Strategic management: Credit Agricole

This paper will analyze the strategic plan for a new project for Crédit Agricole: the mergence of the computer system in each branch and their integration. Crédit Agricole is a leading European banking group is one of the largest French banks. The project will also focus on the payroll system and its integration at Crédit Agricole. Crédit Agricole will have to train its employees who are more than 40,000. The project will enable the company to have a common vision and data retroactivity in platform design. I'm a consultant currently working for Crédit Agricole. The company would like to merge its computer systems in each branch to integrate them all. They have contacted me to present them a strategic plan for their project. For that, I needed to understand the Crédit Agricole organization and its current situation, to determine the way to achieve our goal.

[...] Risks It’s important to note that Crédit Agricole is facing some risks by developing its projects: o There is a credit risk. In fact, the company is not sure of the benefits the project will provide. Perhaps it will be a source of losses o Crédit Agricole There are some country risks. That wants to say that all countries don’t have the same culture, social environment, economical environment and so will not react in the same way and the new service will not be accepted in the same manner. [...]

[...] They have contacted me to present them a strategic plan for their project. For that, I need to know the Crédit Agricole organization well and its current situation, to better determine the way to achieve the goal. First of all, I will make a general analysis of the company, its organization, its goal to then answer three different questions: How to develop such a plan for all the Crédit Agricole branches? What are the strategic implications of this change of strategy? [...]

[...] STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES Crédit Agricole has some competitive advantages in French retail banking: It has a long term existence It has an international experience It has two highly complementary networks ( Regional Banks and LCL) It has some specialized financial services what provides strong and rapidly growing positions o o Crédit Agricole has significantly increased its presence in the international retail banking since 2006 Crédit Agricole has some strategic alliances and partnerships in Europe Crédit Agricole has a high street presence what allows the company to reach a lot of people The subsidiaries enable the group to benefit from economies of scale The company has a good reactivity to the environment and its evolution Crédit Agricole has a good financial health: important profits shared with employees and investors o There are some problems of communication because the different regions are not connected what makes it hard It can have a confusion as the Crédit Agricole group owns also LCL what can create a confusion for customers but also instituted some agreements on tariffs for instance Absence in some countries like emergent ones (China) o o o o There can have some operational problems with the new project: Staff training needed Recruiting qualified staff Ensuring high visibility of the system o There can have some technical problems: Security Access to information and data Server relationship o There can have some management problems: Identify core business activity Integration of business Increasing efficiency o o o o 17 Crédit Agricole o The group is always diversifying itself through new products and new markets (internationalization) and so has a good adaptability and means of modernization (what provides an ability to retain new customers and to win new businesses) The capital is owned in majority by the company Crédit Agricole has the project to consolidate the payroll system. [...]