Strategic Growth Plan for Market Dojo - Case Study Example

Strategic Growth plan al Affiliation: STRATEGIC GROWTH PLAN Introduction Market Dojo is a new e- procurement software company basedin Southwest of United Kingdom. The company was founded by graduate students at Bristol University, who had experience in advanced software, procurement, engineering, and consultancy. The company currently offers e- auction and e- sourcing software. Their software is easy to use with the professional process and transparent pricing (Cogswell, 2004). Market Dojo offers both reverse auction and forward auction. The history of e- auction goes way back in 500 BC in Babylon, where daughters were sold through e- auction though it was considered unlawful. Later in 193 AD, the whole of Roman Empire was put for auction by the Praetorian Guard. In 18th century, there was an auction that was carried out in Taverns and coffeehouses where it was used to sell art. In around 1990s, there emerged the first internet- based auction materials and in the mid-1995, Glen Meakem, who was McKinsey consultant, started Free Markets. In the year 2004, Ariba did the purchase of Free Market and by today very many companies offer various types of bids including a reverse auction (Cogswell, 2004). He procurement process follows a cycle that begins with preparation, negotiation, and lastly implementation process. The development process in e- auction is longer than it is in face to face negotiation. Here, there are tight conditions, and everything is restricted on the supplier who only negotiates on the price. Furthermore, e- auction involves negotiation of several suppliers; therefore there are a lot of energies invested at the preparation level. However, ones the supplier has gotten into the system, the subsequent years do not require a lot of time for preparation. The second process requires negotiation, at such a point there is extreme talk, and many suppliers negotiate within a given timescales. As they negotiate the price of the good or the serviced decrease such that by the time are done the price is favorable to the buyers who will be willing to choose the price that fits them. The last process that is implementation is based on the company; it should be done in a straightforward and transparent way that favors both the supplier and the buyer (Cogswell, 2004). Question one How the company can stay at the top to grow rapidly and carve out their shares of the market using the existing business strategy. The Market Dojo finds it so challenging entering into an e- sourcing space where there are bigger companies such as Oracle, SAP and Ariba already offering excellent services to the customers (Testa, 2009). Market Dojo strives to have a share of the market with these well- established companies by taking advantage of the cloud computing technology. From the onset Market Dojo thought it was an awkward thing convincing the customers that their services were better than those offered by the companies that had been in the field for more than a decade. Moreover, Market Dojo also wondered whether there was room for it in the market where they could offer their services (Cogswell, 2004). E-auctions to SaaS The obvious model shifts away from the achieved e- auction service en route for the software- as- a- service (SaaS) (Lee, 2010). They allow any company to run their e- auction, make basic concepts very attractive to them. The ancient managed auction service has been considered a luxury product in the market, affordable only by those companies with significant areas of spend, whose cash flow allow for a high level of investments. However, by pricing cloud software at a level whereby most customers can afford, Market Dojo believes that they can create their market niche. Market Dojo has enjoyed the privilege that there are few companies who have joined the e- sourcing market from the year 2001. For that reason, therefore, there are few companies in the industry who can successfully adapt the structure and strategy around the Software- as- a- service model. Furthermore, the team of highly skilled- sourcing consultants recruited by all the competing companies will find themselves largely redundant in a SaaS company. Therefore, it would be a very brave manager of Market Dojo to make the irreversible call to switch to a software model. By the year 2010, the only dormant company that made the decision to acquire the SaaS services was Ariba though it made very little success that was an advantage to Market Dojo. Market Dojo shared their vision that SaaS was the future of e- sourcing market. Market Dojo took advantage over the market that that was no company that was offering e- auction software that was easy to operate and with transparent pricing. Pay As You Go and Annual membership model The strategy allowed the customers to do purchasing in Market Dojo at their convenience and terms. It was a good way of competing with other companies because unlike other companies, and there was no monthly subscription or any extra revenue that the customer was to pay. Moreover, the e- procurement in Market Dojo offered transparency in pricing such that the customer can decide in prior whether to engage in the price negotiation or not. If the price quoted has not satisfied the need of the customer, he will not engage in the negotiation. However, if the price has attracted them, they will quickly engage in the negotiation. No training costs There was need to manage the e- auction strategy as used by Market Dojo. Therefore, in doing that the company decided that is should offer training to the customers so that they can know more about the services offered. The company started a comprehensive training at the same time giving supportive documents to the client. In most cases, the company does train in the net, and anybody can access the information free of charge. Moreover, Market Dojo offers phone, mail and live conversation with the customer. The company also allows for strategic consultations from the aspiring customers and the ones who are already using e- procurement software. Market Dojo has always ensured that it does not turn down the request for help or clarification from the customer. The free training mostly targeted the vulnerable and the less literate in the society who had a difficult time in understanding the operation of the software. Commoditized software sector Commodity software supplier is an area that is mostly used by Market Dojo. In this case the e- auction is presented to the overall public market as an off- the self and easy- to use commodity. The system operates like in spheres of social media such as Facebook, Hotmail, and e- mails. Apart from Market Dojo other companies also exploit this area; therefore, Market Dojo has maintained its standards by offering highly professional services at considerably low prices. Moreover, Market Dojo should give support to its customers so that they continue having trust on their services. Question two Reverse auction models and dynamic environment strategy as used by micro company like Market Dojo to scale the business organically A reverse auction is a kind of sale, whereby the duties played by the buyers and sellers, are reversed. In this type of auction, the bidder is the seller instead of being the buyer like in the typical cases. The bid shows the amount that the buyer is requested to pay. It is a web - based auction that has become and it is very active in purchasing a lot of goods and services at the corporate category. The application reverse auction by market Dojo can be beneficial to both the buyer and the seller. It will be helpful to the consumer in that it will reduce the cost and time expenditure. With a reverse auction, buyers construct a project description and post it on the net. Market Dojo can then send an invitation to the qualified sellers so as to put a bid by giving all the details and qualifications pertaining to their bids. Doing this, will give buyers easy time when choosing the bid the suits them. Market Dojo can design their software such that it presents buyers with a platform whereby they communicate with the sellers especially when they need more clarification concerning the bid. On the other hand, Market Dojo must spend a good fortune on designing the reverse auction because it is costly and time involves wastage of time it deals with expensive goods and services. Reverse auction is also beneficial to the sellers because it creates a wider market for potential buyers. To ensure that the reverse auction is a success, Market Dojo has to examine a few measures, for instance, the specification of the category. The reverse auction emphasizes on bidding from equal business terms; therefore the prices set aside by a bidder should be comparable with other bidders going by the standard of the goods. Market Dojo must put into consideration the market liquidity before it starts the reverse auction. It has to consider the number of the bidders who are willing to use the e- procurement software otherwise it can run at a lost. Apart from the market liquidity, the right timing is also important as far as the reverse auction is concerned. Market Dojo should be swift when giving the result of the bidding to the buyers. Carrying out reverse auction can only be effective when the when there is the employment of skilled resource person. It is because the robust technology and methodology employed in the database require a lot of specialized presell. For that case, therefore, Market Dojo will have to seek for these resources so as to compete effectively with the already existing companies like Bravo Solution and Free Market or Arabia. However, on top of the reverse auction, the same software of market dojo can be reutilized for forward auctions for events corresponding to asset clearance, wherever the podia similar to eBay lack the proficiency. Market Dojo aims to adventure in such undeveloped markets in order to take full advantage of their possibility perspective. Question three Market Dojo is pioneers in the changing environment or will they become a “me too” by identifying a directions that market dojo could move into without breaking out of the directives of e- sourcing. The e- auction is a challenging area of marketing and therefore Market Dojo has to put way forward to enable it goes through the challenges successfully. The first challenge that Market Dojo would experience is the difficulty in selling the e- auction software to the organizations. For Market Dojo to win the confidence of the customers, it had to do a demonstration, yet the whole process required time and resources. In order to overcome this challenge, the Market Dojo had to streamline its process of sales. Another best way to sell the e- procurement software is putting into clear to the website by categorically posting its benefit to the potential customers. As on way of publicity, the website can be used to serve other purposes, for instance, it can arena for advertisement, webinars, conferences, important marketing campaigns, networking among others. In a bid to doing all those, the primary role of the software should never be forgotten. Face- to- face can also be a way of marketing the software. After the successful demonstration is done, Market Dojo can now invite the customers by motivating them to register to the website and do the procurement. Market Dojo by contributing to these selections of actions feels it is distinctively positioned to take e-auctions to the subsequent level and juncture in their advancement. Not only can Market Dojo physique on the indulgent that previously were in the marketplace, which inappropriately is incessantly cumulating the supplementary exceptional their entrants become with their accomplished e-auctions facilities. Furthermore, their software can also be promoted to any ordinary procuring proficient by providing a precise little obstacle to entry with respect to price, usability, and preeminent practice. The meaning of the term average is any practice that has a clad clasp of e-procurement; expend scrutiny, RFQ collecting, and purveyor sourcing. Market Dojo realized identifies that by tackling the typical procuring proficient, their software will not be apt to enormous initiatives, for instance, the main superstores that run composite, combinatorial e-auctions nearly on a day-to-day basis. Market Dojo made the pronouncement early in their progressive phase to emphasize their produce hitherto pursued to combine functionality to provide for ninety out of a hundred of the auction market (Lee, 2010). Nevertheless on top of the reverse auction, the same software of market dojo can be reutilized for forward auctions for events corresponding to asset clearance, wherever the podia similar to eBay lack the proficiency (Cogswell, 2004). Market Dojo aims to adventure in such undeveloped markets in order to take full advantage of their possibility perspective. An additional income stream that market dojo recognizes is to slant the procuring consultancies and pro tem procuring bosses, as there is an indistinct connection in their auctions and marketing objectives. Stereotypically e-sourcing software would need several months to advance and would sustain momentous charges. Therefore, it is a key obstacle to entry for the market gap consultancies, of which there are numerous in the market of UK alone. In its place, the consultancies and interludes bid their aids, knowledge and means as an amenity to succor their customers with plummeting cost in their resource chain (Cogswell, 2004). Nevertheless, owing to the high and extremely modest price level of market dojo elucidation, consultancies might now be desirous of accepting the software hooked to their peculiar service offering to their customers (Testa, 2009). Not merely would such benefit Market Dojo to swiftly permeate the market through a conglomerated linkage, it would as well produce manifold income streams from selling both straight to the consultancies or ultimately to the customers they engross with. Same scarce participants would be able to achieve correspondingly such kind achievement since they obligate their in-house consultants to take primacy. Conspicuously, the preponderance of the market dojo tactics was fixated on the private part. The foremost intention was the lesser obstacle to the entrance. The public part, although, on the other hand, has as an enormous market latent and has a bestowed dogmatic e-auction was on the other hand subjugated by a minority of large officialdoms (Cogswell, 2004). Market Dojo similarly has prodigious motivation in the more proficient horizontal market. They specified their targets of proposing their resolution to the customers; a downright unexploited market. Additionally, the inventiveness would provide for new enterprise for forward auction like assets and lands. Such latent for new commerce is huge and would only need new website strategies with the similar e-auction engine incorporated into the obscure end (Testa, 2009). One of the exclusive features of market dojo contribution was their imbursement system. Market Dojo presented double imbursement tactics. The first method was the Pay-As-You-Go kind approach. The next was a yearly license ideal. In conclusion, Market Dojo has exceptionally excelled in providing suitable e- procurement software to its customers. In its strategy, it has put in place has benefitted both the supply and the buyers (Testa, 2009). Furthermore in its bid to deliver quality services it has reduced the economic pressure in the market. , it has also excelled in the global competition amidst big companies like Ariba. Hyper competition and how to go global Hyper competition is a quick and lively competition characterized by unjustifiable benefit. It is the state of rapid appreciation of competition grounded on price worth competition positioning, struggle to defend or occupy reputable product or physical markets and war based on profound receptacles (Lee, 2010). Hyper competition in Market Dojo is as a result of new the e- procurement software that they have launched into the market, this result into change influx in the standards provided (Lee, 2010). In such a case competition become so difficult because companies like Ariba, which are solidly established in the industry, take advantage of the new software. In order to respond to the high-velocity nature of the market, Market Dojo can strategize by building a temporary advantage over the already established company. For instance, it can invest in e- sourcing. Moreover, Market Dojo can increase its performance ranks in the software vending by through the following ways: competing with a range of actively corresponding goods and services (Lee, 2010). Market Dojo can form a merchandise market portfolio that has robust complementarity connection with other products and services that other competing companies offer their software. Another way is through purposeful response to the dynamic product in the industry. Lastly, it can take advantage of the services that it offers to its customers so that it betters them. Suggestion on how Market Dojo can go global. One of the way through which Market Dojo so as to go global is by remaining dynamic and customer- focused. Such a step will make it increase its reputation within its customers thus making it a global figure. Moreover, Market Dojo can spread out its branches to other strategic nations; this will further influence customers from all over the globe to using the software instead of other companies’. Market Dojo can also strategize on making a website whereby most of the internet user can see the services that they offer. Lastly market dojo can also consider launching a global campaign through public education in partnership with reputable firms like Google. References Cogswell, J. (2004). Designing Highly Useable Software. Alameda, CA, USA: Sybex. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com DCosta, A. P., & Sridharan, E. (Eds.). (2004). India in the Global Software Industry: Innovation, Firm Strategies and Development. Gordonsville, VA, USA: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com LEE, C., VENKATRAMAN, N., TANRIVERDI, H. and Iyer, B. (2010). 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