Impact of Digital Tech on Small Business

This assignment examines the impact of digital technology on the growth of small-scale companies. It involves creating a questionnaire based on interviews with local people and workers to understand the specific effects of digital advancements on these businesses. The research aims to determine the correlation between digital adoption and business success in small enterprises.

MANAGING
SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P 1 Project aims and objectives...................................................................................................1
P 2 Project - management plan....................................................................................................3
P 3 Work – breakdown – structure and Gantt Chart ..................................................................5
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................7
P 4 Small scale research by using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies............7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P 5 Analysation of research and data using proper tools and techniques...................................9
P 6 Recommendation................................................................................................................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
P 7 Self reflection......................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Digital technology has revolutionised the whole way through which business is being
conducted. It can seen that over the last decade, it has dramatically changed the business models
that were used in previous days and modified the business activities completely (Wahyuni,
2012). This has not only saved the costly time but also provided businesses with a financial
condition of choice and opportunities. In addition to this, this has enabled current products and
services to be more profitable and helps in manufacturing new innovation based goods which
leads to increase diverse portfolios of products. The present report is based on the impact of
digital technology on the business growth of 3Com corporation. It is a small sized venture that is
popular for its digital electronics goods. It was founded in the year of 1979 and are known as
manufacturer of computer network products. They offer goods like network interface controller,
routers, IP voice systems, wireless access points and controllers. In this project, different aims,
objectives and project management plan of the corporation is described. Additionally, primary
and secondary research in context of organisation has been conducted for determining the impact
of modern techniques on its functioning.
TASK 1
P 1 Project aims and objectives
It is very necessary to formulate aims and objectives of the firm before creating any kind
of business strategies and plans so that they will become clear about what they need to do for
attaining the business goals. 3Com corporation can make development in their various activities
of business such as marketing, production, accounting, human resource management, etc. This
earth has converted into a battle ground where every entrepreneur wants to be come first and
occupy strong position in market. And due to this competition is rising day on day (Peters,
Howard and Sharp, 2012). 3Com is also present in this race and desires to run at faster rate in
comparison to their challengers. To hold a better position in the market place, 3Com has to do
some modification in their current ways of doing business. They have to introduce digital
technology in their all operations of business. They have to create something new or innovative
products that makes the work of public very easy. By doing so, they can seek attention of large
number of citizens and can also make themselves a famous brand. This can be made possible by
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utilising advanced technology like artificial intelligence and big data analytics. So, this can be
stated that digitalisation is influencing positively on the growth of small level ventures.
Theme : Impact of digital technology on business growth of small businesses and innovation
Back ground of project :
This project is made by keeping focus on the technological advancement and its impact
on the business growth of small and medium size enterprises. In traditional days, digital
technology was not so developed and that is the reason behind unsuccessfulness of most of
companies. Almost all the ventures were doing paper work or physical works that leads to the
emergence of risk factors. Such factors creates issues at the time of manufacturing and designing
of goods and services. But now the scenario has been totally changed, there has been a
tremendous development in the technology and which is as a result modifying the procedures of
business at greater extent (Wilson, 2014). Technology has become a external or macro factor that
is giving impact on the functioning of all the corporations. Therefore, each and every company
should introduce modern technology in their businesses in order to take its more and more
advantages. 3Com ought to use modernised techniques in their corporation and should improve
their activities like promotion can be done at wider aspect by using social media like Face book,
What's app, Twitter, You tube, etc. This increases the popularity of their computer based goods
and as a result turn over of venture improves a lot. On the other hand, they can also introduce
digitalisation in their human resource department which assists them in hiring skilled and
qualified workers in minimum period of time (Westerman, Bonnet and McAfee, 2014).
Aim : The first and foremost aim of this project is to identify the contribution of modern
technology in small scale business growth and manufacturing innovative goods in context to the
cited firm. Besides this, there are some other aims of this report that is mentioned below :
 This project aims to determine those sectors which needed modernisation in context of
technology within the firm.
 Contribution of advanced technology in business growth by changing the scenarios of
certain activities like advertisement, production, human resource management and
marketing.
Objectives : 3Com is among one of the leading venture that deals with manufacturing of
computer network based products or services. This company wishes to produce their goods at
very faster rate so that they can increase their productivity level and earns huge amount of
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income in very less time period. They also wants to find out those sectors that requires change.
By considering this situation, some of the objectives are formulated which is discussed below :
 To identify reasons behind the requirement of modernisation in business activities
 Evaluation or measurement of implementing digital technology at work place.
 To examine the impact of technological advancement on different business related
activities such as accounting, production, promotion and human resource management.
 To earn more and more profits.
Thus, the cited venture needs to focus on different aims and objectives that is described
above. All of the matter is linked with the digital technology and that is why it is proved to be
very advantageous for 3Com as they can make their strategies in accordance with this.
P 2 Project - management plan
Project management plan can be simply defined as a process whereby all aspects
regarding the project is described in detail. This also aids in finding out all the risks factors that
may occur in present as well as future. The different areas which is covered in this planning are
explained below :
 Project Scope : This includes all those things which is going to be covered in this report.
This business report is made for the 3Com corporation which is a manufacturer of
electronic computer network based products. Thus, it is important to deal with all issues
that rises while producing electronic goods and services. In this project, all the areas are
discussed that needs to be more modernised so that company can improve their
performance and productivity as well.
 Cost Control : This is nothing but method of controlling additional costing in order to
save some amount of revenue and can be utilised those money in different other
activities. 3Com is involved in more paper works that required to be minimised as large
sum of money is going in purchasing papers only (Hwang and Lim, 2012). In addition to
that, this leads to emergence of more errors as work is done manually or physically here.
Therefore, this venture needs to reduce paper work and should give focus in doing their
work digitally. They can use modern software such as Spreadsheet, Ms- excel, Power
point, etc. for doing accounting and making presentation respectively. Workers only have
to feed data along with some formulas in those software and result is calculated
automatically in very less time. In other hand, 3Com is recruiting new employees by
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taking face to face interviews. This consumes a lot of time and money. Thereby this
should be replaced by online mode of recruitment wherein managers of human resource
department should hire their workers by taking their online interviews and selecting them
by examining their capabilities. Company should form a Gantt Chart and critical path in
order to decide their investment in various activities.
 Quality control : This process states about the maintenance of quality in products and
services offered by firm so that large number of civilians like their goods and purchase in
huge quantity. 3Com should manufacture best quality products or services so that less
number of complaints would come from the side of users. For doing this, they have to
take help of modern machineries that will produce better quality of products in minimum
period of time by taking less quantity of raw materials (Hirshkowitz and et. al., 2015).
Advanced machines would make their task of manufacturing very easy as most of the
work is done by the machine itself only. Employees need to handle such machineries
only but this should be done carefully by focusing on safety and security of themselves.
On the other hand, they should make proper decisions by consulting with all the
members of venture. For this 3Com can take use of social media as a good tool of doing
effect-able communication within their workers. In addition to this, they can also use this
technique in keeping themselves in touch with their customers also. Employees can give
response of feedbacks received by their clients at time to time. Company should make a
budget of around 400$ for doing this quality management task.
 Risk management : This is also a significant part of this project where by all the risks
occurring within the business activities should be eliminated or reduced at certain level.
Enterprise should take help of digital technology in finding out the risky factors and
making correct decisions. Firm should complete their project in less time period as
additional time will consume extra money. All the risks should be identified as well as
removed within a limited investment.
 Communication : In order to do market researches, 3Com should communicate
effectively with the local people so that they can examine their demands and current
need. They have to utilise inner communication method for solving business issues by
talking with their workforce and should use extrinsic mode of communication for
conducting research. This would charge approx 500$.
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 Time : This is all about management of time while doing various activities in market
research. Some of the activities are deciding aims and objectives, making management
plan, doing primary and secondary research, etc. Proper maintenance of time should be
done by researcher so that this task will be completed efficiently (Geraldi and Lechter,
2012). Two process will take more time which are conducting researches and doing data
analysation as investigator should think properly before while doing these tasks. To
making this job easier, researcher should design a Gantt chart and a critical path in order
to allocate time to different events as this aids in taking decision that which task would
take how much amount of time and after that things should be done accordingly.
 Resources : Various resources is required by 3Com for conducting their market research.
Some of them are human resource i.e. Employees, funding i.e. money, technological
resources that is advanced machineries. These all resources should be present in plenty in
order to complete the task of doing researches or gathering information.
P 3 Work – breakdown – structure and Gantt Chart
Each and every activities should be queued properly in order to conduct all the operations
very easily without facing any confusion. For this Gantt chart is made which is discussed below :
 Aims and objectives : This is first stage where investigator requires to design some
realistic aims and objectives in context with theme of project. This would consumes
more then 12 days.
 Management plan : This is the second stage where researcher should make plan
regarding cost and quality control, time management, communication, etc. This planning
will take less than 13 days.
 Primary and secondary research : In this stage, investigator needs to find out and
collect information regarding the topic of project by doing primary and secondary
research. Primary one is done by taking interviews of customers and employees. While
the secondary one will be done by taking help of books, journals and internet. These
works would consume more than one week.
 Data interpretation and analysis : This is very important stage where researcher
examine the collected data and give recommendation or suggestion to the 3Com so that
venture will change their structure of business as per that. This will consume more than 3
days.
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 Self reflection : This is the last stage whereby researcher discusses about its own
experiences and tell those issues which he or she had faced while accomplishing this
report. This will take more than 2 days.
Action plan
 Person involved in this project : Different people have been participated in this project
for its successful completion. Those are workers, consumers, data analysers and team
leaders of 3Com.
 Location of collecting data : Some of the information are accumulated by taking
interviews of people and making a questionnaire according to that. But other data is
aggregated from several web pages and views of authors or scholars, etc.
 Data inputting procedure : Information is filled by the citizens who participated in this
activity in the questionnaire sheets.
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TASK 2
P 4 Small scale research by using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies
For gathering relevant information in context of topic of project, a researcher should
utilise appropriate research methodologies. Some of the methodologies for accumulating the
facts and figures are described below :
 Qualitative research : This is the process of evaluating the feelings and ideas of
common citizens and are done by conducting surveys, encouraging people to fill
questionnaire sheets and by taking interviews (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011). Almost all of
the researchers are using this methodology for acquiring intense and deep knowledge
regarding the theme of the report. This process aids in knowing the psychology and
behaviours of people about the topic of project. Therefore, it is proved to be a good
method of doing researches.
 Quantitative research : This is the method of collecting numerical data which helps
investigators in making correct decisions regarding the business (Fleming and
Koppelman, 2016). This is totally different from qualitative methodology as here
information is aggregated from a vast sample size or population.
 Primary research : By this method, data is gathered by taking use of primary sources.
Hence, it can be conducted by using qualitative as well as quantitative researches
methodologies. Feedbacks, Questionnaires, Surveys, etc. are some of the normal ways
that can be utilised for doing primary research.
 Secondary research : Researcher is able to accumulate both previous as well as present
information in context of theme of project. Internet (Websites of government and
libraries), Books, Journals, Census, etc. are some of the common sources that can be used
by investigator. This is considered as a faster mode of collecting information as
researcher only have to find out authenticate sources from where he can accumulate data.
Qualitative research methodology has been utilised here for aggregating relevant
information. Questionnaire can be used as a proper way of gathering data from people where
sample size is taken as 20. The format of questionnaire is designed below :
Questionnaire
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Name : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gender : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Is technological advancement helping in producing goods at less time period ?
 Yes
 No
2. Do you notice the influence of modern technology in growing business related activities of
3Com ?
 Yes
 No
3. Which area requires to be more digitalised with in the organisation ?
 Human resource department
 Production department
 Accounting
 Sales
 Promotional sector
4. What kind of technology is used for the purpose of storing data in the firm ?
 Hard disks
 Cloud technology
 The Internet of Things
5. Which kind of digital techniques of communication are required in 3Com ?
 Social media
 Mobile technology
6. Which advanced technology would assist company in manufacturing innovative products
and services ?
 Artificial intelligence
 Big data analytics
Secondary research
According to the Broekx and et. al. (2011), digital technology should be used by almost
all of the ventures as this aid in incrementing the productivity as well as profitability of the
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corporation. This also assist in manufacturing innovative goods that can attract large number of
consumers. For instant, venture can take use of artificial intelligence and big analytics type of
modern technologies for doing the same. As a result firm can earn huge profitability and also
creates a good position by maintaining their brand image in the eyes of people of United
Kingdom. On the other hand, company can take use of social websites such as What's app,
Twitter, Face book, You tube for doing their promotional activities in an effective manner in
very less period of time. Enterprise can also introduce cloud computing technology for storing as
well as sharing the data efficiently. This information can be stored for a longer period of time by
providing them safety and security. The beauty of this technology is that those data can be
accessed from any where and any time where there is data connection or internet connectivity.
TASK 3
P 5 Analysation of research and data using proper tools and techniques
Theme 1 : Support of technical advancement in producing goods at minimum time period
1. Is technological advancement helping in
producing goods at less time period ?
Frequency
Yes 15
No 5
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16 15
5 Column G
Interpretation : Most of the people said that technological advancement is contributing in
manufacturing of products at minimum interval of time.
Theme 2 : Influence of digital technology in growth of business activities
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2. Do you notice the influence of modern
technology in growing business related
activities of 3Com ?
Frequency
Yes 16
No 4
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
16
4
Column G
Interpretation : Large number of people stated that modern technologies are impacting
positively on the business of venture by growing that.
Theme 3 : Need of digitalisation in various areas of company
3. Which area requires to be more digitalised
with in the organisation ?
Frequency
Human resource department 5
Production department 10
Accounting 5
10

Human resource department
Production department
Accounting
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
5
10
5 Column G
Interpretation : From the above based graphical representation, it can be said that
production sector needs to be more digitalised in relation to other ones.
Theme 4 : Requirement of storage technology
4. What kind of technology is used for the
purpose of storing data in the firm ?
Frequency
Hard disks 4
Cloud technology 10
The Internet of Things 6
Hard disks
Cloud technology
The Internet of Things
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
4
10
6
Column G
Interpretation : Most of the people voted for cloud technology as the means of storing
data on network for a long time period.
Theme 5 : Necessity of digital mode of communication
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5. Which kind of digital techniques of
communication are required in 3Com ?
Frequency
Social media 15
Mobile technology 5
Social media Mobile technology
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16 15
5
Column I
Interpretation : Large number of people are saying that social media such as face - book,
email, What's app, twitter, yahoo, etc. can be taken as the mode of communication in order to do
effective discussion.
Theme 6 : Contribution of modern technology in generating innovation based products
6. Which advanced technology would assist
company in manufacturing innovative
products and services ?
Frequency
Artificial intelligence 16
Big data analytics 4
12

Artificial intelligence Big data analytics
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18 16
4
Column B
Interpretation : Most of the people are in support of artificial intelligence as it aids in
creating best innovative goods and services.
P 6 Recommendation
As per the above research, it can be stated that 3Com corporation should use digital
technologies in their each and every sector in order to improve their performance. This also aids
in seeking attraction of large number of people as modern techniques like artificial intelligence
and big data analytics contributes in manufacturing innovative products and services. In addition
to this, venture can also use cloud technology for keeping their data safe and secure for a long
period of time on cloud. By this way, company can improve their overall production as well as
profit. Digital mode of communication such as social media including What's app, face book,
twitter, gmail, etc. should be used by workers for conveying relevant information to each other.
TASK 4
P 7 Self reflection
After going through complete project, I found that digital technology has changed the
whole scenario of business in the 3Com corporation. They are now focusing on creation of
innovative goods and services by taking help of artificial intelligence technology. Various other
modern techniques are used by corporation like social media, cloud technology, etc. While
doing this project, I have faced different issues as time as well as revenue was present in very
less quantity. Besides this, I have accomplished this report effectively on time.
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CONCLUSION
From the above based report, it can be summarised that digital technology is playing an
important role in business growth of each and every venture. By taking help of modernised
techniques like cloud computing, artificial intelligence, social media, etc. 3Com is running their
business in effect-able manner. Primary and secondary research has been conducted in this report
for finding out the relevant information regarding the theme. For this purpose, questionnaire is
crated by taking interviews of local people and workers. This helps in determining the impact of
digital technology on the business growth of small scale companies.
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