Strategic Position Plan Report: Agentcis Business Development

This report provides a strategic position plan for Agentcis, a web-based agency management software company. It begins with an introduction to strategic positioning and its importance for startup companies, followed by a background on Agentcis's services, which include agency management solutions for education and migration agencies. The report then justifies the choice of Porter's generic strategies, specifically product differentiation, cost minimization, and market focus, as suitable for Agentcis. Key strategic performance success factors are discussed, including the evolution of technology, customer needs, and competitive advantages through cost leadership and differentiation. The report outlines steps for cost leadership, such as asset utilization, cost control, and value chain management. Focus strategies are also considered. The report concludes with recommendations for continuous market analysis, partnerships, and a sustainable positioning plan, along with mechanisms for tracking progress and handling potential challenges. The report is supported by a literature review and references.

Running Head: Strategic Position Plan
Strategic Position Plan
Institution
Name
Date

Strategic Position Plan
Introduction
Strategic positioning refers to the positioning of a particular company or organization (unit)
specifically in the future while considering the changing environment coupled with the
realization of that positioning in a systematic manner (Simerson, 2011). The strategic positioning
approach aims at ensuring the continuity of organization and is derived from the world of
business (Abraham, 2012). The importance of strategic positioning cannot be underestimated
especially for the startup companies (Tallant, 2011). Therefore, the method includes the devising
of the desired future position of the company based on the present and foreseeable developments,
plus the drawing of plans to achieve that positioning (Steiner, 2010).
Background to the Service/ Product
Agentcis is a web-based agency management software that engages in service provision. The
organization assists education and migration agencies to track clients and staff, manage data,
creation of tasks, appointments and set reminders. This is being done in partnership with other
companies. The company’s primary services are automating and optimizing business processes.
For instance, the organization assists consulting firms to effortlessly alleviate complications they
experience in tracking work progress, invoices and clients such as Global Consult that is situated
in Australia. It helps students in handling and processing of applications and immigration for
Australian education for the last couple of years.
Rationale for the Choice of the Strategy
The strategic position plan ought to be high medium because of the nature of the organization’s
operations. I would choose the Porter’s generic strategies for the Agentcis organization. The
Porter’s generic strategies provide three approaches; product differentiation strategies, cost
2

Strategic Position Plan
minimization strategies and market focus strategies (Porter, 2008). The three strategies tend to
describe how a particular organization can pursue competitive advantage mainly across the
market scope of its choice (Blokdyk, 2018). This specific positioning plan would apply to
Agentcis Company given the nature of its service delivery to clients in the recent past. The
company is also considered to be a startup firm owing to its recent launch of operations. It is also
important to note that the market for management software organizations present a wide range of
growth opportunities which can only be harnesses through a comprehensive strategic positioning
plan such as Porter’s generic strategies. There are also unforeseen threats which tend to come
along with the anticipated growth opportunities for businesses especially in the online platform
(Kotwica, 2013).
Discussion of the Key Strategic Performance Success Factors
The Agentcis organization’s context captures terms such as market positioning, legitimacy,
survival, choice for a particular work areas and the relationship with environment. There are
various questions that need to be asked when it comes to the strategic positioning (Akdeniz,
2015). They include; how does the future look like? How could the company be roughly
positioned in the future (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012)? How are things in the organization at the
present time? How can opportunities be captured? How can presenting threats be addressed?
How can this be adopted practically in a systematic manner? The above mentioned questions
would assist in identifying the success factors to be used in preparing a strategic performance
framework for the company (Galal, 2014). For instance, the future of web-based businesses is
promising in the sense that the growth opportunities foreseen here are countless and great. This is
because of the continued development of the information technology that has been seen to favor
the businesses which depend solely on the online platforms. In the recent past, many people have
3

Strategic Position Plan
been migrating to the online platforms for various reasons (Cruz-Cunha, 2012). Some people are
looking for particular services, others to access products and entertainment. One of the
outstanding strategic performance success factor is the evolution of technology being witnessed
and its subsequent adoption by the majority of online platform users. With the growing number
of internet users and affordability of devices such as smartphones and laptops, the future of web-
based businesses like the Agentcis is guaranteed in a wider dimension. However, the
organization needs to understand the existing customer needs as well as their preferences based
into the future. The company should choose to pursue one of two forms of competitive
advantage, through differentiating itself along aspects that are valued by clients in order to
command a higher price or reduce costs than those of competitors. Two variant aspects should be
looked at, that is, cost leadership and differentiation as the company forges into the future
prospects. The cost leadership requires an organization that is targeting clients in most or all
industry segments to offer the lowest price (Griffin, 2008). On the other hand, a firm pursues a
differentiation strategy by targeting customers in majority or all segments of an industry based
on attributes other than price, for example, via higher quality of product or service with an aim of
commanding a higher price in the market (Scheele, 2014). The strategy reduce costs in areas that
are perceived unable to differentiate it in order to remain cost competitive compared to other
firms in the particular industry. In regards to cost leadership strategy, Agentcis organization
should follow three major procedures in order to achieve minimized future costs that would keep
the firm afloat and guarantee its chance of thriving based on the foreseen prospects. The first step
is attaining a high leveled utilization of assets of the company. For instance, the firm can increase
the flexibility of its products and services to clients by restructuring their management software
to accommodate the ever increasing and changing needs of customers especially in the service
4

Strategic Position Plan
provision aspect. A single software could be designed for use I handling multiple tasks for
multiple clients; all together at a go, probably in a pre-determined time period and fast enough.
This could be facilitated by the improved efficiency of technology hence software development.
The volumes of their services and products should be raised. Therefore, this approach would
ensure that fixed costs incurred are spread over a larger number of units of its services and
products. It would eventually contribute to a lower unit cost for the organization. It translates to
the advantage of creating and utilizing the future economies of scale. Higher levels of service
provision and output requires and contributes to large market share. Therefore, achieving an
increased utilization of asset based on minimized costs would assist Agentcis in creating an entry
barrier to potential competitors in the future in the particular industry because it will have grown.
This is likely to happen because the potential competitors may be unable to attain to scale
necessary math the Agentcis low costs and prices. It would further create a conducive business
environment for the company to operate and thrive owing to reduced threats from potential
competitors in the industry. The second dimension is ensuring low indirect and direct costs of
operating. This can be achieve through the use of fewer and standard components. The
organization should also keep the premises costs low in several ways. For instance, re-locating
the current premises into a low rent areas, awarding low wages and creating a culture that is cost-
conscious. However, it calls for a continuous search for reductions of costs in all aspects of the
business in order to maintain the strategy. The third dimension involves ensuring control over the
value chain that encompasses all functional groups such as marketing, finance, procurement/
supply, inventory and information technology. It is recommended that startup businesses should
be cost-focused if they are to enjoy any advantages perceived as conducive to low costs
(Goldman & Nieuwenhuizen, 2006). The company ought to engage in innovation of products
5

Strategic Position Plan
and services that will enable it to offer them to its clients at cheaper prices especially where the
prices and costs of incumbents have become too high. The focus strategies are considered to be
the most viable approaches for startup companies especially for those firms which seek to avoid
direct competition with already established businesses (Hill & Jones, 2012). It is important to
note that currently, things are looking up for the company by analyzing the milestones which
have been achieved since the firm was established. A keen observation of the present situation of
the business paints a clear picture of how well the company is being run hence its determination
to achieve future prospects. The demand for the company’s products and services can be
increased based on the theory of demand. The theory states that the demand for goods and
services increases as the prices decrease. Therefore, the firm should set the prices of their
products and services relatively lower than those of the competitors in order to draw a large
customer base. However, the organization should also be careful in adopting this approach by
making sure that the profit margin is pre-determined before agreeing on a particular price level to
avoid making loses in the long run. It is important to note that the future is based on the present
and past. Trends in the preferences of customers should be comprehensively researched by the
firm to objectively promote personalization and customization of products and services in the
future. It would make it easy for the clients to identify with such products and services hence
earning their loyalty. This forms an essential aspect as far as customer base is concerned.
Literature Review
There are various literature materials that are addressing the issue of strategic positioning plan.
The relevance of the strategic positioning concept in business market is evident as realized
through case studies. It is widely acknowledged that business positioning is predominantly
dependent on hard criteria (e.g. quality of product/ service) and the relationship building factors
6

Strategic Position Plan
such as personal contact. However, there are other considerations which include company
structures (e.g. geographical coverage), degree of integration (e.g. position in the chain of
distribution) and the breadth of offerings which also play critical role (Kalafatis, et al., n.d.).
Various articles tend to support the claim that familiarity level with a particular business entity is
a contributing factor to perceptions of the positioning strategies being pursued.
Summary
There are various aspects key to the achievement of a successful strategic positioning in an
industry. The Porter’s generis strategies form the basis for a comprehensive positioning plan that
if Agentcis adopts, it would thrive into the future regardless of the presenting threats in the long
run. The essay has discussed in detail the critical approaches that would apparently reward the
future prospects of Agentcis organization.
Recommendations
 The organization should engage in continuous market analysis with key interest being
venturing into the future.
 The is the need to partner with the other firms in the industry to objectively harness the
future prospects through an harmonized framework that does not undermine the other
party.
 There is the need to design a sustainable positioning plan that would factor in survival,
legitimacy, foreseen development and relationship with the environment. It should
include information collection, analysis and implementation of the strategy.
 There is also the need to formulate a business oriented mechanism that would be used in
tracking the progress made in achieving the strategic positioning in the particular
7

Strategic Position Plan
industry. It should include a clear formula of handling any mitigations that are bound to
arise in the long run.
8

Strategic Position Plan
References
Abraham, S. C., 2012. Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide for Competitive Success. 2 ed. s.l.:Emerald
Group Publishing.
Akdeniz, C., 2015. Key Questions in Strategic Planning. s.l.:Can Akdeniz.
Blokdyk, G., 2018. Porter's Generic Strategies. 3 ed. s.l.:CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,.
Cruz-Cunha, M. M., 2012. Handbook of research on business social networking : organizational,
managerial and technological dimensions. Hershey, PA : Business Science Reference.
Ferrell, O. C. & Hartline, M., 2012. Marketing Strategy. s.l.:Cengage Learning.
Galal, K., 2014. Strategic positioning in the consulting industry : an emperical analysis of strategic groups
and performance. Lohmar: EUL Verlag.
Goldman, G. & Nieuwenhuizen, C., 2006. Strategy : sustaining competitive advantage in a globalised
context. Cape Town: Juta,.
Griffin, R. W., 2008. Fundamentals of management. 5 ed. Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin.
Hill, C. W. L. & Jones, . G. R., 2012. Essentials of strategic management. 2 ed. Mason, Ohio: South-
Western/Cengage Learning.
Kalafatis, S. P., Tsogas, M. H. & Blankson, C., n.d. "Positioning strategies in business markets",. Journal of
Business & Industrial Marketing, 15(6), pp. 416-437.
Kotwica, K., 2013. The benefits and security risks of web-based applications for business : trend report.
Amsterdam ; Boston: Elsevier Science & Technology.
Porter, M. E., 2008. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors.
s.l.:Simon and Schuster.
Scheele, D., 2014. The trade-off between cost leadership and differentiation. s.l.:GRIN Verlag.
Simerson, B. K., 2011. Strategic planning - a practical guide to strategy formulation and execution..
s.l.:ABC-CLIO.
Steiner, G. A., 2010. Strategic Planning. s.l.:Simon and Schuster.
9

Strategic Position Plan
Tallant, J., 2011. The Importance of Strategic Planning in the Business Environment. s.l.:GRIN Verlag.
10