Digital Skills and Research Methods: Doc

Digital Skills and
Research Methods

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Evaluation of effectiveness of use of modern technologies.............................................................1
Exploration of social media as a tool...............................................................................................4
Evidence of own professional online presence................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Digital skills can be defined as the knowledge and ability of an individual to gather
information from digital media. There are various types of modes that can be used by
organisations to gather knowledge and formulate different strategies for business with the help of
effective research. These are social media, applications, websites etc. All of them helps to
enhance visibility of business and promote items sold by enterprise (Bertrand and Hughes,
2017). The organisation which is selected for this project report is Bentley Motor Limited which
is manufacturing company of luxury cars. Its headquarter is in Crewe, England and it was
established in year 1919. In this report various topics are being covered which includes
evaluation of effectiveness of use of modern technologies and exploration of social media as a
tool. Apart from this evidence of own professional online presence is also been covered under
this project.
Evaluation of effectiveness of use of modern technologies
There are various types of modern technologies that can be used by business entities in
order to manage all the operations in effective manner. In order to accomplish organisational
goals it is very important to be aware of latest trends of market so that they can be used for
betterment of company. The technologies that are used Bentley at workplace are as follows:
Cloud storage: It is modern technique which is used to save data in a remote data base
rather than hard drive of computer of other local storage device. All information can be kept safe,
managed appropriately and backed up with the help of it. It is used by Bentley to keep the
designs of cars and other information safe in the system of organisation. There are various types
of benefits of using it, that are as follows:
 Security: The main benefit of cloud is that it is highly safe. Data stored on cloud cannot
be accessed by outsider party. The company that provide cloud servers also offer
automatic backup so that information can be used for long period.
 Cost saving: Another benefit of cloud storage is its cost efficiency. It is used by Bentley
to reduce its annual operating cost of internal systems where data is stored. It helps to
save cost because it does not require different resources for the purpose of storing
information.
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 Convenience: As it is highly safe and cost saving so it provides peace of mind to Bentley
which helps managers to make sure that their confidential information is secured. It also
reduced the threat of loosing information because it is being backed up in a specific
cloud.
 Synchronisation: Cloud provide a facility of synchronisation in which all the
information can be accessed by user from one system which is saved in different
locations (Blayone, Mykhailenko and Barber, 2018).
A comparison of two different cloud storage options is as follows:
Basis Citrix Share File Google cloud storage
Features It has drag and drop desktop feature. It has a feature in which it gets
attached with Gmail.
Storage File up to 10 GB can be uploaded in
Citrix Share File cloud.
Data up to 5 TB can be recorded in
google cloud storage.
Disadvantage It does not provide offline access to
information.
Observability is little difficult in
Google cloud storage (Comparison
of Citrix Share File and Google
cloud storage, 2019).
Web conferencing: It is a technique that helps to conduct online meetings, conferences,
trainings and presentations with the help of internet. It includes various types of online
collaborative services that includes seminars, webcasts and peer level meetings. It is used in
Bentley by top executives to communicate with their subordinates because it is not possible for
them to be present at all the showrooms where cars are sold. Web conferencing is an easy
medium of interaction and used by most of the corporate sector business entities to conduct
official meetings and conferences. There are various benefits of it that are as follows:
 Visual and verbal communication: It helps managers to conduct visual and verbal
communication rather then communication on telephonic call. They can easily get
detailed information of business projects with the help of it by seeing their progress with
their own eyes.
 Reduced barriers for interaction: As for top executives it is not possible to be available
at all the showrooms so they can interact with employees who are managing store to get
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detailed information of business. They can analyse actual performance of employees with
the help of it.
 Easy trainings to employees: All the big companies such as Bentley faces issues
regarding training because it create barriers for training programs because they have to
call experienced people from different location to provide training. This issue also results
in high cost of trainings. Web conferencing is a solution to this problematic situation in
which appropriate information is provided to new employees by skilled persons with the
help of it (Forrester and Sullivan, 2018).
There are various types of software are used by business entities for the purpose of web
conferencing. These are Uber Conference, Zoom video communication, Cisco Webex, Go to
meetings, Skype, ez Talks etc. A comparison of two of them is as follows:
Basis Uber Conference Skype
Feature With the help of Uber Conference
organisations can conduct group chat.
It has a feature of making group video
call.
Available
devices
It can be operated in windows,
android etc.
It can be operated in different
operating systems such as Iphone,
windows, Mac etc.
Drawback It does not have feature of video
recording (Comparison of Uber
conference and Skype, 2019).
Voice and video depends upon the
internet connectivity.
Tablets: These are electronic devices which is also a portable computer. It uses
touchscreen input and all of them are weight less. Some of the tablets also have folding key
board so that people can work effectively with the help of it. These are used by managers and
other executives of Bentley in order to complete their work where ever they are, whether they are
travelling or having a meal. These are very beneficial tool for the organisation as it facilitates the
operations. There are various types of benefits of Tablets that are described below:
 Low cost: Tablets are not expensive as laptops and it can be provided to all the
employees so that they can communicate with their top executives at work place. It is a
great tool which is used by Bentley to keep track record of workforce activities and
analyse that all the tasks are accomplishes successfully or not.
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 Improve security: Tablets can reduce the requirement of locally stored data. It helps
organisation to ignore hacking, information theft or any other intrusion attempts of
outsider parties. Such type of devices that are based upon modern technology can easily
be remotely wiped off, if they are lost (Green and Thorogood, 2018).
 Improve workforce mobility: Professional people have to travel a lot and they have to
compete their work while travelling. In order to work at that time tablets can help them to
access their mails and visit websites that are required by them to complete their work.
A comparison of Tablets of different companies is as follows:
Basis Microsoft Asus
Price Price of Microsoft's tablets is very high
so it only attracts upper class
customers.
Price of Asus tablets is low as
compared to Microsoft that attracts all
type of clients.
Strategy Premium pricing strategy is used by
Microsoft.
Penetration pricing is used by Asus.
Disadvantage Power consumption is very high I
tablets of Microsoft.
Some of the tablets such as Zenfone 2
of the company have weak
capabilities.
Exploration of social media as a tool
Now a days all the business entities are planning to market themselves online with the
help of social media as it can help to enhance their visibility which can result in increased
revenue and profits for future. It is beneficial for organisations like Bentley as it helps to attract
large number of customers of young age. In order to target young customers the company can
use social media as a tool of marketing. There are various types of social media sites such as
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter where organisation can promote it self in order to aware large
number of clients regarding cars that are manufactured by Bentley (McConville, 2017).
Following are the purposes for which social media is used by Bentley:
Marketing: Social media websites such as Facebook is used to for the purpose of
marketing as most of the customers analyse their ratings on online sites. In order to enhance
online visibility such type of medium is also used for the purpose of marketing. Another reason
for selecting this option for advertising is reaching to target segment and analysing their needs so
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that such products can be offered to them in order to fulfil their requirements. It can help to
enhance profitability and revenues.
Job applications: Social media sites such as LinkedIn is used by Bentley to post job
applications so that skilled candidates can apply for the job according to the skills required by the
company. Human resource department of organisations analyse all the applications and then
select best applicant for vacant job (Murawski and Bick, 2017).
Information gathering: Social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook are used by
large and multinational companies such as Bentley to gather information of clients. It helps
organisation to manufacture such items that customers are willing to buy. This step can result in
increased revenues, profitability and revenues of the company. Information regarding
competitors can also be gathered from social media sites. Companies such as Bentley hire
professional and skilled employees who conduct research for enterprise and then analyse market
needs, competitive rivalry, status of company and impact of other companies on organisational
activities. It is very important for large organisations to be active of social media and provide
updates to customers in order to retain them (Shelton, Archambault and Hale, 2017).
All the above described are the purposes for which Bentley uses social media. Now a
days it has become necessary to be visible on such sites and render timely information regarding
products of company in order to build their interest in new items and their features.
Evidence of own professional online presence
Bentley is using different online websites in order to increase its visibility. Following are
the evidences of online presence of the company:
Facebook:
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LinkedIn:
6

Twitter:
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All the above attached images are showing online presence of Bentley and also depicts
that company is promoting itself online in order to aware customers regarding its products that
are already launched or going to be launched in future. It helps to increase their interest in
products of organisation and guide to retain them for a long period in future (Veal, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that, digital skills are considered as
the ability of people and organisations to gather information from from digital media. Currently
various large organisations are using digital media for various purposes such as gathering
information, marketing and posting job application. Promotions on social media websites such as
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can result in increased visibility of business, large number of
customers, enhanced profitability etc. There are various types of modern technologies that are
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used by business entities in order to follow current market trends. These are Tablets, cloud
storage and web conferencing. All of them are mainly utilised for the purpose of successful
execution of business operations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bertrand, I. and Hughes, P., 2017. Media research methods: Audiences, institutions, texts.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Blayone, T. J., Mykhailenko, O. and Barber, W., 2018. Ready for digital learning? A mixed-
methods exploration of surveyed technology competencies and authentic performance
activity. Education and Information Technologies. 23(3). pp.1377-1402.
Forrester, M. A. and Sullivan, C. eds., 2018. Doing qualitative research in psychology: A
practical guide. SAGE Publications Limited.
Green, J. and Thorogood, N., 2018. Qualitative methods for health research. Sage.
McConville, M. ed., 2017. Research methods for law. Edinburgh University Press.
Murawski, M. and Bick, M., 2017. Digital competences of the workforce–a research topic?.
Business Process Management Journal. 23(3). pp.721-734.
Shelton, C. C., Archambault, L. M. and Hale, A. E., 2017. Bringing digital storytelling to the
elementary classroom: video production for preservice teachers. Journal of Digital
Learning in Teacher Education. 33(2). pp.58-68.
Veal, A. J., 2017. Research methods for leisure and tourism. Pearson UK.
Online
Comparison of Citrix Share File and Google cloud storage. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://comparisons.financesonline.com/sharefile-vs-google-drive>
Comparison of Uber conference and Skype. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://comparisons.financesonline.com/skype-vs-uberconference>
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