Digital Technologies in Small Scale Industries

The assignment is a research proposal that focuses on the impact of digital technologies on small scale industries, with a specific case study on Continental Consultancy Ltd. The proposal aims to identify the digital technologies used by the company, their relationship to working performance, and the challenges faced in adapting these techniques into work areas. It also suggests recommendations for resolving issues faced by the firm.

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1. Devise project aims and objectives for chosen topic............................................................1
P2. Presenting a project management plan that covers different aspect.....................................2
P3. Producing a work down structure and Gantt chart to provide time frame............................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................7
P4. Small scale research to meet out project aim and objectives................................................7
LO3..................................................................................................................................................8
P5. Analyse research and data by using appropriate tools and techniques.................................8
P6. Recommendation as a result of research of data analysis...................................................18
LO4................................................................................................................................................19
P7 Reflection.............................................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

Illustration Index
Illustration 1: Gantt Chart................................................................................................................5
Illustration 2: Network diagram.......................................................................................................5
Illustration 3: Work Break Down Structure.....................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Digital technology plays an important role in every small, medium and big firms. The
report focus on the impact of digital technology on Continental Consulting Ltd. It is a research
and business consultancy company whose aim is to provide best products to their customers by
applying latest and advance technologies into a work place (Muller, 2017). The aim of this report
is to understanding the scope of entrepreneurship and also about barriers to start-up business.
Further, it describes project aims & objectives and produce a project management plan that
covers aspect of cost, scope, time, quality, risk and resources. Report also present work
breakdown structure with a Gantt chart that provide time frames as well as stages for completion
of this project. The report carries out small scale research by applying qualitative as well as
quantitative research methods in order to meet aims. The report presents research and data by
using appropriate tools and techniques and provide recommendations for better result of research
and data analysis.
MAIN BODY
LO1
P1. Devise project aims and objectives for chosen topic
Background: Digital technology plays a crucial and significant role in business growth
as well as innovation. From last so many years, it has completely changed the traditional
business models and even transformed whole activities of business. The impact of digital
technologies on business environment creates a vast positive effect such as help in maximization
of profit, leading to increasingly diverse product list. That is why is it necessary for every firm to
cope up with new technologies in order to enhance its growth as well as development. These
technologies give an opportunity to small business firm to gain competitive advantage in this
global environment. It has been examined that about 84 percent of small business are using at
least one technology in order to provide information to their customers (Impact of digital
technologies, 2018).
Company's overview: Continental Consulting Limited is a small- scale research and business
consultancy company in London. As the company is set up before 8 years and due to rapid
innovation in IT industry and use of latest digital technologies made company's product obsolete
and there is a need to upgrade the use of IT in order to bring company's ability to its maximum
1

limits. Now company making enough efforts in order to upgrade its business process which help
to creates a brand image in market (Turner, 2016).
Rationale: The reason to study this report is that scholars have interest they find that
there is a huge scope in future to study this. While on the other side, the university allot a topic to
study on this. Digital technologies create a vast positive impact on small scale industries and that
is why it is necessary to analyse importance for them. A person is working on Continental
Consultancy Limited and faces various issues regarding usage of this digital technologies and
through this project report, trying to resolve issues. As a firm wants to maximizes its profit as
well as sales revenue that is why report provides help to analyses its importance in business
environment (Muller, 2017).
Aim: “ To assess the effect of digital technologies on the growth and innovation of an
organization: A case study based on Continental Consultancy Limited
Objectives:
 To determine conceptual framework of various digital technologies used by Continental
Consultancy Ltd.
 To describe relationship between different digital technologies to raise working
performance of a company.
 To identify the impact of digital technologies on small scale industries growth and
innovation.
 To determine the challenges faced by Continental Consultancy Ltd in order to adapt this
digital technique into work area.
 To suggest some recommendations in order to resolve issues faced by a firm.
P2. Presenting a project management plan that covers different aspect
Project Management Plan is defined as how a project is examined, monitored and
controlled, overall, it is a summary or detailed report that includes baselines which help to
measure company's performance, subsidiary management plans where scope, cost, quality,
human resources are included. Research project plan is a formal document that provide a
baseline of what has to be achieved by a project (Sharp, Peters and Howard, 2017). It also
provides detailed information regarding a project that includes executive summary, strategic
alignment, requirement of Human Resource, budget estimate, risk management etc.
2

Project Management Plan is a simplest process that help a company to achieve their goals
and objectives. The main objective of project plan is to identify an approach that is used by a
Continental Consultancy Ltd to deliver the supposed project management scope of a project. In
order to accomplish overall objectives of Continental Consultancy Ltd it has to cover all basic
aspects which are mentioned below:
Cost: To adopt particular project plan, Continental Consultancy Ltd has to follow cost
making in order to meet its project needs (Thomas, 2017). The costs are related to resource
spent, operational cost and company has to fix its budget in order to complete its project
efficiently. For this project the cost will be 125 pound.
Scope: By developing project management plan, a company can easily raise its working
performance and generate more revenue by using latest technologies. The importance of this
project is to identify current situation and help to cope up with advance applications.
Time: it is important factor in research, as all the activities are interrelated and
interdependent on each other, if in case one task get delayed, it has effect on the completion time
of complete project. The entire project will be completed within 1 month approx.
Quality: while using new technologies, the quality produced by a company must be
accurate and reliable and creates brand value for a product output (O'Leary, 2017). The quality of
a product directly creates positive impact on customers. So it is necessary for them to used best
quality resources for producing better services/ products.
Communication: To build communication plan is necessary for an owner because a
frequent communication help to develop better project plan. So it is quite necessary for a
stakeholder as well as employees to create better understanding and communication between
them.
Risk: There are chances to have risk while adapting new technologies and this hazard
may occur due to lack of efficiency and low cost or budget. This unexpected risk must be
mitigated by using proper technologies (Bell, 2014).
Resources: In order to accomplish project plan, a manager must use different resources
and must see whether they are available on demand or not and these resources must be help to
finish a project in better way.
3

P3. Producing a work down structure and Gantt chart to provide time frame
Gantt Chart: A Gantt chart is most important element that is used in project
management. It basically specifies what work has been schedule in order to done on each
specific day (Appelhans and et.al., 2018). It is a horizontal bar chart which is developed by
production control equipment. Gantt chart may be a simple or in complex version. Therefore, it
provides a graphical illustration that helps in planning, coordinating and tracking some specific
task in a project. The simple versions of chart are presented in simple graph paper while the
complex are created by using project management application such as Microsoft Project or
Excel. While on the other side, PERT chart is another important project management map that
help to resolve those issues which a scholar is facing while using Gantt chart (Sharp, Peters and
Howard, 2017). The GC is basically used by trained project managers who have long term
projects and in the context of Continental Consultancy Ltd, which is a research business, they are
also used this chart in order to specify their work time scheduling.
4
Illustration 1: Network diagram

5
Illustration 2: Gantt Chart
Source: (Gantt Chart, 2018)

Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Research Project
Planning
Topic name 4 days 15/01/18 19/01/18
Statements of the research
issue 1 day 20/01/18 21/01/18 2
Allocation of resources and
time frame 5 days 21/01/18 26/01/18 2
Implementation
Review of literature 5 days 27/03/18 01/02/18 3
Selection of correct research
methodologies 1 day 02/02/18 03/02/18 4
Data analysis and
interpretation 4 days 03/02/18 07/02/18 5
Evaluation of results and
outcomes 2 days 07/02/18 09/02/18 5
Project closure
Giving conclusion and
recommendation 1 day 10/02/18 11/02/18 6
6
Illustration 3: Work Break Down Structure
Source: (Work Break Down Structure, 2018)

Results of documentation 1 day 12/04/18 13/02/18 7
Work breakdown Structure: It is also known as CWBS which is a regular framework
whose structure element are product, data, services and so on. It also provides basic necessary
information of detailed cost estimating with proper scheduling for business development as well
as control. It is a hierarchical or tree structure which help to achieve company's objectives in
prescribed time (Roberts-Holmes, 2018). A well designed WBS helps to make a project easy to
analyse each activity and provides a necessary framework to identify detail cost estimating and
guidance for schedule development and control.
LO2
P4. Small scale research to meet out project aim and objectives
Research Methodologies
The reason behind selecting research methodologies is to have depth information about
the topic of research. It is a term which aids to collect information and data for making business
decision. This helps as to defines the systematic plan of doing research. For conducting the
present research on implication of technological advancement the following method or research
will be used as are-
Research type : There are basically two types of research these are qualitative and
quantitative. Choice of research type is completely based on the nature of subject matter. In
context of present study on topic effect of digital technologies on the growth and innovation of
an organization , researcher has conducted both research type that is qualitative and quantitative.
Reason for conducting both qualitative and quantitative research is that it helps researcher in
executing in depth investigation. In addition to this, by conducting quantitative and quantitative
research , scholar can gathered huge amount of information related to the topic. Both qualitative
and quantitative research provides researcher an ease in analysing the data.
Research philosophy- This process deals with source, nature and development of
knowledge. It is philosophy which defines the believes and with help of that data can be
7

collected, analysed and used. Moreover, each stage of research process is based on assumptions.
There are number of research philosophies as are pragmatism, positivism, Realism and
Interpretivism (Budig and et.al., 2018). To determine impact of digitalisation over “Continental
Consulting Limited”, interpretivism and positivism philosophies will be undertaken.
Research approach- It is plan and procedure which works as to have broad assumption
to have detailed method of data collection, analysis and its interpretation. This can be divide into
three parts as are Deductive, inductive and Abductive. In order to determine the impact of
digitalisation the deductive approach will be used as it is helpful to test validity of assumption.
On the other hand, Inductive will be used to identify emergence of theories and generalisation
(Hawley, 2018).
Research design- It defines overall strategy which helps to integrate differed
components of study in coherent and logical context. This is defined in following manner as are
namely, exploratory, descriptive and explanatory etc. To understand the impact and to have
depth information descriptive analysis will be used. In this, it will have carried out three factor
are to be used these are case study, observation and survey (Thomas, 2017).
Data collection- This approach will be useful to get depth insights so that information
can be collected effectively. This is defined in manner as are primary and secondary. The
primary method will be useful to analyse and collect first-hand information (Lawton and
Hamilton, 2018). It can be collected with help of questionnaire, so that depth survey can be
carried out to determine the implication of digitalisation over “Continental Consulting Limited”.
Furthermore, secondary information can be collected with help of books, journal, articles and
blogs etc.
Sampling- in this, two ways of this technique as are probabilistic and non-probabilistic.
This study will be conducted with help of probabilistic method. It works as to provide equal
chance to each respondents so that impact of technological advancement can be determined
effectively. Under it, sampling size of 20 employees of “Continental Consulting Limited” has
selected with use of sample random technique.
Data analysis- It is process which includes coding, cleaning inspecting, and to
discovering the information so that effective conclusion can be drawn. The process of making
proper evaluation of data by using of analytical and logical reasoning so that each component
can be examined. It can be collected from sources as gathered, review and analysed to form
8

finding and conclusion. There are two types of approaches these are quantitative and qualitative
(Hedley, 2017). To determine this research study, qualitative method will be adopted.
Ethical consideration- Under it, confidentiality of information is needed to be maintains
from any unauthorized access. Non-compliance to this can leads to have ethical issues
LO3
P5. Analyse research and data by using appropriate tools and techniques
Questionnaire
Name-
Gender-
Age-
1. Does technological advancement foster growth of an enterprise?
 Yes
 No
 May be
2. Is technical advancement will be safe and secure to use?
 Yes
 No
 May be
3. What barriers firm might face in implementing digital technology at workplace
 High operational cost
 Untrained workers
 Unspecified procedures
4. Do you believe technological advancement is cost and time effective?
 Yes
 No
9

 May be
5. Does performance and growth of “Continental Consulting Limited” has been improved after
implementation of digital technology?
 Yes
 No
 May be
6. what are beneficial aspect of implementing digital technology in business enterprise?
 Enhancement in speed and saves cost of operation
 Increment in sales and profitability
 Increment in production and level of efficiency
7. Does digitalisation bring innovative procedure within business enterprise?
 Yes
 No
 May be
Theme 1: Yes, Technological advancement fosters growth.
1. Does technological
advancement foster growth of
an enterprise? Frequency %
Yes 13 65.00%
No 6 30.00%
May be 1 5.00%
Total 20 100.00%
10

Interpretation- Technological advancement booming overall growth of an enterprise. It
is beneficial in terms to increment in profitability and productivity of an enterprise. Thus, total
number of respondents are 20. Moreover, 13 are in favour 6 are not and 1 respondent have no
opinion about it.
Theme 2: Yes, Technical advancement is safe and secure.
2. Is technical advancement will be safe and
secure to use? Frequency %
Yes 15 75.00%
No 3 15.00%
May be 2 10.00%
Total 20 100.00%
11
Yes No May be
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14 13
6
1
Frequency

Interpretation: Based on above chart, it can be affirmed that Technical advancement is very
safe and secure. It is helpful in terms to keep information private. In order to save the time and
cost of production in both positive or negative aspect. Thus, total number of respondents are 20.
under it, 15 said yes, 3 said no and 2 are not sure about it. Hence, it can be said that technical
advancement is useful to process faster growth and maximise the working.
Theme 3: High operational cost is one of negative impact on business enterprise.
3. What barriers firm might face in implementing digital
technology at workplace Frequency %
High operational cost 8 80.00%
Untrained workers 6 60.00%
Unspecified procedures 6 60.00%
Total 20 200.00%
12
15
3 2
20 Yes
No
May be
total

Interpretation: The high rate of operational cost brings negative impact over working of an
enterprise (Hedley, 2017). It is one of disadvantage which impact the working of an enterprise in
large context. Thus, total number of respondent are 20. Under it, 8 said it is not good due to
increment in operation cost of an enterprise, 6 said worker are not trained to use technical
equipment’s and other 6 said sometimes due to unspecified procedure it works as to put negative
impact over working of an enterprise.
Theme 4: Yes, it is cost and time effective.
4. Do you believe technological advancement is cost
and time effective? Frequency %
Yes 16 80.00%
No 2 10.00%
May be 2 10.00%
Total 20 100.00%
13
High operational cost
Untrained workers
Unspecified procedures
Total
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
8
6 6
20

Interpretation: As company wants to develop new technologies and out of 20 respondents, 16
employees are in favour that yes, technological advancement is cost and time effective while
only 2 says no and 2 respondent have no views related to this .
14
Yes No May be Total
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
1
2
16
2 2
20

Theme 5: Yes, performance has been improvised after adoption digitalisation.
5. Does performance and growth of “Continental Consulting Limited”
has been improved after implementation of digital technology? Frequency %
Yes 17 85.00%
No 2 10.00%
May be 1 5.00%
Total 20 100.00%
Interpretation: As company wants to introduce new technologies and from above data it has
been concluded that, adapting new technologies will be helpful because 17 respondents are in
favour that performance and growth of “Continental Consulting Limited” has been improved
after implementation of digital technology while only 2 says no it does not create any impact
Theme 6: Yes, it is assistive in having increment in sales and profitability.
15
Yes No May be Total
0
5
10
15
20
25
17
2 1
20
Column C
Column D

6. what are beneficial aspect of
implementing digital
technology in business
enterprise? Frequency %
Enhancement in speed and
saves cost of operation 14 70.00%
Increment in sales and
profitability 3 15.00%
Increment in production and
level of efficiency 3 15.00%
Total 20 100.00%
Interpretation: As per above chart, it has been concluded that out of 20 respondents, only 14
says that adapting digital technologies will help in enhancement in speed and saves cost of
16
14
3 3
20
Enhancement in
speed and saves
cost of operation
Increment in sales
and profitability
Increment in
production and level
of efficiency
Total

operation while 3 respondents are in favour of increment in sales and profitability and only 3
says that it helps in increment in production and level of efficiency.
Theme 7: Yes, technical advancement brings effective innovation.
7. Does digitalisation bring
innovative procedure within
business enterprise? Frequency %
Yes 18 90.00%
No 1 5.00%
May be 1 5.00%
Total 20 100.00%
Interpretation: As per above interpretation, it has been concluded that by adapting new digital
services will help to bring innovation procedure in Continental Consultancy Ltd and 18
respondents are in favour of it while only 1 is against and 1 respondent did not know about this.
17
Yes No May be Total
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20 18
1 1
20
Column C
Column D

P6. Recommendation as a result of research of data analysis.
It is clear from above data analysis that, in order to increase business performance,
Continental Consultancy Ltd needs new digital technologies and also proved that this advance
technology have positive impact on the behaviour of employees by giving them better
opportunity and growth (Polonsky and Waller, 2014). It is also analyses that expressive method
is considered one of the most successful approach because provides clear direction for
completion of research. With the help of above analysis, a researcher can get all needed
information and also provide various resources in order to cope up with fast growing techniques.
By adapting digital technologies, Continental Consultancy Ltd will easily cope up with technical
advancement that will become safe and secure but on the other side it has been analyses that it is
quite high in price that not all small business firms can adapt all digital technologies. Apart from
this, the company can adapt digital technologies into its working environment in order to attract
wide number of customers and as a result it will help in maximization of profit as well as sales.
There are two methods to collect data and researcher collect entire data through primary
data using questionnaire while another technique is secondary data in which data are collect
through analysing interview, observation, and past records. It is advised to Continental
Consultancy Ltd. to use digital technologies, which proved to be beneficial for its future growth
and development because it help to raise company's performance and to cope up with new
innovations which directly creates positive impact on customers as well as employees too
(Turner, 2016). By adapting or implementing digital technologies, company can improve
company's brand image and attract users towards them. Moreover, data analysis is the best
process or method which help to get possible outcomes for company's future and enhance
company's working performance.
LO4
P7 Reflection
As above research or project on digital technology, it has been provided me great
opportunity to show my skills as well as techniques. Through this research, I leant many new
technical terms which help me in my future and even I also understood different methods of data
collection which is suitable for this project report (Lock, 2017). Throughout this research, I raise
my research skills that are most required to do any research and I also learn some technical skills
that help me to present data in systematic manner for this research project. Apart from this, I got
18

a chance to interact with employees of Continental Consultancy Ltd in order to know about latest
and advance digital technologies. As a result, it helps me to enhance my skills to make better
relation with other peoples. Moreover, during entire project I also get to know about my self-
evaluation and also realize that there is need to learn some more managerial skills that assist me
to present this project in more accurate way and in productive manner.
Overall, this project report helps me to know some issues which are faced by Continental
Consultancy Ltd while adapting new digital technologies and I also learn some weaknesses
which I will convert into my strength because it is beneficial for me. Further, on the basis of
above research, I learn and also enhance various skills that are related to research. From my
personal analysis I realised that I need to nourish my technical skills to become best while doing
research project.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report, it has been concluded that Continental Consultancy Ltd
needs to adapt digital technologies in order to grab customers’ attraction and maximizes its profit
margin. It has been concluded that by using primary data quoted company will have some
positive impact such as by adopting digital technology, company's cost will decrease as a result it
will help to increases its financial status. By using data analysis, it has been concluded that
adapting new technologies will sometime help to lower an operating cost and enhance overall
performance of a company. It has been also concluded that to cope up with digital technologies
will helpful for a company and help to attain all defined objectives which assist to take a
company in next further level of success.
19

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Roberts-Holmes, G., 2018. Doing your early years research project: A step by step guide. Sage.
Budig, K. and et.al., 2018. Photovoice and empowerment: evaluating the transformative
potential of a participatory action research project. BMC public health. 18(1). p.432.
Hawley, S., 2018. Do You Think Makes a Good Undergraduate Laboratory Research
Project?. Trends in Genetics. 34(5). p.327.
Lawton, A. and Hamilton, O., 2018. Lessons for sector workforce development from the Penrith
homelessness interagency service mapping research project. Parity. 31(5). p.22.
Nilsson, D., and et.al., 2018. Integrating evacuation research in large infrastructure tunnel
projects-Experiences from the Stockholm Bypass Project. Fire Safety Journal. 97.
pp.119-125.
Appelhans, J. and et.al., 2018. Exploring strategies to reduce particle concentrations–Results of
the research project PAREST.
Bell, J., 2014. Doing Your Research Project: A guide for first-time researchers. McGraw-Hill
Education (UK).
O'Leary, Z., 2017. The essential guide to doing your research project. Sage.
Thomas, G., 2017. How to Do Your Research Project: A Guide for Students. Sage.
Sharp, J. A., Peters, J. and Howard, K., 2017. The management of a student research project.
Routledge.
Polonsky, M. J. and Waller, D. S., 2014. Designing and managing a research project: A
business student's guide. Sage publications.
Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
Muller, R., 2017. Project governance. Routledge.
Lock, D., 2017. The essentials of project management. Routledge.
Online

Impact of digital technologies. 2018. [Online] Available
through:<https://smallbusiness.chron.com/impacts-technology-small-business-
2190.html>.
2

Research Proposal Form
Student Name ..................................................................................... Student number
...........................................
Centre Name
.....................................................................................................................................................................................
Tutor ......................................................................................... Date ...........................................
Unit .........................................................................................
Proposed Title ..................................................................................................................................................................................
Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities
Title or working title of research project ( in the
form of a question, objective or hypothesis)To
assess the effect of digital technologies on the
growth and innovation of an organization: A
case study based on Continental
Consultancy Limited Research project
objectives (e.g. what is the question you want to
answer? What do you want to learn how to do?
What do you want to find out?):
Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research
project
Reasons for choosing the project (e.g. links to
other subjects you are studying, personal
interest, future plans, knowledge/skills you
want to improve, why the topic is important):
 To determine conceptual framework of
various digital technologies used by
Continental Consultancy Ltd.
 To describe relationship between different
digital technologies to raise working

performance of a company.
 To identify the impact of digital technologies
on small scale industries growth and
innovation.
 To determine the challenges faced by
Continental Consultancy Ltd in order to adapt
this digital technique into work area.
 To suggest some recommendations in order
to resolve issues faced by a firm
Section Three: Literature sources searched
Use of key literature sources to support your
research question, objective or hypothesis:
Research questions
 what are the digital technologies used by
Continental Consultancy Ltd.?
 What is the relationship between different
digital technologies to raise working
performance of a company?
 What Is the impact of digital technologies on
small scale industries growth and innovation.
 What are the challenges faced by Continental
Consultancy Ltd in order to adapt this digital
technique into work area?
 What are the recommendations in order to
resolve issues faced by a firm?
Section Four: Activities and timescales

Activities to be carried out during the research project (e.g. research,
development and analysis of ideas, writing, data collection, numerical
analysis, tutor meetings, production of final outcome, evaluation, writing
the report):
How long this will take:
It will 1 month to achieve
desirable project.

Appendix
Research Proposal Form (contd.)
Milestone one: .........................................................................................
Target date (set by tutor): .........................................................................................
Milestone two: ................................................... ......................................
Target date (set by tutor): .........................................................................................
Section Four: Research approach and methodologies
What type of research approach and methodologies are you likely to use
and why? What your areas of research will cover:
 Research philosophies- Interpretative Research approach- Inductive approach Research design- Descriptive Research strategy- Qualitative Data collection- Primary and secondary
 Data Analysis - qualitative method
 Sampling - probabilistic method
 Ethical consideration
Comments and agreement from tutor
Comments (optional):
I confirm that the project is not work which has been or will be submitted for another qualification

and is appropriate.
Agreed: .................................................................................... (name) .................................................................................... date) ......................................................
Comments and agreement from project proposal checker (if applicable)
Comments (optional):
I confirm that the project is appropriate.
Agreed: .................................................................................... (name) .................................................................................... date) ......................................................