Integrated Professional Skills in the Digital Age

This document discusses the importance of digital and professional skills in the digital age. It compares the positive and negative aspects of online and offline retailing, explores tools for password management, and explains track and trace apps for COVID-19.

Integrated Professional Skills
in the Digital Age

INTRODUCTION
Now these days several new and innovative technologies are launching in the market that
assists people and organisations to perform business operations effectively. In order to utilise
these tools and techniques, it is crucial for individual to have some digital and professional skills
and abilities. E-commerce and m-commerce are some online services that are used by business
venture high level in term of operating their business in successful manner (Amran and Ananda,
2018). This written document will consider information about the comparison among the
optimistic and unenthusiastic factors of commodities and facilities being traded online and
offline. Further, will explain about the online tools that are used by ventures to manage their
online accounts. Moreover, the information will come in to consideration about Track and Trace
Apps for different mobile platform by including their features, applications, suitability and
manure more.
MAIN BODY
Compare and contrast between the positive and negative aspects of services and products being
sold online and offline
In present time, there is several kind of innovation form in technology regarding online
business. So there are several kind of change occurred in business due to operating online in
comparison to offline. The comparison among the positive and negative retailing of commodities
and services in term of online and offline is defined as under:
Advantages of online retail
Easy access to market- If an establishment online selling of its products and services
then it can select many ways to access the market. By getting support of well established e-
commerce companies like e-bay and Amazon, a business can effectively operate online way by
offering its commodities and facilities to its consumers online way.
Reduced overheads- Online sales can minimise the require for costly trade hypothesis
and consumer facing workforce, permitting the firm to spend in improved advertising and client
knowledge on its own e-commerce site.
Potential for rapid growth- In current era people are highly prefer to online shopping for
cause of working and saving their time (Blaschke, 2018). COVID19 is another issue due to
which online shopping is highly preferred by individual. This all help in making development in
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online selling aspect of companies. Selling on the internet refers conventional restraints to trade
development. With an effective digital promotion policy and a preparation scale up order
satisfaction schemes, the firm can react and increase rising trade.
Widen the market- It is one of the main and key benefit of online selling is that by
offering their commodities and facilities through online mode, organisation and make expansion
in their business (Starkey, 2020). They may find out a immense command for their goods in
diverse nations which they can react to by embattled advertising, providing their website in a
dissimilar verbal communication or maybe associating with an abroad organisation.
Disadvantages of online retail
Website costs- In making a website, preparation, conniving, producing, hosting,
protecting and managing a expert e-commerce site, are perform some activities so it is not cheap
especially when the a business venture expect large and growing sales volumes.
Infrastructure costs- Even if the firm is not paying the charge of consumer facing
assertions, it will requirement to think out the expenditure of corporeal gap for command
fulfilment, warehousing commodities, trade with proceeds and recruitment for these kind of
activities.
Legal issues- It is one of the main negative factor that highly affect online selling and
retailing. There are several kind of changes are occurred in government policies and regulations
day by day that also affect the business of e-commerce organisations in unfavourable manner.
Customer trust- It can be one of the main drawback of online retailing. It can be hard to set
up a confidential brand name, particularly without corporeal commerce with a follow evidence
and face to face contact among consumer and trading staff. The firm require including the cost or
incorporating an effective consumer service scheme as fraction of their online contribution.
Advantages of offline retailing
Easily get attention of local customer- It is one the key benefit of offline selling of
products and services. In this internet shopping time, there are some people believe in offline
shopping due to see the physical presence and tangibility of goods (Walker, Bowkett and
Duchaine, 2018). One of the main advantages of offline business is that they have a large local
customer base and easily attract people regarding their commodities without making more extra
efforts in term of making high level of advertisement.
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Get direct payment- It another positive thing that favourably influence offline business.
In this kind of business, the venture gets direct payment without making any kind of third party
involvement in comparison to online business. As well as they will not share their profit with
others. For example, if a company selling its products through Amazon, the also share a small
part of their profit with it. But in offline business there is not any kind of things and the whole
profit of the company.
Less wastage of commodities- In offline business customer comes to store to buy
commodities and there is not any kind of return policy like online business. So the offline
business enterprises doe not panelised to exchange products and return it (Sousa and Wilks,
2018). Cause of which there is less wastage of goods in compare to online as they provide 15
days return policy and sometimes people return other similar defected product etc.
Disadvantages of offline retailing
Consume more cost- Offline business are cost consuming business to establish a
company and store, there is requirement of more cost for various things like purchasing system,
infrastructure and many more which consumer more fund. Along with this, the firm also pay to
people, salesman, employees or workers who are performing their duties.
Less customer range- In offline business, company does not a large customer base as they
cannot offer their commodities and services at global and not able to fulfilling the need of
international customers. They have their physical presence on their incorporating place and only
attract local people of capable to satisfy their needs. They do not require an effective promotion
so they are not known by range of people.
Ineffective customer support- Offline business also not have an effective support of
consumers as they do not use any kind of promotional tool to provide information about their
products and services so that people are aware with their commodities and facilities (Becker,
2018). Along with this, they are not provide any kind of customer services in term of providing
information of customers questions and offering them a 24/7 hours service.
Describe the tools which accessible to keep the passwords and manage them effectively
In current time it is most important for e-commerce business to use security tools to keep
passwords and administrate them effectively. It is important to have a good password for one
very simple reason; it averts unauthorised access to the organisation devise and online accounts.
If their password is easy to crack, a cybercriminal may be capable to get access to firm’s social
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media, email, bank and many other private accounts which could have a destroying influence on
the business venture. The significance of having robust passwords is specially pronounced for
small businesses. Not only do business owners require assuring their mission critical information
is protected in reference to reduce organisation downtime, they also require to be doing
everything they can guard their customers’ personal data which may be accumulated on the
establishment’s system. So having a strong password devises it less likely for a cybercriminal to
acquire their login official documents.
If the e-commerce business enterprise has a single computer, no group to administrate and
a few passwords to administrate, managing an excel sheet or noting down passwords in a diary
or tacky notes can work (Saykili, 2019). But, if the venture has a unit working on diverse
softwares, administrating diverse email accounts and banking accounts. There are diverse
accounts and applications they log in to every day. The password for every account is not at all
practical. So individual either use the same password for all the accounts or incorporate a very
easier password that can be easily identified by the hackers. Now these days’ organisations have
several different passwords for their net banking accounts, online wallets, accounting software
etc. which if hacked, can be a substantial financial & information loss. It has become important
to secure these passwords and at that time, should be easily available when needed. Specifically,
password management is needed for amassing passwords steadily and expediently contacting
these passwords when needed.
There are different kinds of tools and techniques that are used by e-commerce business
ventures to prevent their business form password leaks, brute force attacks, hacking and many
more. These tools are used for E-commerce ventures for safety trying, so that the firm can simply
fight regarding hackers and protect their consumer’s private and fiscal information such as credit
or debit card, emails, contact numbers and other kind of data simply by executing these e-
commerce security tools. The description of some tools is defined as under that are used by
internet business establishments:
Trustwave- It is an effective safety instrument with a combined threshold that offer the
firm an incorporated observation of their resource and also permits them to organise self facility
or inhibited safety tests, as it contacts conventional information. It grows complete presentations
on the firm danger contact, manages and efficient safety program that considers amalgamation of
avoidance, effective defence and information evidence (Pinto, Fernandez-Pascual and Sales,
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2018). Along with this, it also liberty to firm so that it can expend more time on the
determination devising and fewer time on the repairmen of safety trying.
ProtonMail- It is an email app that focuses mainly in security and privacy. It has a
incredible characteristic of end to end encryption that safe the venture information which has
been previously encrypted when it appears at ProtonMail servers. Moreover, the enterprise can
convey and obtain mail from diverse consumers as just after sorting into a ProtonMail account
individual requires two passwords (Soliman, Taha and El Sayad, 2019). One password will be
required to login the app and another is basically used to decrypt information on company
device, because this app never has contact to the decrypted content or the decryption exceed.
From the defined information about two security tools, it can be justified that ProtonMail
is an effective tool which can be used the online business venture to secure their information as
within it, there are two password used to protect information. This will help in offering high
security to information of the venture.
Explain the Track and Trace Apps that have planned and developed by government for different
mobile platforms
As the COVID19 pandemic ranges, technologies everywhere have been rushing to design
apps, services and systems for contact tracing, finding out ad notifying all those who come in
contact with a carrier. There are several kinds of mobile applications tools are used by national
authorities of diverse nation in this pandemic to track and trace the information about COVID
patients so that government can easily aware with the areas and people who are affected with this
crisis. A mobile contact tracing app can track whom each user has been proximity to and can
then alert all influenced users when one of them confirms positive for infection. Some contact
tracing applications can also warm users when a contaminated individual is nearby, avoiding
possible virus or even track whether an affected person is following social distancing guidelines.
The issue is that to be effective apps require being nearly omnipresent. They are characterised by
immense network influences, meaning that their value to any individual based on how many
other persons downloaded the application and utilise it permanently (Wieringa, 2019). If only a
small proportion of individual a user comes in contact with are utilising the tracing tool, the app
is valueless or even harmful. The tool’s suggestions will be greatly imprecise and could even
instil a false intellect of security.
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In this COVID 19 pandemic, Smartphone apps are in concert an immense function in the
response to this crisis. These applications are being utilised to pursue contaminated individual,
concern self quarantine procedures, offer newest announcement to the individuals and
effortlessness the encumber on healthcare employees. All through the globe, from South Korea
to Poland, the applications have been downloaded through millions of individual. European
Union is scheduling to roll out its own app and has issues directions for the equivalent. Apple
and Google, the two Silicon Valley techs colossal that have contacted dispenses for the
expansion of an application that will help healthcare companies. Machinery has appeared to the
save in detecting those prejudiced, finding out hotspots and reaching actual period information
(Liu and Burns, 2018). Whereas there is a problem of information security and confidentiality at
chance, most of the app developers are now annoying to put mechanism in place to prevent
people privacy. The description of apps and mobile tools and techniques that are used by the
national authorities of diverse nation to track and trace the information of COVID 19. Some of
them are explained as under:
TraceTogather- It is a famous Smartphone app that can be downloaded by an individual
with a Singapore mobile number and Bluetooth-facilitated Smartphone. It is a phone tracing tool
that utilised Bluetooth to track influenced individual and give notice those who were in secure
immediacy to them at the time of the previous 15 days. The technique does not gather
information about GPS locality or WiFi or mobile system. When there are two people using the
application are close to each other, both mobile phones will utilise Bluetooth to swap over a
provisional ID. This ID is created by encrypting the consumer ID with a personal explanation
supposed by the Ministry of Health. It can also by decrypt by Ministry of Health and does not
disclose the individual’s individuality or the other individual’s uniqueness. This respective
application has been formulated and designed by the Government Technology Agency in
teamwork with Ministry of Health. It has happen to example for several other contact tracing
applications in other part of the globe.
NHS Smartphone App- It is another application and mobile tool which is used by
government and people for tracing and tracking information about COVID. It is a contact tracing
app, recently being formulated and designed by the National Health Service (NHS), which is the
openly financed national healthcare organization of England. The App is being created at NHSX,
the creation entity of NHS organisation, and would be revolved out anytime quickly (Tong,
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2018). British heath secretary Matt Hannock has advised the community to download this
application and mobile tool once it is accessible. The app would manage a tab on individual’s
actions and inform those who arrive in secure get in touch with with those people who have been
contaminated. Professionals recommend that by determining the prototypes of bug extend and
hotspots, the application would also assist in calm down lockdown. It would classify particulars
supported to demography, household frameworks and mobility prototypes and supported to this;
high figure of individual would be permitted to progress generously.
Basis TraceTogather NHS Smartphone App
Feature The tool is simple and easy to
use. It use Bluetooth signals to
determine if the person is near
about Trace Together user
(Urbach and Röglinger, 2019).
If the individual use this app
to report that person is
experiencing corona virus
symptoms the all the mobile
phones that have been nearby
will get an alert from the app.
Application The main purpose of this app
is to find out the information
about the people who are
infected with Corona Virus.
The function of this mobile
application is to offering a
facility to people so that they
can do their own self
assessment test of corona at
home.
Sustainability This app is sustainable as it
offers information about the
nearby infected people of
corona virus.
It is sustainable because it
provides an option to people
to make their own check up
and experience corona virus
symptoms without going
healthcare organisation.
These tools and mobile applications are valuable for community as they make their
contribution in the safety and protection of people. As by using these tools individual can make
their own self assessment test of corona virus without going to any healthcare institution. They
also aware user about COVID influenced person nearby them by sending an alert to them. Cause
of which they make an effective contribution in welfare and wellbeing of society (Gambarato
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and Alzamora, 2018). These tools also provide some guidelines to people that how they can take
preventions and protection to save themselves from this kind of infection and impact of this
virus.
CONCLUSION
This has been summarised from the defined information that in this technical world there are
several digital and professional skills and abilities are required to people so that they can also
survive in this world. In this tech-friendly atmosphere, organisations and people are also
technology loving and also make high use in their life. In term of business, companies get several
benefits through online selling of product like easy access to market and reduced over heads etc.
Along with this, there are such demerits of it like legal issue and customer trust. Offline business
also has their own benefits like less waste of goods, direct payment and they also suffer some
drawbacks like ineffective customer support, more cost investment etc. For maintaining the
security of passwords and account details, organisations also use security and protection tools to
safe their business. In this COVID 19 pandemic, the government also use some mobile
application like NHS Smartphone app and Trace Together etc.
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