Unit IV

Running head: MICROSOFT 1

MICROSOFT 7

Microsoft SWOT analysis

Tiffany Williams

Columbia Southern University

STRENGTHS · A huge resource pool. · A large following and customer base on Windows operating systems. · Has a large market globally. · A long and strong reputation built on reliability. · Legally complies with the law. · Products tailored to meet the consumer’s needs(Quality). · A wide range of products. · Strong alliances with other firms.

WEAKNESSES · Some of the products are vulnerable to cybercrime. · Imitation of products · Poor response to customers. · Some products lack cross compatibility such as the desktop and x-box console for games. · Compatibility issues are affecting the operating system lines. · Fines from legal cases.

OPPORTUNITIES · Potential diversification of operations to include tablet technologies and smartphones · Access to a larger market. · Expanding the market by partnering with green companies · Research · Innovation and going green · Stronger firewalls and security to curb cybercrime. · Scalability of products to ensure that they can be upgradedeasier. · Cloud computing and machine learning. · Acquisitions of other companies · Improving on the production of its computer hardware.

THREATS · A faster software obsolescence rate · Very competitive and strong rivals. · Poor reception and adoption of products such as the windows vista and the windows smartphone. · Incompatibility issues with their software such as the legacy software issue. · Cybercrime · Piracy · Loss of customers due to pricing · Court battles that tarnish the brand name · Dent on income due to fines

Strengths

The strength of a company is its main selling point. This power gives the company an edge in the current market. Microsoft is a well-established international level company with a vast amount of resources. As at 2015 the company was valued at 176.22 billion us dollars, as at 2017, the company was worth 507.5 billion US dollars (Forbes Welcome, 2017). This is a strength that enables a company to meet its operations responsibilities to customers or creditors and the employees. In this context, it is arguable that Microsoft is not a company that is struggling with liquidity matters. With such resources, the company can concentrate on quality and cheap products to all the customers. Similarly, the company can expand and cover a larger area when necessary. This means that they have the free-will to explore new markets around the globe. Through proper advertising, the company has been able to achieve a solid foundation and reputation over the years. The company owes much success to the quality of their products, brand name, and the growing customer base. It is arguable that Microsoft products are becoming a household necessity by the day. This has been achieved by the provision of a wide range of products from operating systems, Skype business, exchange servers, Microsoft Azure, SQL servers Windows client to the basic Microsoft office suite.

Weaknesses

Microsoft is not only a multinational corporation but a growing technology giant. However, like every other company it has its downsides. The broad market that the company serves is a positive factor and a greatstrength since it indicates growth. However, there is a weakness at the customer care aspect of the company. The same market that the company owes the success is a shortcoming. This is because the company has not employed enough customer care service personnel to meet the needs, requests, and feedbacks of the largecustomer base. As a result, unnecessarily long call waiting times occur which result in cost on the customer's end. Thisresultsin less feedback due to the feeling of denied services. Similarly, customer care channels are very few resulting in overcrowding and unnecessarily long waits on queues. Another weakness is the lack of cross-compatibility between the various platforms that the company provides and software. The software developed for the windows phone, for example, the x-box and the laptops or desktops are completely different in design and architecture. This means that they cannot be portable across the platforms. Competitors such as Vulcan offer increase portability across a number of devices. Thispossess as a weakness to company growth considering that customer preferences are swayed by improvement in technology. Such inadequacies can result in loss of customers to competing and technology-aggressive firms. The company has also faced difficulties in ensuring that their operating systems are backward compatible with legacy software and hardware. This aspect of the product changes can lead to loss of customers who still require this software and hardware, but they are no longer supported by the latest operating systems.

Opportunities

Microsoft as a technology company has wide opportunities to diversify its products, as such the company can decide to branch out and expand product lines or improve the existing products to scalable levels to allow system integrations (Slack, 2015). Technology presents the most versatile field which can be diversified easily. The company has tried this opportunity by venturing in hardware development and the popular game console products. This adds up to both company growth and profitability by tapping into new markets and thus improving the sales for the company. Secondly, the company has access to alarge market. The company can take advantage on this and maximize revenue for the firm. This is mainly because the company, over the years, has amassed sufficient markets to champion new products when necessary.

Similarly, the company can partner with green companies and firms manufacturing green products. This presents an opportunity to explore the green markets. Similarly, the global market is slowly embracing the going green concept. A company that has mushroomed is likely to tap all the customers from the competitors in the near future. This is mainly because these markets are upcoming and are constituted by consumers who are environmentally conscious. Therefore they buy products that less energy (Slack, 2015).

The location of the company is also strategic. Microsoft is located in the US. This posits as anadvantage considering that the US is a country that has technology at heart. In fact, much of the country’s economy is technology-driven. Such a company would integrate and flourish well in such an economy. Lastly, there is the constant ability to innovate. Technology provides countless opportunities. These opportunities are waiting to be discovered through research and studies.

Threats

Some forces and factors can drive a company under. This can only happen when these forcesare not properly addressed. Microsoft like any other company has a number of threats that can be tragic to its operations worldwide. Firstly, the fast software obsolescence rates; these can force the company’s products out of the market. The company has, however, devised a way to counter this; they continuously remain innovative.

The powerful rivals in the industry could also force or bring the company to a tragic end. These competitors include Google and Apple. On this front, not a single way can be actualized to curb a growing competition. It is important for a company in this state to remain competitive by improving on products, technology, and prices if need be. The threat has been popularizedby the gaming platforms and the mobile google platforms.

The company has also suffered on the smartphone avenue. Their smartphones have received among the poorest reception rates considering that the brand name speaks volumes. Additionally, the imminent threat and the oldest in the industry is cybercrime. The company has to dealwith threats manifested in the form of hackers and security loopholes in their software. These vulnerabilities should be patched up and sealed, or less-security cautions institutions and customers could bail out of the consumer agreements (Slack, 2015). Court battles have also kept the company and its good name in the news. These court battles have in the past resulted in heavy fines. Such a case is the antitrust violation in the European Union and the court battled was settled by Microsoft paying a whopping 1.44 billion dollars (BBC, 2013).

References

BBC. (2013, March 6). Microsoft fined by European Commission over a web browser. Retrieved from bbc.com: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-21684329

Forbes Welcome. (2017). Forbes.com. Retrieved 27 October 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/companies/microsof

Slack, N. (2015). Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.