Advanced Computer Software Group Ltd - Advisability of the Expansion Strategy - Case Study Example

• Executive Summary

Advanced Computer Software Group Ltd. is one of the largest software firms in the UK where the internship was done. Though the software industry in the UK is approaching a maturity stage, there is still a lot of competition in the market. The growth in the industry is slowing down each year and that is one of the reasons for the companies to find new markets to expand to where the potential is high. During the internship, an insight on different industries that depend on the information technology (IT) and software sector for their requirements was received. Entrepreneurial skills were also developed, to approach the problems and issues in innovative ways. Creative thinking was also developed to meet the marketing and sales challenges. The internship also provided an exposure to a culturally diverse environment. The report will provide an analysis of the company and the industry it is functional in. The learning outcome of the internship will also be discussed.

• About the Company

The UK IT and software industry is reaching a maturity stage, but it still has immense potential to develop in the near future. IT is one of those sectors that can never go out of business, even at maturity stage. This is because, every business needs IT and reaching a maturity stage is not going to change the fact that, it is one of the most important sectors to be functional at the present times (Riley, 2016). Over the years, the growth in the IT and software industry in UK has slowed down (Kutcher, 2014). Following is the representation of the total IT market in the UK in the past few years.

Graph1. Software Market Value in the UK (2011-2014)

(Source: Statista, 2016)

The UK software and IT sector market fell consecutively for four years till 2011. In 2011, the growth rate dropped by dropped by 3% (Information Age, 2012). There are many reasons for this downfall, the most prominent one being the increasing economic crisis in Europe. There is no new investment being made in the IT and software sector. Additionally, a reason for the downfall is that the high growth rate requires paying higher returns to the stakeholders (Kutcher, 2014). Also, it is difficult to sustain a high growth. Very few companies are able to sustain the growth rate that they achieve in the initial years. Once these companies lose the growth rate, very few are able to recapture them (Kutcher, 2014).

Advanced Computer Software Group Ltd. (ACS) is a software solutions company, which deals with the problems of many sectors. Healthcare, retail, transport, education, charity, legal, financial, local and central government of UK, manufacturing, airlines etc. are to mention a few (Sectors, 2016). ACS at present has 365 services divisions managed by the company that provide solutions to public and private sector companies, at both enterprise and mid level markets. In the year 2012, the company acquired Computer Software Holdings Ltd. There are many challenges that the IT and Software industry are facing in the recent times. Starting from economic downfall to decreased level of investment, the global software industry faces many issues at present.

Regarding the present issues faced by the company, Chief Marketing Officer of ACS was interviewed where these matter were addressed. Following are the details of the interview:

1. What are the main challenges that the company is facing at present?

Response: We are eagerly searching for new investors, who can invest in the expansion plans of the company. We are looking forward to form a strong relationship with all our investors and working together. This is in the best interest of both the company and the investors.

2. When are you planning for the expansion and which markets are your primary targets for the expansion?

Response: We have been planning for the expansion for quite some time now. The higher management has been under constant discussion and has trying to reach a decision about the issue. The main markets that we are considering for the expansion are Singapore and China.

3. Are you looking forward to expanding your workforce anytime soon?

Response: We are very happy and content of the workforce that we have right now. Once the expansion plan is implemented, there will definitely be a requirement for staff in the business units of Singapore and China. Till then, we are not very eager about expanding our workforce as finding the right fit for the company is a time consuming and challenging task, which we are planning to avoid at the instant.

4. Is ACS planning to launch any new product anytime soon?

Response: We had launched five new products and applied for a number of patents as well in the last quarter. This quarter we are taking it a bit slow as we are very seriously considering our expansion plans. Our main focus at the moment is to enter the market of China and Singapore, where ACS sees a high potential of growth.

Depending upon the responses that were received, it can be inferred that ACS being the third largest company in the UK market faces few of the challenges too (Fullerton, 2016). The main challenge is to build a right culture in the company and find people who fit into that culture. ACS invests lot of resources to train and hire its staff. It is very important to find the right people for the organisation so that they are able to adjust in there and continue to serve ACS for a long time.

The next challenge for ACS is to establish the functional processes into the company. The company requires in building the right set of activities in order to provide a proper flow to the activities of the organisation. This will help it in going forward in the right direction towards the goals and visions.

The next step for ACS is to focus on getting the right talent pool for the organization. This is another very important step as only through efficient talent pool, it can find solution to the given problems. Effective talent pool is also one of the most important resources of any company, without which it is not possible to function (McKinsey&Company, 2015). There are many challenges related to the growth of the company too. In any software company, internationalization should be considered right from the beginning. Most of the customers all over the globe have similar requirements of software. Going global right from the beginning would provide the company with the required knowledge and experience that is needed to deal with the clients on a much larger platform.ACS was in dilemma about the right time to step into the international markets.

The next challenge that ACS is facing is to achieve a fast growth in the sector. The highly competitive and maturing market of IT and Software requires companies to grow at a rapid pace. As soon as these companies have a solution that is good enough to attract customers on a global level, they should opt for international expansion. In the absence of fast growth, the company would be easily replaced by its competitors.

Focusing on future profitability is one of the other challenges for the company. Technology keeps changing and there is constant growth in the sector, with new technology replacing the old ones every few years. This requires ACS to stay ahead in the competition and find new areas in which the company can grow in the future (McKinsey&Company, 2015).

The culture at ACS is quite diverse. There are people from various cultural and social backgrounds. This provides the company with a diverse work force with a wide pool of talent to work with. This also presents the company with the challenge to guide and train this wide variety of workforce to achieve the goals of the organisation. The company holds a high standard of corporate governance in a very flexible and entrepreneurial manner that meets the requirements of the stakeholder in the best possible ways (Investors, 2016).

• Observations about the company

The main competitors of ACS in the UK market are, Oracle Corporation UK Limited, Detica Group Limited and Mc Kesson Information Solutions UK Limited. The firm is facing a tough competition from these competitors (Hoovers, 2016). As the software and IT market is reaching a maturity stage where the growth is declining every year, the companies are getting into aggressive competition to improve technology and provide new solutions to clients as well as to capture majority of the market share. After establishing itself in the UK market, the main focus of the company now is to expand into the international markets.

ACS needs to focus more on the development of technology if it has to survive in the market. Although the company is planning for expansion into international markets by reaching out to China and Singapore, it will lose out in these markets if technological requirements of the clients are not met. ACS needs to invest more in research and development. The company also needs to find the right investors to help it expand into the international markets. Internationalization requires a lot of investment, which is not possible without resources. The investors will play a key role in the expansion plan of the company, hence it is very important for the company to find the right investors who fits with the company profile and will benefit from the return on their investment.

ACS will have to form a proper strategy in order to expand into the market of China and Singapore. The company must have the right kind of products and the right segment to target in these markets. Although the requirements of the clients are similar all over the world when it comes to IT and software industry, there may be specific requirements that is precise to a particular market. ACS has to do a proper market research in order to understand these factors in order to meet these requirements. The company will also have to hire the right staff in order to fit the profile of the company. Hiring the right talent pool will ensure a smooth functioning of the activities of the company. With so many latest technologies coming up every few years, the company has to find the talent pool that has the knowledge of these latest technologies.

• Entrepreneurial Organisation

ACS is one of the leading firms of UK that has an entrepreneurial culture, that encourages innovative idea generation for governance and technological field. The leaders of the company have set an example of great entrepreneurial caliber (). An example is Vin Murria, the CEO of the company, who was awarded the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award by Grand Thornton LLP, in the year 2014. She holds a strong position in the technological space of the company. The CEO carried out many acquisitions that helped the company in increasing its revenue as well as profit. It is because the company provides great learning opportunity to the employees so that they are able to grow in their professional life (Advanced Computer Software Group, 2014).

In a previous organisation that I had worked, the company was very rigid with its decisions. There was not much scope of growth for the employees and they did not have any particular involvement in the decision making process. They were expected to follow the set standards and follow the tested ways of the company to finish the task. The environment at ACS was much different. The interns were always encouraged about thinking different and find out solutions to the problems in an innovative way, through their tasks. They were encouraged to take calculated risks in order to complete a given task. It is very important for an entrepreneur to accept the ideas and opinions of others. In the brainstorming sessions, there used to be project discussions before starting the projects which let the interns develop a clear idea about the tasks and also come up with innovative ways of performing the task.

The previous organisation that I had worked for had a localized workforce and did not offer much experience of working with a diverse work culture. ACS on the other hand has a diverse workforce where people from different cultural background work together. This not only opened up the learning experience of people, but also helped them in acquiring different technical knowledge too.

• Conclusion

Working with ACS was one of the most valuable experiences ever. The company has a diverse work culture, the impact of which is reflected on the performance of the company. The most rewarding experience was getting the opportunity of working with a culturally diverse work force. This not only helped in acquiring knowledge about different business cultures, but also provided a great guidance on learning about different marketing techniques. Working together also helped in generating innovative ideas through brainstorming. As ACS is functional in so many different sectors, working for the company provided an exposure to all these industries. It helped in gaining an understanding of the product requirements of different industries and how to pitch for them. It also presented an understanding of how to meet the requirements of the client in a way that both the client and the company are benefitted from the deal. One of the most rewarding experiences of the internship was to work under the guidance of such experienced leaders.

The least rewarding experience of working for ACS was the unclear decisions regarding the expansion of the business. The management was in a dilemma if it was a good idea to go for the expansion strategy at that moment. They kept planning an expansion strategy for a long time and got the employees, including the marketing interns involved in the strategy. This led to major changes in the job profile, responsibilities and structure. Then it was found that investors were not available for the project. This not only led to a huge chaos in the working format but also the organizational structure. The confused attitude of the management was one of the major problems that the interns faced while working for the company.

Overall experience of working for the company was an excellent one. It helped the interns in developing an idea of the real world business meeting, negotiations and closing the deals which are the most important skills that a marketer must have. It also helped in acquiring the experience of working in a diverse cultural background, different business cultures, exposure to different industries and working with very significant clients.

There are few changes that must be brought into the organisation in order to successfully launch it in the international markets and to survive there in the long run. The company must arrange for the financial requirements and the right investors. ACS must also perform a proper market research about the requirements of the market, the particular types of client that are present in these markets and the competitors that are active in these markets. As most of the clients in the software industry have similar requirements, there is not much of product differentiation that can be done. The company can try to develop competitive advantage by differentiating their services to the competitors. They can also provide promotional offers to attract more potential customers, at the time of launch. The company should also pay attention to develop its product category by investing more in research and development. It should also hire more people form technical background to increase the talent pool, which will be able to meet the requirements of the evolving technological needs.