Sunday, November 24, 2019
Analyze the goals Essays
Analyze the goals Essays Analyze the goals Essay Analyze the goals Essay Analyze the goals and objectives using the mission statement as the basis.The Mission statement of Microsoft is as given below:â€Å"At Microsoft, we work to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential. This is our mission. Everything we do reflects this mission and the values that make it possible†The above statement tells about the intent of the company. For fulfilling the above mission, Microsoft needs to do specific tasks which are specific and also can be measure. These are known as goals. Finally to achieve these goals, the company should use certain tactics which are classified as objectives.Looking at the above mission statement it can be said that one of the goals of Microsoft is to be a well-known global player, who would like to help people and businesses from all walks of life. In addition, the company wishes to make people attain their own goals by making them utilize their full potential. To attain this goal Microsoft set its objectives towards more effective worldwide sales and distribution network. In addition to this, the marketing strategy of the company should be designed such that people living anywhere in the world are aware of the company and its products and services. The entire system should be backed by an excellent customer support service which can take real-time feedback of these people.There are some common values that company that wishes to help people throughout the globe, should possess. Some of them are maintaining quality in products, transparency in processes, promptness and efficiency of customer service and concern over environmental issues arising directly or indirectly due to the products and services.Critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses, taking into consideration all the environmental factorsStrengthsa.                  Due to the developmental activities taking place in many developing an d third world countries, the company has a very good chance of developing newer markets. Combined with the excellent brand image the company has, this is one of the biggest opportunity and asset for the company at this stageb.                 The presence of Microsoft in multiple countries has given it a very wide exposure and capability to deal with people belonging to various cultures. This could be extremely useful while the company expands to a newer market or newer countryc.                  The market of mobile and handheld devices is booming. With some strategic alliances which Microsoft could gain a string foothold in this field. The company’s dominant international presence in the PC market can be a big asset in forging such an alliance.d.                 Even while the handheld device market is on a rise, the desktop systems market is still very strong. The tried and tested software development process ensures rapid development and updates of the existing products. The experience of the company in this market also proves beneficial at the time of product innovatione.                  Users rely on buying software from a company that is well-known and provides excellent customer support. Microsoft scores well on these issues thereby getting customer loyalty and this increasing revenuesf.                   The superior technical image of the company attracts highly-skilled professional who increase the quality of labor force and in turn help in developing superior quality productsg.                 The company’s strategy for expansion is very aggressive which makes it a very formidable competitor. Microsoft is also well known for its large number of acquisitions which help it in expanding the product portfolio and also control the competition.(Hafner, Hibbert p. 1, 3)Weaknessesa.                  While the company enjoys top position in almost every area of software products, its biggest threat is the open-source software. The quality of these software considered by many, to be much better than Microsoft’s products which is not a very good signb.                 The company’s products of late have been focusing on merely software upgrades. The few new software packages that have been released in the market like Microsoft Visio has garnered pretty lukewarm responses.c.                  While the employees of the company are well-paid and are of a superior quality, the massive number of updates and installation deadline have le d to high attrition rated.                 Many users feel that the products have a single focus and do not usually work well when installed / combined with other products.e.                  While the company enjoys very good image in the market, the reputation has been often threatened due to its entanglement in antitrust and permatemps Vizcaino litigation. The reputation has been further threatened by the fact that the company is very cut-throat in competition and plays very dirty towards its competitors by stifling their growth in all possible kinds of waysf.                   The repeated forays of the company in the wireless market have proved to be pretty disappointingg.                 The massive structure of the company which is essentially decentralized in na ture has led to the company having major problems with employee management.h.                 Software piracy of commercial and consumer applications software on a global scale threatens revenue streams(Hafner, Hibbert p. 2, 4)Recommend a strategic model for the organization. Justify the choice of the model. Discuss a global strategy for this organizationStrategic modeling for an organization must be done taking care of the mission, goals and objectives of the company. The organizational structure of the company defines what present focus of the company is and paves its way towards achieving long terms strategic goals. The modeling means grouping of the organization into various clusters and their modes of interaction with each other. In addition an organization has to develop an information system to meet the inter- and intra- organizational demand for information processing (Burton, Obel p. 10)The present organizational structure of Microsoft is a decentralized organization which is falling into professional bureaucracy and red tape. To make the organization effective, the structure should be matrix like with a functional base. While there is no need for centralizing the company, a little less formalization would be very beneficial for the internal environment. Being a very big organization automatically means that the company structure is complicated enough. Hence, efforts should be made for more effective communication by cutting of channels (Burton, Obel p. 290-293)Microsoft needs to continue its strategy of building strategic partners across the globe. Increasing the size of its own company should be taken one step at a time, so as to give the management as well as its employees to adjust to the various necessary changes. Forging alliances would make sure that the company stays within the competition and not much of the company structure is disturbed, which is seen to be a very common activity in the co mpany (Menzefricke p. 5). The strategic alliances should be with companies in the newer countries who could act as distribution centers. The company should also start actively foraying in the mobile and handheld device market by actively forging alliances. The focus here should be on product innovation for bringing out quality products, instead of just consolidating the market. This would enable the company in getting quality products which can then be aggressively marketed.Identify the key performance indicators to measure the performanceKey Performance Indicators are used for measuring the performance of each of the defined objectives. Using this, a process can be analyzed based on cause and effect, which can be used to implement strategies having built-in metrics to track and measure the performance.Based on the goals and objectives of Microsoft, its KPIs can be figured out. As the company wishes to grow throughout the world one of the KPI could be market growth. This can be furt her detailed by taking the market growth for each country group or each country. The rate of increase in the market share is yet another KPI, as are the sales or revenue growth rates. Hence, the company should take the sales target combined with the market share and make an analysis of the newer markets entered in a fiscal year to measure its true performance rating. As improving the quality of customer support is also an objective, one of the KPIs could be also be higher rate of customer satisfaction achieved in a given period. This can also be further divided into the percentage of returning customers, response time taken on an average, customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction indices etc. (Woods, Joyce p. 99)Establish the information requirements and hence strategic information systems to give a competitive edge to the companyThe world of business has always been ruled by information. With the advent of digital techniques the technology has advanced at a very fast rate. This as e ffected the way in which information is passed between various channels in business. IT based information systems have become the order of the day. The integration of business with IT ensures many advantages for the company adopting the digital mode of communication (Dobrev p. 7, 9). The major impact is on the enhancement of products, its life cycle, reduction in management levels and ultimately reduction the cost. The company can effectively manage its internal environment and concentrate its external environment. As a company expands the business goals of the managers change. This brings about an increase in the complexity of tasks performed by the managers leading from a structured world to an adhoc unstructured one. Integrating IT with businesses helps in simplifying the process, hence providing for a more effective working environment (Galliers, Leidner p.1, 2)IT inherently depends on systems. While working with IT companies should not only focus on its competitors but should a lso take into consideration its various present and potential collaborators which whom a strategic alliance or partnership could be forged. A classic example is the alliance between Intel and Microsoft which gave both of them a massive increase in sales and revenues along with the lion’s share of the market (Shapiros, Varian p.10). As can be seen this gives a much needed competitive edge to the company intending to employ Strategic Information Systems within the organization.Discuss the ethical and social issues associated with usage of IS/IT in the organization.The emergence of IS/IT systems have brought about newer ways of passage of information and also newer rules to ensure that the information that is passed is authorized and correct. The major problem seen with the software industry is the piracy of the software packages. While many efforts are made to curb this yet the problem seems to lie wit users who do not think that it is a crime to use software without proper aut horizations.The other issue is social in nature. There is a complete profile available of most of the people in the developed people available on the internet. The security when breached causes a breach in the personal data which was heretofore known only to select few. Many people are not comfortable with this scenario and the growing number of internet crimes does not help the situation either.Microsoft faces both the types of issues within its organization. To tackle these issues an attempt should be made to create awareness among people about the nature of their faults related to the software field.Suggest how customer relations could be improved with the usage of strategic systemsCustomer relation is an important aspect for any business organization. In case of smaller business units, the relations are closer knit and personal. The customer-relation process is hence closely monitored and any mistakes are easily found and rectifies. Larger organizations have trouble in maintaini ng customer relations at the same level as the smaller businesses, and this problem increases proportional to the size of the project (Knox p. 9). For global organizations like Microsoft with a dominating presence in almost every country that uses computers and software, the problem is even more acute. Any system used for this purpose in addition to providing inputs for increasing customer satisfaction must also have the additional features of being integrated with the entire system and also have economy of scale.For maintaining the huge database of customers, 100 million of which are in US alone, Microsoft relies on high-end software tools and technology to manage the customer relations across the globe. With sophisticated tools like MS SQL Server 2000, the company can process up to 2 million customer records per day. For getting a comprehensive view of its vast client network Microsoft has designed and deployed data warehouse (Microsoft p. 2-3). This system is used to improve cust omer satisfaction and increase the customer loyalty. The tools can be used to keep in touch with each customer helping the company serve them better. The tool also helps all the units of the company serve their customers in a similar way. This is helpful as the company has a highly decentralized structure with as many as 60 subsidiaries with different niche databases and sizes. Also each customer can be a part of multiple databases, which helps in having a complete profile of the individual customer, helping the company to cater to each specific customer. Finally having a common tool also standardizes the entire system throughout the entire organization (Microsoft p. 6-14).
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