Calendar Application (Research Paper Sample)

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THE COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT
Our innovation in the technology sector is the introduction of the calendar app. This app is targeting to make scheduling off meetings easier. As the number of people involved in a business grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to get a particular time that all the parties are free and available for a meeting (Goldsmith 9). In view of this difficulty created by the increasing complexity of web of relation involved in a single business and how it interlinks with others, our team set out to create an innovation that links the calendar of events for all the concerned parties and uses the data to find the next available time when every party is free. It is therefore easy to schedule meetings. Our innovation targets industries where meetings are the central part of the business. Though this App will be intensely useful in all fields including social-since, the modern world have rendered it hard to set even dates for family and friends reunions, for the sake of this paper I will look at the sales and marketing industry.
The sales and marketing industry targets in linking producers of particular commodities with clients. It involves in arranging numerous meetings between the producer and the client and other relevant agencies such as government authorities that are necessary on the actualization of the deals that will take place. This agency will have to schedule a meeting at a time where representatives from the three fields are available to transact. Finding time for this can be very difficult especially when one has to organize several meetings at once. The advantage of using our calendar app is the ease with which one can find a relevant date at the comfort of their desk thus saving on massive resources and time. Also, if one was to carry out several deals with say one government agency and several buyers on different deals, one can easily find how to find a common suitable date to hold all the meetings.
Through this App, we will have maximization of profits for this industries by first of all reducing the running costs since it will cut on costs incurred running from one office to the other to set dates (Mateescu 13). It will also do so by consolidating a customer base by giving the firms a competitive advantage over others through utmost efficiency. This efficiency also ensures that as many deals as possible are scheduled within the shortest possible time. Also, it will increase the productivity of these target firms.
The customer base for this product is very comprehensive. In the recent parts, large investments involve in sales and marketing have grown worldwide. These include areas such as real estates and housing that involve billions of dollars every year. For this businesses, time is a very vital input since a single deal is worth millions and cannot be lost. Finding an appropriate time to meet the client is thus of prime importance. The people involved in these businesses are more often than not high-end executives with no time to waste. They are characterized by large calendar events and very little free time. It is therefore extremely difficult to find an open window for meetings. Hence, it is expected that App will help the sellers to procure meetings. With the recent technological advancements, the people involved in these businesses continually find it difficult to engage in social contacts such as queuing on a reception to schedule a date. It will be very convenient if the only requirement is to link their calendar to an App that will do these calculations. Another characteristic of these people is that since they are businessmen, often traversing the world in such of new ventures. It is difficult to locate them in one central position for manual setting of dates. This app will help such a person schedule a meeting at the comfort of their private jet enroot to another meeting.
The porter’s five competitive forces are forces that determine how profit is shared in a business. In an industry that deals with the same kind of services, some companies gain more benefits than the other based on this competitive forces (Barney 32). The forces include: supplier power, which relates to concentration, differentiation, volume and the like, threat of substitutes which involves such things as price performance and buyer inclination to substitutes, degree of rivalry which will involve how concentrated the industry is and such things as identity of the brand, consumer power defining his volume, level of information and his leverage and finally the threat of new entrants determined by government [olicies, brand identities, propriety learning curves amongst other factors. In the sales and marketing industries, such factors play a very vital roles. Buyers will approach a company based on its brands identity and their inclination. For businesses worth millions of shillings, a buyer will not be willing to risk a fraudulent engagement. Established entities carry the benefit of trust which means that customers are more likely to trust them to handle these deals. An improved efficiency that the body will benefit from this app is furthermore going to diminish any inclination of a potential client shifting to another company (Click 28). Established companies are more likely to attract well-established buyers. A buyer will want to identify with an efficient counterpart for the ease of business but also for the prestige associated with relating to such entities. Image is therefore critical in this business and digitizing all the activities is one way of raising the stakes when it comes to attracting buyers.
The intended competitive strategies that are introduced by use of this app are cost and differentiation. There will be a reduction in the running cost of businesses. Technically, without this app, scheduling of meetings involves a trip to the offices involved to look and compare calendars, the go to the other parties’ premises to do the same. At its best, there is the use of long phone calls. This processes are expensive and tedious. Money is saved through reduction of man-power and fuel that could have been used to do this. Time is also a vital resource that is saved and can be used in another income generating venture. Since a lot of time is saved, this allows the firm to venture into other businesses. These companies can run more meetings efficiently and so can differentiate in other businesses.
The competitive advantage introduced by this App is efficiency (Barney 20). It is maintained with a faithfulness to enhancing other support mechanisms. These include ensuring use of the most current digital technologies so as to be sure that new technological advancements are compatible with the systems (Chase 44). A skilled and committed workforce is also very necessary for this venture. With this advancement, it is no longer necessary for one to be at their desk to set a meeting. One can work in the comfort of their home. However, it will require high levels of discipline. It is geared toward maintaining customer trust and satisfaction so that they will not lured by other investment companies. The desirability of this app will rise as the businesses are established since communication becomes more and more important in today’s world.
One of the barriers we intend is the use of copyright principles (Marburger 19). We have registered the App and therefore we expect to enjoy using the technology for several years. Anyone wishing to use the product will have to submit a fee to us according to the law.
The critical success factors of this endeavor are a commitment to the advancement of this innovation. Gadgets are changing with every waking day, and this innovation must always be updated to be compatible with this developments.
The risked that can be associated with the barriers is that it’s not impossible that a new industry will come up with an almost similar App even without breaching copyright. It will mean we have no monopoly on this efficiency, and we have to compete and win!
However, this risks can be mitigated by proper marketing of the innovation to establish a solid market base as well as keeping abreast with technological advancements (Wood 56). Therefore, we can identify upcoming threats and improve our innovation so that it remains the preferred choice of the buyer.
Work Cited
1 "Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior ..." Web. 30 Apr. 2015. .
2 Goldsmith, David. "Rethinking the Company's Competitive Advantage." Financial Executive 1 July 2013. Print.
3 Mateescu, Liviu. "Competition, Competence, Competitive Advantage.(Report)." Annals of DAAAM & Proceedings 2009. Print.
4 Barney, Jay B. Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002. Print.
5 Barney, Jay B, and Delwyn N. Clark. Resource-based Theory Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
6 Bessant, J. R. High-involvement Innovation B...