Introduction to Computer Skills: Microsoft Office and Technological Advancements for Business

This report on Introduction to Computer Skills evaluates the monthly sales trends of X Fashion and the profit or loss it earned from each month. It also discusses the merits of Microsoft Office to business productivity and identifies three technological advancements for business, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, and contactless shopping. Course code: ICSK3005

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SKILLS
Assignment Title: Introduction to Computer Skills
Module Code: ICSK3005
Student Name:
Student Number:
Submission Date:

1INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SKILLS
Table of Contents
Task 1:.............................................................................................................................................2
Task 2:.............................................................................................................................................2
1.0 Introduction:..........................................................................................................................2
2.0 Presentation and explanation of business data:.....................................................................2
3.0 The benefits of Microsoft Office to business productivity:...................................................5
3.1 Microsoft Word:................................................................................................................5
3.2 Microsoft Excel:................................................................................................................5
3.3 Microsoft PowerPoint:.......................................................................................................6
4.0 Technological advancements for business:...........................................................................6
4.1 Technology advancement 1: Artificial intelligence...........................................................7
4.2 Technology advancement 2: Blockchain...........................................................................7
4.3 Technology advancement 3: Contactless shopping...........................................................8
5.0 Conclusion:............................................................................................................................8
6.0 Reference List:...........................................................................................................................9

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Task 1:
Refer to Excel spreadsheet
Task 2:
1.0 Introduction:
The current report aims to assess the advantages of implementing technology for
enhancing business management as well as business productivity. There has been revolution in
business models and concepts due to the initiation of technology. This is because with the help of
technology, it is possible to gain better and new approaches of proceeding ahead with the
business activities (Westerman, Bonnet and McAfee 2014). Therefore, the report would evaluate
the monthly sales trends of X Fashion and the profit or loss it earned from each month.
Moreover, discussion would be made regarding the merits of Microsoft Office to business
productivity. Furthermore, it is argued that technologies have made rapid progress in the global
business sectors. Hence, three technological advancements would be identified and discussed in
this report and the ways through which they could help the business organisations.
2.0 Presentation and explanation of business data:
The current monthly figures of sales for X Fashion have been demonstrated in tabular as
diagrammatic view as follows:
Normal view:

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Formula view:

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Figure 1: Monthly earnings of X Fashion for the year 2017
(Source: As created by author)
In accordance with the above figure, it could be stated that Fashion X has been incurring
loss in half of the months in the year; however, it has earned profit in the remaining half of the
months in the same year. This generally implies that the organisation is in a no profit no loss
situation. However, the interesting stuff that could be observed from the profit or loss trend of X
Fashion is that the amount of profit earned in each month is way too higher than the loss incurred
in each month. In this context, Grant (2016) remarked every business organisation intends to
offset the monthly loss incurred by making profits in other months through generation of
additional sales volume. Therefore, from the perspective of X Fashion, it could be said that the
organisation has generated sufficient amount of profit in the overall year adequate enough to
offset the monthly loss.

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3.0 The benefits of Microsoft Office to business productivity:
Microsoft Office is a group of desktop productivity applications, which is developed
particularly to be utilised for business or office use. This is a proprietary Microsoft Office
product, which was established in 1990. The program is available in 35 various languages and
Windows, Linux and Mac variants support the program (Vermaat 2015). Microsoft Office
mainly consists of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint and their benefits
to office productivity are explained briefly as follows:
3.1 Microsoft Word:
With the help of Microsoft Word, any business organisation could develop all kinds of
financial documents. The template function present in the program could be used for
downloading letterhead sample, joining letter, letterhead sample, receipts, joining letter and
different kinds of management-related work. It would be possible for the organisation to send e-
mails by using the function of mail merge enabling to send a document to numerous people with
addresses and names (Vermaat 2015). The utilisation of Microsoft Word in official tasks is
extremely east as well as productive in contrast to other word processing software. After the
installation and working procedure on Microsoft Word, the organisation does not need to find
anything on the search engine. This is because with the help of appropriate knowledge, it
becomes possible for the users of the business to search within Microsoft Word when it is linked
with the internet and therefore, it helps in enhancing the overall business productivity (Visnjic,
Wiengarten and Neely 2016).
3.2 Microsoft Excel:
Microsoft Excel enables the business organisations in keeping full track of the products
sold. With such assistance, it becomes easy for the business owners to formulate sales plans in

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the market. By maintaining overall product tracking, the business owners could gain an effective
insight about their progress made in a particular timeframe and thus, the lower and higher sales
trends could be identified effectively (Selene Xia and Gong 2014). Moreover, with the help of
Microsoft Excel, it is possible to make accurate return on investment effectively. The return on
investment provides the business owners a clear depiction of the capital amount invested in the
businesses and the overall profits earned. In addition, the program enables the business
organisations to store contact information for their customers. The primary advantage of storing
data into Microsoft Excel is that although the sheets are updated or the sheets are added with new
fields, it does not influence the content present in other spreadsheet cells (Rubin and Abrams
2015).
3.3 Microsoft PowerPoint:
The business executives use Microsoft PowerPoint as a strategy for boosting sales
revenue (Carpenter and Agrawal 2018). This is because presenting graphics and charts with the
help of Microsoft PowerPoint could make it more interactive for the clients. Moreover, in-house
presentations are developed with the help of this program, as it is way too cheaper than
generating report and chart copies for the business staffs. As a result, time as well as money of
the business organisations is saved (Richardson 2015).
4.0 Technological advancements for business:
In the existing global competitive environment, a business process would not be efficient
in the absence of current information technology. All kinds of business organisations need to
compete with their rivals in order to capture majority of the market as well as for innovation of
new products and services (Loebbecke and Picot 2015). Almost all business organisations are
depending on computers in order to automate their conventional processes. The computer

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technologies are used not only in marketing and financial activities; they are used in human
resource department, medical sector and system of inventory control management. The three
major technological advancements inherent in the retail sector constitute of the following:
4.1 Technology advancement 1: Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence possesses the capability of converting diverse and big data sets into
enriched information, which could enable in enhancing cost, speed and flexibility throughout the
value chain. In retail sector, this technology enables the brands and retailers with predictive
estimation, merchandising and capacity planning. In the research work of Carayannis, Sindakis
and Walter (2015), it has been found that with the help of artificial intelligence, forecasting
errors could be minimised by 50%, while there is possibility of inventory minimisation between
20% and 50%. Along with this, artificial intelligence helps in developing effective browsing
experience and enhancing customer satisfaction via personalisation. For instance, online retailers
such as Amazon, Alibababa and Zealand utilise enhancements of artificial intelligence for
generating precise product search outcomes along with displaying virtual storefronts to tailor
individual shoppers depending on their unique features and preferences. Thus, it becomes
possible for the retailers to leverage data for providing greater effective and seamless experience
for the customers in order to increase repeat purchases, conversions and loyalty.
4.2 Technology advancement 2: Blockchain
Blockchain is a distributed and decentralised digital record offering immense
opportunities to handle authenticity and safety of the products along with ethical standards. One
of the uses of this technology in fashion is to check the originality of a garment. The microchips
using blockchain could tell the customers with full certainty that whether it was made or stolen
and the general history of the product (Cavusgil et al. 2014). Such information could be

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accumulated with the help of smart phone and thus, there are lower chances of counterfeiting and
theft. In addition, the shoppers could accumulate full information of the garment composition,
place from where the fabric is obtained and the chemicals used.
4.3 Technology advancement 3: Contactless shopping
WeChat is a mobile messaging service, which helps the automated convenience stores in
devoting no manpower on checkouts, cash and salespersons. The QR codes could be scanned by
the customers for entering the store and choosing products and then they could use WeChat
wallets for making payments. The shelves have sensors for detecting item removal. After the
removal of an item, it is associated with the unique ID of a shopper in the smart phone
application so that theft could be prevented (Dosi and Nelson 2016).
5.0 Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it is evident that X Fashion has made considerable amount of
profit in the year 2017, even though it has incurred losses in six months of the year. This is
because the amounts of losses incurred are significantly lower in contrast to the amounts of
profits earned in the remaining half of the year. Moreover, with the widespread popularity of
Microsoft Office, it has become easier for the business organisations to use the program for
enhancing business productivity. The three main programs of Microsoft Office used include
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint to carry out the daily business
operations. In addition, technology has made considerable progress in the current era, due to
which the business organisations are needed to adopt the same for maintaining their
sustainability. In relation to the retail industry, the three technological advancements driving the
sector include artificial intelligence, blockchain and contactless shopping for maintaining
effective relationships with the customers.

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6.0 Reference List:
Carayannis, E.G., Sindakis, S. and Walter, C., 2015. Business model innovation as lever of
organizational sustainability. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 40(1), pp.85-104.
Carpenter, D.A. and Agrawal, V.K., 2018. Infusing information technology into the core
Business curriculum: A change management project. The Journal of Business Inquiry, 7(1), pp.3-
20.
Cavusgil, S.T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J.R., Rammal, H.G. and Rose, E.L.,
2014. International business. Pearson Australia.
Dosi, G. and Nelson, R.R., 2016. Technological paradigms and technological trajectories. In The
Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management (pp. 1-12). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Loebbecke, C. and Picot, A., 2015. Reflections on societal and business model transformation
arising from digitization and big data analytics: A research agenda. The Journal of Strategic
Information Systems, 24(3), pp.149-157.
Richardson, T., 2015. Microsoft PowerPoint 2013/365: Pocket Primer. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Rubin, S.J. and Abrams, B., 2015. Teaching fundamental skills in Microsoft Excel to first-year
students in quantitative analysis. Journal of Chemical Education, 92(11), pp.1840-1845.
Selene Xia, B. and Gong, P., 2014. Review of business intelligence through data
analysis. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 21(2), pp.300-311.
Vermaat, M.E., 2015. Enhanced Microsoft Office 2013: Introductory. Cengage Learning.

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Visnjic, I., Wiengarten, F. and Neely, A., 2016. Only the brave: Product innovation, service
business model innovation, and their impact on performance. Journal of Product Innovation
Management, 33(1), pp.36-52.
Westerman, G., Bonnet, D. and McAfee, A., 2014. Leading digital: Turning technology into
business transformation. Harvard Business Press.