Marks & Spencer Business Operations Analysis

This assignment delves into the business practices of Marks & Spencer, examining their revenue patterns throughout the year, the impact of a 17% VAT, the company's utilization of Microsoft Office Suite, and its adoption of technological innovations such as in-store digital technology, a digital lab for tech development, and RFID tagging.

Running Head: INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SKILLS
Introduction to Computer Skills
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Normal view................................................................................................................................3
Formula view...............................................................................................................................4
Pie chart.......................................................................................................................................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
1.0 Introduction............................................................................................................................6
2.0 Presentation & Explanation of Business Data.......................................................................7
2.1 The financial position in normal view...............................................................................7
2.2 Formula view of the financial position..............................................................................8
3.0 The Benefits of Microsoft Office to Business Productivity..................................................9
3.1 Microsoft Word...............................................................................................................10
3.2 Microsoft Excel...............................................................................................................10
3.3 Microsoft Power Point.....................................................................................................10
4.0 Technological Advancement in Marks and Spencer...........................................................11
4.1 In Store Digital Technology............................................................................................11
4.2 Digital Lab.......................................................................................................................12
4.3 Radio Frequency Identification Technology...................................................................12
5.0 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................12
6.0 Reference List......................................................................................................................14

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Task 1
Normal view

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Formula view

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Pie chart
£129,480.00
£230,740.00
£232,400.00
£258,960.00
£194,220.00
£164,340.00
£185,090.00
£156,870.00
£162,680.00
£147,740.00
£219,950.00
£240,700.00
Revenue / Month after VAT
January February March April May June
July August September October November December

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Task 2
1.0 Introduction
Modern technology helps business a lot in achieving their productivity goals and design
business strategy accordingly. To pursue operation business has to face different challenges.
Technology especially Microsoft office helps to face such hurdles. The business organization
considered here is Marks & Spencer. The report shows application of different Microsoft office
tool in improving productive efficiency of the concerned business firms. Before taking any
decision, it is important to view the current financial status of the company. The financial
situation is analyzed using the given business scenario. Company undertakes technological
advancement to promote business ad explore it. Marks & Spencer has already implemented some
advanced technology. The report reviewed the existing technological advancement in Mark &
Spencer in terms of both software and hardware. The conclusion section finally summarizes the
report in brief with some concluding remark

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2.0 Presentation & Explanation of Business Data
2.1 The financial position in normal view

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2.2 Formula view of the financial position
The table above shows the revenue and profit of the company. To analyze the financial
position of the company data are considered from month of January to December for the year
2016. The part of the revenue that is left after the deduction is regarded as net profit or loss of the
company. The rate of value added tax that is deducted from the revenue is 17%. The highest
revenue is accounted in the month of April, the amount being £312,000. Consequently, this
month has proven to be most profitable for the company. After profit for three months February
to April, the company incurred losses in the six consecutive months from May to October. The
number of months in which company incurs losses exceed those in which there are profits. There

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are 7 months of loss while 5 months for losses. The lowest revenue is earned in the month of
January with revenue of £156,000. In most of the months, revenue after VAT were less than
£200,000, whichis regarded as loss implying a weak financial position. The profit shows a
upward rising trend from February to April. Revenue suddenly lower from May and continues to
be declining until October.
3.0 The Benefits of Microsoft Office to Business Productivity
Microsoft office is an extensively used application program for different purposes. It can
be used both for personal and commercial uses. The package of Microsoft office include
program such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power point, One note, Microsoft
access and others. Different versions of Microsoft office is available each upgraded with some
additional features. Marks and Spencer usesoffice 365 to improve the business culture. It is
productivity tool based on cloud. The use of Microsoft office to improve business operation is a
smart way of doing business (Anderson, Sweeney and Williams 2014). It helps Mark and
Spencer to do their work faster and serve their customer in a better way.
Office can be used for business communication. This can help to reduce geographic
berries and barriers of time zone that limits the productivity of global organization. With the help
of Microsoft office 2016, one drive business the organization can store and access their records.
It also provides a secure way of sharing files. The information can be easily reached to the team
members with time efficiency and can communicate to do their work at a fast pace. For online
business and communication, Skype is ahelpful media. It helps to arrange meeting and
conferences through video conferencing.

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3.1 Microsoft Word
Microsoft word is a useful software for business. With every latest version, it comes with
different added facilities. The capability of word processing in the word package is pure very
well designed. One can make a good business report using different features of word. It is
integrated with other software of Microsoft. There is advantage to taking selected portion from
other document and insert in the document currently working with. Word enable features like
different font style, font size, indenting, inserting shapes and others (Larson and Gray 2013). The
well designed business report can be prepared using word. There are options of mail merge that
sends mails to different recipients.
3.2 Microsoft Excel
Excel helps to do numeric calculation first. It is a user-friendly spreadsheet software. The
formula inserted in the excel helps to make difficult calculation in seconds. The standard
formulas used are sum, average, maximum, minimum and other in built functions for figuring
out numerical solution. Different types of graphs and charts options are available to present the
numerical figures (Hansmann et al. 2013). For examples, line chart can be usedto present the
sales trend over the years.There are bar chart, pie chart to represent different business
components. Business budget, annual reports can be prepared using excel. There are options for
modifying chart that makes the charts attractive and presentable.
3.3 Microsoft Power Point
Power Point is a presentation application consisting of slides. The business report
prepared in Word looks boring and therefore power point presentation is used to make it
attractive. The slides can be made beautiful using the in-built themes and backgrounds. There are
options for inserting pictures, sounds and other media files to grab the attention of the listeners.

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The business can use power point presentation to their clients (Jesse et al. 2016). Using different
media gives a better understanding of the product. The use of simple and user friendly interface
helps to make presentation for different groups of audiences.
4.0 Technological Advancement in Marks and Spencer
Today technology plays an important role in business activity. Technology dramatically
changes the way of shopping. The traders employ new technology to enable the customers an
easy to go shopping experience. In case of Marks & Spencer, there are two-folded opportunities
as claimed by the head of their online trading.
Technology helps the company to deliver a great insight to the customers. It enables the
company to provide a customer oriented personalized services and offer a good experience to the
customers (Aha et al. 2015). Application of advanced technology provides customer friendly
services for Mark & Spencer in a more convenient way.
4.1 In Store Digital Technology
In-Store digital technology is one of the technologies used by Mark & Spencer to provide
a better customer services. Customers of the company embraced in-store iPad largely. Nearly 20
percent of online sale is captured through sales using these devices. This technology allows
buyers to order goods from the Mark & Spencer’s retail website. It actually benefits in financing
investment in innovation. The additional sales from the use of these devices give the company
permission to maintain balance with other things (www.essentialretail.com 2017). The new
technological approach has the capacity of keeping a track on how many people are using the
devices. This helps the company to be informed of their customer base and the attitude towards
the brand.

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4.2 Digital Lab
In the retail stores, technologies are changing at a rapid pace. To capture the changing
technology Mark & Spencer has built its digital lab. The company has taken the approach of
prototyping with development of range of e-commerce and in store technology. It also enables its
employees to use the digital marketing platform. To implement new technologies there are small
team of ten employees. The in house software engineering team of Mark and Spencer is hired to
work on team (www.computerworlduk.com 2013). The company introduced Aurasma
Augmented Reality technology. The digital lab is expected to accelerate the technological pace
of the company through approach of multi channel sales.
4.3 Radio Frequency Identification Technology
This technology is used for transmission of serial numbers of product to a reading device
through automated wireless mechanism. There is no need for physical intervention. This
increases the efficiency of supply chain management system and can track sales directly from the
warehouse. Mark and Spencer intend to achieve application of this technology to 100 percent of
goods offered at the store. Now almost 100 percent of the clothes sold by Mark and Spencer are
tagged with RFID (www.rfidjournal.com 2017). The RFID contributes to company’s growth by
quick delivery of the services to the customers.
5.0 Conclusion
The analysis centered on the business operation of Mark and Spencer, one of the biggest
retailers in UK. The revenue trend of the company reveals that highest revenue is earned in the
month of April while the month of January records lowest revenue. A 17% VAT is imposed on
the company. Use of Microsoft office helps business in different ways. The company uses office
365 in its business. Microsoft word, excel, power point, Skype, one note are different software

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that is used in business. Finally, the company has adapted some technological development to
improve its service and business expansion. The report discusses three of these technological
advancements. These are in store digital technology, building of digital lab for better
enhancement of technology and widely used Radio Active Frequency Technology.

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6.0 Reference List
Aha, D.W., Anderson, T.S., Bengfort, B., Burstein, M., Cerys, D., Coman, A., Cox, M.T.,
Dannenhauer, D., Floyd, M.W., Gillespie, K. and Goel, A.K., 2015. Goal Reasoning: Papers
from the ACS workshop. Georgia Institute of Technology.
Anderson, D., Sweeney, D. and Williams, T., 2014. Modern business statistics with Microsoft
Excel. Nelson Education.
Essential Retail. (2017). M&S in-store technology drive gathering pace - Essential Retail.
[online] Available at: http://www.essentialretail.com/in-store-ops/article/5583cb13e7a5a-ms-in-
store-technology-drive-gathering-pace [Accessed 27 Nov. 2017].
Finnegan, M. (2013). Marks & Spencer creates 'digital lab' to speed retail tech development.
[online] ComputerworldUK. Available at:
https://www.computerworlduk.com/it-management/marks-spencer-creates-digital-lab-speed-
retail-tech-development-3424283/ [Accessed 27 Nov. 2017].
Hansmann, U., Merk, L., Nicklous, M.S. and Stober, T., 2013. Pervasive computing handbook.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Jesse, W.K., Loer, P.B., Loer, C.J., Spiegel, J.S., Bauer, A.O.L., Green, B.P., Firebaugh, J.E.,
Ottum, M.L. and Min, A.E., International Business Machines Corporation, 2016. Content-based
user interface, apparatus and method. U.S. Patent 9,294,377.
Journal, R. (2017). Marks & Spencer Expects to Achieve 100 Percent RFID-Tagging by 2017 -
2015-05-11 - Page 1 - RFID Journal. [online] Rfidjournal.com. Available at:
http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?13028 [Accessed 27 Nov. 2017].

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Larson, E.W. and Gray, C., 2013. Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS
Project. McGraw-Hill.