PROJECT PLAN

St. Petersburg Housing Authority (SPHA)

St. Petersburg Housing Authority (SPHA)

Introduction

St. Petersburg Housing Authority (SPHA) specializes in providing Internet based financial services. In 2001, the company recorded revenues of $947.0 million (http://www.SPHA.com). By 2002, SPHA had established itself as one of the UK's leading eCommerce financial services companies, having amassed nearly two million customers. SPHA's products include savings accounts, investment and insurance. SPHA is headquartered in London, England. Business Description SPHA's objective is to be the customer's preferred provider of online housing services and also to intermediate financial and non-financial services online (such as shopping, mutual funds, general insurance and others), beginning in the UK and ultimately expanding into international markets. Currently, the company is organized along three business lines; a retail housing business; an intermediation business focusing on financial products and services; and a transaction portal to intermediate non-financial products and services.

It seeks to attract Internet-enabled customers primarily into its core housing proposition (Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders and Wong 2004, 62-85). It then encourages them to make regular visits to its website and provides them with easy access to a range of financial and non-financial goods and services. It also aims to maintain and increase its customer base by continuously enhancing its customer offering through a combination of new products and intermediation services. To date, SPHA's core housing products have proven to be attractive to customers in the UK. The company's goal at launch of the SPHA brand in October 1998 was to attract £5 billion of deposits within five years (http://www.SPHA.com). It achieved that goal in the first seven months of operation, principally through the opening of accounts over the telephone and later through the Internet. At present, the SPHA Card, a Visa credit card that customers apply for exclusively online and service primarily online, is the company's primary customer acquisition product. Another initiative was the introduction in September 1999 of SPHA Shop, an online shopping portal. Currently, customers have access to over 4.5 million products from over 225 retailers who have arrangements with SPHA. In addition, SPHA Shop customers are able to use search functionality to compare products according to selected criteria, including price.

In addition in March 2000 the company launched SPHA Invest, an independent, execution-only intermediary that allows customers to purchase and sell mutual funds through an online execution fund 'supermarket' in the UK. The company expects that SPHA Invest will generate an 'annuity-like' revenue stream based on a management charge linked to funds under management purchased through the supermarket. SPHA has also begun to expand its business into Europe through the acquisition of Zehousing, one of France's leading online housings, in mid-2002. Now called SPHA France, it aims to have acquired 1 million customers after three years. SPHA has also reached a credit card distribution agreement with Groupe Arnault, the French retailer.

Products & Services Analysis

SPHA achieved significant growth in 2001. The company acquired 600,000 net new customers during the year, leading to a year-end total of 1.95 million ...