ERP Case Study On Sony Corporation

Sony Corporation

Company Logo

Prepared By :- Par ima l Pate lRo l l No.- 29

Gu ided By :- Mona l i Gandh i

Table of contentsIntroduction1

History; origin of name2

Solution5Functionalities Of System6

Problems & Challenges4

Benefits7

Mission & vision; Marketing mix3

SWOT9

Case Study10

Marketing Mix(Product)8

Marketing Mix(Promotion)11

Conclusion13

Marketing Mix(Place)12

Company Logo

Introduction

Multinational corporation headquartered in Mintao (Japan).

One of leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets.

The company's slogan is Sony. Like no other.

Sony corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group.

History

In 1945, after World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio rapair shop in Tokyo.

The next year, he was joined by his collegue Akio Morita and they found a companny which translates in English to Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation.

The company built Japan's first tape recorder called the Type-G.

In the early 1960s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs’ invention of the transistor.

He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company.

In August 1955, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering released the Sony TR-55, Japan's first commercially produced transistor radio.

History(Cont…)

In May 1956, the company released the TR-6, which featured an innovative slim design and sound quality capable of rivaling portable tube radios.

It was for the TR-6 that Sony first contracted "Atchan", a cartoon character created by Fuyuhiko Okabe, to become its advertising character.

Now known as "Sony Boy", the character first appeared in a cartoon which is holding a TR-6 to his ear.

In 1957, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering came out with the TR-63 model, the smallest (112 × 71 × 32 mm) transistor radio in commercial production.

It was a worldwide commercial success.

Origin of name

The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word Sonus which is the root of "sonic" and "sound" and the other was "sonny", a familiar term used in 1950s America to call a boy. Morita pushed for a word that does not exist in any language so that they could claim the word "Sony" as their own.

At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters instead of kanji to spell its name.

Sony Corporationソニー株式会社

Sony Corporationソニー株式会社

Mission & Vision

Mission - Sony is working to create value for its stake holders, and improve the quality of life for the next generation through their innovations.

Vision - They seek new approaches to transform their ability to achieve both profitablity and sustainable growth.

Sony Corporationソニー株式会社

Problems & Challenges

Silo culture Slowness in accessing a product

Appreciating value of yen against US dollar also compounded to problems.

Highly decentralised and intra-competing.

Initially worked well later back fired. Lack of Coordination & Communication across divisions cost them

dear.

SONY ® CORP.

Solution

After a careful study of their existing system and an in-depth understanding of Sony’s requirements, GrapeCity chose to base the new solution on top of Microsoft® Commerce Server and Microsoft® SQL Server technologies.

Microsoft® Commerce Server includes crucial components for establishing and expanding online customer focused businesses.

It allows for product catalog setup, and ongoing administration and personalization.

Besides, it facilitates customer authentication and targeted content and product promotions based on customer behavior and pricing policies.

Microsoft® SQL Server, besides being a robust RDBMS, permits extensive OLAP and Data mining functionality, thereby facilitating better decision making.

Functionalities Of System

Flexible Product Catalog:

The system used Microsoft Commerce Server to manage and publish the product catalogs.

This reduced the effort and time to maintain and modify the web site over time and made the user experience consistent.

It allowed making modifications to product features, price and other information at any time without requiring custom design effort.

Automated business workflow:

The system used the Commerce Server Pipeline technology and programming platform to automate the backend order processing activities such as order consolidation and acknowledgement, payment processing, inventory control and order version control by integrating with Sony’s SAP ERP platform.

Functionalities Of System(Cont…)

High System Security:

The system is compliant with the United States National Security C2 Standard.

A very high security was required because the web site not only managed customers’ personal and payment information, but it also integrated with Sony’s confidential sales and marketing databases via CRM and ERP integrations.

Customer Analytics:

The system allows Sony to analyze their customers’ online behavior and gain marketing insights that their sales and marketing teams can use to improve their business.

Benefits

The new solution has resulted in the following benefits: Sony was able to attract more visitors to the web site and encourage

them to shop online by providing a more personalized experience.

It provided real-time visibility into all aspects of the business to internal stakeholders resulting in efficient decision making.

It enabled centralized management and reporting by system administrators resulting in more active involvement and effective monitoring.

Because the system maximized the use of the Microsoft e-Commerce platform, it took relatively less time to go from design to deployment.

Marketing Mix (Product)

Sony products can be categorized in the following major product categories:

Television and projectors,

Home video,

Home audio,

Home theatre system,

Digital photography,

Handy cam video camera,

Portable audio,

Game,

In-car entertainment,

Storage and recording media,

Other accessories.

SWOT

Innovative, Quality products. Human capital

Self promoting system

Job rotating systems Goodwill Distribution network Infrastructure

Mass reach Controversies Batteries Dysfunctions

STRENGTH WEEKNESS

SWOT(Cont…)

Opportunities

Sony Reader

Software for computer and Cell phones

Theme parks

News channel

Refrigerator

Washing machine

Air conditioner

Robotics

Threats

Competition

Companies like – Panasonic , LG , Samsung etc.

Case Study

Sony has followed bring it first strategy.

Others followed Sony for the launch.

10-percent of the company’s sales were committed to research and development.

Rapid innovation

Out-dating it’s own product.

Launching only when market is ready.

Changes in the consumer marketplace rather than by defense industry expenditure.

Why it was Unique

Re-educating the sales force.

R&D expenditure.

increased advertising .

sometimes new facilities for the manufacture of the new products.

Obsoletes existing product lines.

Company Logo

Marketing Mix (Promotion)

Sony promotes its product through: Contests

Awards

Events

Press releases

Launch parties

Print ads

Free gifts on purchase

Sponsoring

Marketing Mix (Place)

Sony distributes its products in various channels. It uses zero-level channel, one level channel and two-level channel.

Manufacturers

Retailers

Customers

Place (continued..)

Through the Internet, Sony has helped its customers to find the nearest retailer shop where they can buy the Sony products. All they have to do is to enter their website and specify the product and the location.

www.sony.co.in

Conclusion

The current marketing mix which Sony Corporation has is satisfactory to customer needs. As it can be clearly seen that Sony as a company has expanded its products & services from electronic and digital devices to television broadcasting (SET) & entertainments like music (Sony BMG) & movie production.

In providing a wide range of products & services with high quality, Sony has by far influenced most of the consumers perception favourably towards its products.

Bibliography

Yadong Luo: Multinational enterprises in emerging markets, Copenhagen Business School Press DK, 2002

www.sony.net www.sony.pl www.sony.com www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony

One of the TV commercials of SONY Corporation for its BRAVIA brand

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