WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY GHULAM ABBAS

FOURGEN INFORMATION SYSTEMS SWOT ANALYSIS We Pakistani seems to have comprehensive understanding that software is treasure in knowledge economy Era. However Pakistani government is not playing an active role during software industry growing up promptly. FOURGEN INFORMATION SYSTEMS develops markets, delivers and license software solutions. The companys software solutions are used to manage information technology (IT) infrastructure. The companys software solutions portfolio includes software solutions for enterprise systems, applications, databases and service management. The company primarily operates in the Pakistan. Its head Office is at M- 1 begum Rabia Siddique Road, Baahdurabad, and Karachi. Its has employs approximately 30 people.

Swot analysis method

SWOT Analysis Company Profile is the essential source for top-level company data and information.The report examines the companys key business structure and operations, history and products, and provides summary analysis of its key revenue lines and strategy. This comprehensive SWOT profile of FOURGEN INFORMATION SYSTEMS will . provides you with an in-depth strategic analysis of the company's businesses and operations. The profile will give you a clear and an unbiased view of the company's key strengths and weaknesses and the potential opportunities and threats. The profile helps you formulate strategies that augment your business by enabling you to understand your partners, customers and competitors better. SWOT is abbreviation of the first letter of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.SWOT analysis aims at interior ability (Strengths and Weaknesses) and external environment(Opportunities and Threats) of subject investigated, and shows them with matrix form and uses themeans of system analysis to research. Strengths are particular resource and competitive power ofsubject investigated, which competitors cannot match, and represent the assets of completive power.

WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY GHULAM ABBAS

Weaknesses mean drawback and insufficiency of subject investigated relative to competitors, whichrepresent Competitive Liability. Opportunities and Threats are positive and negative impact of subjectinvestigated from the trend of external environment change.

Weaknesses
1. No mission & vision statement for organization 2. Conflicts in departments 3. Depending on only domestic demand & ignoring outsourcing & exploring Overseas markets 4. Ignoring product portfolio 5. Working for individuals Instead of choosing specific Target market segment 6. Failure to communicate formally and informally, both crossfunctionally and within departments 7. Uniformity across divisions 8. Diminished Resources - Increased Consumer Demand 9. Money is always tied to outcomes 10. Multiple funding streams also can lead to lack of coordination 11. The organization is dependant on a main competitive advantage, the SND & General Ledger, This could make them slow to diversify into other sectors should the need arise 12. The retail sector is very price sensitive. They search & find competitive product 13. Delivered software is often late and over budget, while offering fewer features than requested by the user. Many software developers have difficulties establishing and adhering to a project plan and in delivering what the user wants within the budget and schedule. Developers also have difficulty in obtaining user involvement in the development process. 14. Absence of quality control department 15. Absence of documentation & manual & training presentation 16. Marketing department unable to explore new market segments & industries, No monthly sales Target. No evaluation of marketing efforts 17. Lack of Continuous Quality Improvement 18. Absence of Human Resource Division, Absence of criteria of selection of new hiring, any one can take interview & recommend the individual, absence of interview form (question & answer) 19. No employee hierarchy 20. Lack of accountability of managers and employees to achieve clear and measurable performance levels

WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY GHULAM ABBAS

21. Lack of professional identification, or identity crisis 22. Employees are unaware of the organization goals & policies 23. Lack of discipline 24. No formal dress code 25. Employee easting & chewing chalia,gutka,supari during working & during providing support, it means they must be doing it during implementation process (at customer location also) 26. No continual evaluation and updating of human resources practices and policies 27. 28. new hire indulge on choice & referral Inefficient Helpdesk Staff & System

Threats
1. Instability of political environments 2. Government is moving toward privatization increasing the competition for services 3. Other organizations may attract employees and business away from us 4. Staff turnover 5. Budget 6. Fewer people willing to do change themselves 7. Vertical & Horizontal competition

Strengths
1. Experienced workforce dedicated to mission. Employees feel part of the team 2. Tools to improve human resources activities are available (e.g., interview guide and training manual 3. Employees are allowed for more creative and flexible options 4. Advanced technologies are available to foster more effective human resources activities 5. Availability of information about best practices in Software development 6. The organization has strong ethical values and can create an ethical mission statement easily 7. 8. FOURGEN is strong at research and development. ORACLE is a global brand & FOURGEN has an advantage

WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY GHULAM ABBAS

9.

New SMS software marketing,POS software marketing

Opportunities
1. Leadership training for possible advancement 2. Promote teamwork across divisions 3. Identify/tap into staff hidden strengths 4. Increasing managerialization 5. Lot of planning going on and need to integrate all the plans 6. New products and services that can be retailed 7. Participation in Fair Trade shows 8. The company has the opportunity to expand its global operations. 9. New Local markets for available products 10. Tablet PC software product Launching

Conclusion and suggestion

1. Creating a new market is difficult and risky. 2. Changing peoples working habits is hard. 3. Social factors can make or break a product. The end-users didnt see anything in it for them. If the end-users dont like a product, they will find a way not to use it, even if their bosses appear to be enthusiastic about it. 4. Talk is cheap. Lots of people telling you how great your product is doesnt mean much. You only really find out if your product is commercially viable when you start asking people to buy it. 5. Need a complete revision of every thing ,from bottom to top or from Top to bottom, in every department 6. Oracle software only worked with a specific hardware. That narrowed the marked down substantially. 7. Fourgen Information Systems have a terribly long sales cycle. Other vendors monitoring applications usually cost tens of thousands and are geared toward small buyers & large market segment. Whenever a company buys into such a product he is unlikely to change within the next decade or more. Fourgen tried to position their software

WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY GHULAM ABBAS

products towards big buyers but even then most of them were already locked into another vendors solution

If I had a chance to do anything differently:

1. Take it seriously from day one. 2. Never stop developing and supporting. 3. Invest as much as possible in marketing early on. 4. Dont stop believing in your creation Hearing or reading some piece of advice is totally different to living it. Here are some of the ideas that I always agreed were true but didnt fully understand the implications of until I had lived them out: Force yourself to get out and talk to people. Ask their advice. Almost everyone will help if you ask them for feedback. 2. Force yourself to cold call a few businesses in your target market. 3. Create a plan of how to market your product. 4. Try and use your product as much as possible as you build it. 5. Get out of your comfort zone from day one 6. Do not have the mind set that the day you release version 1.0 is the finish line, its the starting line, so hurry up and get there. 7. This kind of software is not sold over the Internet. Rather it needs very active sales people that nurture clients over a rather long period of time. Introduction of monthly sales taget, evaluation of marketing & comparing the revenue generated with efforts. Penalty, bonus, promotions, certificate or awards. 8. Introduction of bill board,magazines,Trade shows, brochure, pamphlets advertising 9. Introduction of Section Incharge,HOD & Supervisors 10. Introduction of Fixed standard price mechanism of products 11. Introduction of job description,Hiring,firing,promoting,attenadance,traveling & evaluating
1.

WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY GHULAM ABBAS

12. Introduction

of advanced Training to employees