Comprehensive Analysis of Pivotal Software's Business and Management

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of Pivotal Software, examining its business model, key partnerships, customer segments, and value propositions through the business model canvas. It explores critical success factors for sustainable development, highlighting the importance of Pivotal Cloud Foundry and security systems. The report also evaluates potential downside risks, such as fluctuating prices, system failures, and technological skill gaps. Furthermore, it includes a self-reflection section, discussing potential improvements and strategies for business operations, including stakeholder involvement, financial stability, and employee training. The report concludes with a summary of Pivotal Software's business practices and its potential for expansion into foreign markets.

Running head: THINKING BIG IN MANAGEMENT
Report on Pivotal Software
Name of the student:
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Executive summary
Management is a vast concept, which includes various aspects. In the present age of competition,
the companies and organizations like Pivotal Software need to broaden their vision in terms of
business expansion. For this, risk management is the primary method in terms of gaining trust,
loyalty and dependence from large number of customers. Along with this, evaluation is
necessary in terms of upgrading the standards and quality of the current business performance.
Consistency needs to be maintained in the execution of evaluation for achieving infrastructural
development. Consideration of the business canvas model helps gaining an insight into the
adopted ways and means for carrying out the business activities. This canvas enhances the
awareness towards modifications in terms of penetrating into the foreign markets.

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Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Business model canvas....................................................................................................................3
Key relationships between the nine building blocks of the canvas.................................................4
Critical success factors for the achievement of sustainable development.......................................5
Evaluation of the factors, which causes downside risk...................................................................5
Self-reflection on the changes towards the business.......................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References and bibliography.........................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Pivotal Software emerged from companies like EMC Corporation and VMare in 2012.
With its headquarters in San Francisco, the company provides quality software to the clients for
accumulating greater share in the data market. The company operates under computer software
industry. The company has achieved accolades from the enterprises for providing cloud-
computing services (Pivotal.io 2018). Delivery of this service at low operational cost helps the
enterprises to enhance their productivity. Adoption of latest software designs reflects the
presence of innovative workplace environment, which can be measured.
As a matter of specification, Pivotal Software deals with products like Pivotal cloud
Foundry, Pivotal Service Marketplace, Spring, Pivotal GemFire among others. Along with this,
the company also deals with Pivotal Application service, Pivotal container service, Internet of
Things.
Team dynamics with great consciousness towards preservation of organizational culture
enhances the brand image of the company (Pivotal.io 2018). Along with this, transparency in
the business operations attracts large number of audience.
Business model canvas
Business model canvas enhances the clarity of the readers about the dynamic business
operations of the companies and organizations. It consists of nine building blocks, which are-
key partners, key activities, key resources, value propositions, customer relationship, channels,
customer segment, cost structure and revenue streams (Bingham and O'leary 2014). The
following is the business model canvas for Pivotal Software.

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Key relationships between the nine building blocks of the canvas
The presence of skilled and efficient workers helps Pivotal Software Company to produce
quality software to the clients. The major drive behind this is the market research regarding the
latest and the modern designs, which are ruling the market (Baruh and Popescu 2017). Effective
use of the resources is assistance in terms of enhancing the productivity through software
designing, development and cloud computing. Provision of these services at low operational
cost enables the personnel to attract large number of customers (Pivotal.io 2018). Collaboration
with the partners like Cognizant, Google cloud platform, Accenture, Dell Technologies,
Galvanize and Microsoft Azure is assistance in terms of bringing innovation in the products and
services.
As the vision is to provide exceptional experience to the customers, the personnel of
Pivotal Software transmit the necessary information to the customers through social media (Cai
and Zhu 2015). It is this trafficking, from which the personnel pick out the targets of software
developers and website designers. Adopting premium-pricing method is an agent in terms of
Key partners
Cognizant,
Google cloud
platform,
Accenture, Dell
Technologies,
Galvanize and
Microsoft Azure
Key activities
Software
designing,
development,
cloud computing
Key resources
Software of latest
and modern
designs
Value
propositions
Low operational
cost
Envisioning the
provision of
exceptional user
experiences
Innovation
Customer
relationship
Social media
Channels
Door to door
selling,
catalogue sales,
Online
Customer
segments
Software
developers,
website
designers
Cost structure: Premium Pricing method Revenue streams: Offers, schemes
and discounts

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luring the investors. Offers, schemes and discounts are the major means through which the
company personnel plan to achieve loyalty, dependence and trust from the customers (Pivotal.io
2018).
In order to serve the customers better, Pivotal Software practices both direct and indirect
marketing. Typical examples of direct marketing are door-to-door campaigning and catalogue
sales. Access towards online shopping is an example for indirect marketing, which helps the
personnel to gain an insight into the customers’ approach towards the levied products and
services (Chen and Zhang 2014).
Critical success factors for the achievement of sustainable development
Pivotal cloud Foundry is one of the crucial factors, which has helped Pivotal Software to
achieve sustainable development. It has proved to be an answer to the companies in search of
digital transformation through the means of software. Acceleration of quick and rapid delivery
has enhanced the productivity of the clients looking for software development (Pivotal.io 2018).
The efficient and flexible design of 200:1 has allowed the operator to carry out the operations
at zero downtime deployments. This is applicable whenever the operator logs in through the
private and public cloud (Hirsch and King 2016).
Introduction of security systems has resulted in the achievement of loyalty, trust and
dependence from large number of customers. Here, mention needs to be made of 3 R’s- repair,
repave and rotate in the app portfolio. Along with this, reliance on built-in high availability has
aided the personnel in retaining the customers even in the challenging situations (Corbett and
Chen 2015). The credit for this goes to Humana, whose partnership has acted as an agent for
Pivotal Software to upgrade the standards and quality of the product development life cycle
(Pivotal.io 2018).

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Evaluation of the factors, which causes downside risk
Downside risks compel the companies and organizations to encounter financial losses.
This is the situation, when the actual return is less than the expected return. Under this
circumstances, uncertainty hovers over the business, stalling the productivity (Feng 2017). This
is because the magnitude of business is very high. In case of software companies like Pivotal
Software, the factors, which causes downside risk are-
 Fluctuation in the prices of the spare parts of the software
 Delay in repayment of the loans
 System failure
 Human errors
 Procedure failures
 Introducing new technologies where there is a lack of technological skills
Fluctuation in the prices of the spare parts of the software makes it difficult for the
personnel of Pivotal Software to set the prices. This attaches an interrogative parameter to the
fulfillment of needs, demands and requirements of the stakeholders (Pivotal.io 2018). Even, it
also raises doubts over the premium pricing method. Delay in repaying the loans destroys the
stability in the relationship between the personnel and the customers. This is an indication of
encountering loss in the revenue and profit margin (Franková, Drahošová and Balco 2016).
System failures aggravate the complexities in terms of achieving efficiency in project
management. These failures compel the personnel to achieve negative results. Along with this,
system failures strain the relationship between the personnel and the customers. The major drive
behind this failure might be human errors or procedure failures (Haines 2016). Negligence in
modification of the human errors is a risk for the company in terms of enhancing the productivity

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in the business. Apart from this, this negligence is also an issue regarding the exposure of quality
customer service (Pivotal.io 2018).
In the present era of competition, the staffs lack the basic technological skills (Hazen et al.
2014). Under such circumstance, introducing new software is a risk for Pivotal Software in terms
of sales revenue and profit margin.
Self-reflection on the changes towards the business
I am elated at the diverse manner in which Pivotal Software carries out the business
functions. The company indulges in collaboration with numerous partners, which helps them in
the production of quality software. If it had been my business, I would have preferred few
partners, which would have helped me in the execution of necessary activities. Countering this, I
think it is better to indulge in partnership with large number of suppliers. This would prove
effective in terms of expanding the supply chain network.
I would have involved planning within the business operations. This would have made
me aware of the activities, which I need to perform on an urgent basis. Here, I would have
undertaken theory of planned action and reasoned behavior for regulating my behavior in the
workplace. In this planning, I would have involved the stakeholders and shareholders for gaining
an insight into their approaches towards the levied services. The means of survey and feedback
would have proved appropriate in terms of enhancing the stability in the relationship.
I would have emphasized on stabilizing the financial parameter. For this, I would have
indulged in partnership with the members of trade union, which would have helped me to avert
the instances of fluctuating prices, inflation and high exchange rates. I think adopting one pricing
method and taking feedback from the clients would be effective for assessing its appropriateness,

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effectiveness and feasibility. Even if I would have taken loan, I would have attempted to repay it
timely for gaining prospective services in future.
I would have organized seminars for the staffs in terms of enriching their knowledge on
the technological skills. This would have helped me to reduce the knowledge gaps of the staffs.
Hiring experts from IT background would be crucial in terms of preparing the staffs for the
projects. Along with this, I would have taken post-training tests to assess the capability of the
staffs in terms of making practical application of the learnt skills towards executing the
workplace operations.
Evaluation would have been an integral part of my business. This is in terms of
excavating the drawbacks in the business operations. I would have maintained consistency in the
execution of evaluation for upgrading the standards and quality of current business scenario in
the workplace. Typical example of this can be hiring IT experts when the systems failure or
become defective. This would help me to avert encounter the instances of virus attacks,
malfunctioning and hacker interventions.
Evaluation would help me in achieving personal and professional development. This is in
terms of the self-organizational skills, which would be inculcated within me. I also think this
would help me in exposing leadership skills and abilities, which is needed for enhancing my
personality in the workplace.
Conclusion
This assignment proves successful in providing an insight into the business practices of
Pivotal Software. Business model canvas acts as a summarization for the methods adopted by the
company for carrying out the business activities. The relationship between the nine building

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blocks of the canvas can be correlated with the collaboration of the personnel in terms of
enhancing the productivity. Risk mitigation exercise is an integral part of this collaboration. Self-
reflection on the changes to the current business practices reflects the approach towards fulfilling
the needs, demands and requirements of the customers. This assessment is the gradual
progression towards developing the infrastructure and penetrating into the foreign markets.

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References and bibliography
Baruh, L. and Popescu, M., 2017. Big data analytics and the limits of privacy self-
management. New media & society, 19(4), pp.579-596.
Bingham, L.B. and O'leary, R., 2014. Big ideas in collaborative public management. Routledge.
Cai, L. and Zhu, Y., 2015. The challenges of data quality and data quality assessment in the big
data era. Data Science Journal, 14.
Chen, C.P. and Zhang, C.Y., 2014. Data-intensive applications, challenges, techniques and
technologies: A survey on Big Data. Information Sciences, 275, pp.314-347.
Corbett, J. and Chen, C., 2015. Big Data Efficiency, Information Waste and Lean Big Data
Management: Lessons from the Smart Grid Implementation. In CONF-IRM (p. 8).
De Bono, E., 2017. Atlas of management thinking. Random House.
Feng, J.I., 2017. 61. Research on Big Data Capability of Enterprise for Mass Customization
based on Internet Plus Background. Boletín Técnico, ISSN: 0376-723X, 55(11).
Franková, P., Drahošová, M. and Balco, P., 2016. Agile project management approach and its
use in big data management. Procedia Computer Science, 83, pp.576-583.
Haines, S., 2016. The systems thinking approach to strategic planning and management. CRC
Press.
Hazen, B.T., Boone, C.A., Ezell, J.D. and Jones-Farmer, L.A., 2014. Data quality for data
science, predictive analytics, and big data in supply chain management: An introduction to the

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problem and suggestions for research and applications. International Journal of Production
Economics, 154, pp.72-80.
Hirsch, D.D. and King, J.H., 2016. Big Data Sustainability: An Environmental Management
Systems Analogy. Washington and Lee Law Review Online, 72(3), p.406.
Pivotal.io (2018). The way the future gets built. Available at: https://pivotal.io/ [Accessed on 21st
March 2018]