will offer you meeting times available based on your predefined criteria easily eradicating all scheduling from your part.

It is a great way to save time and energy and get rid of the hassles of conflicting schedules.

PRODUCT PRICING

The product can be free with limited features such as limiting the number of groups that can be formed etc. while the full version will be made available to paying customers.

Paying customers will enjoy benefits such as being able to make as many groups as required at a time, obtain any subsequent new features before the non- paying guests among others.

For paying customers, the pricing should be reasonable with respect to the services provided as many of our customers may be students who can’t afford high prices. This is also intended to attract more paying customers and increase revenue.

Furthermore, family packs etc. can be offered to interest people in buying the product for their family members.

MARKETING PLAN

The product’s marketing will be carried out in digital media, print media as well as by word of mouth. For digital marketing, digital advertisements such as advertisements on television, digital advertising boards, advertisements on various websites will be done.

Advertisements in print media will include newspaper ads, ads in magazines, banners, hoardings, billboards, posters etc.

Advertisement by method of word of mouth depends largely on the reputation of the product. Satisfied customers are highly likely to invite their family and friends to try out “Synchronize” and this will create a large customer pool for the product.

Marketing is one of the major aspects of any company or product and it is therefore, imperative to have great marketing strategies.

As Joe Chernov has said “Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.”

RISK ANALYSIS

Improper marketing poses the biggest threat to the success of “Synchronize” as people cannot use that which they are unaware of. That is why it is very important to have proper marketing.

Another source for errors is improper updating of calendars by the customers. Not everyone is in the habit of using calendars and keeping a proper track of time. It might be difficult for such people to be able to properly schedule meeting in the beginning.

However, once you start to regularly use “Synchronize”, it will be easy to form the habit of using calendars and properly updating and using them.

MILESTONES AND TIMELINE

The first step would be to do intensive planning and research for the product and creating it. The next step would be testing and improvements followed by marketing and launching. The initial stages of expansion are estimated to be slow but once the product gains a firm foothold in the industry, it is expected to achieve exponential growth. The end goal is to go global with “Synchronize”.

The planning and research stage would take approximately 5–8 weeks. The development of the product is estimated to take about 6–10 weeks followed by another few weeks of testing and improvements. The marketing is a simultaneous process which should go on from at least a few months leading up to the launch of the product and continue even beyond.

Deliverables include:

Ø Customer feedback and polls

Ø Product code

Ø Tests and test results

Ø Documentation required

Ø Presentations

FUTURE PROSPECTS

There are innumerable future prospects for this project as we can add new features to make the processes even simpler and more effective over time. Potential future features include keeping detailed track of meeting and analysing behaviour to recognize patterns. “Synchronize” may even be able to offer its own A.I assistant for customers to help manage time and virtual gatherings.

CONCLUSION

Though the post pandemic world is rather dissimilar from our lives before, the needs of people haven’t changed. In fact, in these difficult times, it now more important than ever for us to feel “normal” and that requires us to enjoy all parts of our lives in a balanced, healthy manner.

However, our hectic lives and conflicting schedules make it a herculean task to even enjoy spending some time with our friends in a virtual setting.

It appears that we are always busy with one assignment, one task, one test or another and when we do get time for our friends, it seems they don’t have any for us and whenever we find some common free time, it is wasted because we are unable to effectively schedule a meeting.

This is what inspired the idea of “Synchronize”, a user-friendly, easy-to-use plugin to help you manage and eradicate all you scheduling conflicts.

Staying in touch has never been easier!
['Anushka B.']
['Scheduling', 'Friends', 'Virtual Meetings', 'Business', 'Technology']