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