DocuSign:  in preparation for your site visit to DocuSign, DocuSign is a start-up from Silicon Valley in California that has evolved into one of the world’s leading e-based document signing technology companies.  As the linked article shows, DocuSign has serious expansion plans for the Dublin office and hopes to hire 1,000 additional workers.  Based on your quick review of the article on DocuSign’s expansion to Dublin, identify one commercial opportunity and one commercial challenge they are addressing in this expansion.

The main opportunity for DocuSign in their Dublin expansion is the amount of market they will now be able to better reach and serve. With more employees from more regions, they can advertise all of their different products to the now more easily accessible European and African/Asian markets. One of DocuSign’s challenges is remaining on a finacially steady track so they can afford their expansion. Corporate expansions can be very expensive and sometimes risky if company sales begin to plummet. Maintaining a revenue streams and hitting projections will be very important for DocuSign if they hope to expand successfully.

Google EMEA Headquarters in Dublin: In preparation for your site visit to Google’s Headquarters in Dublin for its Europe, Middle East and Africa division, this is an excellent example of how a firm is responding to opportunities and challenges in generating digital advertising revenue in its broader social environment by recognizing and addressing opportunities and challenges related to digital advertising revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  Based on your quick review of the article on Google’s 15 years in Ireland, identify one commercial opportunity and one commercial challenge they are addressing in the EMEA headquarters.

One of the opportunities for Google EMEA is spreading the brand name and its products deeply and safely into the local environments. Google runs NA, but it does not have the same dominance in many regions across the Atlantic. Taking full advantage of the quickly digitizing EMEA markets is a key for Google. Their market is quickly expanding here and lots of financial opportunities are presenting themselves. One of Google EMEA’s challenges is navigating the socio-political environments of the different nations and regions. They have to walk the tightrope of providing great search algorithm while protecting information and following government and consumer demands.

Questions For The Site Visits:  Finally, acting as members of consulting teams that might choose to write a group paper about the commercial opportunities and challenges connected to DocuSign or Google EMEA Headquarters in Dublin, what specific questions do you have about the business model for DocuSign that relate to our course material (Triple Bottom Line and sustainability, market segmentation, maximization versus shared value, etc.)?  What specific questions do you have about the business model for Google EMEA Headquarters in Dublin that relate to our course material (Triple Bottom Line and sustainability, market segmentation, maximization versus shared value, etc.)?    Give us specific questions for each of tomorrow’s visits. 

I wonder what the selling points/driving points of the signing tech is for DocuSign. Is it popular because its safe, convenient, or sustainable, or a combination of them?

At Google, I wonder what demos they target for certain products. Are there any groups they don’t advertise to? Does the search engine need much advertising?