enterprise

Samsung to Take a Bite Out of Apple Enterprise Market

Posted on by w13timothy

Last summer, Samsung Electronics agreed to customize a version of their popular Galaxy S II smartphone for a health care start-up company that needed a device that would transmit heart monitor information directly to doctors. Since then, it seems that Samsung has officially decided to “play” in the enterprise solutions market. In fact, a Samsung spokesperson noted that Samsung has “made the decision to be No. 1 in enterprise.”

It seems to be a fairly bold statement, seeing as Apple and RIMM have dominated the enterprise market in the recent years. In fact, Apple was said to have recently passed RIMM (Blackberry) as the leading provider of company-issued smartphones and could maintain that position through 2016. (BusinessWeek). The overwhelming majority of large companies are testing iPhones and iPads for employee use.

On the surface it would appear that the barrier to entry in this market is very difficult, if not almost futile. How could Samsung possibly think there’s an opportunity here?  The answer is customization. Apple has a history of cutting edge products, but ultimately doesn’t customize ANY of them. What you see is what you get, and for most, this is quality product that needs no customization. However, Samsung sees an open door. So many companies are now looking for enterprise solutions that will best fit their structure, and Samsung feels it can meet these demands better than Apple or RIMM. By being open to customization as well as working with third party vendors to target specific industry’s needs, Samsung plans to fight to become #1 in enterprise solutions. The company is taking a good hard look at competitors like HTC and even Google, and notice that neither seems to be interested in the enterprise space. The business strategy seems to be to attack a market segment that has not yet been saturated.

Of course, to play in this segment, Samsung must be prepared for the new challenges it will bring. For example, an advantage of Android is that it’s highly customizable. However, it can be a disadvantage for the same reason, making it difficult to standardize security and management software to sell across multiple corporations due to so many different versions of Android currently available. To address this challenge, Samsung has already invested in designing its own software for this purpose which will make all Samsung devices operate consistently.

Samsung will have other challenges to consider as well. For example, the company will need to be sure to market to corporations accordingly to re-brand itself as an enterprise solution provider. Also, it will need to continue to offer a sustainable competitive advantage over time. Finally, resources will need to be reallocated or added to support corporations’ customer service requirements as well as to meet their customization needs.

How do you think Samsung will perform in the enterprise market? What would you say your biggest concern would be if you were the CEO of Samsung?

 

Samsung and Apple Duel in Enterprise Tech
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/samsung-and-apple-duel-in-enterprise-tech#p1

Supply Chain Management

Posted on by jinjinl301s12

Supply chain management is the method for developing the process and the role of the series of enterprises in order to deliver goods and services after production in a manufacturing unit. In relation to the modern day context, a large number of organizations operate their supply chain management independently throughout the same region or beyond the national boundary. There are various functioning areas that have been observed during the process of supply chain management of an enterprise such as, production planning, marketing, manufacturing, sales and distribution to clients or customers along with purchasing activities with other vendors (Chidambaram, Whitman, & Cheraghi, “A Supply Chain Transformation Methodology”). I will provide a brief discussion about supply chain management of Ben & Jerry’s, an American ice-cream manufacturing enterprise along with its transformation methodology of providing their products in the global context.

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The organizations in the present day context are highly focused to deliver their offerings according to the desires of the customers due to the immense growth in the communication networks along with changing face of globalization. Therefore, the competition within the enterprises can be considered to be extended globally in the modern business environment (Chidambaram, Whitman, & Cheraghi, “A Supply Chain Transformation Methodology”). The supply chain management system of Ben & Jerry is one of the effective tools for the organization in its endeavor to expand to more than 30 countries of the world. With the concept of effective global supply chain management system, the strategy of Ben & Jerry’s consigns transformation methodology along with making use of appropriate management techniques that help the enterprise to lead among the various competitors around the globe (Ben & Jerry’s, “Company”).

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In order to address the transformation related challenges on a global basis, Ben & Jerry’s focuses on various transformation steps for efficient supply chain management around its different units of enterprise. Moreover, the organization sets long-term goals and prepares effective strategies to successfully achieve its objectives along with preparing strategies that result in significant changes in its business environment. The supply chain management of Ben & Jerry’s initiates effective models to be considered as the world class parameters around the different units of the organization in different countries (Ben & Jerry’s, “Company”).

The transformation strategy within the supply chain management system of Ben & Jerry’s has become highly advanced with the usage of technological advancements in their storing and manufacturing process. The organization has already acquired several steps to develop energy efficiency at their various ice-cream processing plants situated in the different countries across the world. Additionally, Ben & Jerry’s had made upgradtion of more than 2 million refrigerated and frozen cases to supply to its retailers and vendors to sell their products. The effective supply chain management strategies and the technological advancements facilitate the company to be regarded as a USD 7.2 billion enterprise by selling ice-cream globally (Environmental Leader LLC, “Ben & Jerry’s May Make Warm Ice Cream to Reduce Emissions’).

Supply chain management of an organization entails the method of delivering the appropriate products to the customers at the right time at the appropriate place. A properly developed supply chain strategy enables to enhance the satisfaction level of the customers, minimize the inventories along with reducing manpower of the enterprises. The appropriate and effective supply chain strategy can assist the organizations such as Ben & Jerry’s to attain the height of helms within the actions of the organization.

WORKS CITED:

Ben & Jerry’s. Company, 2012. Web. 03 Jul. 2012.

Chidambaram Solayappan, Whitman Larry & Cheraghi S. Hossein. A Supply Chain Transformation Methodology. Supply Chain Management, Nov 17-20, 1999. Web. 03 Jul. 2012.

Environmental Leader LLC. Ben & Jerry’s May Make Warm Ice Cream to Reduce Emissions, 2009. Web. 03 Jul. 2012.