1-888-JUNK VAN

By: G1 Team 1
Business profile
1-888-JUNK-VAN background & goals
● Start-up waste collection business in
Canada
● Virtual business model “without bricks and
mortar”
● Founded in 2008, sales doubled from ‘08
to ‘09($300000 to $600000)
● Operates in 3 Canadian cities
● Total 9 employees (2 call op,3 driver,3
helper,1 data clerk
● Goal: use franchising to facilitate growth
● Top priority: To be known to people
○ 20% of budget is spent on
marketing
○ 90% of marketing budget is spent
on coupons
○ Strategic location for parking
What made Kingo unique?
● 1888-Junk-Van endeavoured to offer highly
competitive prices
● Meeting customers' specific needs
● They wanted to be a company that would
“pick any (legal) item”
○ Do jobs that other companies would
not do
➢ Picking up leftovers from
minor demolitions
➢ Jobs that require necessitated
the rental of additional
requirement to remove the
items
Industry profile
● Some facts of the waste collection industry
○ Non-Hazardous Waste Collection comprised the largest
○ Expected to grow steadily
○ Solid waste management being the largest and most lucrative segment
○ Globally:
➢ Consists of few large international MNCs that small local companies
had to compete against
○ Canada:
➢ Most were tiny businesses
➢ Needed licence to operate
➢ one man one truck model
➢ Not a difficult industry to enter
➢ Considered a commodity, so competition is mainly based on price
○
○ Customers are also highly sensitive to prices as they have a variety of
options
Competitive strategies

● Franchise business model

● Strived to be flexible about customer needs in terms of timing of the service
● Both were committed to conveying a professional appearance, with uniformed drivers and a
corporate look
● Highly competitive in terms of pricing hence customers are highly sensitive to prices
● Companies in the industry address this problem through efficient operation of their trucks (Fuel)

View on the industry i.e. preconceived perceptions

● The industry is a rough business with unreliable customer service and lack of professionalism
● Considered to be commodity service hence price falls when competitors enter the market
● Barriers to entry are about to increase with stricter environmental regulations

Who are/are not the customers of the business

● Cost -> Pay for the convenience or cannot carry out the service on their own
● Non cust -> Those that can do it themselves, utilise municipal services, sell/donate/hand me down
Potential growth of the business
● Estimated that Latent demand for waste collection is $129 billion, Canada accounted 1.9% ($2.451
bil)
● Expected to grow by 3.9% in the coming 5 year period (2009-2014), resulting in an industry value of
$276.4 billion by 2014 (+$10.37 billion)
Business Process & Issues
 Customer Call Operators
Activities Activities
● Call to place a
● Operates from 2am to
booking
2 pm and 2pm to 8pm
Morning Op
● Book new jobs into the
database for evening
operator
Evening Op
● Will email updated
database to data clerk
at 8pm
● Create and mail work
order spreadsheet for
each driver in each
location
Driver
Activities
● After receiving information
from the call center, drivers
will plan their next day
schedule in detail and will
inform their helps as well
● Perform service as indicated
on the spreadsheet
● For cash and cheque, driver
return to the customer site
with the weight ticket
● For credit card driver scan
weight ticket and email the
customer
● Each evening, driver email the
data clerk details regarding
the job
Data Clerk
Activities
● Data clerk integrates
information into the main
database after receiving
calls from the call centre
at 8pm
● He would manually
process credit card
payment, then forward to
the updated database for
the morning op and the
cycle repeats
 Customer Call Operators Driver Data Clerk

Problems Problems Problems Problems

● Long waiting ● Forgotten email ● The Qty were usually not ● *Send wrong DB version
times for waste ● Errors in customer large enough so drivers had to the morning op
collection information to leave the material and pay ● Fixing the database was
service by weight extremely time
● No collection of ● Drivers rarely used the consuming and no new
waste at all template provided which reservation could be
when DB made data consolidation was made
breaks down very time consuming ● Recurring problem as the
● Errors in manual calculations business grew->
Company’s reputation
which Kingo wants to
build will tarnish -> waste
marketing resources
● Errors billing,
 ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

SENDING WRONG DB VERSION NEGLIGENCE LACK OF CENTRAL DB

START UP HENCE LACK RESOURCES

TO INVEST IN CENTRAL DB
Solutions
Solution Criteria
 RANK THE CRITERIA
1 2 3 4 5

Unimportant Less Important Neutral Important Very Important

CRITERIA IMPACT SCALE

(1 – 5)

Centralised Database with Remote Accessibility 5

Automated Emailing 3

Ease of Use 4

Ease & Quick Implementation 3/4

Vendor Support 5

Reasonable Cost 4

Scalability (Flexible & Adaptable) 4

Rank the criteria

Most important part (Have in depth discussion here)

Solution Criteria Scale (1-10)

Central database w remote accessibility 10

Vendor Support 9

Reasonable Cost (industry context) 8

Scalability/Flexibility 7

Ease of use 6

Ease & Time of implementation 5

Automatic-emails 4
 Proposed Solutions
Microsoft Access Database

Custom Application

Google Docs

Platform-as-a-Service(PaaS)

Enterprise Resource Planning System(ERP)

 Microsoft Access Database

Pros Cons
 Custom Application

Pros Cons
 Google Docs

Pros Cons
 PAAS

Pros Cons
 ERP

Pros Cons
 RANK THE CRITERIA
1 2 3 4 5

Unimportant Less Important Neutral Important Very Important

CRITERIA IMPACT SCALE

(1 – 5)

Centralised Database with Remote Accessibility 5

Automated Emailing 3

Ease of Use 4

Ease & Quick Implementation 3/4

Vendor Support 5

Reasonable Cost 4

Scalability (Flexible & Adaptable) 4

 MAD Custom Google MAD
PaaS ERP
(Local) App Docs (Central)
Criteria Score
+ - + - + - + - + - + -

Centralised Database with 5

- + + + + +
Remote Accessibility
Automated Emailing 3 - + + + + -

Ease of Use 4 - + + - + + -

Ease & Quick 3/4

+ - + + - -
Implementation
Vendor Support 5 - + - + + -

Reasonable Cost 4 + - + - - +

Scalability (Flexible & 4

- + - + + -
Adaptable)

19/2 -19/2
Total (+ / -) 7/8 -21 21 -7/8 -13 24 -4 21 -7/8 9
0 0

Net Total -16/17 14/15 6/7 20 14/15 -16/17

 Requirement MAD Custom App Google Docs Paas ERP

Remote access No Yes Yes Yes Yes

Easy to use Not really Easy to use when Yes Kingo assumed he
the app has been will be good at it
set up.

Ease of implementing Yes May be difficult Coordinating Kingo lacks

issues? technical expertise

Flexible Yes Yes Not really - no Yes No

central DB

Provide vendor No (need to hire) Expensive Yes Expensive

support

Time Yes No( > 4 weeks) Yes 3 days

Price $179*(no. of computers) $2000+60/hr Mostly free, else Up to $600 per $2500 per user
maintenance affordable month just for each year
basic functionality

Caters to Customer- - - Somewhat (Email No? Yes

Service distribution)

Total
 Optimum Solution
● PaaS is the winner

● PaaS resolves the negligence of the Data Clerk

○ Central DB -> Updates data that can be viewed by everyone in the business hence no need
for clerk to keep sending DB to the driver -> solves the main issue

● Cost
○ Scalability
➢ Helps in franchising
○ Guessing capacity
○ How it cuts down on inefficiencies of his business process

● Cost-effective

● Vendor support
○ Solves the consequential problem of fixing the DB on their own -> saves time/potential
economic loss
○ Good for virtual business model
○ Allows Kingo to rely on the solution for as long as he needs
○ 1888-Junk-Van is a startup and have no dedicated IT staff -> helps to keep cost low

● Data migration is quick

● Limitation
○ Further customization --> billed by the hour → incurs more cost (*start-up business)
Debrief
 Learning outcomes
● Importance of understanding the business and business process for selecting the
right solution
○ Every business is unique and not every solution will fit its needs
○ As such, it is vital to study the business profile and processes of the business before
utilising a certain solution, which if not done, can lead to tremendous negative
consequences
○ This will enable resources in the business to be optimally utilised i.e. cost, human
resource, and more importantly resolve the root issue[s] as much as possible, leading
to a better trajectory and outlook of the business

● There is no perfect solution

○ Always remember to consider the pros and cons of each solutions against the
non-negotiables
○ Then choose the most appropriate, even if it has many disadvantages

● Challenges faced by startups in deploying those i.e. IT solutions

○ Factors to consider always include cost and skillset
○ Need to remember that startups vs big corporations have very different resources at
their disposal so each solution should be tailored accordingly
Cloud Computing
 ➢ Definition: Cloud computing is the on-demand (access a service at the user’s
convenience) delivery of computing power, database, storage, applications, and other IT
resources via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing

➢ Cloud computing is the on-demand (access a service at the user’s convenience) delivery
of computing power, database, storage, applications, and other IT resources via the
internet with pay-as-you-go pricing

➢ These resources run on server computers that are located in large data centres all around
the world

➢ These resources can be used together like building blocks to manufacture solutions that
will meet business goals and satisfy technology requirements

Source: AWS Academy

 Applications of Cloud Computing

➢ Cloud-Based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software

○ Software as a Service (SaaS) that allows users to access Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) software over the Internet hosted on the vendor’s cloud platform

○ ERP software integrates and automates essential financial and operational business
functions and provide a single source of data

○ Hence, Cloud-Based ERP systems are highly available to all business units, wherever
employees may be working, and deliver a unified, up-to-date view of data

○ Valuable for small and medium-size businesses because it provides access to

full-function applications at a reasonable price without a substantial upfront
expenditure for hardware and software

Sources: Oracle netsuite & Acumatica

 Applications of Cloud Computing

➢ Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) in Cloud Computing

○ Cloud Computing model that provides customers with a developmental framework—hardware,
software, and infrastructure—for developing, running, and managing applications

○ With PaaS, businesses are able to design and create applications that are built into the
PaaS with special software components called middlewares

○ Some benefits PaaS bring include faster implementation, flexibility for development
teams, and cost-effective scalability

Sources: IBM, bmc blogs, Microsoft Azure

 ➢ Cloud Computing comes with tremendous benefits
○ Allows the user to select cloud services that best suit their needs and allow users
to change these services more quickly and easily

○ And pay for what you use only

○ Can scale resources up and down in an automated fashion to meet

customer demands

○ Results in lower upfront cost

○ Allow companies to avoid heavy lifting task like procurement,

maintenance and capacity planning

○ Allow companies to focus on more important task like their

business

Source: AWS Academy

Short coverage of Types of IT services (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) since
we’ve learnt ⅔ already?

IT cloud Key description

service

PaaS - Uses cloud-computing

- Allows users to develop, run and manage applications without the
complex building and maintenance of infrastructure typically
associated with developing and launching an application.
- Windows Azure and Google App Engine

SaaS

IaaS
 IT Services

On-site PaaS SaaS IaaS

Application Application Application Application

Data Data Data Data

Runtime Runtime Runtime Runtime

Middleware Middleware Middleware Middleware

OS OS OS OS

Virtualisation Virtualisation Virtualisation Virtualisation

Networking Networking Networking Networking

Storage Storage Storage Storage

Servers Servers Servers Servers Key:

Enterprise-managed
Vendor-managed