Assessing Dell’s Strategic Position: Opportunities And Threats In An Essay.

Growth in India and China

Question:

Discuss About The Information Technology With Launch Desktop?

Growth in India and China: It has been analysed that the company’s presence is growing in the countries that are developing in nature. India and China are the market with great opportunities and the company like dell is exploring those opportunities to grab the new and developing market.

Weak internal process: It has been analysed that the company is suffering from the internal control issues (NDTV Gadgets360.com., 2017). The US Securities and Exchange Commission in US are auditing the internal financial and accounting practices of the company. It has been identified that there are many errors in the internal functioning of the company has till now the company is trying to get over those issues.

Product recalls: product recall is the practice that affect ten company’s brand image. Dell has found to be recalling its products again and again due to quality issues. The company has recalled one of its products in 2006 (Kumar, 2017). That product was notebooks. In 2005 also, the company has replaced some of the batteries of its products which suggests that the company is not performing its functions with quality efforts.

Demand for portable and mobile products: It has been analysed that in today’s market the demand for mobile and portable products is increasing. The company should try to improve its products in such a ways so that it becomes easy to handle and carry at the same time. The company can also try its hand again into mobile phones. The company should try to renew its products and come up in the mobile market (Company, 2017).

Expansion of product range: The popularity of fit bit watches is immense in the market. The company should explore this opportunity by launching one of the watches and can also link it with its mobile phones.

Acquisition: As discussed that the company already has great market position. So there is the opportunity for the company to make acquisition on the other small companies to enlarge its market share and customers base in the rural areas of the developing countries.

Intense competition: The competition in the industry is very fierce. This is the biggest threat for the company as the customers are not so much loyal to the brand. This may be because of the homogeneity of the products in the industry (Holweg and Helo, 2014). The major competitors of the company are Lenovo, HP, Toshiba, etc.

Weak internal process

Standardization: Even the non-branded companies are producing the products that are difficult to be differentiated from the branded products. This is because of standardization of the quality and the cheap prices.

As far as the competitors of the company are concerned, it has been analysed that the competition in the industry is very strong. There are many companies who are entering the market y launching their products related to computers (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2013). In addition to it, the homogeneity and introduction of unbranded products have also develops competition issues. The major competitors of the company are Lenovo and Hewlett Packard. HP is the major competitor from the tow. This is because it is ahead of Dell. Dell has to make some of the strategies in order to reach up to the HP’s level. Sony was also in the competition but Sony it has exited as it has made all its focus on the selling mobile phones.in terms of server and software products, Microsoft is the biggest competitor. Microsoft is serving the market with great products which is really hard to compete with (Niederwieser, et al. 2016).

Collaborators involve distributors, suppliers and partners of the company that are associated and linked to the company for supporting its functions. As far as the suppliers of Dell is concerned, it has been analysed that the company has established its manufacturing units in the countries where it wants to sell its products so as to reduce the cost of distribution and supply (Cusumano, Kahl and Suarez, 2015). The company takes the raw materials from that country only to make the products and, manufacturing faster.

In terms of distributors, it has been analysed that at every market the company has large number of distributors along with its exclusive stores (Kim, W.C. and Mauborgne, R.A., 2014). In this industry where Dell operates, the distributors are the dealers who act as the mediator between the company and the customers. Distributors serve the market with the platform from where they can make a purchase.

As far as the partners of the company are considered, it has been analysed that the company has many partners. Dell technologies family has different partner brands such as Dell, EMC, RSA, Pivotal, Secure Works, VMware and Virtue Stream.

As far as the target customers are concerned, it has been analysed that Dell target the market into two divisions. The first division is called relationship division and the second one is called Transactional customers.

Product recalls

Relationship customers: relationship customers are those customers who belong to large corporations and education sectors along with government. These are the customers that provide large profits to the companies (Alves, 2015). Dell approaches the different businesses to make relationship with them so that it can cater those businesses with its products. It makes collaborations with the firm and whenever those customers company needs any of the computer system they contact to Dell for the same. This customers segment helps the company to make its sale in bulk and provide large profit as well.

Transactional customers: this is the segment that involves the individual customers who wants to have the products at low prices. For such audience as well, Dell provides the products with low-cost so that these customers can also be targeted. This is more competitive market as individual customers cannot be retained for long (Chen, 2014).

Political and legal factors: political and legal factors deal with the factors that are related to government regulation formed to conduct the business activities in ethical and legal way. The field of information and communication technology, the companies economy to face several restrictions by the government. The government restricts the foreign companies to set up their manufacturing units so as to promote the domestic ones. This acts as the challenge for Dell to enter the new market. The same situation is faced by the company in China. Even in the parent country, the companies like Dell have to face the legal obstruction in the form of contracts of not using another company’s entered technology etc.

Economic factors: growth of any of the industry or the company is influence by the economic situation of the country or the world (Groover, 2016). As far as the dell is considered, it is important for the growth of the company that the economy of the world remains stable as the company operates in many countries. Change in the tax and the inflation rates affect the sales and the revenue of the company.

Social factors: It has been analysed that the social factors are related to the choice and preferences of the customers. The demand for computers is in the countries which are highly educated. In today’s time, compute is the basic part of daily lives of the people. Earlier, there were found I the shops r at the offices but now every house has computer associated products. Even the education system wants their students to learn about this technology so that demand for the products is immense.

Demand for portable and mobile products

Technological factors: every industry is very much influenced by the technological changes in the environment. It has been analysed that computer industry is very much related to technology only. Any updates in the technology needs to be implemented in the system so that the company can serve the customers with the latest technological hardware and software (Zhang, et al. 2014). Dell is the firm that focuses on developing and innovating its products according to the latest technologies. They not only improve their products but also try to improve their processes according to the updated technology.

Environmental factors: environment factors suggest that the companies need to be sustainable on order to conduct the practices that does not harm the society and the environment. Dell is the firm that focuses on using green technology in its process so as to be sustainable.s operating at the 2^nd position in the market and providing wide range of products to the customers.

As far as the customers of dell are considered, it has been analysed that customers want the company to be updates with latest technology. In terms of relationship customers, it has been identified that these requirements from the company is that the company supplies them the products on time (Govindan and Popiuc, 2014). The products that need to be transferred to them should be effective in quality as the business customers cannot compromise in the quality. On the other hand, the transactional customers are those customers who want the company to serve them with low cist products and they can compromise with the quality if the company is offering range of products in cheap prices than the competitors.

The competition analysis of the company suggests that it is operating in the industry that I very competitive in nature. The company still manages to conduct its operation by staying at the 2^nd position in the market after Hewlett Packard. The immediate competitor of the company after HP is Lenovo (Bryman and Bell, 2015). Lenovo is also releasing many products n different products range so as to cover high market share and customers base. As far as the competitors are considered, it has been analysed that even the unbranded companies are also entering the market with assembled computer system that costs cheaper to the customers.

Many contextual factors affect the company and its functions. The major contextual factors are environmental as well as political and legal factors. Dell is the company that operates in many countries and has its manufacturing units in different countries. The company has to make the strategies according to different political environment of different countries. The company also have to be very conscious about the use of reduces as the manufacturing units of the company pollutes the environment. It has to take permission for the government to make use of the host country resources so as to manufacture the products on their lands.

Expansion of product range

In the industry of information technology and computer system, the companies like dell are very dependent on the suppliers as well as the distributors. Suppliers provide the raw material for the company to make the final products. Distributors at different places are required by the company as it cannot reach to the market only by the franchisee stores (Zikmund, Babin, Carr and Griffin, 2013. The company has many distributors even at the rural areas of the places or the world so as to cater the market. The company also have some partner firms which help and supports the company to conduct its operation in different products range.

As far as the opportunities are concerned, it has been analysed that the company has the very big opportunity to enter the watch market and launch a new watch in the fit bit section. The watch should be like bracelet that targets the customers who are heath conscious and are in sports. The people with this background would love to use such watches which are also linked with their mobile phones (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). It should have the technology that it can be linked to any of the phone just by downloading software.

The target market for the company as per the above opportunity should be the health conscious transactional customers; it is because the company is already dog well with the relationship customers. Now, the need for the company is to cater the market of transactional customers with new and innovative products.

Value proposition can be defined as the reason behind the existence if the products. It is required by the company to line with the customers and to make the relation between the products and the customers (Bull, et al. 2016). By launching this fit bit Dell watch it can relate the heath conscious customers with the products. This product adds the value to the customers as it provides them the technological device that allows them to see their heart beats, steps, time, day, linked calls from their mobiles etc.

The company has positioned itself as the firm that has the power to do more. This suggests that the company is still working on improving its products. As the products of Dell fit bit is considered, the company should portray itself as a brand that cares for the customers.

This positioning statement helps the company to relate with the target customers.

Acquisition

Product: The products that have been discussed to be released by the company should be Dell Fit Bit Watch. This watch can be linked to any of the mobile and the customers can even attend their calls and messages on their watch.

Price: the pricing strategy that needs to be used should be competitive in nature as there are other companies that have launched the same kind of products but the price is too high. The company competitive pricing helps the company to cater the market and earn the profit.

Place: The place can only be the franchisee stores, as initially the company can only release less number of products to test the market so this watch should be available only on the franchisee stores and not with their small retailers or distributors.

Promotion: the promotional techniques that can be sued by the company are television advertisements and promotional campaigns.

People: As far as people are concerned, the employees of the company are very skilled and thus operate in a very good environment. The company is customer oriented and thus provides many offerings to them.

Process: the process involved is manufacturing, assembling, marketing and distribution.

Physical evidence: The products packaging should be such that attracts the target customers. It should be unisex watch so that the boys and girls both can buy the products.

References:

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