Background

Considering the convenience and effectiveness associated with an online business model in expanding market presence, phenomenal growth in ecommerce can be observed throughout the past one and half decade (Johannisson, 2017).

The assessment aims to help my team to consider entering online marketing industry with the help of ecommerce business model using the platform of Amazon Australia.

In order to achieve the aim, the development of particular human resource management and solution software is selected for marketing globally through Amazon Australia.

India is selected as the country, in which the software will be marketed and sold initial via the particular platform considering the opportunities for growth available in the particular marketing environment.

Driven by the growth of technologies in the contemporary business world, modern business management practices are faced with the superior task of adapting to changing requirements in the existing marketplaces.

Due to the need of upgrading different HR management practices, such as recruitment, training, performance management and succession planning, the growth in marketing and distribution of HR software can be observed essentially throughout the talent management sectors (Aryanto, Fontana & Afiff, 2015).

The market for HR software recently went through an unprecedented wave of consolidation, mainly influenced by the shift from traditional management approach to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model (Butler & Callahan, 2014).

Market Profile

India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world in terms of GDP growth and improvement is criteria associated with ease of doing business.

Liberal foreign investment policies in the country, after the wake of different economic reforms led by the current government, open doors for many large international businesses to develop their operating presence through subsidiaries or homogenous centres (Murthy & Abeysekera, 2015).

With an increased inclination towards digitalisation of a wide range of processes across social, governmental and organisational processes, the Gen Z employees from the country’s modern population are well acquainted with the use of technologies, such as frequent messaging and news feeds (Norman & Venter, 2016).

Rapid transformation throughout the country is creating significant changes across HR work processes and platforms to cause a shift towards cloud and mobile-based platforms that contribute to the greater good to people management.

Platforms, which aim at simplifying the complex decisions related to recruitment, selection, training and payroll, play an indispensable role, especially in a country where work policies are rapidly transforming and workforce is becoming more modern.

Dramatic growth in HR software in the country is driven by the tools that automate manual work processes to the platforms that support enhancement of employee experience (Alok, Raveendran & Jha, 2015).

Apart from becoming one of the intensive technologic hubs of the world, India is the nation with the largest human potential, driving the selection of the Indian market for marketing and distributing the identified product through ecommerce.

While HR continued to become a backend function in India, recently, over the past five years, significant transformation across economies have changed the face of HR to provide more attention on talent and technology (Kumar, 2014).

Market Challenges

• Demographic:
  • Diversity – India is home to diverse people from diverse cultural backgrounds, indicating the need for placing considerable changes to the proposed HR software to enable making a specific approach to people management.
  • Demographic changes – Rapid changes in demographic profiles driven by emerging and consolidating demographic changes can be observed in a country with a huge population. Considering such a constant change, substantial challenges are there for the HR software to assist HR professionals of different organisations in hiring, training and retaining an entirely new generation of employees (James & Goli, 2016).
• Economic
  • Exchange rate – Continuous fluctuations in the foreign exchange market can cause a substantial threat for HR software provider in achieving desired revenue from the Indian market.
  • Changing Economic Policies – Frequent changes in the economic environment caused by several economic reforms add further concern for the new product to be developed in line with economic requirements.
• Financial
  • Rising NPAs – Financial sector of India is facing a strong challenge while creating hindrances for economic growth mainly due to the rise of non-performing assets (NPAs) and slow recovery of corporate balance sheets to hamper the resilience of banking system and hold back growth and investment (Mitra, 2018).
  • Long and Unfinished Reform Agenda – In order to sustain high growth in long-term, the financial sector needs to play a crucial role by mobilising resources and channelling those to productive uses with the help various reforms undertaken by the government. However, India has an agenda with long, unfinished reforms that need to be pushed on an urgent basis to sustain a high-growing economy (Rodrigues, 2015).
• Social
  • Education and skills – Although India has more than 487 million workers, almost two-thirds of Indian employers complain about their struggle to find appropriate talents with right skills and education, indicating lack required education and training to enable development of human resource (Klemencic & Fried, 2015).
  • Health – Dramatic rise in non-communicable diseases along with the burden of different types of infections in India not only create individual tragedies but also give rise to a major economic threat. Companies, as a result, may not be open to using the product from new provider.
• Political
  • Lack of Legal Changes – Lack of changes in the legislative environment means lack of political reformation, which gives rise to wrong working practices within different organisations to limit the use of robust, transparent HR system.
  • Lack of Good Governance and Policy Formation – Criminalisation of political process, together with unholy nexus between politicians and business houses affects formulation proper public policies to maintain good governance. Such a scenario greatly contributes to the reduction of business opportunities to halt growth of different firms, thereby creating concerns for the software provider.
• Technological
  • IT Security and Privacy – Over the years, there are significant concerns related to security and privacy issues that grappled different IT sectors in India, causing significant worries for IT services and software producers from different fields.
  • Bridging IT and Business – For an IT software provider like HR solutions, it is essential to align with organisational objectives and budgetary norms of the business, which is more a challenge than an opportunity for a foreign distributor (Raina & Trivedi, 2017).

Strategies

• Demographic
  • With the constantly aging workforce along with the steady influx of young talents throughout the nation means the need of striking a right balance in the workforce through developing a software solution, which addresses the need of training and development of existing employees while attracting required candidates with appropriate skills (Riccucci, 2018).
• Economic
  • As changes in economic policies and fluctuations in foreign exchange cause substantial risks to cash flow and profit margins of the business, the software provider must establish a working foreign exchange risk management program by analysis operating cycles of the business, degree of exposure to foreign exchange risks and hedging such risks using FX policies and applications.
• Financial
  • Working closely with country’s government while exploring opportunities available in the foreign investment policies can help the provider to overcome most of the financial challenges available in different stages of business enterprises.
• Social
  • As customers are increasingly looking for purchasing ethically designed, sustainable software packages, it is important for the HR software provider to support business to fulfil needs by focusing on long-term results. Additionally, social media platforms can be used to raise awareness of different social issues to gain visibility and acceptability in the Indian market (Kotabe, et al., 2013).
• Political
  • As political risks cannot be overcome but managed, the software provider needs to assess its potential credit risks in the country and review credit control policies before inability honour its financial obligations can quickly grasp the private sectors (Kotabe, et al., 2013).
• Technological
  • Apart from developing an effective plan to protect customer privacy through conducting data privacy audit and minimising data collection and retention to provide high security and devise a specific privacy policy, it is important for the new product to find a common language and set some common objectives to enable IT bridging the gap with business.

Conclusion

Despite challenges present in various forms from multiple perspectives, India is one of the most promising markets for the particular type of product or idea marketed through Amazon Australia. Given the rising interests among international business to set up operational hubs or manufacturing facilities in India using its abundant resources, especially human resources, significant opportunities to achieve growth and profitable revenues are there for the new undertaking. However, such an approach must be undertaken after considering some of specific strategies to overcome or manage key risks in the form of various environmental forces.