Global Enterprise Environment - BlackBerry - Case Study Example

Global enterprise environment Student’s name Professor’s name Class name Introduction The BlackBerry is a series of various wireless handheld devices and services which undergo designing and marketing by the BlackBerry Limited, initially referred to as the Research In Motion Limited (RIM). The company started with the production of the BlackBerry devices known as the, email pagers, which got a release in 1999. Currently, the latest BlackBerry gadgets comprise of the following: the Z30s, Z10s, Q10s and Q5s. The Z10s and Q10s were declared on January 30th, 2013, and the Q5s were declared on May 14th, 2013. The user interface of these devices, were dependent of the model; mostly had the physical QWERTY keyboards, whereas the current products have adopted the use of the multi-touch screens and virtual keyboards (Connell 2009). The BlackBerry gadgets can be used in shooting videos, taking photos and playing music. These gadgets are also providing vital services like the following: web-browsing, email messages, instant messages, and the proprietary BlackBerry Messengers (Connell 2009). BlackBerry Company accounted for 3% of the global sales of the mobile devices in 2011. This made the manufacturer of the BlackBerry to be the sixth most widespread mobile gadget maker (25% of the sales of the mobile devices are the smartphones). The consumer’s BlackBerry Internet Services are accessible in 91 nations globally in more than 500 mobile service operators by use of different mobile technologies. By September 2012, there existed 80 million subscribers globally of the BlackBerry mobile devices. In the year 2011, the Caribbean and Latin America were having the maximum disseminations of BlackBerry smartphones globally, with almost 45% of this region possessing BlackBerry devices. BlackBerry was unanimously called the "CrackBerry" in US, that lead to the allusion to its extreme usage by its owners and its addiction can be likened to the addiction of the crack cocaine. The usage of the name "CrackBerry" became so common to the extent that by November 2006, the Webster's New World College Dictionary referred to "Crackberry" as the "New Word of the Year." (Connell 2009). PESTEL Analysis of BlackBerry external environment Political forces The political environment in the North America particularly in the USA has aided the smart mobile phone companies particularly the Blackberry to do very well as pointed out by Nelson (2011). The Blackberry mobile phones have been facing challenges in Nations like China, UAE and India. In these countries, there are various issues regarding the security features provided in the BlackBerry mobile phones since the monitoring of the government authorities is difficult (BBC 2010). According to Guardian (2010), the BlackBerry has also undergone a serious scrutiny in several nations like the following: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Indonesia as a result of security issues associated with the mobile phones. There are also some other countries from Europe like the UK, Germany etc. which have implemented serious regulations regarding the hygiene and safety standards for any mobile phone manufacturer and this might affect the operation of the BlackBerry mobile phone operators since it faces significant pressure from the use of toxic components, energy usage and recycling (Farraj 2009). Economic forces Economic aspects have significant effects in the smart phone marketing industry since the demands are fairly flexible and are possibly on the basis of the income of the consumers but the latest economic decline had significant effect since individuals aren’t willing to use their money on any commodity until its price is suitable and is offering the promised aspects. Although, there are some expectations that the industry of the smart phones would be moderately stable and any developing economy like India, China, Latin America would provide platforms for the BlackBerry (Economic times 2009). Because the sale of the BlackBerry phones is done through-out the globe, the exchange rate would also have effects on the BlackBerry since the fluctuations in the exchange rates might unexpectedly yield BlackBerry to be competitive or excessively costly. The fluctuations of the exchange rates might have weighty on the Blackberry particularly in market like in China and India which are price sensitive. The BlackBerry has got other stock in several nations and the exchanging rates have direct effects on the realized returns on any investment portfolio with any oversea holding according to RIM (2009). Social factors Social aspects like education, life style, income level etc. have a significant effect on the demand patterns and any cultural aspect have got effects on the periodic sales similarly. For instance, in a nation like US, the sales of the BlackBerry devices and other electronic components seem to be comparatively higher during Novembers to Decembers, the holiday seasons (Jaroslovsky 2010). Another social cultural aspect that affects the Blackberry is the constant increased usage of its products by the antisocial components that would have impacts on the image of the brand of the Company together with its products since the client markets in the religious sensitive nations might visualize the Blackberry products as essential component of the operation of the social aspects and any business market might have a declined use of the products because of the strict regulations from the government resulting from the use of the products by the anti-social components would hamper the performance of the products. Technological aspect The technological aspects have got significant effects on the mobile phone industry as a whole especially the BlackBerry. This is because any clients base of the products demand relatively newer and robust aspects in the products. The advancement in the technology in the last decade e.g. the 3G technology had an impact on the BlackBerry technology, even the constant competition in the mobile phones industry amounts to the competition on the software offered in the products. The smart phones from the BlackBerry Company are significantly adapted to the technological advancements since it is compatible with several advanced appliances like HSPA/UMTS (high speed packet access/ universal mobile telecommunication systems), GSM/GPRS/EDGE (global systems for mobile communication/ general packet radio radio service/ enhanced data rates for global evolution ), CDMA/ Ev-DO (codes division multiple access/ evolution-data optimized), and iDEN (integrated digital enhanced networks) (RIM 2009). Environment aspect The environmental factor has a significant effect in this industry since all the manufacturers have to abide by different environmental ethics. The BlackBerry for a long time has been ensuring that the standard of manufacturing is relatively eco-friendly and any mistake might likely taint the image of this company in the client market. Therefore environmental aspects like the recycling of the products, energy use, and waste development in the course of manufacturing might also have effects on the BlackBerry Company (BBC 2008). Legal aspect One of the chief legal aspects that affect the BlackBerry in the market is highlighted in one of the above section regarding the political aspects. The companies’ services are relatively secured and it is therefore difficult to have them monitored, thus regulatory bodies in nations like the U.A.E., India etc. are intending to have the services banned. This step might have a tremendous effect in its operation (BBC 2010). The Blackberry is also faced by several legal conflicts with companies like Vistro, Motorola etc. and these have side effects on the operations of the BlackBerry Company. The Blackberry is faced by a law case from the Minerva industries. The plaintiff did file two allegations in 2007 and 2008 respectively against the Blackberry Company asserting that the company infringed its patents. In the year 2008 on December, MSTG did file a lawsuit against the company for infringing its patents (BBC 2008). Also on march 2010, the PACid did file a case against the BlackBerry Company and other 30 suspects with the allegations that its patent rights were infringed (BBC 2010). The awaiting lawsuits would also happen after they have been settled in an expensive manner, and all these lawsuits would be having significant negative impacts on the performance of the company. Therefore, these are some of the crucial PESTLE macro aspects that are affecting the BlackBerry Company in its operations. According to Priyanka (2013), Some disadvantages of Pestle analysis Users might excessively simplify the information that is used in decision making. The PESTLE analysis has to be carried out frequently for its effectiveness to be felt. Unfortunately rarely do organizations make it. Organizations usually limit whoever is involved because of limited time and money. This minimizes the technique’s efficiency as a major perspective. Porter’s five force analysis of the BlackBerry devices The Bargaining Power of a Supplier:  AVERAGE There exist various hardware component manufacturers for the mobile phone but the operating system of the BlackBerry is complex and thus it hinders the figures of software developers that would be ready to work with them.  This hindrance was best lately noticed when BlackBerry was struggling to get any native application for the launching of the Z10. (Daisy 2013) The bargaining Power of a Buyer: HIGH Many of the competitors have simpler goods (not very much difference between the goods) The Switching costs are low-moderate depending on contracts (Daisy 2013) Threats of any New Entrant: LOW It is extremely costly to get into the market ( R&D cost)  Problematic to hold negotiations with the distribution channels Large brand’s loyalty for any current product Economies of scale Huge Rivalry (Daisy 2013) Threats of Substitutes: LOW It is hard for users to have a life that is not having the mobile phone (people are no longer using the house phones or any other substitute).  People are rarely using Telegraphs for communication since the mobile phone is more convenient (Daisy 2013) Competitive Rivalry: HIGH High Rivalry from various companies like Nokia, Apple, Google & Microsoft low products’ differentiation Therefore, the BlackBerry products are in a market whereby it is facing stiff competition and has low abilities to differentiate as a result of R&D limits.   Any Distributor and consumer in the market have high bargaining power.  Therefore, there is a need for the BlackBerry finding a way to differentiate or perish (Daisy 2013) The major disadvantage of the Porter’s five force analysis This model has an assumption on stagnant industry components. The development of this model was in 80’s and the market dynamics have been exponentially changing; nowadays technology has a high impact on the frequently changing market trends (Gator 2013) Analysis of the organization’s strategic capability According to the BlackBerry (2013), the BlackBerry Enterprise solution enables any mobile user to have access to wireless communication and information like: 1. Message and collaboration tool- this eases the mobile employees to remain connected with their workmates. These include emails, instant messages, personal information management (like personalized calendars, address books and notes taking). 2. Access of desktop features-this enable any mobile user to remotely control the desktop features using the BlackBerry Smartphones. These include: Network drives (enables the access of the email attachments), emails, downloading of attachment and the mobile access to the webs. 3. Enterprise voice- has features that are entrepreneurial. E.g. One phone number-this is whereby a single business number would ring up to four mobile phones sequentially or at the same time. Any call that is not answered, would go to the corporate voice mail boxes, easing management of messages Frequent callers identity-a mobile user might make an enterprise voice call using similar identity like any corporate desk phone by use of the BlackBerry smartphones. 4. BlackBerry application platforms allow the development of the applications using Java and web and has various environments supported. This platform is in line with the standards of the industry. With the inclusion of cameras, GPS and Bluetooth technology in the BlackBerry phones, has welcomed many dynamic applications. The important stakeholders of the BlackBerry are the programmers of the mobile applications, marketing team and shareholders. Competitive positioning of Blackberry Blackberry is collapsing since it is facing tough market competition from its rivals i.e. iOS and Android. Initially, BlackBerry was advantageous over it competitors on security grounds. However, iOS and Android have platforms which are getting gradually better in terms of security and thus Blackberry become extinct in future. According to (Smart advantage 2011), BlackBerry has lost the market share in the following perspectives 1. Losing of client loyalty – only 48% of the Blackberry users are willing to continue using the brand as compared to the 60% for Android and 84% for Apple. 2. Service outages- millions of Blackberry lost service for 3 days in October 2011 as a result of fatal network failures. 3. Blackberry platform is has become insecure to business information as compared to Android and iPhones 4. Its applications aren’t appetizing e.g. lacks Google maps but are readily accessible in the iPhones and androids SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths As a result of the innovations in the history of the BlackBerry up to date, it's strengths have facilitated in keeping the company in the minds of the clients in America, with 37 percent of the USA market for smart phones in comparison with its next most close competitor i.e. Windows Mobile at 26 percent (Hansberry 2009). Most of these strengths in the market share arise from the business domain, as a result of the IT experts advocating for its usage since, "with the BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, any IT administrator is able to enforce thousands of procedures over the phone, from deactivating multimedia components like the cameras and music players to constraining which website any user is able to visit" (Morisy 2008). Up to date none of the Blackberries rivals has come even closer to that property from the IT perspective. In addition to this, the RIM is looking for methods of upgrading the looks of the BlackBerry and common customer appeal (Morisy 2008), so as to aid in garnering even more share in the smartphones market. Weaknesses Some of the weaknesses in the BlackBerry devices can be associated with some of the explanations that any IT department seems to exhibit an actual love for its abilities, since like Hansberry (2006) is pointing out any IT department "isn't horribly concerned with media, web browsing and other services that the Windows Mobiles and various platforms look like to be handling better." Alongside with that, till the up-to-date makes of the 9000 series, the BlackBerry didn’t exhibit any touchscreen capability, thus it is hitherto to be perceived as if its late coming to the touchscreen technology could bring about a better solution to the market. In addition to this, with just one BlackBerry make existing which has High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), the RIM company has made its opening to the swarm of cheap offers from various rivals that have offer that ability; this might have been a blunder for the BlackBerry manufacturer not to offering the ability in several models (Chan 2009). In addition to this, what has also been questionable is the network architecture of the BlackBerry, because a global outage happened in April of 2007. Though, such an outage sometimes happens on localized basis, it might be enormous liabilities to have the whole global network go down (Blackberry outage 2007). Opportunity One of the best opportunities for the RIM Company and the BlackBerry lines is the BlackBerry Partners Fund. The BlackBerry partners Fund is used in helping the creation of applications, which can be downloaded, for the BlackBerry from autonomous firms (Gardner 2008). Apple’s iPhones have actually dominated the global market share, and since the BlackBerry has been lagging behind to the adoption of this model of the creation of the applications. Therefore, with the blend of the existing impressive presence in the USA market share plus the incorporation of essential applications, the BlackBerry could be well advantaged to have even more expanded global market share. In addition to this, on the basis of some of the instances highlighted earlier in this SWOT analysis, the BlackBerry mobile phone industry might have benefits from the upgrading of the web abilities, and whole multimedia abilities. Threats Almost all of the electronics manufacturers i.e. the LG, Nokia, Samsung etc. have come up with their respective own smartphones. Therefore, the potential threats to the RIM’s BlackBerry are very many. This is particularly relevant with the previously mentioned weaknesses in its web user-interface. In the worldwide market, the market share of the BlackBerry did rise by almost 5 %, whereas the market share of the Nokia devices fell from 51.4 percent to 38.9 percent. This showed that with the sheer numbers of offers existing in that market, even whenever one has a almost dominating grasp on the market share, it might exponential fall unexpectedly. With the BlackBerry's usually late arrivals to modern technology, like the usage of touchscreen, HSDPAs, and the accessibility of add-on application, to enhance the maintenance and expansion of global market share, any software engineer and designer at RIM needs to start holding the technological curves and striving to be in front of it to aid in the creation of an extra portion in the global market for their offers. Even though SWOT analysis might be helpful in showing various dimensions of what is correct and incorrect with any product, business, or system, what SWOT doesn’t unearth is to what quantitative degrees each of these components might hold sways. As can be exhibited by the emergent global market share that the BlackBerry is presently capable of capturing, the present strengths of the BlackBerry are outweighing its weaknesses. The actual question at this point could be: How long would it be before star performers that excel in the fields in which the BlackBerry has not capitalized, begins to meet the levels of security that several IT branches like regarding the BlackBerry and being able to eat from its market share? Or, would the teams at RIM be able to rise to this challenge and start upgrading any interface and application to the extent that their security applications have increased? Therefore, the setting of stage for the BlackBerry is to begin to take even additional market share from its rivals. Solitary time and the constant incessant need for the modern, the essential, and the innovation that infiltrate the market share would tell. The strategic goals for BlackBerry One aspect of hope is that BlackBerry is still having a substantial grip on the corporate clients – instead of the individual customers. Probably, the RIM Company can come up with a final stand by concentrating on the enterprise world. This is a good advantage for them, since RIM is having a bigger market share and reliability with that audience (Smart advantage 2011). The company should also focus on carrying out customer researches digging deeper into the reasons as to why their business clients are still opting to make purchases from them. For instance, could there be anything that the BlackBerry is offering that is specially well-positioned for enterprise usage? The RIM Company should also listen to what its clients are saying. Customer researches could be the most suitable method of honing in on their competitive advantages, and later communicating such applicable competitive advantages to other clients. Therefore, they should not ignore the voice of the customers (Smart advantage 2011). Reference List BBC, 2008, News, viewed 13 January 2014, < www.bbc.co.uk> BBC, 2010, News, viewed 13 January 2014, < www.bbc.co.uk> Blackberry outage, 2007, Blackberry outage exposes weakness for RIM, viewed 13 January 2014 http://www.blackberryblast.com/articles/2007/4/2007419-Blackberry-outage-exposes-weakness.html BlackBerry,2013, BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, viewed 13 January 2013, Chan, J 2009, 5 BlackBerry alternatives, viewed 13 January 2014, < http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,62043605,00.htm> Connell, O 2009, “The Battle over BlackBerry, Patent Trolls and Information Technology”’ Journal of Law, Information and Science 95 Daisy, J 2013, Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis for RIM, viewed 13 January 2014, Jaroslovsky B 2010, “The latest, greatest smart phones.” Kiplinger’s personal finance; Vol. 64 Issue 9, p86-88 Gardner, W 2008, $5.5 Million BlackBerry Fund Invests In Future Mobile Harvest, viewed 13 January 2014, Gator, W 2013, Disadvantages of five forces model by Michael porter? Viewed 13 January 2014, Guardian, 2010, News-technology-blackberry, viewed 13 January 2014, < www.guardian.co.uk> Faraj, J 2009, From Blackberry to Greenberry: RIM Goes Green at CebiT; Business source premier Economic times, 2009, news, viewed 13 January 2014, < www.economictimes.com> Priyanka, J 2013, The disadvantages of using a PESTLE analysis, viewed 3 January 21014, RIM, 2009, 2009 Annual Report, viewed 13 January 2014, Morisy, M 2008, As iPhone passes BlackBerry market share, RIM prepares to counterpunch, viewed 13 January 2014, Nelson, F, 2011, BlackBerry Service Outage Spells RIM Doom, viewed 13 January 2014, Smart advantage, 2011, 6 Reasons Why BlackBerry is Losing Their Competitive Advantages, viewed 13 January 2014, Vecillo, K 2009, History of Major Blackberry Models from RIM, viewed 13 January 2014, Read More