International Business Machines Corporations understood from the beginnings the need to satisfy the needs of the customers. But to achieve this desiderate, they must first identify the demands. They do this by constantly communicating with the clientele in order to retrieve feedback. A relevant example of the strategies implemented to increased customer responsiveness is given by the close collaboration with recently privatized Telekomunikacja Polska - Poland's largest telecommunication network (about 90% of market share). The offering of specialized consultancy helped IBM better communicate with the clients. Then, the company also implemented strategies to better track the purchases of the customers and improve the quality of the counter operations, all aimed to "integrate people with processes for improved customer responsiveness. [...]the solution has enabled us to reduce our serving time by five to eight minutes from initial ordering to serving, and we can now settle bills within seconds. As a result, customer satisfaction has increased and that has been reflected by a 10% sales increase in the first month following implementation" (Official Website of IBM, 2008).
All efforts reveal that the company is committed to consolidating its leading position but does not base its strategies on brand and previous recognition, but constantly evolves to meet the new needs of the market.
Part 5
As stated before, the main elements that differentiate IBM's products from those of the competitors are the high quality and the extensive expertise of the organization, as well as the open source feature of the software applications.
Another competitive advantage is offered by the highly skilled and trained IBM employees. The marketing department for instance offers the company the possibility...
They say that "the goal of customer segmentation is to know your customers better, and to use that knowledge to enhance corporate profitability" (Official Website of IBM, 2008). The primary goal in segmenting the market is to use those procedures that integrate customer segmentation with customer management (IBM Business Consulting Services, 2003)
Other distinctive competencies aside from expertise, brand and the high quality of the products, services and corporate operations include a commitment to continuous evolution through the incorporation of the latest innovations and a sustained desire to improve communications with customers as to increase their responsiveness. IBM protected and increased the status of their competitive advantages by "aligning (their) it infrastructure with business objectives" (Official Website of IBM, 2008). In other words, all strategies implemented have been developed in accordance with the corporate business goals.
References
April 27, 2005, IBM (IBM's) Mission Statement, Man on Mission, http://manonamission.blogspot.com/2005/04/ibms-ibm-mission-statement.htmllastaccessed on April 14, 2008
June 3, 2003, Driving an operational model that integrates customer segmentation with customer management, Retrieved at http://www-935.ibm.com/services/au/index.wss/ibvstudy/igs/a1007000?cntxt=a1005019onApril 14, 2008
2008, IBM 2007 Annual Report, Retrieved at http://www.ibm.com/annualreport/2007/onApril 14, 2008
2008, International Business Machines Corp IBM (NYSE), Stock Reuters, http://stocks.us.reuters.com/stocks/ratios.asp?symbol=IBMlastaccessed on April 14, 2008
2008, Official Website of IBM, http://www.ibm.comlastaccessed on April 14, 2008
