1. Introduction
1.1 The Software Industry
The software industry was launched in the 1950’s where computers began to be used for business applications and it then it rapidly started creating a huge demand for people with experience in programming (Anon 2007). Over the years the industry went through a number of changes and innovations, with software products coming into the market for the first time in the 1960’s, to commercial laptops being developed in the 1980’s and 1990’s (Wikipedia/CRM 2008).
1.2 Ariel Systems and CSR
The UK based organization, Ariel Systems, is the market leading supplier of Customer Relationship Management system software. The firm is present in over 40 countries worldwide and employs 20,000 people. With an annual turnover in excess of 2 billion pounds, the company is very profitable and is in a very healthy financial state (Burns-Nurse 2008). The Board of Ariel Systems now wants to look at whether being Corporate Social Responsibility/Ethically Marketing oriented will move the company forward into the future.
Corporate Social Responsibility involves looking at the good of the wider communities, locally and globally and not only the company’s customers and profitability. Marketing and being Socially Responsible deals with ensuring that organizations handle marketing with utmost care and responsibility. This has to do with such issues as marketing to children and the environmental impact of the firm. One way to put it is the CSR organization should “strive to make a profit, obey the law, be ethical, and be a good citizen” (Brassington & Pettitt 2007: 13).
2. Internal Analysis
2.1 Functional Areas
The main internal functional areas of an organization include finance, human resources, research & development, productio ...