Case Study - Information Services Company

The company wants to understand: why they have so small a market share; what could be done to improve the situation; where it should focus its resources.
From now on, the company studied in thiscase study will be referred as “client”, the buyers as libraries and the final users of the software’s (people that go to the libraries) as final users.
The McKinsey Business System Framework was usedto understand the components of this business and possible solutions for the problem.

Technology - the client’s product is considered to have a highest quality among competitors. Seeing that,libraries that seek for sophistication can be targeted more easily. To create a competitive advantage, the client would patent all the programming components that make their software unique.
Product design- there are mainly four dimensions to focus on:
- Search Quality: the client fulfill the requirements and is recognized as the best in the market;
- Content: this may be constantly improved byprogramming;
- Ease of use: ease of use is not the core business of the client, but as there is a trade off between ease of use and search quality, more can be explored in this dimension by simplechanges in layout and increase sales for secondary school libraries;
- Price: price is below industry average, situation that may be a competitive advantage, as long as marketing strategy is consistent,otherwise the product can be perceived as inferior to the competitors;
Advertising - advertising is the key component to make a good product succeed in such a competitive market and make the librariesperceive the price benefit relationship offered in clear manner.
Marketing - the segment of secondary schools is almost unexplored by the company and its competitors, representing a great potentialfor sales, and beside this, there is a huge amount of libraries in the market; the number of secondary schools libraries is 4 times bigger than the one that is mostly explored by the company. The...