Integrated Professional Skills in the Digital Age - Assignment

Integrated Professional
Skills in the Digital Age

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
The positive and negative use of internet to the business and society...................................1
Threats faced by organisation and society along with measure to adopt while using internet4
Compare and contrast two different unified communication providers.................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
Books & Journals.................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Internet is world wide phenomenon which helps in easy communication and transferring of
information from one place to another. It is one of the source which contain wider area of
knowledge due to which any of the quarries can be resolved in quick succession. Digital age is
also understandable as information age as it is helpful in transferring any of the data from one
place to another in short period of time. If person wants to achieve better result they are
required to use personal skills with different technologies. In context of the file, topics like
positive as well as negative impact of internet will be explained including threats which can
create various types of issues. Security and privacy measures are also included in this project. At
last this report also contain a comparison of features and applications of communications
providers.
MAIN BODY
The positive and negative use of internet to the business and society
Internet is defined as the global connection of networks which is basically used in order
to transmit the information or data from one source to another with the help of various media. It
is also consider to be a network of global exchange which includes public, private, academic,
government and business network which get connected through the wireless as well as fiber-
optic technologies(Baker and et. al., 2016). As per Vangie Beal, 2019, internet is a global
network which connect millions of computer over a single network. It has been found that more
than 190 countries are linked over the internet in order to make exchange of data, opinion and
news. This support a person to send information or data with the help of their computer network
to another person who is connected over the same network from any part of world. It provide
number of facilities like e-mail, web-enables video conferencing, online games, movies, chatting,
online shopping etc. Internet has improved the life and living standard of people by reducing the
barrier of getting access to information and reducing the cross border barriers. This in turn
contributed toward improving the relations among countries, economical and social development
of people. But despite of all these benefits there are some positive as well as negative use of
internet in term of business and society that can be better understood using following point,
(https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/Internet.html)
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Use of internet in business:-
Internet has also worked well in increasing the business practices throughout the world
by reducing and simplifying the process as well as time taken by a business transaction to get
performed among two countries. This is because internet has provided a platform of performing
business transactions online which is also termed as e-commerce. Here the businesses can
transfer information to their partners or other authorities, keep the confidential information
protected, sell the products online and perform financial transaction without moving to another
place as these all activities now remains at a click distance in digital world. Following are the
positive as well as negative use of internet:
Positive use of internet
Businesses mainly use internet for enhancing the quality of performance and providing
more customised as well as quick services top the customer. The positive used of internet
regarding business are mentioned below:
 With the help of internet some international organisations like Tesco, Amazon, Asda etc.
can earn ample of profit by approaching larger number of customers throughout the
world. In addition to this it also support in increasing the brand awareness among the
customer which in contribute toward enhancing the market value and profitability of that
organisation.
 According to Louise Balle, 2019, most of the businesses uses internet in order to gather
information regarding the competition present in market along with the reactions of
customer toward them with the help of several; social media sites. This in turn support
them in formulating effective strategies to deal with the competition present in market.
Negative use of internet
Along with the benefit it offers to a business there are certain negative use or side of a
internet which are mentioned below:
 The negative side of business internet by businesses is that it raise the competition within
market due to its feature of quick accessibility to consumers as a result of which new
companies won't able to enter into the world of internet easily. This is because there are
number of big players like ASDA, Amazon, Flipkart are already known to customer and
maintain monopoly in mind of consumers (Becker, 2018).
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 As per …, The major drawback of internet to business is that it has limited the face to
face contact with customers. This in turn mitigate the ability of a business to establish a
strong personal rapport with the core consumers which increases the quicker brand switch
among customers.
Use of internet to society:-
Internet revolution brings up several opportunities for the development and growth of the
society as it help in connecting the people by reducing the barriers of cross-border. But
technology works as two sides of coin i.e. use of internet have both positive as well as negative
influence over the society which are mentioned below:
Positive use of internet
 Internet stands for endless supply of information and knowledge which allows individual
to get all the answer to their questions or queries. Hence, the use of internet supported in
improving the education practices as well as knowledge of people within the society
which is consider to be a key to better life. As it provide a peer to peer service where two
people can interact with one another that resides in two different places with the help of
internet.
 The major benefit of internet to society is that it supported in simplifying and reducing
the time of day to day activities performed. This includes 24*7 access to services like
shopping, online banking etc. where customer can avail services just by a single click
while sitting at home (Blaschke, 2018).
Negative use of internet
 The major drawback of internet to society is that with getting ease of accessibility to
information, criminal activities also get increased in term of hacking, misuse of
confidential information, sharing picture or other videos to criticise or torture people and
many more which directly harm the societal people.
 Another drawback is using internet to society is that with the anticipation of internet
people forget the difference between real and virtual world. This increase the health
issues like depression, obesity and many other problems like isolation, anxiety, anger etc.
which continuously affecting the life of people.
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Threats faced by organisation and society along with measure to adopt while using internet
In today's digital world, Internet has become a major part of life whether it is for an
individual or the company in order to perform day to day operations. This is because it help in
minimizing the time taken by each task and also contribute toward reducing the complexity of
work. But despite of all these benefit there are certain threats that are connected with the internet
access which affect the practices performed by the people or business in negative manner. The
threats faced by society as well as organisation with the use of internet are mentioned below:
 Hacking:- It is basically an action taken by someone in order to get unauthorised access
over a computer or its network. This is the most common threat that majority of people as
well as businesses face while using internet. It become possible due to easy availability of
information over internet make it easier for the people even if they belongs to non-
technical people to undertake malicious activities. For instance, if a consumer of Amazon
unintentionally share their credentials with some another person then that individual can
access the confidential information of that client and on other side also affect the brand
image of company if anything miss-happens(Farisi, 2016).
 Spam:- It is consider to be the most common method which is basically used by the
frauds in order to send information to someone or gathering it from unsuspected people.
These spams are basically circulated through emails in bulk which involves hidden virus
and worms that are circulated for either hacking or crashing the network of computer.
This threat is basically found by majority of people as well as businesses while they use
email for exchanging information. But when they came in contact with spam email it
either may hack the confidential information or affect the network of companies that
directly influence its processes and operations.
 Botnet:- It is defined as the logical collection of several devices that are connected with
the internet such as laptop, computer, mobile phones whose security are breached and
then control is seized by fraud or third party. This is most common technique which is
used by fraudulent to either stealing data, spreading spam or for attacking over the
network used by particular association. These are mainly used by the terrorist or another
party for performing illegal practices without the consent of user. For instance,
performing a botnet attack over the network of a bank let that person to hack the basic
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information and stole the fund from bank. Such activities have negative influence on both
i.e. society as well as organisation (Goldie, 2016).
Measures of security and privacy to consider while using internet
Internet has contributed up to a great extend in improving the business transactions as
well as social practices by simplifying the day to day activities. This in turn also supported in
reducing the rate of error within particular work as now a days activities are basically performed
with the help of computer and internet i.e. consider to be the greater source of knowledge and
information. But despite of all these, with the ease of accessing and sharing information, internet
also give birth to cyber crime which increases several threat or issues to society as well as
business with their each access to internet. Hence, in order to deal with such issues and ensure
smooth as well as secure access to internet, following measures regarding security and privacy
must be taken into consideration,
 Firewalls:- It is a network security system which monitors and control the traffic of
accessors as per the pre determined security rules. The firewall basically establish a kind
of barrier between the trusted internet network or alien networks so that only the
authorised people will get access to particular network. Organisations mainly stores
confidential information regarding the customers as well as organisational practices
which required to be firewalled in order to ensure that the information may not get
hacked by the outsiders or competitors as it may directly influence the business
performance (Huda and Teh, 2018).
 Using strong password:- In order to have a secure internet access a individual as well as
organisation must try to keep the confidential information under security lock. In which
they must try to develop strong password so that the third party would not be able to
access or identify them quickly. Hence for making strong password individuals as well as
organisation must try to involve alpha-numeric along with string characters in order to
make it more strengthening.
 Antivirus:- The majority of issues found over internet is access to unauthorised website
that contain viruses and with the visit of accessors it directly get downloaded over their
system and start affecting it. This may have most sever consequences like loss of
important data which may leads to greater loss for the company or an individual as well.
Hence, to deal with this organisation as well as individuals within society must adopt
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antivirus software in their system which have the capability to scan and remove virus
from computer. It protect computer system from malware, phishing attack, viruses etc.
that are in case not detected on timely manner may affect whole network and its
connected devices (Huda and et. al., 2017).
These are the measures of security which must be taken into consideration by the
organisation as well as society while accessing internet as these all support in providing practices
from fraudulent practices like hacking, loss of data, viruses etc.
Compare and contrast two different unified communication providers
The communication service provider are the one that provide services regarding
transmission of information electronically. This term is basically used for the players of telecom
industry which provide services regarding telecom (wireless and landlines), satellite, cable,
internet and managed service businesses. Unified communication is defined as a service model
that provides or deliver different sort of telecom or communication software, services or
application over global network. In order to determine it effectively two unified communication
providers are being selected that are mentioned below:
EE (Everything Everywhere):- This is one of the well-known British mobile network
and internet service provider which is headquartered in UK. EE is considered to be one of the
largest services provider of mobile network or internet that maintains around 29.6 million
customers.
Vodafone:-
Comparison between the application and features
Basis Vodafone EE (Everything Everywhere)
Features  Vodafone make use of
different world wide
networking related
software in order to
ensure better
administration within
its practices. In
 The business of EE is
known for their
excellent mobile
networking services in
the UK economy as
this has combined all
the prospect related to
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addition to this it also
maintains an ability to
intelligently control
and direct the traffic.
 It also provide the
services of cloud
storage which support
in keeping information
save and secured for
longer duration.
 Vodafone also uses
stronger data
encryption which in
turn provide more
secure transmission of
information. In
addition to this it uses
firewall protection,
secure fibre and packet
filtering .
the medium of
exchange so that
maintenance of the
customer relation done
in the effective manner.
In this the business of
EE also render assorted
attributes such as
system of high volume,
call tracking etc.
 EE has given emphasis
on the protection of the
data related to its customhouse
and had also render security
through various anti virus
protection software and wire
walls software so that the
gather data can be secured.
Application The business of Vodafone has
focused more on the utilisation
of all the application in such a
manner so that the customers
can be delivered with better
quality of services regarding
the connectivity to assure that
the information transferred is
valuable for their progression.
Various application rendered
by the Vodafone are:
EE is the one which renders
the best solution to perform the
work and also provide us with
the new technology to furnish
the task. Assorted applications
provided by the EE are as
mentioned:
 Provides the customers
through the fast
networking services
that is 4G to its Users.
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 Unified communication
is refers to the system
of phone where the
integration of multiple
communication within
the business can be
done in the most
easiest way. The
business renders the
best interconnectedness
among various
services, people,
applications and
networks across the
world.
 Call conferencing and
collaboration
applications renders the
best way to
communicate beyond
the boundaries (Jaeger
and Bertot, 2016) .
 EE has beat its
competitor in the
market by providing
the customers with the
first 4G and 4g+
services which give
extreme level of speed
networking.
 It also renders the
services of calling and
networking without any
network in the phone
through the Wi-Fi
services.
Effective communication within the association will enable them in their easier flow of
the operation so that the growth and development can be achieved in the best possible manner.
Communicator within the business will provide with the pathway or channel through which the
transfer of the information to the parties can be done properly. A unified communication within
the business is best suitable approach as this will integrates different and multiple communicator
within the business through different web browser and sites(Huda and et. al., 2017) .
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As per the above mentioned organisation among both the association that is Vodafone
and EE , the company like Vodafone is rendering their customers with effective communication
facilities and better services. As the business is operating their operations across the globe so that
customers can interact throughout the globe. The business has also focused on the different
technology in order to resolve the issues of huge traffic over the network and also provide
unlimited access to the network without causing any error in between. Cloud computing and
conferring facilities which the Vodafone renders gives the user a facility of securing their
information at the same time it also allows them to minimise their cost of travelling and
transferring of the information to abroad or any other region. Conferring and collaboration has
also made easier for the customers to attain and conduct their important meeting through their
online networking facility and services. For this the business of Vodafone is best among all the
telecommunication service providers(Jacobs, Amuta and Jeon, 2017).
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report it can be inferred that the use of internet in today's era
plays a vital role within both that is organisation as well as the society. The facility of the
internet has made it easier for everyone to communicate their information in the most hard
hitting manner. The facility of internet has also better the education system and has integrated
various economies across the world. The use of internet also come with some negative effect that
is the problem of hacking, stealing of data viruses etc. use of various data protection software
and anti virus will also help the business in reducing their threats of security of data. So each
business must focus on the implementation of the unified communication in their business.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Baker, C. and et. al., 2016. Influencing change: Preparing the next generation of clinicians to
practice in the digital age. Healthcare Quarterly 18(4). pp.5-7.
Becker, B. W., 2018. Information literacy in the digital age: Myths and principles of digital
literacy. School of Information Student Research Journal. 7(2). p.2.
Blaschke, L. M., 2018. Self-determined learning (heutagogy) and digital media creating
integrated educational environments for developing lifelong learning skills. In The
Digital Turn in Higher Education (pp. 129-140). Springer VS, Wiesbaden.
Farisi, M. I., 2016. Developing the 21st-Century Social Studies Skills through Technology
Integration. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. 17(1). pp.16-30.
Goldie, J. G. S., 2016. Connectivism: A knowledge learning theory for the digital age?. Medical
teacher. 38(10) pp.1064-1069.
Huda, M. and Teh, K. S. M., 2018. Empowering professional and ethical competence on
reflective teaching practice in digital era. In Mentorship Strategies in Teacher
Education (pp. 136-152). IGI Global.
Huda, M. and et. al., 2017. Empowering children with adaptive technology skills: Careful
engagement in the digital ınformation age. International Electronic Journal of
Elementary Education. 9(3). pp.693-708.
Huda, M. I. F. T. A. C. H. U. L. and et. al., 2017. From live interaction to virtual interaction:
addressing moral engagement in the digital era. Journal of Theoretical and Applied
Information Technology. 95(19). pp.4964-4972.
Jacobs, W., Amuta, A. O. and Jeon, K. C., 2017. Health information seeking in the digital age:
An analysis of health information seeking behavior among US adults. Cogent Social
Sciences. 3(1). p.1302785.
Jaeger, P. T. and Bertot, J. C., 2016. Government information librarians: New skills and training
for the digital age. In Government Information Management in the 21st Century (pp. 21-
34). Routledge.
Lecheler, S. and Kruikemeier, S., 2016. Re-evaluating journalistic routines in a digital age: A
review of research on the use of online sources. New media & society. 18(1). pp.156-
171.
Place, K. R., Smith, B. G. and Lee, H., 2016. Integrated Influence? Exploring public relations
power in integrated marketing communication. Public Relations Journal. 10(1). pp.1-
35.
Raju, J., 2017. Information professional or IT professional?: The knowledge and skills required
by academic librarians in the digital library environment. portal: Libraries and the
Academy. 17(4). pp.739-757.
Varlejs, J., 2017. Professional competencies for the digital age: What library schools are doing to
prepare special librarians. Education Libraries, 26(1), pp.16-18.
Walker, V., Bowkett, G. and Duchaine, I., 2018. All Companies Are Technology Companies:
Preparing Canadians with the Skills for a Digital Future. Canadian Public Policy.
44(S1). pp.S153-S158.
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Online
EE. 2019 [Online]. Available Through: <https://alertify.eu/top-10-telecom-companies-united-
kingdom-uk/>
Positive use of internet. 2019. [Online]. Available
Through:<(https://smallbusiness.chron.com/businesses-use-internet-752.html)>
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