Welcome to Sienna, Sienna is software, a baby that will evolve from an idea into networking business software the likes of which have not yet been imagined. My peers describe Sienna as” Face Book for business” I like to consider her “The Global Distribution System”

In Experience Africa.com I have created a website where the content contained within its database can be shared with other companies.

For Sotheby’s Realtors Cape Town we have created the website Africa Concierge, when Sotheby’s a clients enquires for a accommodation Experience Africa receive the enquiry and make the booking tacking a health margin.  We have approached other companies all of whom like the concept, if we had enough programmers the project would snowball but in truth the current website and database are only a demonstration. A more stable database needs to be created integrating the duplication technique and adding financial, shopping and CRM modules from the core.

It will take about 5 months to recreate database connectivity  after which we will be integrating companies on mass, all of whom will be encouraged to upload or link their portfolios to Sienna’s database, Leo Tripp for instance will be uploading there, Ski Chalets in Europe. If say Sotheby’s were to book a skiing chalet from Leo Trippi, we do not get involved other than to take a percentage of the commissions earned, automatically collected by Sienna.

Example a ski Chalet costs $10,000 to book, Leo Trippi give us a trade price of $7,000 Sotheby’s buy for $8,000 and sell too their client for $10,000 or $9,500 offering their client a discount

It is important to link with a GDS (Global Distribution System) as quickly as possible, Virgin Atlantic & Virgin Holiday already have a significant relationship with a GDS probably Galileo or Amadeus. Connection to the GDS will give us the main foundations of a global offering not just an African portfolio & travel partners will sign up a lot quicker if they were given the ability to make online booking for the world’s flights, hotels & car hire.

Consumer relationship management (CRM) systems are difficult to customise Sienna will create one that works for the travel industry integrated into the booking procedure , This software will dramatically improve our affiliates customer relations and efficiency  and hence their bookings and Sienna’s profit. It will also encourage them to book Sienna’s venues as opposed to others and encourage them to upload their own stock into Sienna’s database. Business using Sienna CRM will love it and word of mouth with attract new business to use the software.

By linking financial software to the CRM and booking databases, inter office financial and administrative details will be vastly improved and mistakes far less likely. At first simply integrating into the CRM and keep track of all bookings credits and payments will be incredibly useful,  later we will integrate the booking system directly into banks or more to the point Virgin Money. It’s been done in South Africa by First National Bank so it defiantly possible.

One key to Sienna’s success will be the creation of fun user friendly software, I’ve mentioned customizing it to a particular industry but the real key comes from ease of use. All interfaces will be basses on management games for children over 12’s. If a 12 year old can use it, even the most math struck book keeper, admin lacking sales person or time strapped COE will really appreciate even love the ease of use, usefulness, accuracy and enjoyment of the software.

I estimate it will take 9 months of development for the main website, CRM and the financial module to be complete at which time we can launch a beta version (beta versions are working software that are still being tested for bugs and stability)

 Once the beta version is complete we can launch the standalone product for people to download. As word spreads clients will be introduced to the system not only for trade agreements and cross selling but for its business functionality. Whilst initial inroads are geared towards the travel industry Sienna will branch out to other industries, fashion, wholesale foods, Chinese exports, precious metals even oil. It’s all about connecting the databases, which has only recently been possible as more companies are now ordering their databases in the correct way for an API interface to translate the data.

When we brand the product Sienna by Virgin is a matter for consideration, the Virgin association will make more people trust the system, but it will take some time for the beta version to be fully tested and stable. 

As soon as it is stable a public use version can be giving licence free to computer manufacturers like Dell to include the software with their new computers an excellent form of free distribution and product awareness.  

As the software becomes more popular we can start to charge for licences, support and upgrades available much like Outlook Express comes free with Windows, but to use Word you need to buy Office.  This will be a lucrative source of residual income. 

All this time Sienna will be gaining inventory in many forms of business and in many cases like Gucci, Jimmy Choo are resold at trade prices by Net A Porter we will be able to offer trade prices to the public.  With Virgin consisting of 300 or so companies, adapting the software to big business will dramatically increase stock levels and internet shop fronts. 

Putting it all together and including e-mail we aim to be the preferred browser for e-mail and daily life, running your finance, improving your business and organizing your social life.  And so I present Sienna and provide a marketing plan to turn her into Face Book for business. 

After Sienna becomes successful I intent to give the vast majority of my profit to good causes and I will encourage you to do the same. Such selfless acts will boost Sienna’s & Virgins brand love crating a big link in the chain in gaining significant market share in connectivity of the worlds databases.

I have chosen to present this proposal to Virgin as opposed to Microsoft, Google or Expedia for personal ambition reasons and for purpose, this software’s prolific earning potential is from sales not licensing. As important is Virgin Money, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays will be extremely beneficial to its cause.