Executive Summary
This document entails the OnePoint Software Strategic Marketing Plan, which is a new open-source software company that seeks to come up with a sophisticated operating system. Several companies have come up with suites that offer different computer packages; however, none of these make efforts to have professional products within the operating system. OnePoint Software addresses this gap by planning to have deployed new operating that comes with software suites used in engineering, medicine, and finance. Being an open-source operating system, one point Software is expected to grow the products within the OS suite to meet the needs of the market. This paper identifies the trends in the operating systems market and software suites as well as the new trends used in the interoperability of products. This strategic marketing plan looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are likely to result in the new operating system approach. The company puts particular regard to target market strategy, branding, quality, packaging, pricing strategy, distribution, and promotion strategies. The company also considers launching the operating system in 2020 and roll it out for universal use in 2023 after all the discussions by the contributors are addressed.
Business Analysis
Software plays a crucial role in personal computers (PCs). Most software companies often put high prices on their products, making it hard for potential users to buy them. Operating System (OS) companies such as Microsoft, Linux, Ubuntu, and Apple provide a limited number of software, most of which do not work in computers produced by their rivals (Ganguli). Most of these companies offer spreadsheets, word processors, and presentation software that do not enable the interoperability of software. The current business environment calls for developers to think beyond a single organization. In particular, developers need to provide a way in which the users of the operating system can collaborate to work on their projects from anywhere in the world.
No current software companies provide a suite that can result in self-sufficiency among the users, and at the same time, enable interoperability of their suites across different platforms. However, OS providers should offer these products for free and make their users more satisfied (Chelgani et al 418). According to Xin, the increase in the number of PCs sold should reflect the need to continuously provide a platform for open office to manage the different projects in any particular software. Realizing such an integration is only possible at the OS development stage.
Situation Analysis
Suite Provider
The major suite providers include Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office, and Lotus SmartSuite. Other software providers who collect packages into a suite often tend to concentrate on providing software used in specific niches such as medicine, engineering, and finance. According to Altahi et al. (e1204), no company has a suite used by different professionals. The various suites and marketing strategies used by Microsoft, WordPerfect, and Lotus SmartSuite provide an understanding of the next more operating system adopted by OnePoint Software.
Microsoft Office
Microsoft is currently the largest provider of office suite products. However, with increased innovation, some of these companies come up with better suites that outdo those provided by Microsoft (Raheja and Munjal 392). The company sells its products based on editions that have increased prices based on the features (Eitzman). Microsoft uses a single pricing strategy across the globe and sometimes provides discounts to retain its market. Moreover, the organization has a large marketing budget that helps it to widely promote its products across continents (Austin and Bergkvist). The firm’s advertising budget ranges between $5,000 and $10,000 million every year, which enables it to increase its market share (Eitzman). The main goal of the company is to maintain its share of the office suite market.
WordPerfect Office
WordPerfect Office is another office suite that dominates the market. According to Hudson, the company designed packages and gradually combined them to form its current office packages (860). The set of software contains different tools like spreadsheets and graphics. In addition, the set has products that help users to create pdf, Html, and XML files (Hudson 860). According to Klein, the WordPerfect Office resource is also useful providing a seamless migration from packages provided by Microsoft Office. WordPerfect Office Suite, such as Microsoft Suite, is sold in editions such as basic and professional versions. WordPerfect Office is available in over 30 languages across the world and is used mainly with Windows OS, even though there is a beta development in Linux (Klein). The main goal of the set of office resources is to advance its share of the office tools market.
Lotus SmartSuite
Lotus SmartSuite is one of the many Lotus products offered by IBM. Even though the package has captured the market, it is distinct from other families of Lotus (Gururaj). Since IBM focuses more on its different products like Lotus Workplace Documents, which is served-based, the package is less known among IBM products. The main features of Lotus SmartSuite include Word Pro, Organizer, Freelance Graphics, and Approach (Kumar 74). The IBM office tool is mainly used in Microsoft Windows devices.
Target Markets
The identification of a target market is crucial because it helps to understand the needs of users that the company can address more than its competitors. According to Curtis and Allen, identifying a target market enables a company to understand the different characteristics of the market and whether it can result in disruption of innovation. One Point Software provides a suite of computer packages such as word processors, presenters, and spreadsheets, and other software used by experts in engineering, finance, and medicine. Mowatt and Farrell revealed in their study that computer users in the current age are likely to use different software. OnePoint Software provides a mobile-like platform in computers where the users can access all these software that comes with the operating system. Furthermore, this approach can make it possible for different organizations such as universities, small and medium enterprises, libraries, manufacturers, and charity organizations to use the products at the lowest costs possible.
SWOT Analysis
Positioning and Objectives
For a multi-integrated company that employs different experts who depend on software to design and manage their work, OnePoint Software is the best system to help them perform best in their work. The operating system ensures that an organization’s employees are connected at all times and can continuously work on their projects from the comfort of their homes or other areas wherever the company deploys them. Using this OS also enables the organizations and users to save on the costs of purchasing and maintaining their most needed software.
The main objectives of OnePoint Software include the following:
- To achieve a 10% OS market share within five years.
- To increase the number of software that come with the operating system to at least ten software per niche within a decade.
Marketing Strategy
OnePoint Software targets everyone who owns a personal computer. The OS will come with software that can address the needs in engineering, medicine, and finance.
- Branding. The employees and producers will use the brand name. Encouraging users to display ‘OnePoint Software’ on their machines and products. Interested users with other brands can also exhibit ‘OnePoint Software’ on their brands.
- Quality. OnePoint Software relies on expert software developers to continuously build the operating system. However, it also has a dedicated team of quality assurance that ensures that every code works to improve the functionality of the OS.
- Packaging. The community of users should come up with a center of excellence where top talents gather to share and help to deploy new best practice systems.
- Pricing Strategy. OnePoint Software produces convincing products that are worthy of the price quoted. The products will remove the idea that cheap products are often lower in quality.
- Distribution (Place). The main objective of the distribution of the OS will be to deliver the installation media to the end-users who should install the OS in their computes and be in touch with other community members (Kevic). The OS will be distributed through virtual platforms like the official website, physical devices like CD-ROM, and pre-installation in new computers.
- Promotion strategy. The software promotion will occur through the official website of the platform, public relations, advertising, direct marketing, conferences, and selling on premiums.
Implementation and Evaluation
The entire project implementation will take three years and is expected to cost $400 million. Initially, the launching of the project will call in interested experts to input their skills in coming up with the best strategies to design an operating system that runs several products for different disciplines. By the beginning of 2021, the community users will be provided with an opportunity to share their thoughts on the approach taken by the OS. At the end of 2022, the project will be rolled out into the market for interested users to install. Project deliverables will be assessed and evaluated after every phase and adjustments made accordingly to meet the objective of the OS.
Works Cited
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