IBM Case Analysis
The International Business Machines Corporation, IBM, is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, small, medium, and large, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. This paper will present a brief overview of the company, including a brief SWOT analysis, and a review of the marketing, management, and financial aspects of the firm. Finally, recommendations will be made for continued growth and success.
History
The company that was founded in 1888 as the Tabulating Machine Company by Herman Hollerith, in Broome County, New York. It was incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916. IBM adopted its current name in 1924, when it became a Fortune 500 company. In 1951 the company entered the computer field.
Today IBM is the world’s largest provider of systems integration and technology consulting. It offers services in areas such as application development, data storage, infrastructure management, networking, and technical support. IBM Global Services is also among the world leaders in providing business consulting and outsourcing services. IBM Global Services is headquartered in Armonk, New York and employs 190,000 employees across the world.
The company recorded revenues of $48,291 million during the fiscal year ended December 2006, an increase of 1.9% over 2005.The operating profit of the company was $4,934 million during fiscal year 2006, an increase of 44.9% over 2005.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength
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... leadership is challenged by UNIX, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems and Dell. All these players are large multinational companies with the finances and development expertise to pose a considerable threat to IBM’s market share and revenues.
In addition to this, many of the company’s end markets are getting consolidated. Consolidation in the banking sector appears set to continue in the US market. A number of large commercial banks, insurance companies and other broad-based financial services firms have merged with other financial institutions to diversify their offerings and reduce their corresponding business risks.
With the consolidation of its customers, the company is facing increasing competitive pressures in terms of services and price offerings. This trend could result in lower margins for IBM Global Services, adversely affecting its financial position.
Revenues of $10,161 million in the fiscal year ended December 2014 was seen by the organization, an increase of 5.3% over 2013.The company 's operating profit was $419 million in fiscal 2014, as compared to an operating loss of $22 million in 2013. Its net profit was $402 million in fiscal 2014, an increase of 34% over 2013 (Sutter Health, 2016).
Consolidation within health plans has included several large scale mergers such as Anthem and Cigna as well as Aetna and Humana, primarily driven by a need for growth, with a particular focus on growth within the Medicare Advantage market. If successful, the deals would collapse the health-insurance industry’s top five players into
The financial data for the company is convincingly good-to-great. Its revenues has been rising constantly since 1998 as can be seen on the exhibit. Net income for 2002 was the highest in 5 years ? $5,710 million, rising by 58% since 2001. Its total assets have increased by 13.6%.
IBM was incorporated in the state of New York on June 15, 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. But its origins can be traced back to 1890, during the height of the Industrial Revolution, when the United States was experiencing waves of immigration. The U.S. Census Bureau knew its traditional methods of counting would not be adequate for measuring the population, so it sponsored a contest to find a more efficient means of tabulating census data.
In summary, “Internet activities are not most significant in competition, such as informing customers, processing transactions, and procuring inputs”. (Porter, 2001) significant corporate assets--skilled employees, proprietary product, and efficient logistical systems – these factors are the most important to keep competitive advantages. In fact, it is foreseeable that the Internet's evolution will come up in the future involve a shift “in thinking from e-business to business, from e-strategy to strategy”. (Porter, 2001)Only by integrating the Internet into overall strategy will this powerful new technology become an equally powerful force for competitive advantage.
Herman Hollerith (1860 - 1929) founded IBM ( as the Tabulating Machine Company ) in 1896. The company renames known as IBM in 1924. In 1906 Lee D. Forest in America developed the electronic tube (an electronic value). Before this it would have been impossible to make digital electronic computers. In 1919 W. H. Eccles and F. W. Jordan published the first flip-flop circuit design.
It has also established a distinguishable name among its competitors with a reputation for leading customer service. However, even as an established venture, the company needs to maximize its profits in order to stay in business and expand into new territories beyond its conquered boundaries. A strategic analysis was carried out by our team to establish the company’s current situation. A SWOT analysis was performed to come up with three referenced, strategic alternatives. These alternatives are meant to act as strategic guidance to the company in order to enhance growth.
was introduce in 1971. IBM then came out with more advance computers such as System/38 in 1978 and the AS / 400 in 1988.
The goal of this report is to analyze the Amazon's e-business strategies and activities. This report also discusses the result of strategies adopted by Amazon and how far it has been successful.
But divesture of three out of four divisions leads to a very small portfolio which leads to chances of high risks as well. The process of restructuring and forming a better portfolio would provide the firm with a lot many opportunities including exploring newer and more compatible product lines and segments, thus increasing its opportunities to earn better revenues with efficient management.
In 1985 the company produced (in China) the first computer of its own design (the "Turbo PC").
The world has grown increasingly complex, resulting from the greater interdependence among world economies (Thompson, 2002). Successful organization is largely determined by how well the organization adjusts all its tangible and intangible properties to keep itself on track with its surrounding (Armenakes & Bedeian, 1999). Strategy was concerned to manage firm’s activities and resources to the environment in which it operates. This essay will analyse the micro and macro external environment in the part five years (2000 to 2006) of IBM Company by using PESTEL and five forces model to analyse in the first part. The second part will discuss about the advantages and disadvantages of the two possible alternative strategies for IBM.
"The long-term challenge is to accelerate the development of next-generation technologies in a way that avoids repeating the mistakes of the past" (Global Technology Initiative, 2003). Even with these challenges, e-commerce is changing the face of business worldwide every day. In mid 1999, General Motors announced a development, which simultaneously accelerated the process of globalization and e-business (Reynolds, 2000).
Moreover, over time the company will lose its capability of extending service support to customers. This weakness can be exploited by the competitors who can enter the market with better service support and in turn eat the market share of Dell away.
In this write up the focus is mainly on e-business. It consists of critical discussion and analysis of the impact of adopting e-business orientation. It also contains relevant information on the current state of e-business market.