Strategic Design Analysis: Agendize's Corporate Structure and Values

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Agendize, a customer management company, focusing on its design strategy and marketing approach. The report begins with an introduction to Agendize, its vision, and its activities, highlighting its role in customer acquisition, engagement, and retention. It then delves into the company's corporate structure, identifying key leadership positions and employee roles, and classifying its structure as tall. The analysis includes a detailed examination of Agendize's design systems, design value, and its position on the design ladder, concluding that it operates at the 'design as a strategy' level. The report evaluates Agendize's design value scorecard, key assets, network structure, and creative values. Furthermore, it offers recommendations on incorporating design thinking processes within the organization and concludes with references. The report is designed to offer a deep understanding of Agendize’s operations and its approach to integrating design into its core business strategies.

Running head: SaaS
SaaS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:................................................................................................................................1
Corporate structure and its type:......................................................................................................1
Design systems:...............................................................................................................................2
Design value: The design ladder:................................................................................................2
Non-design-.................................................................................................................................3
Design as form giving-................................................................................................................3
Design as a process:.....................................................................................................................4
Design as a strategy:....................................................................................................................4
The design value:.........................................................................................................................4
The current position of Agendize on the design ladder including analysis:................................4
The design value score card:........................................................................................................5
Beyond Strategic Design:............................................................................................................5
The role of design in organization: Recommendations and reason on importance of design
thinking process:..........................................................................................................................5
Key assets of the organizations:......................................................................................................6
The network structure:.....................................................................................................................7
Managers:....................................................................................................................................7
Consultants:.................................................................................................................................8
Administrators:............................................................................................................................9

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Engineers:....................................................................................................................................9
Technicians:...............................................................................................................................10
Key partners...............................................................................................................................10
Vendors:.....................................................................................................................................11
Creative values:.............................................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction:
Customer acquisition, engagement and retention have emerged into so important aspects
of business as well as the very base of revenue generation. Customer retention and management
is no longer limited to a mere business aspect. They have grown crucial to such an extent that
there are customer engagement companies which offer platforms dedicated to customer
acquisition, management and retention. Business organisations from diverse markets like
financial services and automobile sectors today hire these customer platform management
companies to manage their customer operations. The customer management companies on their
part have grown and evolved into multinational corporate organisations empowered with capable
corporate structure and business designs. The customer management companies in turn have
strong marketing analysis driven technologically developed designs. The aim of the paper is to
delve into marketing analysis strategy of Agensdize, the customer management company serving
global giants like France, Canada, Mexico and the United States. The ‘About Agendize’ page of
the official website of the company shows that Agendize serves companies like Nissan and
Allianze itself bears testimony to the strength of its marketing design. The paper would delve
designing a strategy of Agendize and its application by the company based on the client
expectations.
Corporate structure and its type:
The corporate structure of Agendize stands on an able team of leaders with the founder
and the president, Alexandre at the helm. The important leadership position in the company
consists of director of administration and finance, director of human resources, director of
marketing, graphic & web designing, digital marketer, digital marketing and communication
specialists, directors of projects, customer success manager, VP sales and marketing, director of

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strategic accounts, director of business unit banks, sales team manager, key accounts manager,
VP of engineering & IT, senior developer, web developer, scrum master, UX designer and
product director. It is evident from an analysis of the leadership team of Agendize described
above that the corporate structure of the company is crystallised around providing customer
acquisition as well as customer management services to its business customers. The corporate
leadership structure of Agendize draws its support from more than 50 employees from as many
as seven countries. Finally it can be inferred considering the pressing needs of customer
management and the dynamic business customer demands that corporate structure of Agendize is
tall in nature.
Design systems:
The following are the components of design systems of Agendize:
Design value: The design ladder:
The design ladder is a tool which measures the rate of use of design in product designing
in different companies in different stages. The entire tool stands on the hypothesis that there is a
strong positive link between supernormal revenue generation of companies and their use of
designs at different stages. The ladder or the tool further stands on the convention that design can
bring about positive transformations in the overall business SaaS products dependent on its rate
of usages.

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The following are the four steps of design ladder:
Non-design-
The design is the intangible part of the product in which expectations of clients/customers
plays very minor role. The design depend less on technology and more an aesthetics. It can be
pointed this step is not for Agendize considering the fact that manufacture of SaaS and customer
management software require high use of design. This is first step of the design ladder on which
Agendize needs to focus. This is in fact the basic step in which the company can again
information of the expectations and requirements of the clients. This would lead to the next step
where the software developers of Agendize would give the expectations of clients which is
intangible in the first step, a form by incorporating them in the future software versions.

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Design as form giving-
The designs are used to give forms to product or software designed. The companies
following this step of design ladder consider the products should have a design which would
satisfy the needs of the customers (Doherty et al. 2014). The software developers employed with
Agendize at this stage develop the software using using attributes according to the customer
expectations unveiled in the first stage. The developers the attributes in order to fulfil the
expectations of the clients.
Design as a process:
The companies following this strategy use design at the process. Design becomes an
integral part of the final product manufacturing part and involves use of experts and engineers.
The software developers from various expertise and skill areas at this stage carry out innovation
to design a software. This step upholds that design is not a tool but a process which have to be
executed using appropriate steps. The second does not attract involvement of other departments.
The technological and web designing team while developing software as a process involves the
other departments like finance and marketing,. This is because at this stage the development of
the software manufacturing takes the form of a project. The apex management of Agendize
forms project teams which look into the software product requirement of individual clients.
Design as a strategy:
The companies using this step of design ladder involve design right the strategic level.
The core product strategies of these firms include product design and the apex management
allocate resources towards acquisition of the designs. This ensures that the design is aligned with
the customer expectations which result in manufacturing of more customer oriented products.

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The design transcends the status of a process to a part of the core business strategy of
Agendize at this stage. The apex management at this stage supervises the entire software
designing activity as a part of the core product strategy of the company.
The design value:
The business organisations should design values which means that the design should
create value for the clients. The design manufacturing companies serve multinational companies
enabling the latter to manage and use customer data. Thus, here the designing of value refers to
manufacturing of SaaS in accordance to the needs of the final consumers which means the
customers the client companies serve.
The current position of Agendize on the design ladder including analysis:
Agendize is the fourth position and use design as a strategy. This is evident from two
facts. First, the company being found in 2003 has already gained a permanent client base
comprising of Nissan and Allianz which actually suffices the high level customer services of the
firm. Secondly, the very leadership team consist of SCRUM or agile experts. Thus, an analysis
of these two facts shows that Agendize is in the fourth step of the design ladder.
The design value score card:
The design value score card is a tool which enables the company to assess the actual
performances of the design. The tool enables the the companies in pointing out the roles the
designs actually play in the company against the target value which the company sought to earn
through the design. The companies also assess and predict the roles which the designs can play
in the business of the company.

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The design value score card below shows that Agendize canehnace the value creation to
clients by using appropriate strategies while manufacturing the software packages for the latter.
As shown below, points out the functional aspects like contact management and lead addition.
The score card should be integrated to other tools like business analytical tools and enable the
personnel of Agendize integrate it with sales reports.
Level of
design org
maturity
Attributes Aesthetics Functionality Connectors Integrator
Strategy
and
business
models
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Optimized
Process
proactively,
continuously
Improved
Improve
niche
marketing
attributes
of customer
manageme
nt software
packages
The company
should
increase the
functional
aspect of the
software
packages.
The software
should
incorporate
features like
contact
management
and sales
team access.
The
company
should
increase the
connector
aspect of the
software
packages
The
software
package
should be
integrated
with the
existing
products of
the
company.
The sales
team
should be
able to
optimize
the client
details with
new
requiremen
ts and
changes like
change in
delivery
dates.
Optimize
d with
the
business
model
4
Managed
Process
modified/vari
ed based on
feedback
The
marketing
department
supervises
the
aesthetic
attributes
of the
product
The web
designing
department
should
manage the
entire system
of software
manufacturin
g. The
The web
designing
department
should
manage the
entire
system of
software
manufacturi
The
software
manufactur
e is
integrated
with the
entire
business
requiremen
Optimize
d with
the
business
model

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and their
value
addition to
customers
software
should
enable
addition of
new leads
generated ng
t. It should
be
integrated
to the other
tools like
business
intelligence
and sales
analytical
tools
3.
Defined
Process
standardized
The
standard
quality of
the product
should be
unhampere
d
The
functional
features of
the software
packages
should be
well defined
by the apex
management
The
connectors
features of
the software
packages
should be
well defined
by the apex
management
The
features of
the
software
packages
should be
well defined
by the apex
manageme
nt
Optimize
d with
the
business
model
2.
Repeatable
Basic project
management
The
aesthetic
features
should run
on all the
copies of
software
The
functional
features
should run on
all the copies
of software
The
connector
features
should run
on all the
copies of
software
The
integrator
features
should run
on all the
copies of
software
Optimize
d with
the
business
model
1.
Initial/Adh
oc
Heroic efforts
The
aesthetic
features in
the initial
phase may
be
superficial
The
functional
features in
the initial
phase may be
superficial
The
connector
features in
the initial
phase may
be superficial
The
integration
features in
the initial
phase may
be
superficial
Optimize
d with
the
business
model
Beyond Strategic Design:
Agendize should seek to create value beyond the strategic design. The value creation
design would consist of creation of value of end customer as well. The questionnaire show about
50 percent of the respondents opine that Agendize is a creative organisation and about 57.1
percent of the clients opine that company is strong in design thinking. This means that the apex

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management should integrate the aesthetics as well as functional aspects while designing
software
The role of design in organization: Recommendations and reason on importance of design
thinking process:
It has become very important to involve design thinking in organisational systems in
order to maximise revenue by serving clients more satisfactorily. The organisations can
incorporate design thinking more closely with their business requirements by considering
the business attributes of the clients for which they make the design right at the inception
phase. The below is the recommended steps which business organisations like Agendize can
consider to install design thinking in their operations. The below activities or steps would
take only the business requirements of Nissan, one of the most important customers of
Agendize.

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Incorporation of design
thinking process of
Agendize while serving
Nissan
Management of
Agendize meet to
form startegy on
incorporating design
to serve Nissan more
efficiently
Apex management
approves payment
Agendize
independently scans
the market of Nissan
Agendize scans the
market in
collaboration with
Nissan
Managers meet to
discuss findings
Submit findings and
reports with apex
management
Apex management
holds meetings and
discusses the
findings
Form staretgies by
incorporating
designs according
to the finding
Evaluation and
monitoing of the
design
Taking corrective
measures if
requiired
Key assets of the organizations:
The key assets of Agendize consists of its leadership team supported by the employees
spread across the three markets. The other assets of the company consist of fixed assets and
currency. The immense technological power along with its immense customer database are also
important key assets of the company.