Stand-Alone Project: Competitive Market AnalysisInstructions: The Stand-Alone Project for this course requires you to assume the role of an account planner for an advertising agency assigned to compile a competitive market analysis on a given product. Scenario: A manufacturer who is thinking seriously about marketing a new product in an industry with which you are familiar has approached your advertising agency and asked that you prepare a competitive analysis of the market for this product. The client will pay for this work on a project basis, and then decide whether to launch the product and hire your agency to design and execute the campaign. While this situation is a hypothetical one with respect to your role and the new product, your competitive analysis should be based on reality. Use an outline format with brief descriptive explanations. The product may be for either the consumer or business-to-business markets. The following sections should guide your composition of the competitive market analysis.
This project is much more involved than the writing project in Assignment #4, which is a plan for gathering information that will be analyzed to support a marketing plan and effort. The Stand-Alone Project may be viewed as an extension of the earlier project, ??? drilling down??? and using the methods described there and expanding on them to construct a competitive analysis in detail. In other words, you may use the product from Assignment #4 or create an entirely new one. Your Stand-Alone Project responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct, and formatted in the same fashion as the project itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. (300 points) (A 20-page response is required.
)Part A Research and Analysis: Begin by researching the product about which you will write an analysis. (90 points)Part A1. Describe the product and its associated industry. HCL is the manufacturer that approached me to benefit them in advertising and marketing their new product called Thinking-IT. In the changing scenarios, market economics indicates that old-style Total IT Out-Souring (TOS) models would not work and a new and desired shape of TOS model has developed where the IT providers take the ownership of business innovation and vendor takes charge of Operations Innovation. The ideal TOS model will maximize both P&L (profit & loss) Influence as well as control for the customer. The new model requires a cooperative engagement between customers and service providers, especially for planning and designing future IT-based business strategies. HCL??™s Thinking-IT Model focuses on these issues and address to leverage more through IT Services.
It also important to note that economic turbulence has forced CIOs & CTOs across the world to redefine their priorities & business objectives. Some of them include deriving maximum value from the existing IT investments, moving beyond incident management and leveraging technology to create new products & business models. HCL new product for the purposes of this assignment is Thinking-IT framework which addresses IT Transformation, Technology Transformation, Operations Transformations and business Transformations. The Industry is Indian IT Services Industry ??“ which is also known as Indian IT consulting and outsourcing industry. Indias IT services companies have had a golden run. Over the past decade, the industry has achieved average annual growth of 40 percent as businesses from banks to manufacturers in Europe and North America have shifted routine back-office tasks and IT functions to Indias talented, low-cost workers. The countrys top four IT services companies??” Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL Technologies (HCL) and Wipro Technologies??” have evolved rapidly into established players, each with annual revenues ranging from $1 billion to $1.
6 billion. 2. Identify this product??™s direct competitors. That rate of growth could fade; however, unless Indias IT companies fend off rising competition by expanding beyond the countrys borders to build truly global businesses. As wages in India rise and its supply of skilled workers tightens, its advantages relative to Central Europe, China, and specialized locations such as Brazil and the Philippines could erode. Corporate customers will increasingly demand that Indian companies move beyond providing a pool of low-cost labor and hug a business model that incorporates more complex technology and greater industry expertise. Indian IT companies must grab the moment if they hope to start global operations and become players in China, Europe, Japan, and North America.
Indian IT consulting and outsourcing is a highly competitive sector with many large and small companies competing for a piece of the same pie. HCL faces competition from Wipro (WIT), Satyam (SAY), Cognizant (CTSH) and Tata Consultancy Services. Apart from these companies, HCL also faces competition from IBM (IBM), Accenture (ACN), BearingPoint (BE), Sapient (SAPE) and iGATE (IGTE). With this much competition, it is impressive to see that HCL has been able to maintain a profit margin of 20%3. Specify how these competitors??™ offerings differ from each other in terms of strengths, weaknesses, and other characteristics.
All of these Indian IT service Providers offer the services around Operations Support and Build Support. Each competition has its strengths and weaknesses. We will first understand the general Industry Strengths and Weaknesses and see how each competition is placed against such strengths or weaknesses. We will also explore the strengths and weaknesses of HCL during our course of assessment.
Industry Strength??? Industry continues to grow both revenue and earnings at greater than 20% a year. ??? India has more Capability Maturity Model (CMM)-certified companies??? Global Companies are looking more aggressively to Indian Outsourcing providers for cost cutting and quality imporemvent. HCL Strength??? HCL is Employee first organization, which means they take care of their employees first and the employees takes care of their customers.??? HCL maintains one of the best profit margins in this industry and with revenue exceeding $5 billion last year, it generated more than half a billion dollars in earnings. ??? The balance sheet needs to be rock solid with high dollars in cash and short-term investments and no debt. Competition Strength??? Infosys, Wipro and TCS has built stronger quality practices around Software Development and related Services. HCL is seen as an Infrastructure company??? Competitions are at higher level with respect to Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Certification.
Industry Weakness??? India has the disadvantage of higher labor costs than China. Although India has been known for its large pool of talented, low-cost workers, its wages have jumped by 25 percent since the onslaught of globalization.??? Consulting and outsourcing is a highly competitive sector with numerous large and small players. ??? HCL along with other Indian IT firms faces problems like employee attrition and rapid wage expansion. ??? Earnings could be impacted by currency fluctuations. ??? If expectations of continued high growth are not met, the stock could face a steep decline.
??? The history of headings about the Indian IT industry has been a source of alarm. For example, at the beginning of 2009, it was exposed that the Satyam Company had accounting incongruities and the resulting negative publicity has affected the entire industry and raised the question of whether such problems could have occurred in China. Many foreign companies and investors see their businesses as threatened due to these revelations as it showed that regulations and laws in India were not as developed as expected. HCL Weakness??? HCL is viewed as an Infrastructure Company than Software Services Company; and hence their Software Services growth has been very slow at 3%. Competition Weakness??? From a Service Offering standpoint, Infrastructure Support in Competition is considered to be weak.
According to James Rickman, today, India still has the lead over China in IT outsourcing and its advantages over China are still distinct. While China will almost definitely become an important force in the IT industry, the country still needs more time to develop its competencies. Many think that the Chinese IT industry will have to consider acquiring or partnering with foreign IT companies in order to grow and compete.
Lenovos (LNVGY. PK) acquisition of IBMs computer hardware business is an example of how Chinese companies can expand and “ go global.” Chinas leading software company Huawei Technologies has also established joint ventures with Western companies such as IBM, Siemens (SI), 3Com (COMS), and Symantec (SYMC). 4. Detail how they differ from the proposed product. HCL is a leading global technology player with annual revenues of $4.
9 billion. The HCL Enterprise comprises two companies listed in India, HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Established in 1976, HCL is one of Indias original IT garage start ups.
The HCL team comprises 53, 000 professionals of diverse nationalities, operating across 18 countries. Thinking-IT framework addresses IT Transformation, Technology Transformation, Operations Transformations and business Transformations. (Source: HCL official Website)1. IT Transformation – Re-engineering business processes or service architectures2. Technology Transformation – disruptive innovation by radically changing the way products and services are developed and delivered3. Operations Transformation – by significantly increasing the value derived from current IT investments and by enabling a real time and integrated transaction monitoring – resulting in high performance through a new form of operating various business elements4. Business Transformation – through high focus on domain trends, needs and solutionsAt this point in time, Competition products are not Integrated and comprehensive as Thinking-IT as explained above.
Since it is essentially process driven, this offering also can be easily replicated easily, however HCL will have an advantage of being the market leader in Thinking-IT space. The essence of Thinking-IT is Transformation. HCL is a verticalized organization with each industry having its own Vertical Head. Unlike Infosys and Wipro, HCL has Infrastructure also considered as a vertical. Infrastructure Services division of HCL can own the customer whereas only Industry Vertical Partners own the customers in Wipro, TCS and Infosys. The basic fundamental element of services from all IT Services Company is its People and Processes. Below we shall explain details of the products from the competition.
(Source: Indian Companies vs. Global MNCs, Even though the differences get blurred in the short term, the gaps will only widen; Arun Maheshwari)WiproWhat started off as a hydrogenated cooking fat company, Wipro is today is a $5 billion revenue generating IT, BPO and R&D services organization with presence in over 50 countries. Premji started Wipro with the idea of building an organization which was deeply committed to values, in the firm belief that success in business would be its inevitable, eventual outcome. The company has over 72, 000 employees. Wipros revenues grew by 33% for the year ended March 31, 2008.
The net profit grew by 12%. The revenues of the combined IT businesses were $4. 3 billion with 43 per cent YoY growth. InfosysInfosys Technologies Ltd was started in 1981 by seven people with $250.
Today, the company boasts of revenues of over $ 4 billion and 94, 379 employees. The company is now headed by Kris Gopalakrishnan. The income for the quarter ended June 30 2008 was Rs 4, 854 crore (Rs 48. 54 billion). The net profit stood at Rs 1, 302 crore (Rs 13. 02 billion). Tata Consultancy ServicesFounded in 1968, TCS is one of Indias largest corporate houses.
It is also Indias largest IT employer with staff strength of 111, 000 employees. The company began as a division of the Tata Group, called the Tata Computer Centre. Its main business was to offer computer services to other group companies.
Soon the company was spun off as Tata Consultancy Services after it realized the huge potential of the booming IT services. Its annual sales worldwide stands at about $5. 7 billion.
During the year 2007-08, TCS consolidated revenues grew by 22% to Rs 22, 863 crore ($5. 7 billion). S. Ramadorai is the chief executive officer and managing director of TCS. 5. Detail how the proposed product is superior and/or inferior to the competitive products. From a domestic hardware player, HCL shall become hardware, software and outsourcing company by introducing this new Thinking-IT Services. HCL shall be expanding internationally in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa.
As part of the Thinking-IT Strategy HCL shall be looking for acquisitions. In preparation for the Thinking-IT Services, HCL bought 25 acres of land in Greater Noida, India and are opening other facilities in Mohali, Jaipur and Pondicherry. At this point in time, Competition products are not Integrated and comprehensive as Thinking-IT as explained in earlier section. Since Thinking-IT is essentially process driven, this offering also can be easily replicated. The essence of Thinking-IT is Transformation.
HCL has been ranked # 1 in both Tier 1 Traditional IT Infrastructure Outsourcing and Remote Infrastructure Management Outsourcing (RIMO) space in the 2009-10 survey conducted by Datamonitor. The survey covers over 700 contracts held by 3, 100 of the top ITO spending corporations and organizations globally and shares results across tier 1 and mid-tier companies. HCL Technologies has won the top slot because of its focus on innovation, training and building long lasting client relationships by ensuring great customer experience. HCL has recently been rated positive in Gartner Market Scope for Data Center Outsourcing, North America.
Recently, TPI names HCL among the top 10 Infrastructure Outsourcing vendors. HCL currently manages over 1 million devices and the IT Infrastructure needs of over 1 million end users. The company leverages its extensive global offshore and near shore global delivery locations to provide multi-service delivery in key industries verticals. (The Outsource Blog)6.
Identify the target clientele of the competing products. The decision to ??? Outsource??? is often made in the interest of lowering firm costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of labor, capital, technology and resources. The Indian companies are not serving some small shops, but the best including the Fortune 100 and Fortune 1000.
Maybe, the relationships are at a lower level today, but it can be leveraged to get more business from them. They are also fast establishing global presence in terms of operations. These companies have been showing positive signs on the acquisitions front as well. HCL, TCS, Wipro, and Infosys etc. have made a lot of acquisitions of foreign companies in the last two years. But, the sizes of their acquisitions are still small when compared with the size of acquisitions those American companies with similar kind of market cap. (Arun Maheshwari). Considering that Thinking-IT is an all-encompassing Services for any large IT Organization, the target market and segment for the new product shall become any Fortune 1000 companies.
Below is the list of Companies who get IT services from Indian Providers already. (Source: FORTUNE 500 annual ranking of Americas largest corporations http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2010/full_list/ )FortuneRankCompanyRevenuesProfits1Wal-Mart Stores408, 214. 0014, 335. 002Exxon Mobil284, 650. 0019, 280.
003Chevron163, 527. 0010, 483. 004General Electric156, 779. 0011, 025. 005Bank of America Corp. 150, 450.
006, 276. 006ConocoPhillips139, 515. 004, 858. 007AT&T123, 018.
0012, 535. 008Ford Motor118, 308. 002, 717. 009J. P. Morgan Chase & Co.
115, 632. 0011, 728. 0010Hewlett-Packard114, 552.
007, 660. 0011Berkshire Hathaway112, 493. 008, 055. 0012Citigroup108, 785. 00-1, 606. 0013Verizon Communications107, 808.
003, 651. 0014McKesson106, 632. 0082315General Motors104, 589. 00N. A.
16American International Group103, 189. 00-10, 949. 0017Cardinal Health99, 612.
901, 151. 6018CVS Caremark98, 729. 003, 696.
0019Wells Fargo98, 636. 0012, 275. 0020International Business Machines95, 758. 0013, 425. 0021UnitedHealth Group87, 138. 003, 822.
0022Procter & Gamble79, 697. 0013, 436. 0023Kroger76, 733. 207024AmerisourceBergen71, 789. 00503. 425Costco Wholesale71, 422.
001, 086. 0026Valero Energy70, 035. 00-1, 982. 0027Archer Daniels Midland69, 207. 001, 707. 0028Boeing68, 281. 001, 312.
0029Home Depot66, 176. 002, 661. 0030Target65, 357. 002, 488. 0031WellPoint65, 028. 104, 745. 9032Walgreen63, 335. 002, 006.
0033Johnson & Johnson61, 897. 0012, 266. 0034State Farm Insurance Cos.
61, 479. 60766. 735Medco Health Solutions59, 804. 201, 280. 3036Microsoft58, 437. 0014, 569.
0037United Technologies52, 920. 003, 829. 0038Dell52, 902. 001, 433. 0039Goldman Sachs Group51, 673.
0013, 385. 0040Pfizer50, 009. 008, 635. 0041Marathon Oil49, 403. 001, 463. 0042Lowes47, 220. 001, 783.
0043United Parcel Service45, 297. 002, 152. 0044Lockheed Martin45, 189.
003, 024. 0045Best Buy45, 015. 001, 003. 0046Dow Chemical44, 945. 0064847Supervalu44, 564. 00-2, 855.
0048Sears Holdings44, 043. 0023549International Assets Holding 43, 604. 4027.
650PepsiCo43, 232. 005, 946. 007. Identify the segments in the target market. Financial Services, Oil & Energy, Manufacturing etc. industries use Indian IT service Providers to optimize the cost and improve the quality of IT Services. Below Diagram depicts the various segments where Indian IT services Companies are competing around the globe.
(Source: Competitor Analysis of Satyam; http://www. docstoc. com/docs/7745418/Competitor-Analysis-of-Satyam/ ) Considering that Thinking-IT is an all-encompassing Services for any large IT Organization, the target market and segment for the new product shall become any Fortune 1000 companies. Below is the list of Companies who get IT services from Indian Providers already.
(Source: FORTUNE 500 annual ranking of Americas largest corporations http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2010/full_list/ )FortuneRankCompanyRevenuesProfits1Wal-Mart Stores408, 214. 0014, 335. 002Exxon Mobil284, 650. 0019, 280.
003Chevron163, 527. 0010, 483. 004General Electric156, 779. 0011, 025. 005Bank of America Corp.
150, 450. 006, 276. 006ConocoPhillips139, 515. 004, 858. 007AT&T123, 018. 0012, 535.
008Ford Motor118, 308. 002, 717. 009J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. 115, 632. 0011, 728.
0010Hewlett-Packard114, 552. 007, 660. 008. Describe the market share each competitor has. As of 2009, from an Indian IT Service Provider standpoint has 7% of the market share of the 50 Billion markets. Infosys is leading with a market share of 38% followed by TCS at 28% and there after Wipro at 26%.
9. Outline the market strategies used by competitors. HCL is a verticalized organization with each industry having its own Vertical Head. Unlike Infosys and Wipro, HCL has Infrastructure also considered as a vertical. Infrastructure Services division of HCL can own the customer whereas only Industry Vertical Partners own the customers in Wipro, TCS and Infosys. The basic fundamental element of services from all IT Services Company is its People and Processes. Below we shall explain details of the products from the competition. (Source: Indian Companies vs.
Global MNCs, Even though the differences get blurred in the short term, the gaps will only widen; Arun Maheshwari)WiproWhat started off as a hydrogenated cooking fat company, Wipro is today is a $5 billion revenue generating IT, BPO and R&D services organization with presence in over 50 countries. Premji started Wipro with the idea of building an organization which was deeply committed to values, in the firm belief that success in business would be its inevitable, eventual outcome. The company has over 72, 000 employees.
Wipros revenues grew by 33% for the year ended March 31, 2008. The net profit grew by 12%. The revenues of the combined IT businesses were $4.
3 billion with 43 per cent YoY growth. InfosysInfosys Technologies Ltd was started in 1981 by seven people with $250. Today, the company boasts of revenues of over $ 4 billion and 94, 379 employees. The company is now headed by Kris Gopalakrishnan.
The income for the quarter ended June 30 2008 was Rs 4, 854 crore (Rs 48. 54 billion). The net profit stood at Rs 1, 302 crore (Rs 13. 02 billion). Tata Consultancy ServicesFounded in 1968, TCS is one of Indias largest corporate houses. It is also Indias largest IT employer with staff strength of 111, 000 employees. The company began as a division of the Tata Group, called the Tata Computer Centre.
Its main business was to offer computer services to other group companies. Soon the company was spun off as Tata Consultancy Services after it realized the huge potential of the booming IT services. Its annual sales worldwide stands at about $5. 7 billion. During the year 2007-08, TCS consolidated revenues grew by 22% to Rs 22, 863 crore ($5.
7 billion). S. Ramadorai is the chief executive officer and managing director of TCS. Part BCompetitive Environment: In this section you will research and compose a summary of the competitive environment as defined by Kotler??™s market concept of competition: ??? in addition to companies making the same product, look at companies that satisfy the same customer need??? (pp. 247-48). Compare four (4) competitors In this section. Depending upon the product you have chosen, in this section you may want to describe the areas in which the proposed product is superior and/or inferior to the competitive products, determine the target consumer group of each competitor and characterize how those target markets are divided.
You may also wish to summarize competitive market shares, analyze the competitor??™s marketing strategies, and determine who provides products that satisfy the same or similar customer needs. Tables and graphics in support of the text are encouraged. (120 points) Below table describes four different competitions for the product mostly in-line with the Thinking-IT Product offering of HCL. HCL Technologies has long been a technology-focused organization. Until recently, it has followed a joint-venture strategy with some of the leading global-technology and application development organizations. HCLs technology heritage has given it strengths, primarily in custom application development and management (ADM), including embedded applications. HCL also has a particular strength in legacy application management, with strong mainframe development skills and resources. It is using some recent wins and projects with SAP and Siebel Systems to expand its packaged-application capabilities.
HCL recently changed its top management. It is trying to move to more of a vertical-industry strategy driven more by value than volume. HCL also is continuing to expand its strategy to build a direct presence in the key markets it serves. HCL is headquartered in Noida, India. (Source: theoutsourceblog)HCL Product Capabilities??? Custom ADM, including embedded application development??? Uses its strong remote-infrastructure-management capabilities as the entry strategy to gain application service projects??? Joint-venture capability in IndiaHCL??™s Full Thinking-IT Product model can help achieve customers essentially but not limited to following??? Outsourcing Clarity??? Quality Governance??? Optimized Controls??? Seamless Transition??? IT Project Visibility and productivity??? IT Resilience??? Real time visibility and risk management??? Application Performance Improvement??? Improved End User satisfaction??? Partner not vendor??? Enterprise wide sourcing strategy??? Focus on core – Business and IT alignment??? Minimized Sourcing Risk??? Accelerated P&L Impact??? Reduced IT Intensity – increased IT maturityHCL through its Thinking-IT solution works towards:??? Achieving Business-IT alignment through a collaborative approach of a Portfolio Management Board??? Rationalizing and optimizing the enterprise application portfolio in-line with the business demand ??? Minimizing sourcing risks; thus, attain better control, higher visibility and transparency on IT budget ??? Increasing P&L impact and accelerate cost savings ??? Attaining business & operation innovation through a focused transformational approach ??? Reducing IT intensity, yet increasing IT maturityHCL New Product Challenges??? Continuing to expand its packaged enterprise application capabilities??? Ramping up its direct-sales presence in key markets??? Expanding its development centers presence in other geographies outside IndiaTata Consultancy Services (TCS)TCS is the pioneer of the offshore model more than 30 years ago, is the largest offshore IT service provider from India. It is a strong provider across the entire application service spectrum, including custom development and packaged applications. TCS went public in 2004.
It is expected to continue its aggressive organic growth while ramping up its inorganic growth through focused acquisitions globally to acquire critical front-end and domain skills in the application service space in each of its major markets. TCS, based in Mumbai, India, has global-service-delivery locations in Hungary, Brazil, Uruguay and China. (Source: theoutsourceblog)TCS Capabilities??? Largest combination of depth and breadth of offerings in application services of pure play offshore providers, including strong technical and technology skills, and enterprise application package capabilities??? Strong domain and business expertise in some vertical industries by using its product presence in those industries, relative to the other Indian pure-play providersLargest global presence of the pure-play providers??? Strong general training capabilities and processes to ramp up the productivity of entry level recruits rapidly??? Relatively strong management depth and capabilities??? Competes aggressively on priceTCS Challenges??? Its branding and marketing efforts have not capitalized on TCS depth and breadth of its capabilities??? Its aggressive pricing could limit TCS rise in mind share as a value-based provider, as opposed to a cost-based provider??? Despite its depth of management, TCS has a highly centralized and somewhat slow-moving decision-making processWipro TechnologiesWipro Technologies is the third-largest Indian application service provider. Its application service offerings cross the gamut of activities from application development and maintenance to enterprise application services and package implementation, verification and validation.
The largest portion of its revenue comes from custom application development and maintenance. (Source: theoutsourceblog)Wipro enjoys a strong market presence in the U. S. and has a significant European representation, which it plans to grow further. In addition to organic growth, Wipro has operated a practice of making strategic acquisitions, such as Spectramind, AMS and NerveWire, to develop emerging market opportunities.
This practice is set to continue. The recent departure of vice chairman and CEO Vivek Paul (who has not been replaced), and a variety of other executive departures, will provide continuity challenges in the near term. Wipro is based in Bangalore, India, and has a global-service-delivery operation in China. Wipro Product Capabilities??? Diversified portfolio and broad-based service offerings??? Well-established client base??? Practice of rotating executives enables broad-based expertise in the executive team??? Strong commitment to quality initiatives??? Continuing high levels of investment in process and quality initiativesWipro Challenges??? Has had mixed success with early acquisitions and has not gained the expected benefits??? Practice of rotating executives may lead to disruption and challenges as Wipro continues to grow strongly and build deeper industry expertise??? The effectiveness of Wipros approach of appointing presidents for each business unit is still unprovenInfosys TechnologiesInfosys Technologies is the second-largest offshore IT service provider from India.
It provides services across the entire spectrum of application services, including custom development and packaged applications. A key aspect of Infosys strategy is to use the efforts of its consulting subsidiary established in the U. S.
to propel it higher up the value chain across all of its offshore service lines. Its growth strategy is predominantly organic. It has not pursued global acquisition aggressively, unlike some of its competitors. Overall, Infosys is a high-quality provider, but its services typically are priced higher than most of its competitors services. The company positions itself as distinct, warranting a premium over the competition, and hence is typically intransigent on rates. Infosys, based in Bangalore, India, has global-service-delivery locations in the Czech Republic, China, Mauritius and Australia. (Source: theoutsourceblog)Infosys Product Capabilities??? High-quality, full-service provider with a broad application service portfolio??? Typically attracts and hires among the best resources in India??? High-caliber corporate governance and transparency principles relative to other pure play offshore providers??? Aggressive marketing and branding planning and execution??? Strong management capability relative to the other pure-play offshore providersInfosys Challenges??? Continued justification in the market for its premium rate structure??? Effectively using its consulting subsidiary capabilities in its core application service business??? Maintaining its depth and quality of management, recently hit by some high-level departures??? Reconciling and maintaining the sanctity and profitability of the global-delivery business model, while integrating its front-end consulting presence.
From a domestic hardware player, HCL shall become hardware, software and outsourcing company by introducing this new Thinking-IT Services. HCL shall be expanding internationally in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa. As part of the Thinking-IT Strategy HCL shall be looking for acquisitions. In preparation for the Thinking-IT Services, HCL bought 25 acres of land in Greater Noida, India and are opening other facilities in Mohali, Jaipur and Pondicherry. At this point in time, Competition products are not Integrated and comprehensive as Thinking-IT as explained in earlier section. Since Thinking-IT is essentially process driven, this offering also can be easily replicated. The essence of Thinking-IT is Transformation. HCL has been ranked # 1 in both Tier 1 Traditional IT Infrastructure Outsourcing and Remote Infrastructure Management Outsourcing (RIMO) space in the 2009-10 survey conducted by Datamonitor.
The survey covers over 700 contracts held by 3, 100 of the top ITO spending corporations and organizations globally and shares results across tier 1 and mid-tier companies. HCL Technologies has won the top slot because of its focus on innovation, training and building long lasting client relationships by ensuring great customer experience. HCL has recently been rated positive in Gartner Market Scope for Data Center Outsourcing, North America. Recently, TPI names HCL among the top 10 Infrastructure Outsourcing vendors. HCL currently manages over 1 million devices and the IT Infrastructure needs of over 1 million end users. The company leverages its extensive global offshore and near shore global delivery locations to provide multi-service delivery in key industries verticals. (Source: theoutsourceblog) Part COpinion and Recommendations: The final part of your report should be your own personal opinion of the proposed product??™s prospects for success and an explanation of the reasoning behind your conclusions.
This is the ??? bottom line??? for your client as you see it. Include three (3) recommendations for steps that will improve the product??™s chances to succeed. (90 points) NOTE: It may be helpful to revisit Kotler, Chapter 9 as a reference for the essentials of what you??™ll need to include in your analysis.
Other useful marketing books and publications may also be cited. For an industry you are familiar with, your own observations can be valuable. Specific supporting information is available from many secondary research sources, including the following: 1. Company Web Sites and Literature2. Industry Trade Show Observations and Contacts3. Online Databases, including ProQuest, DIALOG, Lexis-Nexis, EBSCO, First Source, PROMPT, Trade & Industry, and Investext.
4. TV Networks5. Hoover6. Investment Houses and Brokers7. Dow Jones/FactivaIn my Opinion, HCL will succeed in its Thinking-IT product release in the market and they will be able to tap more revenue from emerging markets, North America and Europe. They must develop Marketing and Advertising strategy according to local preferences. The fundamental goal today is to maximize ROI across the spectrum of CIOs portfolio, and at the same time, ensure that the IT strategy is powerfully aligned to the overall organizations business strategy. Thinking-IT must address all such considerations.
Some competitions have been trying a ??? Total-IT outsourcing??™ model – which is the broadest ever tried Model wherein the client companies effectively hand off the entire IT department to the service provider. This is to derive the benefits of high cost impact, defocusing from the non-core activities, flexibility, and exposure to new technologies. From a Methodology or framework standpoint, Thinking-IT helps organizations to??? Reduce overall IT Expenditure on current YOY basis??? Achieve operational excellence across IT Services Portfolio??? Business Value & Strategic Leadership of IT??? Thought leadership from Outsourcing ProviderIt is important that customer feedback mechanisms are in place for the Product. Customer centric value offerings establish the difference between services and services+.
The difference comes from unique customer insights and value propositions backed by competencies and validated by customer experience. From an offering standpoint, Thinking-IT must address all of the following IT Services to ensure that is comprehensive and exclusive and it makes Thinking-IT unique in the market place.??? Application Development??? Application Management and Operations??? Application Portfolio Optimization??? Enterprise Content Management (ECM)??? Enterprise Resource Planning??? Full Services Co-Sourcing??? Independent Verification and Validation??? Mainframe Services??? Mechanical Lifecycle Engineering??? Remote Infrastructure Management??? Software as a Service (SaaS)??? Systems Engineering??? Software Engineering??? SOA Reference Architecture??? Web TechnologyI recommend following 5 marketing strategies for HCL to inform more customers about their Thinking-IT product launch. 1. Conduct HCL Global Customer Meet: Where all the CIOs, VP IT, Directors IT and HCL Leadership shall talk about HCL New Products, Global trends and direction in Information technology. We must target a total of 1000 participants including 600 customers, thought leaders, 50+ analysts and advisors came together from across more than 350 global organizations to define the rules of ??? The New Normal??™. There should be more than 70 speakers at the Global Customer Meet who must address topics around transformation in management, business and technology. 2.
Participate in Gartner Market Scope for Data Center Outsourcing. In North America they have Rated HCL Positive to have the necessary technical skills and resources to support most client requirements, and offer high-quality services. Gartner acknowledgements on HCL??™s competitive pricing, number and quality of skilled resources, flexibility on engagement management, and experience in providing offshore, and experience in providing offshore, shared resource environments will help us to get more visibility with our prospects..
. Gartner rating of HCL on the basis of their market understanding, vertical/ industry strategy, innovation, product and service, overall viability (business unit, financial strategy, and organization), operations and customer service is key to focus more customers. 3. Partnership with Forrester: In the IT Services Market space, Analysis like Forresters assessment and ratings are very critical for getting visibility with Global customers. Forester has Featured HCL in their Research Study on Managed Desktop Services in EMEA. HCL was among the Only Two Indian MNCs Featured in the report. These references and endorsements by Analysts have helped in the past and continue to work with them for our New Service Offerings would help us achieve more. 4.
Participate in more Local IT Shows and events: There are various CIO Events, CTO Events where lot of technology similar thinking leaders participates. It will be a great opportunity for HCL to have these leaders hear about HCL new service Offering. 5. Develop more extensive Brochures for the new service officering. New Service Offering and related brochures must be prepared and mailed to local IT leaders.
Each catalogue must be made in line with regional requirements and cultural understanding. References1. Global IT Cloud Computing: India vs. China; James Rickman; Retrieved from http://seekingalpha.
com/article/166176-global-it-cloud-computing-india-vs-china on 10th May 20102. The Outsource Blog; Multiple Authors; Retrieved from http://www. theoutsourceblog. com/ on 10th May 20103. Indian Companies VS Global MNCs , Even though the differences get blurred in the short term, the gaps will only widen ; Arun Maheshwari ; Friday, April 15, 2005; retrieved from http://dqindia. ciol. com/content/top_stories/2005/105041501. asp 4.
FORTUNE 500 annual ranking of Americas largest corporations; retrieved from http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2010/full_list/; retrieved on 10th May 2010. 5. Competitor Analysis of Satyam; Retrieved from http://www. docstoc.
com/docs/7745418/Competitor-Analysis-of-Satyam/ retrieved on 10th May 2010. 6. HCL Annual Reports pulled from following website on 10th May 2010 http://www. hcltech. com/investors/Downloads/FR/Q3_FY10. pdf
