Collegiate Sports Paging System
Vision
Version 1.0
Revision History
|
Date |
Version |
Description |
Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 6, 1999 | 1.0 | Initial version | Context Integration |
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Positioning
- Stakeholder and User Descriptions
- Product Overview
- Product Features
- Constraints
- Quality ranges
- Precedence and Priority
- Other Product Requirements
- Documentation Requirements
Introduction 
The purpose of this document is to collect, analyze and define high-level needs and features of the Collegiate Sports Paging System. It focuses on the capabilities needed by the stakeholders, and the target users, and why these needs exist. The details of how the Collegiate Sports Paging System satisfies these needs are detailed in the use-case and supplementary specifications.
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to define the high-level requirements of the in terms of the needs of the users.
Scope
This Vision Document applies to the Collegiate Sports Paging System, which will be developed by Context Integration. This system will allow subscribers to be notified of events relating to collegiate sports events or teams to which they subscribe, and will enable them to view the content they have subscribed to.
Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations
See Glossary document.
References
None.
Positioning
Business Opportunity
WebNewsOnLine currently provides news via the World Wide Web as well as in print. It currently holds a very strong position in the Collegiate Sports category, and is looking for ways to expand its revenue base. In the words of Maria Scirpo, CEO:
We will leverage WebNewsOnLine's strength in local and collegiate sports coverage by offering a subscription paging service. Subscribers, for a fee of $15/year, can pick college divisions, teams or even individual athletes that they wish to track. For instance, a subscriber could track the NCAA Pac Ten basketball teams (e.g., Cal, Stanford, UCLA, etc). Every time a story was produced about this division, the subscriber would receive an alpha-numeric page.
After receiving the page, the subscriber can, at their leisure, access the web site. There, on a customized home page, besides the standard stories and links, would be url's corresponding to each alpha-numeric page received by the subscriber. Behind these url's will be stories, audio and video relating to the page.
This service will be promoted at college campuses and via various alumni association magazines.
Benefits envisioned from this approach include:
- It will play to WebNewsOnLine's strengths in covering collegiate sports (i.e., already has most of this content available)
- A subscription of $15/year means that only 200,000 subscribers will be needed to net $3m/year in revenues. This goal was thought to be very achievable.
- An entirely new source of advertisers will be willing to pay for ad space associated with this service. For instance, it is thought that local car dealerships, restaurants, boutiques, etc., will be willing to pay to have the eyes of this very affluent and targeted set of users. For instance, several Napa vineyards have already expressed interest in buying space for subscribers to the Pac Ten.
Problem Statement
| The problem of | Keeping current on collegiate sports events |
|---|---|
| affects | Mobile business people |
| Impact: | They are unable to follow their alma mater (or other collegiate sports in which they are interested) without spending significant time searching for news in their specific interest area. |
| A successful solution would | Notify them when news in their interest area occurs, and provide them a place to get the news they have requested. |
Product Position Statement
| For | Mobile business people |
|---|---|
| Who | Want to follow specific collegiate sports events or groups |
| The Collegiate Sports Paging System | is a software product |
| That | Notifies subscribers when news related to their interest area occurs and is available |
| Unlike | The current state of the art which requires that they check online news on a regular basis to find news in their interest area. |
| Our product | Notifies subscribers when news in their interest area occurs, allowing them to check news only when there is content to be read. |
Stakeholder and User
Descriptions
Market Demographics
The target market for this system is comprised of a mobile, interested, intellectual, upscale segment of society-but mobile is the key word, whether it means people who have moved from Cincinnati to Atlanta, or people who are mobile in terms of their lifestyles or their occupations.
Stakeholder Summary
| Name | Represents | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Subscriber | End consumers of the content provided by WebNewsOnLine. | Create profiles, receive pages, read custom content, and subscribe using credit cards. |
| Advertiser | Firms who pay to advertise to target customers on the web site. | Select target customer groups, provide advertising content, receive reports of advertising viewing. |
| Editor | WebNewsOnLine's content provision channel. | Place content on web site, categorize content. |
User Summary
| Name | Description | Stakeholder |
|---|---|---|
| Subscriber | Selects categories for pager notification, reads content on web site, reads targeted advertising on web site. | Self-represented. |
| Advertiser | Obtains advertising delivery information from the system to follow-up or track hits. | Self-represented. |
| Editor | Places content onto the web site, identifies categories in which the content belongs. | Self-represented |
User environment
Individuals will receive pages via alphanumeric pagers or cellular phones when an event occurs in there area of interest. At their leisure, they will connect to the web site and view their content. Usage patterns are not predictable at this point, though higher volumes are anticipated during collegiate sports playoffs such as March Madness.
Users will be expected to have a device capable of receiving an alphanumeric page or message, and are expected to have a browser-enabled device for viewing content. If they have devices capable of viewing video or audio clips, this content will also be available to the user.
Advertisers will be expected to have a browser-enabled device for checking advertising usage.
Editors will require a browser-enabled device for categorizing content and/or viewing system status.
Stakeholder Profiles
Subscriber
| Description | Individual who pays to receive pages and custom content related to specific collegiate sports categories. |
|---|---|
| Type | Primary user |
| Responsibilities | Primary consumer of the services and content offered by . |
| Success Criteria | Ability to define a profile of news, and be notified of breaking news in specified interest areas. |
| Involvement | Provides reviews of beta versions of software, provides ongoing feedback after release. |
| Deliverables | |
| Comments / Issues | None. |
Advertiser
| Description | Individual who provides targeted content for viewing by specified market segment, and who checks viewing patterns of the advertising content. |
|---|---|
| Type | Expert user. |
| Responsibilities | Review requirements and User Interface designs. |
| Success Criteria | Ability to specify target market segment to view specific content, and to verify that the content has been viewed. |
| Involvement | Requirements Reviewer. |
| Deliverables | Usage/viewing reports. |
| Comments / Issues | None. |
Editor
| Description | Individual who provides content to the web site and categorized it. |
|---|---|
| Type | Expert user. |
| Responsibilities | Needs to be able to quickly and easily post and categorize content, and to verify content and categories on the web site. |
| Success Criteria | Ability to post content within 5 minutes of content availability. |
| Involvement | Requirements Reviewer. |
| Deliverables | None. |
| Comments / Issues | Performance during peak usage periods may be an issue. |
User Profiles
See previous section
Key Stakeholder / User Needs
| Need | Priority | Concerns | Current Solution | Proposed Solutions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specify profile | High | Level of granularity | None (read all news to find items of interest) | Allow multiple levels of selection for paging |
| Receive pages when news occurs | High | Volume levels and response time | None | Use tiered architecture to allow scalability |
| Read news targeted to areas in profile | Medium | None | None (read all news) | Provide links on web page to specific targeted news items |
| Target advertisements | High | Ability to segment market population | Select advertising channels to indirectly target market segments | Map advertising content delivery to profile attributes |
| Verify advertising delivery to gauge effectiveness | Medium | None | None | Provide reports to advertisers on number of views of advertising content |
Alternatives and Competition
At this time, there is no direct competitor for this service. ESPNET Sportzone provides targeted news but does not page subscribers when particular news breaks.
Product Overview
Product Perspective
This product will leverage WebNewsOnLine's existing lead in collegiate sports news, but will present a user interface via a separate system. Graphically, the system may be viewed as follows:
Summary of Capabilities
Table 1 - Collegiate Sports Paging System Features
| Customer Benefit | Supporting Features |
|---|---|
| Subscriber can specify which news they which to receive | Profile capability within system |
| Subscriber can read only that news in which they have interest | Customized dynamic web pages for each subscriber, with links to stories on which they have been paged |
| Advertisers can target content | Advertising delivery based on subscriber profiles |
| No new content required | Link to existing web-based sports content |
Assumptions and Dependencies
Existing content is assumed to be available for viewing on the web site. Integration of current content with the new web site is required in order for collegiate sports information to be made available in a timely manner.
Cost and Pricing
Subscription rates are initially target at $15 per subscriber per year. With only 200,000 subscribers this will generate $3M in revenues per year, which is more than enough to cover incremental cost of the system. Advertisers will pay additional fees (initially targeted at 5% higher than normal) for access to defined target populations.
Licensing and Installation
N/A. All custom software is server-based and owned by WebNewsOnLine.
Product Features
These will be provided during the Elaboration phase of the project.
Constraints
The system must be available by March 2000.
The system must not cost more than $2M per year to operate.
The system must utilize existing sports content on WebNewsOnLine's web site.
Quality Ranges
None specified.
Precedence and Priority
- The system must be available by March 2000.
- The system must utilize existing sports content on WebNewsOnLine's web site.
- The system must not cost more than $2M per year to operate.
Other Product Requirements
Applicable Standards
The system must comply with existing web standards (HTML, Java, TCP/IP, etc.).
System Requirements
None specified.
Performance Requirements
The system must send a page to a subscriber within 5 minutes of new content being posted to the site.
The system must be able to handle 200,000 subscribers.
Environmental Requirements
None specified.
Documentation Requirements
User Manual
None required - the system must be sufficiently easy to use that a user manual is not required.
Online help
Context-specific and general help will be available for all functions within the system.
Installation Guides, Configuration, Read Me File
An installation manual will be provided. In addition, a formal Knowledge Transfer plan will be developed to ensure that staff are capable of maintaining the system moving forward.
Labeling and Packaging
Not applicable.
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