Salesforce: Strategic Audit and Business Analysis Report

This report presents a comprehensive strategic audit of Salesforce, examining its performance within a competitive business environment. The analysis begins with an executive summary and proceeds to dissect the macro-environment using PESTLE analysis, evaluating political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors impacting Salesforce. The report assesses the company's measurement and control systems, financial position, and key performance indicators (KPIs), comparing it to competitors. It delves into organizational-level and business unit strategies, exploring their alignment and compatibility with the organizational structure. Furthermore, the report includes SWOT and gap analyses to suggest strategies, evaluating their advantages and disadvantages. Functional strategies in marketing, finance, operations, purchasing, human resources, and information systems are evaluated. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for strategic improvement, supported by in-text citations and references.

Running head: SALESFORCE
SALESFORCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note
Regards

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Executive Summary
Strategic management can be considered to be an active part of all organizations. The
different organizations which aim to attain success would be required to see to it that they can
contribute to the strategic auditing and decision making of the firm. In this case, the given
report is primarily based on the CRM and delivery software from the brand Salesforce. The
firm has been performing well in the market and related to this; the organization has
developed a positive image. The main aim of the report lies in ensuring that all significant
aspects of the firm can be duly covered and a strategic audit can be conducted. Hence, the
report follows a structured format whereby the Introduction is supported by the analysis of
the Macro-environment, which contributed to understanding the different facets of the
business.
Additionally, the product quality standards and measures of evaluation have been provided
along with the quality analysis, and the financial performance has been considered. The
generic strategy of the firm was discussed and which was followed by recommendations on
the adoption of the strategy, which would be helpful for the firm. The blue ocean strategy is
the secret of success for the firm, and the strategy has been critically discussed.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Analysis of the Macro-environment...........................................................................................5
Political Factors..................................................................................................................5
Economic Factors...............................................................................................................6
Social Factors......................................................................................................................7
Technological Factors.........................................................................................................8
Environmental Factors........................................................................................................9
Legal Factors.....................................................................................................................10
Opportunity and Threat Analysis......................................................................................11
Organization’s measurement and control system.................................................................13
Analysis of Competitor performance and standards............................................................16
Competitive Advantages......................................................................................................17
Companies to keep out for....................................................................................................18
Key performance indicators.................................................................................................19
Analysis of the Organization: organization-level and Business Unit Strategies......................20
What are the current organization-level strategies? Unit business strategy?.......................20
To what extent is the organizational structure compatible with the organization’s
strategies?.............................................................................................................................25
Compare this organization’s strategies with those of competitors.......................................26
GAP Analysis.......................................................................................................................28

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Recommended strategy........................................................................................................29
Evaluate Strategy Application (advantages & disadvantages of each strategy)...................29
Key performance indicators (KPI’s)....................................................................................31
Analysis of the Organization: Functional Strategies............................................................31
Marketing – Finance – Operations – Purchasing – Human Resources – Information
Systems.............................................................................................................................31
How well are the functional strategies aligned?...............................................................32
Analyze an organization's improvement/change initiatives.................................................33
Previous & current impact/success of improvement initiatives........................................33
Alignment of improvement initiatives & integration into the strategic management of the
organization......................................................................................................................34
C. Comparison of improvement initiatives with other organizations within and outside
the industry.......................................................................................................................35
Conclusion........................................................................................................................36
References............................................................................................................................37

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Introduction
The business environment is highly competitive, and concerning this, the firms must
look after the customer service in the firm. Customer service has a significant role to play,
and therefore, all the enterprises will be required to look out for their customers. The focus of
this report lies to discuss the different strategic capabilities and the external environment
factors which have a strong influence on the operations of the organization (Salesforce.com,
2019). The SalesForce has been selected as the organization for the project. The Salesforce is
a Customer Relationship management platform which provides artificial intelligence
programs to the different firms. These artificial intelligence firms assist them in looking after
the needs of different customers. The platform which is provided by the firm supports the
different customers in meeting the needs of the various customers and in association with
this, also helps the firm to maintain the data of the different sales which is incurred by the
organization. The company offers its services to many customers like the KFC, Godrej,
DTDC, Edelweiss, HCL and CEAT.
These companies can maintain a broad base of customers with the help of many CRM
tools with the organization provides. However, the business landscape has been changing to a
great extent and hence, the external environment of the firm needs to be assessed. The report
will focus on the external factors impacting the operations of the firm, discuss the internal
control measures which have been undertaken by the organization and throw a light on the
Business unit strategies of the organization (Borowski, 2018) The latter half of the report will
throw light on the functional strategy and along with this, will discuss the change
management initiatives which can be undertaken by the firm. Specific recommendations will
be provided to assist the company in improving its operations.

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Analysis of the Macro-environment
Strategic management can be considered to be a relevant part of the enterprise and
hence, the business strategies need to be designed in a manner in which the external forces of
the enterprise can be measured. The PESTLE analysis serves as a relevant tool which assists
in understanding how the firm can perform in the market. Therefore, in this section, the
macro-environmental analysis of the Salesforce will be undertaken with the assistance of the
external environment tool named PESTEL. The pestle analysis is a strategic management tool
which goes a long way in assisting the different managers in analysing how the various
factors in the external environment of the firm are performing. The external environment is
vast and dynamic. With reverence to this, the firm must be aware of these forces to ensure
that they can come up with decisions and strategies to combat against these forces. In the
latter half of the section, based on these factors, the Threat and Opportunity analysis for
Salesforce will be examined. Hence, the PESTEL of the SalesForce organization has been
provided as follows:
Political Factors
The Political Factors are those factors involved in the Governmental rules and
regulations of the business which tend to have a substantial impact on the profitability and the
overall functioning of the organization. The political regimes tend to have a considerable
effect on the decisions which are generally taken by the different customers. Hence, in case
of this, the SalesForce.com would be required to ensure that it is successfully able to consider
a few factors before it undertakes any decision (Data2CRM. 2015). These factors involve
aspects like the extent to which there is political stability in the country.
Additionally, the different laws concerning the business like the contract law, data
privacy laws and other such limitations which are generally placed by the governmental

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bodies on the various members of the firm impact the operations of the enterprise. The
Intellectual property is also required to be considered in the right manner which would
thereby assist in seeing to it that Salesforce would be necessary to find the IP rules to attract
the different entrepreneurs to the operations of the firm. Other political aspects which have to
be taken into consideration can be defined as the taxation policies and the trade barriers
which tend to protect domestic operations (Salesforce.com, 2019).
Economic Factors
The economic factors encompass the factors which generally pertain to the aspects of
the business environment like the foreign exchange rate, the gross domestic product and the
key variations which exist in the financial cycle of the context in which the firm operates.
The economic factors which may have an impact on the operations of the firm may be the
Wage and employment rates. The wage and employment rates have a crucial role to play and
assist in describing how the different operations of the business will take place (Data2CRM. ,
2015). Additionally, they determine how the firm will be able to carry out the services in an
effective manner. The different economic factors which may influence the activities of the
organization can be stated to be the GDP growth in the country. In addition to this, aspects
like the ease of doing business in the economy in addition to this, the different elements like
the exchange rate of a country might impact the operations of the organization by affecting
how the sales may take place (Attwell & Deitmer, 2012). This is because deciding on the
overall manner in which the different clients may approach the firm, and the payment
decisions have to take place accordingly with the current exchange rates.

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Figure 1: The growth of CRM
(Source: Customerthink.com, 2019)
Social Factors
The social factors which are known to have an influence on the operations of the
organization can be understood to be the aspects such as the desires of the target market, the
change in the lifestyle of the different individuals, the belief and the ethics of the society
along with the publicizing methods preferred by these consumers in the community
(Data2CRM., 2015). As the SalesForce is principally apprehensive with providing the
software services to the different businesses, the progress of the companies in terms of
technology and their willingness to adopt the various software’s for their operations can be
taken to be the aspect which will have a substantial impact on the different activities of the
firm (Attwell & Deitmer, 2012). Hence, SalesForce needs to gain an understanding of the
various businesses who would like to obtain the data advancements and understanding
aspects related to the demographics, differences in the size of the firms and other factors.
Additionally, as the part of clients has become progressively vital in a business, any firm
would be required to ensure that they can meet with the needs of the customers and this belief
of the organizations has led to the popularity of the firms like SalesForce.

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Figure 2: Factors affecting ecommerce
(Source: G2 Crowd. ,2018).
Technological Factors
The technology has become an integrated part of all the business operations which
generally take place. Concerning this, the firm needs to ensure that they are successfully able
to meet with the technological advancements, which would help them in managing their
operations in a better manner (G2, 2018). As the SalesForce can be taken to be an
organization which is mostly concerned with providing the best solution to the different
companies in terms of technological advancements, it is essential to note that the aspects like
the adoption rates of the various firms, the familiarity of adopting organisation arrangements,
the apt financial structure and the related elements need to be considered useful in order to
gain an idea of the extent to which the firm would be required to extend its operations
(Guinn, 2018). Knowledge about the rate of technological diffusion, profits and related
features of the needs is required to be well understood so that the business can gain benefits.

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Figure 3: Knowledge of CRM
(Source: Guinn, 2018).
Environmental Factors
The different environmental factors which a firm like SalesForce would be essential
to contemplate are the carbon emission. As awareness for the weather change has been
increasing to a great extent, the different firms who are involved in the business would be
required to see to it that, they are abiding by these regulations. Hence, The SalesForce would
be necessary to see to it that they are abiding by the Carbon emission aspects to see to it that

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the business operations can be managed effectively without causing harm. Additionally, the
issues related to the corporate strategy and sustainability also need to be considered by the
firm to engage in long term success (Harris, 2016)
Legal Factors
This aspect is related to the Political issues of the country. About this, it is integral for
a business to take into consideration the aspects related to the legal and regulatory
frameworks present in the state or the business environment a firm is generally functioning
in. The first laws which the firm would be required to follow can be assessed to be the laws
relating to the Intellectual Property, Discrimination, health and safety regulations along with
aspects like the pricing and wages.
Figure 5: Comparison
(Source: Synergy Group)
Opportunity and Threat Analysis

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Understanding an enterprise’s opportunity and the threat is integral, and therefore, all
the companies must be keen to undertake the diverse jeopardies which are existing in the
corporate surroundings. Hence, in the section, the Opportunity and threat of the SalesForce
will be conducted which shall thus assist in analysing how the different opportunities can be
taken advantage of by the business and in explaining the various threats which the company
is exposed to.
Opportunities
The different opportunities can be defined as the existence of the favourable factors
which exist in the external environment of the firm and have an impact on how the different
members would be required to carry out their operations. Hence, the various opportunities
which are available for the SalesForce can be stated to be as follows:
Vertical and Horizontal Integration
At present Salesforce has been providing the different organizations with an
opportunity to undertake the vertical and horizontal integration, which would support the
business and help them in expanding their offerings (Harri et al. 2007). In addition to the
different customer relationship management software, which is provided by the different
organizations, assistance also can be given regarding the supplier management and the
management of the various other employees. This would turn out to make the operations of
the firm more comprehensive in nature.
Growth of CRM
As Salesforce is a customer relationship management organization which is involved
in providing expert services to the firms who want to improve their CRM activities, it needs
to utilize the different skills in order to reach out to a broader consumer base, This would
assist the organization in earning higher levels of revenue and in addition to this would also

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allow them with an opportunity to increase their competitive advantage (Halimi, Seridi-
Bouchelaghem & Faron-Zucker, 2014).
Strategic Alliances
Increasing the quantity of deliberate alliances of the business would be a helpful
technique which would thereby assist a firm to see to it that it can attain a sustainable
competitive edge. As the company is already engaged in various organizational associations
like the CEAT, HCL, KFC and Godrej, it needs to extend the strategic alliance portfolio to be
able to perform well.
Threats
The threat can be defined as the presence of the various factors in the business
environment of the firm, which may disrupt the complete operations of the firm. The different
threats which are available to the organization are as follows:
 Competitive forces: The various competitive forces to which a corporation is exposed
to can be taken to be the different competitors that is present in the external
environment of the firm. These comprise of the different companies like the
SugarCRM, NetSuite, Zoho Corporation, the Real Simple Systems.
 Data privacy and hacking issues: Additional threat faced by SalesForce is data privacy
and hacking issues. In these kinds of problems, the problems faced by the firm would
be primarily related to the aspects like hackers who can easily hack the data from the
software’s and thereby disrupt the privacy of the organization. Additionally, the
money related hacking which takes place in the firm may be able also to be
considered to be the threat being faced by the SalesForce.
 Infrastructural Maintenance: The principal threat of SalesForce is that they are heavily
relying on the internet as a standard to use the diverse software's which are mostly

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available. Hence, in case the Internet is down for the day, this would impact how the
software would be functioning.
 The issue relating to the patent can also be a threat for Salesforce. Various companies
often come up with a patent for products \designed by them. These companies wait
for the competitors to come up with a similar technology and after this, legal
proceedings are taken abiding by which the latter is required to pay huge sums of
money to the former. Hence, Salesforce must be wary of this looming threat.
Hence, the firm needs to ensure that it makes use of its capability to meet with the different
opportunities and to ensure that the various threats of the business can be taken care of
adequately (Halimi, Seridi-Bouchelaghem & Faron-Zucker, 2014).
Organization’s measurement and control system
To get an idea of the financial capability and performance of the enterprise, the
current financial standing of the enterprise as compared to the various competitors needs to
be assessed.
Current financial position
The Salesforce has been able to deliver the following results for its overall fourth yea
operation and the entire fiscal year of 2018.
Revenue
The revenue which was earned by the firm was $2.85 billion. This can be taken to be
a 24% increase in the sales revenue as compared to that of the previous year. The

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subscriptions revenue came up to $2.66 billion, which has been increased by 26% as
compared to the last year. Additionally, the professional services and other revenue figures
came up to be $196 million and have increased by 7%. Moreover, there has been a 21%
increase in professional services and other revenues as compared to that of last year.
Earnings per Share
By calculating the earnings per share, it could be assessed that the earnings per share
of the organization have increased to $0.09 while the non-diluted revenues have grown to
$0.35 per share. In line with this, the earnings per share were benefitted by $0.02 and hence,
regarding this, the strategic investments of the firm have increased by $0.02. Moreover, for
the entire year, the earnings per share were $0.17 and the no GAAP diluted earnings per share
was $1.35 (Salesforce.com 2019).
Cash
The cash generated by the organization has increased by 27%, which would assist the
firm in performing well and would allow them to finish the total cash, equivalents and other
marketable securities at $4.52 billion.
Deferred Revenue
The deferred revenue present in the balance sheet of the firm came up to $7.09 billion
and thus increased by 28% over the year and 25% as a constant currency. It can be taken that
the unbilled deferred revenue ended at $13.3 billion, which was 48% more than the previous
year.
Q1 FY19 Guidance
When calculated for this year, the revenue can be projected from $2.925 billion to
$2.935 billion, which has grown over 23%. The growth of income was taken to be from 23%

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in the last year to 24% in the current year. The current revenue has been projected from
$12.6 billion to $12.65 billion, which can be taken to be an increase of 20% to 21% over the
year. In addition to this, it is estimated that the project will turn out to be $0.61 to 0.63.
Moreover, the non-diluted GAAP earnings per share are projected to be reaching $2.04,
which can be taken as 21% growth.
Figure 6: Salesforce Earnings, 2013-2017.

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Source: SalesForce 2019
Analysis of Competitor performance and standards
All the businesses will be required to be very aware of the different competitors who
are involved in the same business as that of the concerned company. In case of the
SalesForce, there are various parties involved in the business environment which comprise of
the parties like the Activision Blizzard, Adobe Systems, the IBM, the Microsoft, Oracle and
the SalesForce.com. Additionally, it also involves Dassault systems and SAP. The
information about the financial condition is given in the following section:
Figure 6: The competitive forces
(Source: Marketresearchfuture.com, 2019),
The spending on software by the companies worldwide exceeds an amount of $350
billion in one year. The United States is one of the top software producing countries which
are present around the globe and in terms of revenue as well. The countries like that of
Germany, the UK and Japan also provide considerate competition to the different firms which

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are present (Hedges, 2018). The software industry of the US comprises of 9600
establishments and various companies with related operations. The health of the global
economy also depends on software’s and hence, technical expertise is the key to success to
develop new technology. The US software industry is concentrated and comprises of 50 large
organizations which generate 75% of the revenue which the industry tends to earn.
Competitive Advantages
The competitive advantage which the firm is subject to can be stated to be as follows:
1. Access to the different programmers: The position can be attained by the firm in a
scenario such that the different talented programmers are available and can be
attracted by the firm. The companies in this field might plan to hire externally using
different markets and sources (Heisterbergc & Verma, 2014).
2. The Global reach. As the software will be spreading closely related to economic
growth, the global range of the organization can be considered as critical to consider.
3. Additionally, the operational agility also has a crucial role to play and helps the firm
in adjusting to the different needs of the various markets. A right firm needs to have
the capability to see to it that they can change the development strategies in the right
way (Infotechlead.com, 2019).
Companies to keep out for
The various companies to keep out for to attain success can be described as the
Google, as the company has access to one of the world's best software engineers and hence, it
always poses a competitive threat to the various software companies around the globe. The
largest software organization Microsoft has come up with multiple consumer and the
enterprise software markets and hence, it is also acting as a competitive threat. Additionally,

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Salesforce.com needs to keep a lookout for these firms and evolve the technology to be a
leading force in the cloud based enterprise software market serving Customer relationship
management.
Figure 7: Positioning map
(Source: Marketresearchfuture.com. 2019),
Key performance indicators

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The key performance indicators can be mainly described as the various measurement
and control measures which are generally made use of by an organization to ensure that it is
successfully able to meet with the needs of the multiple customers (Chen, 2013). About this,
it may be considered critical to understand that when an organization aims for success, it
needs to have a vital planning system in place which will help the firm to attain all its
functions as well as the goals which the firm has set out for it. Hence, in this scenario, the
different purposes which the firm has set out for it is measured using the following indicators:
Net sales: The net sales can be considered to be the annual sales which are attained by the
firm after it has paid off all its taxes as well as other expenses. The Salesforce has been
earning a considerable amount of net sales over the past few years, and hence, in
consideration of this, the firm can be taken to be performing well (Jennings, 200dh).
Return on investments: The return on investments can also be considered to be another key
performance indicator which the firm is required to find in order engaging in a successful
relationship with the different stakeholders (Chen, 2013). A considerable amount of return on
the investments can be considered to be suitable for the firm.
Earnings per share: The earnings per share can be taken to be as another set of indicators
which elaborates on how the firm is being able to earn a considerate amount of revenues
based on the number of shares acquired by the firm (Kroop, Mikroyannidis Wolpers, 2015).
Analysis of the Organization: organization-level and Business Unit Strategies
What are the current organization-level strategies? Unit business strategy?
The competitive environment has become highly aggressive, and it is concerning this
that the competitive environment of the firm needs to be assessed carefully by the
organization. Hence, the strategy needs to be made accordingly. The current competitive

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environment comprises o the blue oceans and the red oceans, and it is due to this reason
where the firm would be required to see to it that they can formulate appropriate strategies
which will assist it in gaining long term success (Lee & Widener, 2016). Hence, in
consideration to this, the red ocean can be mentioned to be a scenario where the different
companies perform in a manner such that they intend to outperform the current employees
(Levin, 2016). On the other hand, the Blue Ocean strategy can be taken to be a relevant
strategy for the firm considering which the firm is required to confinement in its existing
market and is instead required to create new business segments which will enable the
company to expand beyond its current capabilities (Chan & Mauborgne, 2004).
Figure 8: The interface
(Source: Salesforce.com 2019)
The main aim of any organization adopting the Red Ocean strategy is to exploit the
existing demand and to beat the current competition. Additionally, the firm aims to see to it

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that using this strategy, the firm is essentially able to align the entire system of the
organization with the strategic choice of the differentiation or a low cost strategy. On the
other hand, the Blue ocean strategy aims to make a development in a UN contested market
and to create a new demand.( Newman, 2016) Additionally, the firm also seeks to break the
value cost and trade-off and align the entire system with the market through which it ideally
aims to adopt the cost savings or the differentiation strategy.
Since the inception of the organization back in the year 1999, the firm has been
successfully adopting a Blue Ocean Strategy. Marc Benioff developed the customer
relationship management software which was prepared by the organization on-demand then
in such a case, the platformer topped at providing the different customers and clients with the
concept of delivering the sales , customer service and marketing with a website even when at
that time frame the competitors had been providing the company with an overall opportunity
to gain access to the same technology by making use of the software and on-premise
enterprise technology (CRM Marketplace, 2018). With competitor companies like Microsoft
and SAP were using the enterprise software market; the Salesforce was trying to come up
with a new offering with a 30 data free trial basis and on-demand based web solution. The
company also created a niche for itself by trying to focus on the small companies as a present
who were not earning like large enterprises and through this initiative, the firm was
successful in generating higher revenues by offering the products to the different customers
as well (Malamed,(2016).
The main reason why the film was successful in attaining the victory is that it was
able to provide a simple offering to the different customers whereby they were not required to
install and related hardware or software components along with high level training
requirements, Salesforce found success in offering them with easy to use website capabilities.
This assisted in reducing the client cost and thereby with time it began to give out the

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offering to the large companies as well as in no time it was able to become a market leader in
the CRM space. Hence, the success of SalesForce in this field can be contributed to the fact
that they were able to adopt a suitable strategy which was able to generate immediate benefits
for the client base for all the companies of all sizes and helped them in not only reducing the
costs of the firm but along with this also reduce the risks involved. Additionally, the user
friendly products helped to increase and support contact management and double the
automation, which was helpful (Purba, Ray & Kumar, 2013).
Another crucial strategy which Salesforce has applied earlier was the Business to
Business marketing strategy. Through this strategy, the firm made use of the WebEx to
present the usefulness of its products instead of the traditional methods of marketing. This
assisted in bringing about the reduction in the sales cycle of the firm and with the association
to this, also allowed them to pace up the operations of the business (Ohanian, 23). This
allowed the organization by allowing them to have a faster sales period as compared to the
competitors who were yet stuck in the 90-day sales clue. Moreover, to add to the competitive
advantage of the organization, the firm was also able to come up with the web based portal
with the help of which, the different companies were able to gain access to various financial
as well as the administrative applications which were primarily focused on multiple
industries. This model was similar to that of the Amazon model which allows the numerous
organizations to gain access to the applications which are suitable for them but unlike other
applications, and they would not be required to download this one and instead of using it over
the web. Through this, the firm was able to gain a suitable market share in large organizations
as well. (Sankar, J 2013) Additionally, they could test the firm with additional services which
would improve its competitiveness in the market. Therefore, it can be mentioned that it was
due to this strategy that the organization was able to build the right brand name for itself and
earn a higher range of revenue.

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Figure 8: The future estimates
(Source: PCMAG.com, 2019).
It can be mentioned that the firm was able to launch the next phase of its blue ocean
strategy back in 2015 when the firm introduced the software named Einstein which can be
mention to be a set of artificial intelligence technologies which enable the different
organizations to enhance the sales of the product which they are selling. The software
provides a set of recommendations based on which the organizations can come up with new
business processes and accommodate the customer data. This can thereby result in making
the different employees more productive and the resources of the firm mostly efficient in
nature.
Additionally, this product also served as an extension of the current offerings which
the firm had come up with and contributed towards understanding that the company was
capable of coming up with the Artificial Intelligence capabilities which could be used to
exploit the capabilities of the organization. (Milliken, 2014O However, the firm did not
merely stop with the different developers but also engaged in the customization of
capabilities which the admins could make use of even when they did not have programming

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skills. With the ability of Einstein, Salesforce was able to extend the Artificial Intelligence
capabilities as it allowed the firm to grow its base by continuing the capacity and to come up
with the prediction fields (Prabhakar et al., 2013). Hence, even for the different companies
who did not have the overall capacity to earn higher revenues, the firm was able to help them
to expand their capabilities and afford Artificial Intelligence (Milliken, 2014P. Although the
competitor firms like Microsoft and Google tended to offer capacities for them and put in
extensive research in the study, the SalesForce tends to put use to the market advantage in the
hands currently. With this, the Artificial Intelligence becomes accessible to the users and the
fields which were traditionally limited to the experts can now be used by all the professionals.
To what extent is the organizational structure compatible with the organization’s
strategies?
To abide by the overall agility of the organization, it needs to be the motive of the
firm to ensure that it needs to be able to take decisions quickly and see to it that the different
individuals involved in the operations are quick. Hence, the services of the SalesForce are
divided into various departments, and these departments are provided to different operations.
Each of the departments is required to carry out their services in a manner such that, they are
being able to assist the firm in taking faster and quicker decisions. Hence, as the Blue ocean
strategy which is adopted by the organization requires the firm to undertake decisions which
would be smart and unique, the different levels of the organization would be necessarily
needed to see to it that they can contribute effectively to the overall purpose of the
organization and that they are being able to help the firm in attaining its long term goals.
How are the strategies aligned with the goals?
The goals of the firm can be defined as follows:

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1. To gain higher revenues
2. To obtain a large clientele base
3. To make use of the latest technology
4. To ensure that the firm is being able to provide the best solution to the different
customers who are present.
Hence, with these goals, it is critical that Salesforce can see to it that all their
strategies and initiatives are designed towards attaining organizational goals. Therefore,
regarding this, it is essential to consider that the firm can adapt strategy which helps them to
see to it that they can gain higher revenues, gain a large clientele base, make use of the latest
technology and additionally provide the best solution to the firms. Through the blue ocean
strategy, the firm can captive the broad market base, and this allows them to earn high
revenues and earn a higher income base (Viaene, 2008).
Compare this organization’s strategies with those of competitors.
To compare the different service strategies of the various competitors, it can be
rightfully mentioned that the strategy of the firm Salesforce can be taken to be the unique
strategy. This is because the different organizations work to compete against the competition,
which is present in the market (Prabhakar, 2013). They can adopt the Red ocean strategy
whereby they aim to mitigate the competition, which is current and to come up with a
strategy to serve the different members of the client base in the right manner. Additionally, it
is crucial to consider that the cost leadership and the differentiation strategies can be taken to
be the two most common strategies which are adopted by the various organizations. These
companies are firms like Microsoft, SAP and other such famous firms which sell softwares to
the different customers. They provide the right technology and related products in addition to

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seeing to it that, they can increase the popularity of the firm, they often offer low prices with
the help of which they can capture a more extensive market base.
Figure 9: Talk to survey
(Source: Viaene, S2008).

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Use SWOT analysis and Gap analysis to suggest strategies
The SWOT analysis of the organizations can be mentioned to be as follows:
Strength Weakness
Good brand image
Considerate fees and subscription
Elaborate plans
Largely focused on one location
Operations Threat
The Growth of CRM
Integration activities
Strategic alliances with the firms.
Hacking
Third-party issues
High competition in the workplace.
GAP Analysis
The Gap analysis can be taken to be an investigation with the help of which
interpretation of how the firm has been performing can be figured out and well understood.
Hence, it can be mentioned that, although the SalesForce has been able to target the different
clients which comprise of large organizations like HCL and KFC, the SalesForce would be
required to target the different educational systems (Preetish et al., 2016). Online
management of the different schooling systems has gained popularity and it is with
consideration to this that the firm will be necessarily required to see to it that they are being
able to deal with these educational systems and assists them in accepting a user friendly
administration technique which would not only help them to manage and balance the

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different operations successfully but would also allow them to assure that they are able to
gain a new market and thereby increase their capability.
Recommended strategy
Therefore, from the SWOT analysis and the GAP analysis undertaken previously, it
could be identified that the management of the different customers has become very popular,
and it is in relation to this that the Salesforce needs to come up with a plan which would
assist it in targeting the right kind of customers in the proper manner. Hence, the market
development, as well as the Market penetration strategy, is being recommended to the
Salesforce. In the market penetration strategy, the companies generally target the new
customer segment in the existing market where it is current iteration, and additionally in case
of the market development strategy, the firms lookout for opening their presence in a new
market as this would allow them to engage in a successful relationship with the various
customers and thereby extend their operations (Predictive Analytics. ,2017). Therefore, from
this analysis, it can be necessarily mentioned that the firm is open to two different
opportunities which comprise of development of a new product for education systems and
serve it in the existing market or the option of extending its overall operations in the new
developing countries in Asia which would allow the origination to provide their unique
solutions to them and in regard to this be able to earn a higher revenue base along with a
considerable increase in the number of clients which the firm has and will be required to
serve.
Evaluate Strategy Application (advantages & disadvantages of each strategy).
Hence, the previous section recommended that the firm will be required to adopt two
main strategies with the help of which the firm will be able to expand in the market and

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through which it will be able to achieve its goals in the right manner. Hence, the section will
determine the advantages as well as the disadvantages of each of the parts to come up with
the final strategy, which will be suitable for the firm.
Market development strategy
Advantages
The primary advantage of this kind of an approach can be mentioned to be the fact
that through the application of this strategy the firm will effectively be able to expand its
horizons to new markets, earn higher revenues, gain a competitive edge and gain more client
base. Hence, this seems a suitable strategy for the firm to adopt it.
Disadvantages
The primary disadvantage in the case of this strategy can be mentioned to be the fact
that the firm would find this strategy very expensive in nature and additionally, there is a
bleak possibility that the firm will not be able to attain success with the opportunity in the
long run (Purba, Ray & Kumar, 2013).
Market penetration strategy
Advantages
The primary advantages of the Market penetration strategy can be considered to be
the fact that, the firm will be able to perform in the same market, and this is the market
whereby the firm is familiar with the different market opportunities, and this would lead to
lower costs of establishing the connections with the new target base. Hence, the education
industry seems well into the scenario.
Disadvantage

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The main disadvantage of the strategy is that the firm may or may not be successful
with this technique. This means that as the different customers are already aware of this
product in the market, they may not be willing to purchase it, and the entire plan goes and
backfires.
Therefore, after analysing the Advantages as well as disadvantages of the different
strategies which have been formulated, it can be necessarily mentioned that the Market
penetration is a mostly favourable strategy as it assists the various firm members to engage in
growth with the initial investment. As the firm has aimed to target the various educational
institutions, this strategy might serve to be useful.
Key performance indicators (KPI’s)
The Key performance indicator that the firm will look out for are as follows:
 Increase in the number of customers: This is a useful indicator whereby the number of
customers and their growth rate can be stated to be genuine or not. Hence, the firm
will be required to see to it that they make the customers provide constant feedback to
the firm and ensure success.
 Customer enquiry: The number of customer queries received can also be mentioned to
be a useful tool which can be used by the different business to see to it that the firm is
driving or lane or not. Hence the customer quire will be the key performance indicator
(Schneider, 2016).
Analysis of the Organization: Functional Strategies
Marketing – Finance – Operations – Purchasing – Human Resources –
Information Systems

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A firm is a plethora of various departments. As discussed easily, any firm which
would be required to attain long term success would be necessary to integrate these
departments and functions successfully. Therefore, it is understood that the firm has been
able to come up with the Finance, operations, services, Human resources and the Marketing
departments to portray long term benefits for them in the long run. The functional level
strategies are primarily formulated to promote the corporate level strategy and to assume that,
the different departments of the firm can meet the objectives.
The finance departments would be necessarily required to engage in the assurance
that, the firm is being able to earn higher revenues, and this in a way would only be possible
if the firm operates well. Hence, in this case, the financial strategy and the operations
strategy are interlinked to one another (Sondergaard, 2017). An example which can be given
in this case is that the Purchases and the human resources are also primarily connected in this
scenario as the human resources would be required to carry out the service effectively and
hence, it is vital to ensure that all these services present would be interlinked with each other.
This association between them would assist in bringing about the goal achievement of the
organization.
How well are the functional strategies aligned?
It is not a difficult task to align the various strategies of the firm, but then it is
essential to ensure that they are aligned to a common goal. Hence, by focusing on the
alignment of the different functions, it is critical to note that, any order received from the
sales manager goes to the purchase manager and storekeeper and occasionally these
employees may be identified as a network. The information gets disseminated throughout the
firm and about this; the different departments work towards a common goal of achieving
perfection and fulfilling organizational objectives. In the same way, this relevant information

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keeps distributing around the firm and passes through different departments before reaching
the right source.
Figure 10: The growth of the firm
(Source: Salesforce.com, 2019)
Analyze an organization's improvement/change initiatives
All the different organizations often undergo an improvement initiate with the help of
which the firm is required to check any barriers to a good flow of operations, In this scenario,
the different tools like Benchmarking, Costing and the Six sigma will be primarily working,
and the firm has a pattern of achieving its new goals.
Previous & current impact/success of improvement initiatives.

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In the past, the firm has planned to come up with strategies like the Total quality
management and the high performance working for the team to see to it that the improvement
initiatives can be achieved. Hence, regarding this, through the Total quality management
initiative, and the High-performance work culture, the Salesforce has undertaken various
efforts to ensure that the different women in the firm will be able to be an integral part of the
business.
Additionally, the Total quality management strategy was applied in the service quality
and delivery to see to it that the different platforms can be managed well and the objectives
could be carried out successfully (Sondergaard et al., 2017). When the case of the High-
performance culture was mentioned, it can be reflected that it is through the high perform
management style that the firm was able to encourage the different employees to deliver to a
great extent and additionally be able to come up with unified operations.
Implications for the firm:
The improvements made under the role of the Total quality management have brought
about considerable growth for the operations of SalesForce in the following manner:
1. The introduction of the web based catalogue named WebEx had been designed in
order to certify that the firm saves on the lead time and with respect to this, the sales
cycle of the firm was reduced and this helped in keeping the costs of the organization
and assuring success in the long run (Ghosh, 2018).
2. Secondly, the total quality management also assured that the organization would be
successfully able to engage in generating minimised waste and simplifying its overall
solutions. This assists it in becoming a market leader.
Alignment of improvement initiatives & integration into the strategic
management of the organization.

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The strategy of Total quality management and the High-performance work culture
was designed, keeping in mind the organizational strategy. The Blue ocean strategy can be
taken to the primary strategy which was generally adopted by the firm and hence, in this case,
the firm aimed to attain success by offering the different customers with a unique offering
which would ensure that the firm is being able to come up with the best option possible.
Therefore, to improve the same, the High-performance workgroup has managed to perform
well for the firm with the help of which the different group of individuals who are being able
to get together with an opportunity which allows them to brainstorm effectively and offer the
different clients with a suitable offering for their overall needs. Alignment of the initiatives is
integral as it involves seeing the organization is being able to continue these activities in a
sound manner (Sullivan, 2008). The TQM will ensure that the firm is being able to manage
the different goals as per the principles of the TQM, which involve good quality with
minimum wastage. Hence, the firm has one of its goals to see to it that the organization offers
the best service quality. Through the application of TQM, the service delivery quality has
increased profusely, and the firm can engage in successful relations with the client base (Top
et al., 2014).
C. Comparison of improvement initiatives with other organizations within
and outside the industry.
The different organizations in the industry or the companies outside the industry often
tend to adopt a different type of a strategy as compared to the one which the firm governs.
This strategy can be considered to be the six sigma and the ISO 9000 and the ISO 14000. All
service organizations abide by these standards and also apply the Six Sigma. For example,
Toyota usually uses the Six Sigma to minimise defects in the system. However, in the case of
the Salesforce, this will not be required as a different set of attributes have been adopted.

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Companies who are the competitors like Microsoft and SAP have been using their goods and
applying various techniques to gain success (Balkhi, 2018). However, Oracle, Microsoft and
the SAP have not been very successful as compared to SalesForce in carrying out the
different operations of the firm. This is because; these organizations have not been able to
engage in hitting the right segment. By using ISO 9000 or the ISO 14000, although the firms
have been able to improve their quality but delivering the solution to the customers has not
been possible for these competitors.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above analysis conducted on SalesForce, it can be rightfully
mentioned that the report followed a structured format whereby each section was divided and
focused on how the firm has been performing since he last few years. Additionally, aspects
like the real competition in the industry, their capability; how the growth initiatives were
adopted have also been discussed. Hence, it can be understood from the study that the Blue
ocean strategy has been working well Salesforce and now it has been recommended that the
firm is being able to adopt the market penetration strategy and get into the requirements and
demands of the market as well. The study compared the external as well as the internal
environment of the firm, which presented a 360-degree view of the firm and also presented a
critical analysis of its strategies.

36SALESFORCE
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