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The Android Task Monitoring project is a type of application that is made to inform or act as a reminder to the user of all the chores to be done in a particular day. It can also be used to set task reminders that have to be repeated weekly. They will have the application to alert them of the upcoming events or tasks automatically, using an “AI-powered Chatbot” which will also be able to interact with the user. Such an innovative project with benefits may have a number of risks that come along with it. In this part, the risks of the Android Task Monitoring project of Alteryx Inc. will be highlighted.
Internal risks that can be faced by Alteryx Inc.
The application in concern, is only compatible with android system, therefore people who do not use android devices will not be able to access the application and thus this might result in a low usage or lower preference of the application, if a certain part of Costa Rica uses a device other than android.
Since the application uses an “AI-powered Chatbot” which interacts with the user, an active, fast and secure internet connection is required for the smooth execution of the system. Slow or inactive internet source may result in the application lag and slower response from the chatbot. This can lead to the poor performance of the application which also has the chance of provoking the user or customer’s dissatisfaction with the service (Salamai et al. 2019). Moreover, this will be responsible for the negative recommendation of the service.
One more point to ponder about is correct data entry. The application requires the user to enter the data or tasks, manually, that the user wants to be notified of. If the user does not enter the correct data in any case, the reminder is set on that incorrect data itself. Users, therefore, have to be made aware that the system is operated manually and based on the correct data entered by them, the application proceeds with its service of alerting them (Fu et al. 2017). Only then can the service be beneficial for people who have a lot to keep in mind.
The application has some positive opportunities that are helpful in a lot of technical ways.
Firstly, users who are often busy and have an ample amount of responsibilities may find it difficult to remember it all themselves. Here comes the use of this application, where the monitoring reminds or alerts the user about the next upcoming task on the list whenever asked.
Moreover, the application provides timely notifications automatically, on the device at the required times, even if the user does not ask. This possibility saves time and is convenient to the user. The smooth accessibility of the application is a positive point, which will make the application a well recommended one.
b) Effect of risks on the financial estimates and addressing them
The above discussed risks of the application are liable to have a negative effect on the financial estimates of Alteryx Inc. in a year. According to the financial projections of Alteryx Inc. from 2019 to 2020, (Alteryx Inc. , 2021)the company has seen a 15% rise in the sales revenue, in one year. They also hope to meet this same benchmark or higher every year, even after the expansion in Costa Rica. For this expectation to be met, the internal risks have to be taken into significant consideration.
The expansion of the company in a new area where there might be more other software in high use than android will be risky. This is because if there is only a small part of the population with android devices, the company there may face a loss if the investment remains more than the income. The company officials should also have a thorough knowledge of the service area and its internet services. Neglecting that might result in the application not being able to work properly and thus generate negative reviews. These factors can lead to the company not achieving the profit margin of 10.3%, by 2023.
c) Examples
Alteryx Inc. has both risk and opportunities in its operating industry as a result the company’s management has to assess both the categories and manage business processes accordingly. This company’s cash flow statement projects $173,665 in 2020 and projected amount at the end of 2021 is going to be $177,866. Therefore, Alteryx Inc from stable inflow of cash is investing in “adjacent product segments” to create support in new technologies. Bringing new technologies in the market is going to help this company to compete with its competitors such as “Tableau, Microsoft, IBM, Qlik, SAP, MicroStrategy” and sustain in the industry for a longer period.
Hence, generating sufficient cash from operations and maintaining a stable position creates a wide scope of opportunities for Alteryx in attaining high profitability. Alteryx belongs to an industry with a high competition which creates an area of risk for this company and stable profitability is the only way out to pull down pressure from sales value (Samimi, 2020). The company has to look at every aspect of its business and not just financial values. Risk might arise from different markets while producing a product such as continuous fluctuation in different laws regarding product standards. Hence, the company has to estimate those risks beforehand in order to safeguard the adverse impact on a product’s revenue generation capacity.
External Risks
(a) Addressing to the significant qualitative risks
External qualitative risk creates an impact on the company’s internal processes as a result internal management has to control and minimize any kind of risk. Most recognizable external qualitative risks are government policies, economic changes, cyber threat and customer preferences (Kraev & Tikhonov, 2019). Alteryx is entering into a new market and has to follow a lot of new rules and procedures to sustain in that market for a longer period. The company is going to acquire investment from the capital market to prepare a proper capital structure of its proposed project. Hence, investment and project managers have to collaborate and look over the current US government policies as the existing policies create a direct influence on investment’s interest rates. The company is going to decide whether to opt for equity or debt capital as a higher interest rate set by government is going to increase borrowing cost and this company will have to bear additional expenses to fund its project (Urbano et al. 2021). Furthermore, higher rates are going to increase cost of production within an enhanced cost of product and consumers might avoid spending more prices to utilise the product produced by Alteryx.
Alteryx belongs to the US and the country has a developed economy as a result a stable economic growth creates a positive impact on the company's profitability. The company is going to expand in Costa Rica and the palace in Central America so it is understandable that consumers from the company’s new market share have a high purchasing power. Consumers are going to spend more and the company is going to have a high scope to earn more revenue after selling more products in the upcoming time. Hence, it is easy to assess economic growth is increasing and this factor is not acting as a risk for this company.
Cyber threat is a highly risky area as the company deals with technologies as a result data handling has to be done properly. If data is not being secured properly it might be breached by hackers that is going to create a strong negative impact on the company's financial structure. Moreover, this company has to make a survey on customer preferences after entering into a new market to include modification during designing the project (Hilorme et al. 2019) Therefore; cyber threat might turn out to be a risky factor if not managed properly as it cannot be forecasted properly in advance. However, risk from customer preference is easily avoidable as evaluation can be done by the company beforehand.
(b) Aligning with examples
Alteryx is operating in an American market environment so it has to prepare its business procedures as per the thoughts of Americans. The people of US prefer to use large and luxurious products with higher beneficial returns. Hence, this company has to check the technological product that is managing daily activities is being done properly and the application does not hurt any individual’s cultural thoughts. Alteryx has to build up business processes that are politically correct in order to avoid complexities from unlawful activities.
(c) Planning on the recognizable risks
The company has to chalk out a proper plan to avoid impact from recognizable qualitative risks. Firstly, the company has to look over risks involved in the various available investments and opt for the most appropriate one for its proposed project. Economic growth is not going to create any negative impact so the interest rate is not going to fluctuate and company do not have to pay sudden higher interest rates (Rebs et al.2018) Keeping high privacy barriers and up-to-date software systems is going to help this company to avoid data breach issues. Proper survey on customers requirements before producing the developed product in market is the best option to estimate needs of customers.
Microeconomic
(a) Factors from macroeconomic affecting decisions on proposed investment
A company faces different microeconomic factors on a proposed investment that creates an impact on decision making. Most common factor is interest rate and Alteryx has to monitor this rate as per the current market value while financing “current savings” or “borrowings”. In the near future this company has to acquire investment from money market for investing in advanced technologies and build up products to compete with its competitors (Basheer et al. 2019). Hence, Alteryx had to assess interest rates as it had a high influence on investment. This company is currently looking over investments with high interest and high returns but have to weigh the amount of risk involved with those investments. At the end the company is looking over marginal efficiency to measure whether it is worthwhile to accept. For example, Alteryx obtains an investment proposal which has 5% “interest rate” then the project has to acquire 5% “rate of return”. The investment project becomes profitable with the rise of interest rate but fall down in interest rate creates a high chance in making a project more worthwhile.
Economic Growth is another powerful factor to make a decision on an investment project. Generally, companies seek investment proposals to meet future requirements of business procedures. Alteryx has to assess its current market demand and on that basis prepares a market plan to acquire capital from investments. High economic growth in US market is going to provide a high return on the company’s product with an enhanced purchasing power of the customer base (Nocca, 2017). Suddenly, if the company’s demand falls on a particular product then the investment manager will cut back on existing investment plan. On the other hand, observing an improvement in America’s economy, Alteryx might increase investment with an estimation that future demand will rise. This company is planning to expand its business operations in Costa Rica as a result the company has to monitor Central America’s market and customer requirements to forecast on demand. A strong forecasting on demand creates prominent evidence on choosing an investment with a proper interest rate.
In the long-run of business, inflation rate plays a major microeconomic factor for taking a decision on a proposed investment plan. In order to finance Alteryx’s “Android Task Monitoring” project the project manager has to look over at the “high and variable inflation tends” to avoid uncertainty as well confusion in achieving project’s success. As stated by Sebescen & Vitak (2017), high inflation and economic growth has a direct relation. Hence, this company while acquiring investment for its future project should avoid investment when inflation is high within the US economy in order to minimize uncertainty on the final cost of an investment.
(b) Evaluation with examples
Alteryx is entering into the market of Costa Rica with its new project to track and monitor activities of daily events, meetings and appointments. At the initial stage this company has to analyse competitiveness of its market by observing the influencing factors on products prices. Company’s product prices have a direct impact on revenue and in 2020 this company has generated $495308 while projected revenue generation of $ $569604 in 2021. The company has chances to earn competitive advantages after entering into the market of Costa Rica by achieving projected revenue through incorporating competitive prices on the new project’s product. The company has a high chance to earn more competitive advantage from markets of Costa Rica by developing products that are not quickly available but have high demand among customers. As opined by Shaban et al. (2017), elasticity of a product is being measured by “the change in the aggregate quantity demanded of a good, service in relation to price movements of that good, or service”. Currently, Alteryx has chances to increase elasticity for its upcoming products through “quantity demand of the product changes more proportionally than then increases or decreases of prices”. Overall, it is suggestive to say increasing demand for the project is going to make products from that project highly elastic.
Analysis on alternate financial scenarios
(a) Discussion on sensitivity of financial projections
Sensitivity analysis on a financial project is being done with the support of different variables affecting valuation of a business such as EPS and price.
(b) Changes in financial performances based on different scenarios
Increase or decrease of sales value creates an overall impact on business operations. Hence, a sudden increase in sales value by 20% symbolizes the company is putting high effort to convert inventory quantity into saleable quantity to collect liquid cash for smooth running of business operations. On the other hand, a decrease in 20% sales value indicates the company has lost its capacity in selling products to its targeted customer base. The company has to increase its advertisement expenses in order to capture customers’ attention on its new product when sales value decreases.
(c) Interpretation on time value of money
Alteryx
Year
1
2
3
4
5
“Cash Flow”
$ 411,424
$ 173,665
$ 177,866
$ 183,788
$ 191,521
“Net Present Value”
$895,629.41
“Internal Rate of Return”
10%
“Payback Period (in years)”
3.5
Table 1: “NPV, IRR and payback” period calculation
Net present value (NPV) is being used to assess “current total value of a future stream of payments” (Alles et al. 2021). NPV is one of the most acceptable techniques within capital budgeting to estimate an investment's future return after making a comparison with the present cash flows. Incorporating the cash flows provided by Alteryx proposed project NPV is being computed that shows a positive value and makes this project attractive in front of the investors. Hence, this company has a high chance to present its proposed project plan in front of the investors to acquire funds at an appropriate rate. “Internal Rate of Return” (IRR) provides a value that a project is going to provide as a return after attaining a successful level. Lastly, payback period refers to the time frame a project takes to recover the cost of initial investment. The initial investment of Alteryx’s project is going to be recovered within 3.5 years. NPV, IRR and payback period all the three techniques belong to capital budgeting decision criteria.
Outcomes from all the three techniques are positive which makes the proposed project by Alteryx the most acceptable one. Among the three techniques NPV is commonly used to make a decision on capital budgeting as the “time value of money” concept is being included to estimate future cash flows depending on current cash generation. As opined by Gafli & Daryanto (2019), “NPV calculation applies a time value of money rate to when income and expenses occur” so Alteryx have to include NPV rate to estimate a proper future profitability from proposed project. IRR and payback period ignores “time value of money” so it is not highly acceptable by most of the companies to assess forecasted sales value. The concept of “time value of money” creates an influence on capital budgeting decisions. Hence, including this concept helps to assess whether a project is acceptable or not to make an investment.
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