1001 Startup Ideas - Beacons for automated attendance tracking

The startup idea is to establish a mobile application, which will use beacons to track employee attendance and working hours. The employees of an organization will download this app, and it will automatically log in their presence once they are close to the beacons installed in the office. This will also monitor time on duty and time off duty, as the app will relay data in random intervals to check if the person is in the office or not. Most of the startups and SMEs still use manual modes to track working hours and maintain the record through excel sheets or through logging in and punching hours on a web application; this application aims to automate the process of recording attendance.This application will automatically consolidate data at one place for the employer and provide input for payroll and other statutory compliances. The employer end of the software will track all data about leaves, taxes, and other deductions, etc. based on HR metrics that can be included into the software. Market Definition SaaS is an ever increasing market and has seen a tremendous number of products being launched, making this industry in itself. According to Ironpaper, some global statistics are: Gartner sees SaaS growing 20.3% in 2016 to 37.7 billion. Ironpaper also reports that Payroll and HR are one of the top revenue generating sectors in SaaS segment.  Gartner had predicted that the global HR & payroll software market would be worth $8.3Bn by the end of 2014 and $8.8Bn in 2015. Over the five years to 2016, IBIS World estimates that revenue from the HR and Payroll Software industry will increase at an average annual rate of 6.0% to $6.8 billion according to Bostoncommons.net, the growing human resources management (HRM) software market is forecast to reach $9.2 billion by 2020. Competitor Analysis As reported above, Payroll and HR have seen many products being launched, making it one of the top SaaS segments. One such company that has launched a similar product is Albam, which is a Korean startup and has launched a similar product where employees can log in from the mobile app for recording attendance and accessing payroll services. Pain Point & Target Audience The target audience for this website would be SMEs and startups that either use punching machines or excel sheets for tracking working hours and maintain payroll. Although punching systems are the norm of the day there are various drawbacks associated with it like buddy punching (co-worker punching on an employee's behalf), inflating work hours and human errors.  In addition to this by having a geo-tagging and beacon-based system, it will be far easier to monitor time on the desk, in office and outside the office too. Value Proposition This app will provide easy to set-up attendance and payroll system without spending too much on the infrastructure. Not only HR but also using this tool, team leaders will be able to track the availability of their teams and make further plans for the projects accordingly. This will also remove the above-mentioned drawbacks of the traditional reporting systems. Business Model The business model for this startup will be subscription based model where the customers will pay a monthly or an annual fee. The company could add more features and charge an extra fee for such features. This will be customized software, which will work according to HR metrics of each organization. Way to market The first step would be to create a smooth mobile application and the software for the employer end. It is essential that the employee app also provides a tracking tool where an employee can also check how many leaves they are entitled to and how many are left. This app should also ensure that an employee could make a leave request through this application itself. The employer end of the software should have features to track details of each employee and calculate the salaries of employees based on HR metrics available. Milestones The startup should aim at beta testing the product with an initial set of clients to fine-tune the application and onboard first set of potential buyers. Once some companies start using the product and the product is streamlined based on feedback from such organizations, it can be launched for other organizations as well. Investment Needed For Prototype For testing & building the prototype, pitch for raising 250K USD from angel investors or incubators in your country. There should be no office rentals or salary payout; the entire budget should be apportioned for customer acquisition and technology. Team Capability To develop and run this business it will be advantageous to have co-founders with a strong foothold in compensation and benefits, UI/UX design and coding. In addition to this if you can manage to pull out someone from an existing payroll outsourcing vendor, the client onboarding will be far easier. Investors / Expert Take SaaS industry has seen considerable interest from investors and great products are being funded almost immediately. There is keen interest in B2B based SaaS products across the globe. Last year, London-based VC firm Notion Capital raised a $120m fund to target Series A stage companies moving away from traditional software and developing B2B SaaS technology.  Recently one of the upcoming SaaS startups, Albam has raised USD 1.6 million in Series A funding. In case you are looking forward to scale or develop a business idea, please do get in touch with at yostartups.com and our team will be happy tp help you.