The changing landscape of software as a service (SAAS) business – a case of Epitome

Learning outcomes Case overview/synopsis It was 12 April 2022. Siddarth Bera, Founder and Managing. Director of Epitome Corporation Pvt Ltd, Ahmedabad, a video conferencing service [1] provider in India, was in an intense discussion with his chief financial officer, Nisarg Shah, and Chief Marketing Officer, Shrenik Shah over a cup of coffee. They were worried about the cutthroat competition from companies, such as Cisco, WeHost, Huawei, which was going to increase after MCA[2] vide its circular [3] dated 5 May 2020, had allowed Companies to conduct AGM through VC or OAVM[4] mode posed a threat to their existing market share and future growth plans. To grow and achieve strategic competitiveness in their business, they thought of expanding globally. As they already had clients in Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia and Gulf countries, they thought of further strengthening their market share in these countries first. Epitome owned the backend infrastructure required for live and secure video streaming and therefore had an infrastructure advantage to move globally, but it was going to be tough as their total clientele in these countries was just 5% of their total business. Epitome was not a known brand name outside India and building brand awareness was not easy. The mode of entry into these foreign locations, offices, customer pitching, establishing marketing channels, etc. in an unknown territory was troubling Siddarth Bera. There were many questions too that crossed his mind which had to be answered before he decided on a yes or a no regarding global expansion so as to increase its customer base. Complexity academic level MBA, third semester of the two-year full-time MBA programme. Supplementary material Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.