Course Name: Contemporary Management.

Our Supervisor

Dr. Assem Sharaf

Prepared by:

Mohamed Ali Aziz El-naghy Hesham Mohamed Ali Mansour

Registration Number: 19125724 Registration Number: 19125725

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 Introduction

 Software industry trends in the world:

 The global information technology industry is on pace to reach $5.2 trillion in 2020, according
to the research consultancy IDC. The enormity of the industry is a function of many of the
trends discussed in this report.

 Economies, jobs, and personal lives are becoming more digital, more connected, and more
automated. Waves of innovation build over time, powering the technology growth engine that
appears to be on the cusp of another major step forward.

 The United States is the largest tech market in the world, representing 32% of the total, or
approximately $1.7 trillion for 2020. In the U.S., as well as in many other countries, the tech
sector accounts for a significant portion of economic activity.

 Despite the size of the U.S. market, the majority of technology spending (68%) occurs
beyond its borders. Spending is often correlated with factors such as population, GDP,
and market maturity.

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 There are a number of taxonomies for depicting the information technology space. Using the
conventional approach, the industry market can be categorized into five top level buckets. The
traditional categories of hardware, software and services account for 56% of the global total.
The other core category, telecom services, accounts for 26%.
 The remaining 17% covers various emerging technologies that either don’t fit into one of the
traditional buckets or span multiple categories, which is the case for many emerging ‘as-a-
service’ solutions that include elements of hardware, software, and service, such as IOT,
drones, and many automating technologies.

 While emerging technologies currently account for only 17% of the overall global revenue,
they are expected to drive nearly half of the growth in new revenue. There are two caveats to
this projection. First, the nature of emerging technology means that there is less history to guide
future forecasts. Not only might the numbers be off, but it is also difficult to predict which
categories will take off and which ones will fall by the wayside. Second, the stackable
architecture of modern business systems blurs the lines between categories. While emerging
technologies will be the driver for growth, they must be used in conjunction with more
established technologies to create innovative solutions.

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 Software industry trend in Egypt

 The Egyptian ICT (Information and Communications Technology) sector is still the focus of
attention of international institutions, consulting firms, industry experts and international
companies, especially in the field of Technology Services Outsourcing. The sector has won
acclaim due to the efforts exerted over the past years to maintain growth rates and create a
system for maintaining and attracting more foreign investments.

 A recent report published by PULSE—the official magazine of the International Association

of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP®) — stated that Egypt is working on developing
infrastructure; improving communication systems; enhancing the sector’s employees’ skills
through multiple programs and training on advanced technologies such as data science, big
data analysis, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity; in
cooperation with major players of multinational companies.

 Entitled “Egypt is changing the World’s Reception about the country, from being the Home of
History toward a Nation with Competitive Edge”, the report added that Egypt’s Outsourcing
workforce stands at around 170,000 employees, providing their services to 100 countries
around the world, using 20 languages.

 In a related context, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA)

succeeded in agreeing with six international companies specialized in the field of information
technology and call center outsourcing to expand its business by injecting new investments
into the Egyptian market and creating more than 3,700 jobs for Egyptian youth specialized in
the Outsourcing.

 Egypt was ranked first in the Middle East and Africa in the A.T. Kearney 2017 Global Services
Location Index (GSLI), released in September 2017, while the German Outsourcing
Association launched and updated the Outsourcing Destination Guide Egypt, in cooperation
with ITIDA.

 In a report issued by Gartner— the world's leading research and advisory company—Egypt
was listed among the leading countries of Outsourcing services and IT services exporting for
the years 2016 and 2017, respectively, after an absence of more than five years.

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 Software Market Overview:

 The software industry has come of age and matured in business models. It has gained through
operational performance rather than just technology innovations or mergers and acquisitions.
In collecting great revenues, organic development has been one of the key factors to drive
software industry to such heights.

 US alone accounts for 42.6% of the global software market's value. Between 1988 and 2010,
41,136 mergers and acquisitions were announced to a total value of US $1,451 billion. The
highest number and value of deals was set in 2000 during the dot-com bubble (also known as
internet sector’s rapid growth) with 6,757 transactions valued at $447 billion. According to
Market Line the market growth is expected to exceed 6% between the years 2012-2015,
bringing the market close to almost $357 billion.

 Home use and general business applications lead the market at almost $64 billion, according
to a quarter of the overall market that encompasses systems and application software.

 There have been few reported trends that have impacted on the scale of business to propel to
greater revenues, some examples are- Cloud/Software as a Service (SaaS), in which the
different method hosting software applications and customer access is all done via internet;
majorly advantageous for the companies that have limited technology personnel.

 The next big thing is the databases, specifically three, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2 and
Oracle. Another trend in practice is of mergers and acquisitions or partnerships and strategic
alliances between software vendors for the new and innovative functionality offering capability
to the software.

 Internet has opened up new opportunities for conducting variety of businesses in today’s
economy. The software vendors have developed functionality to take advantage of this
technology including web browser access, web portals for customers and suppliers, mobile
technologies with smart phones & tablets, e-commerce capabilities and much more.

 Major Software Industry Players

Major software companies in the market are Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Symantec, VMware,
Adobe Systems, Infosys, Wipro, Intuit, Amadeus IT Group.

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 Our company

Lines Dev Software Co.

 Summery:
 An experienced established software solutions agency founded in 2014, in Mansoura, Egypt.
We are a comprehensive digital services provider including web design and development,
mobile application design and development, e-commerce solution, IT Outsourcing Services,
digital marketing & branding.
 Our innovative & creative method of thinking, beside relying on science & factual reasoning,
have allowed us to serve overseas clients.
 Over the years, we have served clients from Egypt, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Tunisia, Yemen,
Italy, Kuwait, Turkey & Libya.

 Founder: Khaled Helmy

 Type of Company: Sole proprietorship
 Our Mission:
To create long-term, sustainable value for customers and shareholders by developing,
marketing, and supporting products that deliver rapid return on investment through lower costs
and improved customer responsiveness.

 Our Values:
 To enable our customers to attain and exceed their business objectives through our partnership.
 To provide an environment for our employees which fosters personal growth, economic reward
and challenging opportunities.
 To be a good corporate citizen in the many communities in which we operate.

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 Vision:
To be the best mid-size Software Outsourcing Provider Agency in Egypt within 5 years.
 Strategic Goals:
- Strategic goals for finance:
1. For sales: Increase company’s sales growth/market sales growth.
2. Increase customer conversion by empowerment of CS department.
3. Explore new customer segments by empowerment of Marketing Team.
4. Attract investment by investors or issued company in stock market.
5. Increase number of financial reports to facilitate attracting investment.
6. Building efficient supply chain with multiple suppliers.

- Strategic goals for learning and growth:

1. Improve internal communications.
2. Implement performance review and reward system.
3. Create and implement training program.
- Strategic goals for customers:
1. Improve customer satisfaction.
2. Empowering customer relationship.
3. Strategic partnerships.
4. Customer Delivery time.
5. Increasing the switching cost for the customers.
 Current Strategy:
1. Growth Strategy: by Concentration expansion within an Outsourcing business area.
2. Cooperation Strategy: by Strategic Alliances partnership between organizations to pursue
mutual interests or strengthen competitive advantage.

 Our Products:
Type Location Product
Outsourcing Service U.A.E Payroll – HCM Solutions
Outsourcing Service Kuwait Mobile Applications
Service Iraq and Egypt Governmental Solutions
Product Libya Newsroom Management System
Product Turkey Advertising Agencies Trackers

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 SWOT Analysis Preparing:
SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can be used by LinesDev Software, Co. managers
to do a situational analysis of the company. It is an important technique to map out the present
Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) LinesDev Software, Co. is facing
in its current business environment.

 Internal:
1. Structure:
 Our Formal structure based on mix between 2 approaches, first the matrix structure for
some departments, and the network structure for other departments.
 Our Informal Structure based on some conditions, like the level of seniority, number of
years that been in the company and the level of age.
 We fix the silos problem by using agile approach, we focus on adding values to
our customers.
 As a modern company, we have a flat, Adaptive and decentralized structure, with a wide
span of control, also being less than 20 employee make that easy to manage.
 Delegating 3 members to manage the daily activities is a good choice for our scale, to allow
high management to follow and has full and clear view of the performance of the company.

2. Innovation:
 Commercializing by Reverse innovation: we take products created in small or emerging
markets and moves them into larger distribution.

3. Change Process:
 According to Kurt Lewin as a three part process (unfreezing - changing – refreezing)
 We control about 70% of resisting Change by mixture of two strategies
1. Rational persuasion strategy.
2. Shared power strategy.

4. Empowerment:
 Our strategy is based on choosing our leaders and managers from our current team
members, for that we empower our employees all the time so they can understand our
vision, motivated them and build strong relationships between them.
 We search all the times among our team players for the charismatic player, we empower
him, give him the focus and motivate him to be our future leader or manager.

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5. Social responsibility:
 We are trying to build contingency plan that based on E-learning and online training, to fill
any gaps that may happen in the market.
 We sponsor two teams at Mansoura University by free training and to be update with all
new technologies like IoT and Blockchain.

6. Scanning departments:
 Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The current asset ratio and liquid
asset ratios suggest that the company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is doing
at present.
 For Marketing and branding we work with outsourced company, so we must use the
network approach to handle our daily work with them.

7. Culture:

The personality of Lines Dev Software agency

 Employees have regular reviews for performance feedback.
 Eligible for salary increases every six months.
 Mixture between two types ( Team Culture – Entrepreneurial culture)

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 External
1. Porter Five Forces Analysis:
I. Threats of New Entrants:

 Threat of New entrants in Application Software high. They bring innovation, new ways of
doing things and put pressure on LinesDev Software, Co. through lower pricing strategy,
reducing costs, and providing new value propositions to the customers.
 LinesDev Software, Co. has to manage all these challenges and build effective barriers to
safeguard its competitive edge.

II. Rivalry among the Existing Competitors:

 If the rivalry among the existing players in an industry is intense then it will drive down
prices and decrease the overall profitability of the industry.
 LinesDev Software, Co. operates in a very competitive Application Software industry.
This competition does take toll on the overall long term profitability of the organization.

III. Threats of Substitute Products or Services:

 When a new product or service meets a similar customer needs in different ways, industry
profitability suffers so the threat of a substitute product or service is high if it offers a value
proposition that is uniquely different from present offerings of the industry.

IV. Bargaining Power of Suppliers:

 Suppliers in a dominant position can decrease the margins LinesDev Software, Co. can
earn in the market.
 Powerful suppliers in the Technology sector use their negotiating power to extract higher
prices from the firms in the Application Software field.
 The overall impact of higher supplier bargaining power is that it lowers the overall
profitability of Application Software.

V. Bargaining Power of Buyers:

 Buyers are often a demanding lot. They want to buy the best offerings available by paying
the minimum price as possible.
 This put pressure on LinesDev Software, Co. profitability in the long run.
 The smaller and more powerful the customer base of LinesDev Software, Co. ,the higher
the bargaining power of the customers and higher their ability to seek increasing discounts
and offers.

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2. PESTEL Analysis:
Political
1. Political stability in the majority of markets (opportunity)
2. Increasing governmental support for automation (opportunity)
3. Increasing international trade agreements (opportunity & threat)

Economic Factors
1. Economic stability of the majority of developed countries (opportunity)
2. High growth of developing countries (opportunity)
3. Growing middle class disposable income (opportunity)

Social/Sociocultural Factors
1. Stable attitudes about leisure (opportunity)
2. Increasing cultural diversity (opportunity & threat)
3. Stable demand for high quality customer service (opportunity)

Technological Factors
1. Rapid adoption of mobile technology (opportunity & threat)
2. Increasing volume of online transactions (opportunity & threat)
3. Increasing automation in businesses (opportunity)

Ecological/Environmental Factors
1. Increasing preference for green products (opportunity)
2. Increasing focus on business sustainability (opportunity)
3. Increasing availability of recyclable materials (opportunity)

Legal Factors
1. Increasing electronic waste disposal regulations (opportunity & threat)
2. Improving patent laws (opportunity)
3. Energy consumption regulations (opportunity)

3. Priorities:
 In our daily work, we must use the management by exception, so the high priority tasks
always must be done first.
 Using agile in our company and among our teams allow us to have the 3 types of feed
 The forward Feed through the testing of business documents (Review Testing)
 Concurrent control through our methodology that adopt scrum and plans.
 Feedback control after delivering value to the customer.

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 LinesDev Software, Co. SWOT Analysis
1. Strengths of LinesDev Software, Co. – Internal Strategic Factors
o Strong distribution network. Over the years LinesDev Software, Co. has built a reliable
distribution network that can reach the majority of its potential markets.
o Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. LinesDev
Software, Co. is investing huge resources in training and development of its employees
resulting in a workforce that is not only highly skilled but also motivated to achieve more.
o Superb Performance in New Markets. LinesDev Software, Co. has built expertise in
entering new markets and making a success of them. The expansion has helped the
organization to build a new revenue stream and diversify the economic cycle risk in the
markets it operates in.
o Successful track record of outsourcing services. It has successfully integrated the number
of technology companies in the past few years to streamline its operations and to build a
reliable supply chain.
o High level of customer satisfaction. The company with its dedicated customer relationship
management department has able to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction among
present customers and good brand equity among potential customers.
o Innovating new products and services. New products not only brings new customers to the
fold but also give old customer a reason to buy Lines Dev Software agency‘s products.
o Building economies of scale so that it can lower the fixed cost per unit.
o Building capacities and spending money on research and development.
o Periodical improvements and updates to your products.
o Culture – clear, well-defined, understood.

2. Weakness of LinesDev Software, Co. – Internal Strategic Factors

o The marketing of the products left a lot to be desired. Even though the product is a success
in terms of sale but its positioning and unique selling proposition are not clearly defined
which can lead to the attacks in this segment from the competitors.
o The company has not been able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in the
segment and has lost a small market share in the niche categories.
o Limited success outside core business. Even though LinesDev Software, Co. is one of the
leading organizations in its industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product
segments with its present culture.

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 o Storage in cash for new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different
geographies the company is planning to expand into, LinesDev Software, Co. needs to put
more money in technology to integrate the processes across the board. Right now the
investment in technologies is not at par with the vision of the company.
o Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The current asset ratio and liquid
asset ratios suggest that the company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is doing
at present.
o The overall impact of higher supplier bargaining power is that it lowers the overall
profitability of Application Software.

3. Opportunities for LinesDev Software, Co. – External Strategic Factors

o New customers from online channels – Over the past few years, the company has invested
a vast sum of money into the online platform. This investment has opened a new sales
channel for Lines Dev Software agency. In the next few years, the company can leverage
this opportunity by knowing its customers better and serving their needs using big data
analytics.
o The new technologies like Blockchain provide an opportunity for LinesDev Software, Co.
to practices differentiated pricing strategy in the new market. It will enable the firm to
maintain its loyal customers with great service and lure new customers through other value
oriented propositions.
o New trends in consumer behavior can open up a new market for Lines Dev Software
agency. It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams
and diversify into new product categories too.
o The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open
new opportunities for established players such as LinesDev Software, Co. to increase its
profitability.
o The market development will lead to dilution of the competitor’s advantage and enable
LinesDev Software, Co. to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
o Collaborating with competitors to increase the market size rather than just competing for
small market.
o By experimenting with product designs using different materials so that if the prices go up
of one raw material then the company can shift to another.
o By building a large base of customers using CRM. This will be helpful in two ways. It will
reduce the bargaining power of the buyers plus it will provide an opportunity to the firm to
streamline its sales and production process.

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 o By rapidly innovating new products. Customers often seek discounts and offerings on
established products so if LinesDev Software, Co. keep on coming up with new products
then it can limit the bargaining power of buyers.

4. Threats LinesDev Software, Co. Facing - External Strategic Factors

o Imitation and low-quality product is also a threat to Lines Dev Software agency’s product
especially in the emerging markets and low-income markets.
o As the company is operating in numerous countries it is exposed to currency fluctuations
especially given the volatile political climate in a number of markets across the world.
o The demand for highly profitable products is seasonal in nature and any unlikely event
during the peak season may impact the profitability of the company in the short to medium
term.
o The shortage of skilled workforce in certain global markets represents a threat to the steady
growth of profits for LinesDev Software, Co. in those markets.
o No regular supply of innovative products – Over the years the company has developed
numerous products but those are often responses to the development by other players.
o Growing strengths of local distributors also present a threat in some markets as the
competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.

 Competitiveness strategy:
“We offer the best prices for B, C class customers”

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 BCG Matrix to make investment decisions for Software Technologies:
Question Mark Stars
Blockchain – AI – IOT Mobile Application
Dogs Cash Cow
Desktop Application Web Design

1. Question Mark
 Blockchain:
o Blockchain is a great technology that is beyond IT buzzwords and cryptocurrencies.
And it has made its way to the mobile app development segment also.
o Blockchain is a decentralized database – the chain of blocks present on more than
1 PC at the same time. These blocks continuously build as new data is recorded.
When new data are added, the old blocks are saved and everybody receives a copy
of the whole database.
o It is evident that this technology prevents data breaching or creating fake
documents. In case somebody makes an error, you can trace it.
o Several online wallets and smart ledgers depend on Blockchain technology. In case
you are bothered to make payments via credit cards or reluctant to make cross-
border payments, don’t worry! Just use a Blockchain-enabled mobile payment app.
o Some expected future trends of Blockchain are the following:
1- Blockchain as a service (BaaS)
2- Trading on cryptocurrency exchange
3- Asset Tokenization
4- Blockchain in anti-piracy
 IoT:
o Many companies are already making a transition to IoT app development. It is
predicted that IoT devices will be as omnipresent as smartphones in 2020.

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 Planning:
1. Budgeting:

Budget 2019
Marketing
5%

Assets
15%
Salaries
50%
Training
15%

R&D
15%

Budget 2020
Marketing
15%

Assets
10% Salaries
50%
Training
5%

R&D
20%

2. Benchmarking:

Outsourcing Services Raya Co.

Culture IT Works Co.
Marketing Link Dev Co.

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 3. SMART Objectives for (2020):

Objective Who Due date Measurement KPIs Target

Pass the following

certifications exams.
1. Blockchain:
1. Enter one of
Understanding Its Uses
the new
and Implications. Build certified
trends in the
CTO 31/12/2020 2. Becoming a Hyper team
information
ledger Aries Developer. (3 developers)
technology,
3. Introduction to Hyper
Blockchain.
ledger Sovereign Identity
Blockchain Solutions:
Indy, Aries & Urs.
Must pass supervisor
2. Employees evaluation
Training : Satisfy the requirement
Mastering specification document Building pilot
enterprise CFO 31/12/2020 that will be provided at project for our
Ready Made start. virtual customer
software Passing ODOO 12
ODOO Functional certification
exam.

3. Through
Corona Virus
period, we
At least 70% of trainees
will provide Academy Training for 30
01/06/2020 must pass Zend
E-learning Team trainees
PHP exam.
and online
training
activities

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 Increase sales by 20%. Adding
1-B,1-C
4. Gain more Marketing
31/12/2020 Decrease cost by 10%. companies to
revenue Team
Increase reputability of our clients
company. (outsourcing).
Build transaction
ledger (journal),
posting, trial
balance, cash
flow statement.
5. Applying
Build income
financial All rules must be
statement,
reporting CFO 31/12/2020 according GAAP
shareholder
system in the standards.
equity statement,
company
balance sheet.
Extract profit
margin, quick
ratio, current ratio
for the company.

 Organizing:

 Our Formal structure based on mix between 2 approaches, first the matrix structure for some
departments, and the network structure for other departments.

 Our informal Structure based on some conditions, like the level of seniority, number of years
that been in the company and the level of age.

 We fix the silos problem by using agile approach, we focus on adding values to our customers.

 We distribute the accountability through all members of the team all the time, they all are
working as one person, so there is no place for silos.

 Time is a very important factors, our values and concepts stand on an important point, we must
deliver value to our customers in a fast way, from the start to the end we must deliver added
value.

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 That come through the concept of SPRINT, the project is divided into number of sprints, and
each sprint has its own plan, delivered value, desired team members and KPIs.

 For Marketing and branding we work with outsourced company, so we must use the network
approach to handle our daily work with them.

 Holding Strategic Alliance is one of our company goals, so we worked for now within an
alliance of 2 companies, in the UAE.

 As a modern company, we have a flat, Adaptive and decentralized structure, with a wide span
of control, also being less than 20 employee make that easy to manage.

 Delegating 3 members to manage the daily activities is a good choice for our scale, to allow
high management to follow and has full and clear view of the performance of the company.

 The basic system in the company is Flexible time hours, with limited punishments or penalties
on being late, as we treat our employees as adult and accountable people.

 Some of our employees can work from home, and their KPIs is their performance.

 Controlling:

 Regarding the control equation, we need to transfer all our performance key indicators to
numbers so we can identify the correct action we can apply in any situation.
 In our daily work, we must use the management by exception, so the high priority tasks always
must be done first.
 Using agile in our company and among our teams allow us to have the 3 types of feed
 The forward Feed through the testing of business documents (Review Testing)
 Concurrent control through our methodology that adopt scrum and plans.
 Feedback control after delivering value to the customer.
 We achieve Internal Control through the concepts of scrum, Teams are self-organizing and are
cross functional, so they are accountable.
 We apply some bureaucratic rules through holding our time-boxed meetings in a specific times,
we have daily meetup, sprint planning meeting, sprint review meeting and retrospective
meeting.
 Our Clan control is a mutual tradition through all of our community companies, we apply some
standards like openness, creativity, respectful, seniority respect and other points.
 We adapt ourselves with Market Control as we are working in a fast paced field, so every day
we hear about new thing, we have R&D specialist.

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 External control came through 2 positions added by scrum framework, Scrum master who
control the procedures and Scrum product Owner who control the business logic.
 As a Software development company, we use the MBO (managing by Objectives) as agile set
focus to delivering values to our customer periodically from the start point , so objectives is
very important for our teams.
 To build accountable team, we must focus on personal development objectives, they will also
improve company objectives in a continuous way.
 Due to high competition, LinesDev Software, Co. is a TQM organization, which will give us
a differentiation through our competitors.
 Using Gantt charts is one of our common activities and tools to monitor the performance and
value being presented to our customers through our geeks daily, we use it to build our release
plan for every project.
 To measure the satisfactions of our customers we use the Balanced Scorecards, we also
measure the level of our fulfillment of our employee’s needs.

 Leadership Style:
“LinesDev adore and build the charismatic leader”
 Our concept is to choose our leader from our teams as we can, they already have the vision
clear, and we motivate them to be leaders all the time.
 Our leaders and managers have the full power to influence their followers, they have the power
to give rewards, apply coercive, and also they must have the experience to be reference to other
employees and followers.
 Our strategy is based on choosing our leaders and managers from our current team members,
for that we empower our employees all the time so they can understand our vision, motivated
them and build strong relationships between them.
 We search all the times among our team players for the charismatic player, we empower him,
give him the focus and motivate him to be our future leader or manager.
 Our culture and standards encourage our team members to learn more and more about
Emotional Intelligence all the times, as we know that it can solve a lot of problems in our
innovative environment.
 Our Leaders must be Servant Leaders, as our project management methodology says, we just
have Servant leader who can empower his team and remove impediments from his way,
facilitate any work they need in their daily tasks, and this is the rule of our Scrum Masters.

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