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Essay / Ariel Systems Business Analysis - 2348
1. Introduction1.1 The Software IndustryThe software industry was started in the 1950s, when computers began to be used for commercial applications, and then quickly began to create a huge demand for people with programming experience ( Anon 2007). Over the years, the industry has seen a number of changes and innovations, with software products first hitting the market in the 1960s, through to commercial laptop computers developed in the 1980s and 1990 (Wikipedia/CRM 2008).1.2 Ariel Systems and CSRThe UK-based organization, Ariel Systems, is the leading provider of customer relationship management system software in the market. The company is present in more than 40 countries around the world and employs 20,000 people. With an annual turnover of over £2 billion, the company is highly profitable and in a very healthy financial position (Burns-Nurse 2008). The board of directors of Ariel Systems now wants to determine whether being oriented towards corporate social responsibility and ethical marketing will move the company forward in the future. Corporate social responsibility involves considering the good of broader communities, locally and globally, not just the company's customers. and profitability. Marketing and social responsibility is about ensuring that organizations manage marketing with the utmost care and responsibility. This concerns issues such as marketing to children and the environmental impact of the company. One way to put it is that the CSR organization should “strive to make a profit, obey the law, be ethical, and be a good citizen” (Brassington & Pettitt 2007: 13). 2. Internal analysis 2.1 Functional areas The main internal functional areas of an organization include finance, human resources, research and development, production and marketing (Brassington & Pettitt 2007: 19). These departments form the basis for the development and maturity of an organization. 2.1.1 Finance: The financial area of the organization usually provides the financial plan of the company and checks whether the goals set by the CEO are financially feasible. These goals can range from expanding the company to other countries by establishing branches and sister companies, to whether the company can afford to buy out smaller companies. The finance function also typically sets the budgets of other departments at the beginning of the financial year and insists that other functions comply with them. The finance function wants pricing to cover the organization's costs and contribute to its profits (Brassington & Pettitt 2007: 17-18). The financial sector must adhere to corporate responsibility and ethical obligations when recording the financial health of the company with respect to financial reports given to investors and the public at the end of the financial year..