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INFOSYS.110 BUSINESS SYSTEMS:

DELIVERABLE 2: BUSINESS SECTION
2014

Name Zijie Wu
NetID zwu459
Group Number: 383
Website Link: http://infosys1102014s1group383.blogspot.co.nz/
Tutorial Details
Tutor: Day: Time:
Kirsten van Dorp Thursday 9am
Time Spent on
Assignment:
4 days Word Count: 1561

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ACCENT TEACHING APP
INTRODUCTION
I am an aspiring actor and I very much enjoy performances where people can demonstrate a
high level of control of their voices. Stand-up comedians are the most common ones who
can speak in different English accents and instantly create a distinguishable character with
high entertainment value. But as an individual, in order to train oneself to master ones own
voice, finding a voice coach seems too much of a commitment, not to mention the costs
thats associated with the training. Is there a cheaper yet fun and interactive way to learn
more about accents, tones and pronunciation? Situated in a multicultural society like New
Zealand, having more knowledge on how different people speak is beneficial to ones
everyday and business communications. Therefore, I would like to propose a voice coaching
application that utilises voice recognition technology to help people learn more about the
differences in speeches around them, discover more about ones own voice, and most
importantly, have fun doing so.
3. BUSINESS SECTION
3.1 Vision
To celebrate differences and appreciate the diversity of language and culture in an
everchanging multicultural world.
3.2 Industry Analysis: Digital Language Teaching Industry
Industry: Digital Language Teaching Industry. The teaching and learning of foreign or
second languages for non-native and native speakers of any language through the means of
information technology.
Force: High/Low: Justification:
Buyer power: High It is easy to find videos on the Internet that gives
brief accent training tutorials, and there are many

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other institutions that offer similar services to
language teaching. Accent apps can also be found
in the App Store for iOS and Google Play for
Android.
Supplier power: Low There are 3 main companies (Apple, Google and
Microsoft) that have developed sophisticated
speech recognition software in smart phones that
may be used for accent recognition and voice
coaching (Eaton, 2013). Most of these systems
can now even transcribe your speech into words
with rather high accuracy (Eaton, 2013).
Threat of new entrants: High M app creating websites that allows anyone to
create apps with a lot of existing templates. With
sufficient skills in coding, it is rather easy and low
cost to start up an app that utilises voice
recording features on a smart phone.
Threat of substitutes: High There are some existing language teaching
organizations that offer accent correction courses
such as Accent Solutions (2013). Universities also
offer similar services for students who are non-
native English speakers are paying more attention
to students English proficiency (Bernard, 2012).
Rivalry among existing
competitors:
High There are many existing websites that offer
lessons in English pronunciation with the function
of recording your voice and giving users a score
for their pronunciation. Most of them have a

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certain charge for their services but none of them
are significantly expensive. While the free ones
are less sophisticated, they nonetheless serve the
core purpose of giving basic reference for
pronunciation. (Scoring Your Pronunciation, 2012)
Overall attractiveness of the industry: This particular industry has quite some challenges for
business. This is due to the existing competition within the market and a high threat of new
entrants coming in. The core service of language teaching and accent correction are
addressed by some of the existing apps and website, but most of them only fulfil surface
needs and dont really provide in depth knowledge for a higher level of learning. So there is
still potential in differentiating ones app from the existing competitors.
3.3 Customers and Thei r Needs
We are targeting two different types of people: non-native English speakers and people who
want to be voice actors.
One of the biggest factors that would affect non-native English speaking peoples daily life
experiences in New Zealand is, of course, the obstacles of understanding and being
understood during English communications. Not only for immigrants, but also international
students, their need to [develop] English-language proficiency in facilitating social contacts,
enhancing employment and educational opportunities, and providing the basis for
productive involvement in the economic, social and cultural life of New Zealand is critical
(White, Watts & Trlin, 2002, p.149). Auckland being NZs largest city, has the most ethnic
and cultural diversity, with Asian ethnicities taking up 23.1% of the population in Auckland
nowadays (Stats NZ, 2013) and an estimate of making up a third of Aucklands population by
2021 (Stats NZ, n.d.).
Existing apps have some example sentences of different accents, but there is few who
provide detailed analysis of each accent to teach actors the underlying differences in
pronunciation. Some of the accent examples are not even that accurate, and there is little to
none interactivity with existing apps, which makes the learning process uninteresting.


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3.4 The Product and Service
The product we want to create is a mobile application that focuses on helping users to fit
into the society leading them to more employment opportunities.
Firstly, it will provide a variety of different accent packages for users to select and purchase.
Each accent package will contain step by step tutorials for teaching pronunciation, and
relevant facts about the country from which the accent originates.
Secondly, it will be an interactive system for it will give users scores for their pronunciation.
In addition, there will also be a feature where users can type in sentences and the app will
say the sentences with the accent chosen. Last but not least, the recording system can also
act as an accent detector and transcribe sentences if possible.
Gradually, we would include more accents for a larger market, such as different accents in
Chinese.



3.5 Suppliers and Partners
1. Speech language therapists who have the knowledge in designing the structure of
the application tutorials that are easy and effective for oral language learning.
2. IT specialists in designing and creating the backbone of the application structure and
provide maintenance after it is released.
3.6 Strategy: Focused Low Cost Strategy
The percentage of non-native ethnicities in the NZ population is rising, but as of now it is still
relatively small. Native speakers who would like to learn new accents for becoming voice
actors also do not consist of a large number. Most of these people are living in major cities
such as Auckland, therefore we would be targeting a relatively small and specific market.

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To attract customers to use our app instead of going to a formal speech therapy class or
hiring a personal voice coach, we would charge customers at a lower and more flexible
price, depending on what package they are willing to purchase.
3.7 Value Chain Activity: (Re)Making the Product
It is quite likely for the app to have bugs and other technical problems when users start
using the app. So it is quite important for us to fix any technical problems as soon as they
emerge.
It is also important that we update the teaching packages if speech language therapists have
developed more efficient ways of teaching or recent trends of popular references are
helpful in aiding a persons learning.





3.8 Business Processes
3.8.1. BUG FI XING PROCESS this is one of the most important processes that keeps our
product easy to use for users and increase compatibility across multiple versions of
operating systems.

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Start
End
Receive Customer
Feedback
Discover Bug
Fix Bug
Release New
Version
IT Department
Bug Eliminated?
yes
no

3.8.2. CONTENT CREATI ON PROCESS It is crucial that we have the right speech experts and
voice actors in making the contents of the accent packages. We must ensure the
demonstration examples are correct and of high quality, and the steps of teaching is
effective.

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Start
End
Determine Accent
Package
Hire Talents/Experts
Record Speech
Examples
Human Resources
Incorporate With
Syllabus
Release App


3.9 Functionalities
3.9.1. BUG FI XING PROCESS
Receive customer feedback
Make changes to the coding of the app to fix the BUG

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3.9.2. CONTENT CREATI ON PROCESS
Incorporate recordings with the apps interface
Record audio examples of sentences that fit with accent package
3.10 Systems

3.10. 1. FEEDBACK PROCESSING SYSTEM Giving users a platform to make complaints or
provide general feedback to the features of the app and allows the IT designers to view the
feedback in order to make changes to the app.
3.10. 2. SOUND RECORDI NG SYSTEM To allow voice actors to present and record specified
sentences as examples for the accent package, and then incorporating their recorded audio
files with the user interface of the app.
3.10. 3. APPLICATION RECODING SYSTEM Letting IT technicians make changes to the existing
app in order to fix certain BUGs in the app or renewing content and audio examples for
creating an updated version of the app.

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3.11. Summary Table: Value Chain to Systems

Value Chain
Activity
Processes Functionalities Specific Information
System(s)
Broad Information
System(s)

(Re)Making
the
Product
1. Bug fixing
process
1. Receive customer feedback

2. Make changes to the coding of the app to
fix the BUG

Feedback processing system

Application recoding system
Customer Relationship
Management System

Supply Chain Management
System
1. Content
creation
process
1. Incorporate recordings with the apps
interface

2. Record audio examples of sentences that
fit with accent package

Application recoding system


Sound Recording system
Supply Chain Management
System



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CONCLUSION
There is potential in digital language teaching for there is a growing market of customers
that need to improve their spoken English either for improving everyday communications or
learning accents for the purpose of their acting career. Existing face to face lessons are
fulfilling such needs but they are quite expensive, while the cheaper accents apps are not
really meeting customers learning needs. The creation of a more sophisticated and
interactive app that addresses language and accent training will be quite profitable for
digital language teaching.

REFERENCES


1. Accent Solutions. (2013). Accent Reduction, Kiwi Accent for Employment. Retrieved
from http://www.accentsolutions.co.nz/

2. BERNARD, L. (2012). Unis urged to get serious about English proficiency. Australian,
The, 24.

3. Eaton, K. (2013). Dragon Dictation and Other Speech Recognition Apps. Retrieved
from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/technology/personaltech/dragon-
dictation-and-other-speech-recognition-apps-review.html?_r=0

4. Scoring Your Pronunciation. (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.lang1234.info/reviews-for-beginners/pronunciation

5. Statistics New Zealand. (2013). QuickStats about a place. Retrieved from
http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-
reports/quickstats-about-a-
place.aspx?request_value=13170&tabname=Culturaldiversity

6. Statistics New Zealand. (n.d.). Subnational ethnic populationprojections. Retrieved
from
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/population/estimates_and_projections/
subnational-ethnic-population-projections/asian.aspx

7. White, C., Watts, N. & Trlin, A. (2002). New Zealand as an English-language learning
environment: Immigrant experiences, provider perspectives and social policy
implications. Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Issue 18, 148-162.