Impact of Digital Technology on Business Activity: A Case Study of Marks and Spencer

Impact of digital technology on business activity
Marks and Spencer

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 2
PROBLEM STATEMENT.................................................................................................................. 3
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................. 3
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN......................................................................................................3
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION..........................................................................................................6
SECONDARY RESEARCH............................................................................................................. 9
PRIMARY RESEARCH................................................................................................................ 10
QUESTIONNAIRE...................................................................................................................... 11
PRIMARY RESEARCH ANALYSIS................................................................................................23
SECONDARY RESEARCH ANALYSIS...........................................................................................23
COMMUNICATING THE RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................24
PERFORMANCE REVIEW.............................................................................................................. 25
PROJECT LOG BOOK................................................................................................................. 27
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 30
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................31
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Figure 1: Customer of Marks and Spencer?.................................................................................16
Figure 2: Reason for decreased sales...........................................................................................17
Figure 3: Customers dissatisfaction.............................................................................................18
Figure 4: Sales Enhancement.......................................................................................................19
Figure 5: Major Impact................................................................................................................ 20
Figure 6: Website Effectiveness...................................................................................................21
Figure 7: Attractive Feature......................................................................................................... 22
Figure 8: Satisfaction Level.......................................................................................................... 23
Figure 9: Overall Impact...............................................................................................................24
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Table 1- PROJECT BUDGET.............................................................................................................6
Table 2- WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE....................................................................................8
Table 3- GANTT CHART................................................................................................................ 10
Table 4- Project Logbook............................................................................................................. 29
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INTRODUCTION
Technology is getting enhanced and is continuously changing the business processes of the
organizations present around the world. The organizations present in the UK are largely
impacted by the digital technology and its advancements. Interactive websites a form of a
digital technology is making the business processes simpler as they play an important role in
the marketing of the organizations. A strategic project management plan needs to be made by
the organizations for the attainment of high profits and sustainability in the business.
Websites play an important role in attracting a large number of customers as it the face of the
company products and services and what all the company deals with. The impact of the
communication technology that includes the website has been evaluated in this report and the
organization that has been taken in this assignment to deeply analyze the influence is Marks
and Spencer. A project management plan will be made in this report that will involve the
various factors like the cost, quality, resources, time etc. so as to make this project a successful
one.
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PROBLEM STATEMENT
It has been noticed that the sales of the Marks and Spencer has been falling from some time
and the customers of the company are using the social media platforms to express their
dissatisfaction regarding lack of choices and their feelings that the company is out of their
touch. So, the CEO of the organization has decided to bring back the company into the 21st
century by the designing of an interactive website for the engagement of customers (Otero, wt
al. 2014).
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the Marks and Spencer is to reach to its customers, to improve their satisfaction
level and their trust in the brand by engaging them through an interactive website and to
respond to the customers in better ways to improve the sales of the organization. There are
various objectives of the project which are stated as below-
 To evaluate the reasons for dissatisfaction of the customers
 To analyze the requirements and needs of customers
 To evaluate the increased sales of the Marks and Spencer by the utilization of
interactive website in the business (Rodriguez, et al. 2016)
 To evaluate the impact of the website on the marketing of the Marks and Spencer
 To evaluate the benefits of the interactive website
 To analyze the satisfaction level of customers by the utilization of interactive website of
Marks and Spencer
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
The planning, monitoring, controlling and the termination of the project is known as the project
management with the help of which the aims and objectives of the project can be attained. The
project management plan of the project includes the following factors-
PROJECT SCOPE
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The included scope of the project includes conducting a primary and secondary research that
will further help in the evaluation of the impacts of the communication technology and the
interactive website in the marketing of Marks and Spencer. While many other factors apart
from this will not be a part of this project.
KEY DELIVERABLES
The outcome of the project is the enhanced sales and customer satisfaction of the Marks and
Spencer by the utilization of communication technology in the marketing of the company.
PROJECT LIMITATIONS
One of the biggest limitations of this project is the time duration that only 6 weeks to carry out
this research which has limited the research areas and the number of customers who will be
involved in the questionnaire so the analyzed outcomes will also be limited. The analysis of the
data is limited to the pie charts, MS-Word and MS –Excel (Turner, 2014).
PROJECT BUDGET
Table 1- PROJECT BUDGET
ITEMS BUDGETED COST ACTUAL COST
PEN AND OTHER
REQUIRED ACCESSORIES
£15 £13
XEROX OF
QUESTIONNAIRE
£ 55 £ 50
REFRESHMENT COSTS £45 £40
COST OF THE
ADMINISTRATION
£30 £28
WAGES £350 £322
RESPONDENTS VOUCHERS £220 £ 240
TOTAL EXPENSES £715 £693
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SUCCESS CRITERIA
The project will be considered successful if the following criteria’s of the project are satisfied-
Time
The project must be completed successfully within the stipulated time i.e., 6 weeks
Cost
The estimated cost of the project is £715 so that the project cost should not be exceeded than
this (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016).
Quality
The quality of the project must be maintained throughout and it should not drop down below
the set standards.
PROJECT ASSUMPTIONS
It has been assumed that the customers of the M&S are using the interactive website and it so
it will be useful to attract them through the social media platforms. It is also assumed that the
responses of the questionnaire will be trustable.
PROJECT STRATEGY
In carrying out this research following strategy is followed-
 I will continuously coordinate with my project supervisor to avoid any kind of mistakes
 I have decided the project aims and objectives under the guidance of a supervisor
 The primary and secondary research will be carried out and analyzed (Harrison and
Lock, 2017)
 The research outcomes will be communicated to the desired audience
 My learning of the project will be reflected
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