Assessment Description
In this assignment, students will apply the concepts of business models and strategies to a real company. Students will have the opportunity to assess why these components work for the company, and what skills it takes for management to develop these long-term plans. In 500 words or more, choose a company in the IT industry and describe its business strategy and business model. Why does this strategy and model work (or not work) for the business? Explain what skills you employed and how you used them to assess the chosen company’s IT decisions. What additional skills would be needed for a professional to implement changes within this company? What security issues are unique to the business/industry (e.g. finance, production, international product distribution, SCADA, politics, defense, etc.)? What steps/solutions would be necessary for this company? This assignment requires the use of at least two additional scholarly research sources
Benchmark: Strategy and business model exercise
Around a million people and businesses worldwide use Microsoft’s services and products. Therefore, the company keeps on evolving its product lines and services so that individuals may get the new versions and look of Microsoft now and then. As a result, Microsoft ended its year in 2018 with the tagline of the World’s most valuable company. Many other IT companies have brought major transformations in their products and services, however, still, it is unable to find one such IT company that had the most influential global impact as Microsoft. For a few years, Microsoft accomplished innovation and assisted customers in navigating their whole business digitally (Analytics Insight, 2022). The company runs with a mission of empowering individuals and business houses to achieve more targets. Moreover, the company’s business model relies upon customer and client success. Furthermore, Microsoft is currently working more towards developing economic opportunities in all communities so that all individuals on this planet can become tech-savvy and utilize the power of technology.
To achieve the desired growth, the company’s generic strategy for competitive advantage is aligned with its intensive strategies which help in optimizing the overall company’s performance. Microsoft’s generic business strategy indicates and ensures the adequate competitiveness of the business (Gregory, 2021). On the other hand, the company’s intensive strategies ensure proper growth, business development, and expansion. The company’s intensive strategy is currently prioritizing market penetration. On the other hand, the rest of the business strategies are aligned to have a supporting role in the software and hardware business environment. Microsoft’s business model is based upon its operating system and is widely used across the globe with various advanced applications and utility software. It’s a very trending topic that since Microsoft acquired Yahoo, the business model of the company may transform. With the merger of Microsoft and Yahoo, the company developed an automatic challenge and similar services to its competitors (Ivy Panda, 2021).
Furthermore, when it comes to employing new skills for the company to access the IT decisions, the company should employ people with the skill of creating spreadsheets, pivot tables, running and creating the macrons, data validation, and data virtualization, among various others (Mucha, 2022). By having these skills in-house, the company’s need to outsource these skills becomes null and can ensure that the IT decisions are taken wisely with adequate knowledge. To make various additional changes within the company’s premises, a professional employing or employed at the company needs to possess handsome knowledge of Microsoft Office, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Note, and 365 to solve numerous troubleshooting and other issues. The year 2021 proved to be a very horrible year for Microsoft due to various security issues. In 2021, various vulnerabilities had happened that impacted the Microsoft services so far including active directory, exchange, and Azure. Many hackers have targeted the company to exploit its various data information and vulnerabilities (Hill, 2021). When the company announced a vulnerability in its first system i.e. exchange server, the security breaches. The company stated that the attackers had exploited the exchange server however unable to access the files and documents due to passwords.
The company after the first security breach starts making an un-trusted connection to the exchange port. Moreover, the company can stop these breaches by protecting and restricting the un-trusted connection or by setting the VPN to separate the exchange server from external access.
References
Analytics Insight (2022). UNVEILING BUSINESS STRATEGY: MICROSOFT. Retrieved on 24th August 2022, from: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/unveiling-business-strategy-microsoft/
Gregory, L. (2021). Microsoft Corporation’s Generic & Intensive Growth Strategies. Retrieved on 24th August 2022, from: https://panmore.com/microsoft-corporation-generic-strategy-intensive-growth-strategies
Hill, M. (2021). Microsoft’s very bad year for security: A timeline. Retrieved on 24th August 2022, from: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3635849/microsofts-very-bad-year-for-security-a-timeline.html
Ivy Panda (2021). Comparison between Google and Microsoft Products Essay. Retrieved on 24th August 2022, from: https://ivypanda.com/essays/comparison-between-google-and-microsoft-products-essay/
Mucha, E. (2022). How to List Microsoft Office Skills on a Resume in 2022? Retrieved on 24th August 2022, from: https://zety.com/blog/microsoft-office-skills
