Building An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Sydney: A Case Study Of Atlassian

Business Goals and Objectives

Discuss About The Building An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem City.

The study is mainly focused on the analysis and the comparison of Blue Printings Pty Ltd with the small company having their operations in business in Australia. The company which is taken into consideration should be Atlassians which is located in Sydney. The enterprise is in relation with the software industry in Australia. It is also describing the business goals as well the objectives of the small company so that this small company could be able to develop in the future. It should also be focusing on the products and the target market the company targets it.

The main goal is to develop a business plan for a small company known as Atlassian which is specialized in delivering software products and providing solutions for the software developers, project managers as well the content management (Jones and Penaluna 2013). This comes under the SME sector and it is located in Sydney. The services which are provided to the customers are the software solutions and content management solutions.

Atlassian Pvt Ltd. should be having two key target markets. It includes for the business developers as well for the software developers. The market research tells that in Sydney there is currently less demand in the development of the software related products which the company should be trying to develop in the future and provide high quality products and services to the customers. The promotion of the business is made through networking, alliances with the partners, online website and testimonials.

The business will be operating at the starting with the few employees and it is based on providing solutions and does the operations from home if required. There is minimum expense and tools are required at the start for undertaking the operations.

The business which will be started should be self funded. The owner of the company should be injecting the initial capital of $10,000 and it should be envisaged that it should be generating huge funds from the different operations and services they will be providing it to their clients.

Atlassian is the Sydney based company exists in providing huge number of software products and services and comprehensive software solutions for the project managers as well the software developers (Chwolka and Raith 2012). They also developed and provide content management solutions to the clients across the local and the global countries.

Target Market and Promotional Strategies

The company has been established in 2002. It is established by Mike Cannon and Scott Farquhar. Atlassian has released its flagship product known as Jira. In 2004 it has introduced Confluence. This is considered as the team collaboration platform which helps the users to work in a collaborative manner in working on different projects.

The business goal for the short term is to provide high quality products and services to the clients across Sydney. The next goal could be the development or generation of operating profit of at least $20,000 so that all the operating expenses should be met for the future development of this company. The long term goal the company is to expand their services and develop wide range of software related products in the market (McKenzie 2017). The generation of maximum returns for the shareholders could be the next goal. The next could be the development of innovation in the solutions and the products they might be delivering it to the customers.

There are various sources which are provided to develop the business plan and they are given as follows

• Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Sydney Small Business Advisory Network
• Personal interviews of various business enterprise centres located at Sydney.
• Brief survey of SMEs
• Software Management Consultancies
• Software Agencies
• Australian Business Software Industry
• Relevant IT literature
• Telephonic Conversation with the some enterprises.

It is seen that the software industry market in Australia is very low and poor. There is no rising demand for the software products and services in the market of Australia. The scope, size and the level of activity are really very low as the software is not booming at all in Australia. Australia has failed to foster the growth of the software industry in Australia (Stutely 2012). Australia has great universities as well the smart young people but they still lacked the creation of new services and products which will be influencing the performance of the software industry market in Australia (Chwolka and Raith 2012). It is seen that the Australian software sector does not contain or develop a proper master plan for the development of new technology and software or the tools which will help in influencing the performance of the software solution companies operating across Australia.

The technology sector in Australia should be representing around 5.1 percent of the total GDP and it will be developing around 22 percent of the workforce in accordance with the Deloiitte Access Economics report.

Potential Strengths

• The development of the Jira software product and the development of Confluence which is the user based platform have been the main products of strengths for Atlassian operating in Sydney.
• They have the talented and the best of the technical staffs that have the potential of providing high quality services to the clients across Australia.
• The implementation of the user friendly software solutions and products which are easily accessible by the customers.

• The less demand in the software products now in Australia tends to make the company to focus more on innovation in the products they will be developing in the future.
• They do not have the traditional sales team and all of their products and the services were placed on their official website only (Fernández-Guerrero Revuelto-Taboada and Simón-Moya 2012).
• The low innovation in their products and solutions they will be providing it for the project managers, software developers and the content management.

• The company is organizing potential events, seminars and special conferences around the world to make the clients more aware of the product development and providing easily accessible solutions in using their products (Chwolka and Raith 2012).
• They have the incredible and talented teams working in specialized projects around the world to get the global exposure and it will be enhancing the sustainability of the company (Chwolka and Raith 2012).
• They have the opportunity of becoming a brand in the coming future with their ability of having skilled and professional team having high technical expertise.

• The start- up capital for the company to invest and start their journey in 2002.
• The sensitivity of the SMEs due to the economic downturns.
• The rise of the competitors in the software market.

Products and target market

Business Planning

The preparation of the business plan which has covered the various parts of the activities

• SMEs having 10 to 100 employees
• Sydney Metropolitan area.
• Established companies
• There is approximately 250,000 firms

• SMEs often need the specialist expertise which helps them to run their firms
• It is difficult for them to do it.
• The high quality of the product and services to be given to the clients.
• The easy and user friendly solutions to be achieved by the customers.
• The pricing of the products and the solutions they deliver it to the clients shows the buying motives for the customers (Maurya 2012).

Small Business Development books

Sales of the various book, titles which is best done in conjunction with the training courses.

• There should be mentoring services to be given to the employees of Atlassian
• There are the seminars and workshops to be considered important for the training of the employees.
• The need of the conduction of training programs in order to gather knowledge on the product domains and the technical flaws to be reduced for the expertise.

Competitor Analysis and Strategic Alliances

It is estimated that the deadlines for the business is basically on February and March and during the summer holiday period in Australia.

     The business competitors for the company has been highlighted below

• Management Consultants
• Software Agencies
• Commercial Training Institutes
• Software Companies located in Australia

The potential strategic alliances for the firm has been given below

• The accountants who want to develop business plans but they do not want to offer the service to the clients.
• The management consultants who are trying to develop managerial practices and want to provide the managerial solutions to the clients.
• The business enterprises who want the training courses to be developed or the assessment of the business plans.
• The software agencies who are providing software related equipments and materials for the development of the tools and software.
• The software enterprises who are adopting the strategies in order to develop the tools and software done by Atlassian (Maurya 2012).
• The alliance with the government who are providing funds for the company to develop innovative software tools and products for the future development of the software market in Australia (Maurya 2012).

It is seen that as this has been the home based business which is dealing directly with the clients at the premises, so there are no distribution arrangements are to be done.

It is seen that for the development of the trading, the business has already the various contracts which is in places. It is not useful in promoting the business to the general community. There are various types of promotional tools are required for the promotion of their products and services they provide it to the customers (Stutely 2012). The promotional tools has been given below

• Webinars
• Seminars and Workshops
• Telephonic Surveys
• Testimonials- This involves the file of positive testimonials from the potential clients which are used as references for the marketing.
• Networking- The collaboration with the various software companies and agencies through the membership of the local business agencies (Maurya 2012).
• Online Websites- The official website along with the other websites which helps in the promotion of the products (Maurya 2012). 
• Social Media- The business will be using the social networking sites in uploading and promoting the videos on the tools and the software related products they develop and deliver it to the users (Armstrong et al. 2015). 

The charge out rates, the training services given and the contract for the development of the products is basically $60 per hour. The other additional costs will be added with the fixed costs.

It is seen that the effectiveness of the marketing strategy should be assessed on the six month basis with the help of analyzing the sales data. The development of the websites where the put lists and its prices along with the demo of the tools has been illustrated in a proper manner (Schaper et al. 2014).

The various tasks of the business should be done by the owner of the company which involves are as follows

• Training
• Servicing board of directors
• Marketing and client enquiries
• Administration of the enterprise

There will be four casual trainers to be employed by the company in order to provide training programs and for conduction of the research and proposing the business plans for the clients. They will directly report it to the owner of the company.

The ICT marketing strategy for Atlassians should be the development of the website and internet could be the best tool to be applied for website development. It should be displaying the information from the government agencies, software companies and other resources for providing online information for the clients (Paley 2017).

Atlassian Plc. is basically a public limited company. The company structure has been registered and developed with two shareholders.

Mike Cannon Brookes (50 % shareholding)

Scott Farquhar (50% shareholding)

They are also the CEO of the company. 

The main insurance which is required for the business are as follows

• Professional Indemnity
• Public liability

Location The business should be at Sydney where the office is there. There are equipments and it should be started with the proper development of the infrastructure (Blank and Dorf 2012). The property is owned by the CEO of the company. The training courses will be conducted at the specialized venues which should be hired on the daily basis.

Financial Forecasts and Analysis

As most of the services and the products are offered on site the office should be allowing the business to have access of the target market. The office will be located at the major area. The clients should be distributed across the area and the firm will be needed to attract the clients from the diverse areas (Feld 2012).

The equipments which are required for the business will be

• Telephone line
• Software
• Hardware devices
• Computer, printer and scanner
• High speed internet access
• Table

The operations manual should be updated in every 1 year and this should be planning all the policies and process for conduction of operations in Atlassians (Blank 2013). This will help in qualifying the assurance of quality at larger stage.

The business should be using different software management tools and data analytics tool as well in managing and controlling the internal data (Sarkar 2012).

• Liability- This is needed to be covered by the professional indemnity insurance
• The injury to the CEO of the company.
• Heavy Workload-The excessive workload will be redirected to the other software products delivery agencies with whom the strategic alliance will be developed.

The expenses should be calculated which is based on the market research. It should be assumed that all the revenue will be paid within 2 months. There is no provision for the effect of inflation or the increase in costs.

The CEO will be providing an initial capital of $10,000. The sales income will be applicable from the month of March in 2018 and the initial cash flow will be developed and there is removal of short term debt funding to be taken place. The firm had no current loans or debt from outsiders.

Net profit margin %= Net profit before tax/Sales turnover = $2500/$102345 = 2.44%

This net profit margin is quite low as per the industry standards, but it is not bad for the initial first year of trading or business. It is expected that the business margin should be increasing exponentially in year 2 and year 3.

Break Even Point

Projected Fixed Costs = $86700

Break- even point ($) = Fixed Costs/Contributed margin = $ 86700/0.96 = $90,312.5

It is recommended that there is the continuous improvement in the product development to be taken place. There is the introduction of the innovative and wide range of software products and services to the clients across the Sydney metropolitan area. There is the need of the development of the proper and comprehensive sales team for making the sales performance of Atlassians to be strong enough to compete within the software market. It is also recommended that there ios the end of hiring much more trainers in the company to make them aware of the product knowledge and the tools created for the effective delivery of the software products.

Conclusion

From the study it is evident that this company has the bright future. This company has the potential and the resources enough to carry forward their business operations in the next three years to come by. It concludes that proper mentoring and the launching of the training courses and programs helped the staffs to be able to gain more knowledge on the product and its delivery to the clients. It is evident that the company has a good profit and fostering growth from the first year of trading and it will continue to improve in the future as well. There is the development of the sales team and improving the online presence in order to make the products accessible for the clients

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