Target Market
Due to the specifics of the field in which Automatic Data Processing operates, potential customers and target audience occupy a certain niche. That is, the key consumers of services and technologies provided by the corporation are either individuals or other organizations that need technical support in the financial field (Bauer et al., 2019). Since the corporation operates on the territory of several states, the nature and other criteria of clients are not important. However, the services and products of the firm in question are aimed exclusively at commercial customers. From this we can conclude that the main criterion for a potential buyer is his relationship with the accounting and reporting structures.
Industry Analysis
The considered corporation sets as its goal the timely and efficient provision of technological resources to the financial side of the organization. The software industry is designed to create an information space as a set of information resources and means of access to them for their users, as well as organizational structures to support this space. The modern understanding of the software industry is characterized by industrial methods of developing and replicating not only individual software tools, but also information and computing systems. The products of the software industry are software systems, software packages and individual software tools, databases and knowledge bases that are intended for use in information, computing and control systems by users (Bauer et al., 2019). In this industry, Automatic Data Processing is the leader, because, firstly, it covers the full range of products, and secondly, it enjoys the greatest demand and authority among contextual competitors.
SWOT Analysis
The company has many strengths that make it a leader in its segment. The innovative technologies used in the development, the flexibility of the thinking of employees and the very structure of the organization, as well as the quality of the services provided, are especially highlighted. Thus, Automatic Data Processing has most of the business sides strong, so it is difficult to compete with it, especially given the uniqueness of the niche it occupies. However, the organization also has weaknesses, the most serious of which is staff turnover. The fact is that many programmers consider working in a corporation as a stage, and not an end goal. This is caused by inadequate wages, which do not allow professionals to stay. In addition, the corporate spirit in the organization is not developed, which leads to a lack of employee loyalty (Bauer et al., 2019). In order to resolve this situation, the management of Automatic Data Processing needs to address the two root causes of the leak described above and solve them.
Competition and Segmentation
Today, Automatic Data Processing is a large American IT corporation with many divisions specializing in certain segments of the information technology field. Automatic Data Processing Corporation is present in many countries around the world, including the US and the UK. Now the corporation employs about 57 thousand people. Automatic Data Processing has an estimated average annual profit of $1.5 billion and a market capitalization of approximately $45 billion (Allman-Ward & Allman-Ward, 2018, p. 74). Automatic Data Processing’s technology labs develop a wide range of enterprise software, including database services and business-specific applications (Allman-Ward & Allman-Ward, 2018). From the analyzed information, it follows that, according to the annual profit data, the company occupies a leading position in its niche. In addition, the organization continues to develop permanently and improve the quality of services, which creates a significant gap between it and its competitors. Finally, the key and most effective segment of the corporation’s activities is taxation, accounting and IT related to the economy.
Four Ps
In order to analyze the success of an organization, it is necessary to consider four forces that bring Automatic Data Processing to a leadership level. First of all, the organization’s products include a set of goods and services that have a narrow specialty, but are relevant for the vast majority of commercial organizations. The main feature of such usguls is that they are easily adjusted to any market. This creates a peculiar monopoly of the organization for the entire niche, since it is able to provide for any state with different economic systems.
The pricing policy in the corporation is standard, convenient for both management and customers. Prices for services are constantly growing, but smooth. In other words, every year the prices increase, but in such a way that it does not become unacceptably expensive for buyers (Wolters Kluwer Editorial Staf, 2021). It is important to emphasize that for customers who have concluded an agreement with Automatic Data Processing earlier, the price is the same as the one that was relevant at the time of the start of cooperation.
Location is the greatest organizational advantage of the four forces. The fact is that Automatic Data Processing has several offices and representative offices in different countries for the convenience of communication. However, activities are carried out in cyberspace, which allows significant savings on rent and staff provision. Based on this, the location of the company is its main advantage, because it covers the whole world without a large number of offices and headquarters. The advertising policy of the organization is non-standard, since the main engine of production is authority. In other words, Automatic Data Processing has almost no advertising campaigns, since the company’s history is quite large, which has created a loyal customer base. In turn, consumers remain satisfied with the services provided and the authority of the corporation extends to other commercial organizations. Thus, the main advertising agents of Automatic Data Processing are buyers and firms.
Sales Forecast
An important benefit in potentially predicting a corporation’s sales is monitoring its activity and stock prices. In addition, at the moment, the current problem is the covid-19 pandemic, which has created a trend of transition to remote work. Therefore, this is a very profitable and convenient time for the implementation of the business activity of Automatic Data Processing, which just specializes in remote mechanisms. In addition, in comparison with the interval 2017-2020, 2021-2022 are profitable, as the effectiveness of actions has increased significantly (Allman-Ward & Allman-Ward, 2018, p. 99). Accordingly, it can be assumed that sales will increase with price increases, since both demand and profits increase in international organizations. In addition, the net income of Automatic Data Processing is consistently in surplus, which indicates the profitability of products and services.
References
Allman-Ward, M. and Allman-Ward, P. A. (2018). Optimizing company cash. A guide for financial professionals. Wiley.
Bauer, T., Erdogan, B., Caughlin. D. and Truxillo, D. (2019). Fundamentals of human resource management. People, data, and analytics. SAGE Publications.
Wolters Kluwer Editorial Staf. (2021). Directory of corporate counsel. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.