Continental Consulting: Digital Technology and Business Growth Project

This project report focuses on the impact of digital technology, particularly social media, on the growth and communication of Continental Consulting Limited, a small business providing consultancy services. The project begins with defining aims and objectives, including a project management plan covering costs, scope, time, quality, and risk. A work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are also developed. The research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, primarily using questionnaires to gather primary data. Data analysis is performed to draw valid conclusions and make recommendations for the company. The report concludes with a reflection on learning outcomes and the overall impact of digital technology on small business operations, emphasizing the importance of strategic implementation for enhanced communication and growth. The project's timeline is approximately 15 weeks, and it addresses critical aspects of project management within the context of a business consultancy adapting to digital advancements.

Managing Small
Business Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Devise project aims and objectives...................................................................................1
P2 Project management plan covering cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk, and
resources.................................................................................................................................2
P3 Work break down structure and Gantt chart with time frame and stages.........................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
P4 Small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods............8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
P5Analysis of data with appropriate tools and techniques...................................................10
P6 Recommendations on the basis of research and data analysis to draw valid and meaningful
conclusion.............................................................................................................................20
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................21
P7 Own learning and outcomes from research objectives....................................................21
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................24

INTRODUCTION
Digital technology have played a crucial role in the organisation as it helps in achieving
higher growth and sustainability. Small business means enterprise which has 50 or less number
of employees. These business operates its business at small scale. Management of business can
be done with proper planning and actions are taken in order to get positive results (Ajmal, Helo
and Kekäle, 2010). There is requirement of various resources which helps in managing and
improving working style. This report is based on Continental Consulting Limited which deals in
business consulting services. The business is planning to upgrade their working style with
adoption of digital technology. They have view that with up-gradation of IT facilities, they will
be compete effectively in the market and avail higher sales revenue. Hence they are thinking to
use social media in order to market their services. In this report there is discussion about project
aims and objectives, small scale research, recommendations and conclusion from project and last
learning from the project and its usefulness.
TASK 1
P1 Devise project aims and objectives
Digitalisation means use of technology in working of an organisation. There are different
ways through which digitalisation can be adopted by Continental Consulting Limited such as
portable mobile application. This is one of the effect tool through which marketing of services is
possible. It is essential that managers that to plan properly and educate employees related to
digitalisation. Continental Consulting Limited must give emphasise on analyse need and
requirement of clients for organisation growth and development. This is effective for making
association growing. In order to implement social media technology such as Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, etc. market analyse is one of the essential factor. These days digitalisation is
taking place very frequently, so organisation must implement these techniques in order to
improve working style through ease in communication, proper market research. This also helps
in competing effectively with other organisations in industry. As in case of business consultancy,
there is difference in demand of clients, so with the help of social media, it is easy to interact and
provide prompt solution (Pinto, 2015).
Title of project
Impact of digital technology supporting small business growth and innovation. A Case study of
Continental Consulting Limited.
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Background of project
As per scenario, Continental Consulting Limited is an organisation provides business
consultancy services. They have clients from London and Greater London. This organisation has
team of 22 expert consultants and researchers in order to provide good services. As per change in
time, there is requirement of IT facilities in order to facilitate working and compete with
competitors in industry. Managers of Continental Consulting Limited that there technology is
obsolete and there is requirement of up-gradation, hence they are coming with concept of social
media (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017).
Aim of project
“To identify the impact of social media on improving business communication and growth. - A
case study on Continental Consulting Limited.”
Objectives
 To access role of social media in improving communication of Continental Consulting
Limited.
 To determine impact of social media on various departments of Continental Consulting
Limited. To analyse relationship between business growth of Continental Consulting Limited and
implementation of social media.
Questions
 How social media assist in improving communication of Continental Consulting
Limited?
 What impact does social media have on various departments of Continental Consulting
Limited?
 State the relationship which has been shared between business growth and social media ?
P2 Project management plan covering cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk, and
resources
Project management plan is a formal and legal document providing information related to
resources which are implementing of project work. This plan consist of three activities i.e.
execution, monitoring, controlling (Meskendahl, 2010). Project management plan is overview of
implementing digitalisation in operational practices of an organisation. There is requirement of
various resources which helps in managing operations of digitalisation. Hence managers has to
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plan properly so that it helps to perform operations in effective and possibilities of positive
outcome are bright. This planning document is effective for communicating with experts at
Continental Consulting Limited. There is requirement of various resources such as money,
employees, time, etc. so with the help of project management plan it is easy to allocate resources.
There is ease in communicating with employees and delivering information related to execution
of project.
Cost- Cost is the financial data which is incurred in implementing social media. This is
essential element which has to be considered by managers of Continental Consulting Limited
(Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). Social media includes Facebook, You tube, Instagram, Twitter,
LinkedIn, etc. which includes cost for promotion. When managers are thinking to implement
social media. Then there is requirement of training of workers, so positive results can be
achieved.
Basis Amount (£)
Operational activities 2000
Research and development 1500
IT Cost 1500
Marketing cost 1000
Maintenance cost 700
Total 6700
Scope- It is important to analyse scope of digital technology i.e. social media. It is
important that technique which Continental Consulting Limited are implementing must give
some value addition in their growth. It can be said that scope of using social media in business
communication is high as it helps in facilitation ideal interaction with prospective clients of the
company and identify their feedbacks and service requirements. This helps in satisfaction of
consumers and this promotes good and long term relations with them.
Time- Time to implement social media is short, but training program of employees may
take time which might prove to be time consuming (Rosenau and Githens, 2011). If update of
technology is not done appropriately, then this affects working style of Continental Consulting
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Limited in a negative manner. Time required in order to complete this project is approximately
15 weeks.
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Quality- These days quality is one prime factor which consumer want. In case of business
consultancy client want good solutions. There are different techniques such as flow chart,
benchmarking, scatter diagram, Pareto diagram, etc. which must be used in order to ensure that
positive results can be achieved. Managers must keep eyes on each activity through which they
can reduce possibilities of negative results and in case of flaws corrective action can be taken
frequently.
Communication- Communication means to share ideas, thoughts, views, etc. with one
another. There are many ways through which team mates performing project can take corrective
actions. They might use conference call, video calling in order to communicate. While for
sharing data email must be use which might be safe and authentic, so possibilities of
miscommunication gets reduced (Müller and Turner, 2010). So this helps to communicate with
internal as well as external parties of Continental Consulting Limited. So social media is one of
the effective way which helps in interaction among parties.
Risk- While implementing this project, there are possibilities of getting failure because of
lack of leadership and direction. There are possibilities that operations of team mates may exceed
the budget, in this case project may get delayed. In order to overcome these risk, there is
requirement of proper leadership and planning.
Resources- There is requirement of some resources such as employees, legal advisors,
etc. in order to perform work in effective and efficient manner. These are the parties which assist
in growth and development of business. Managers of Continental Consulting Limited has to plan
requirement and accordingly actions has to be taken.
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P3 Work break down structure and Gantt chart with time frame and stages
Work breakdown structure- Work break down structure is a tool used in project
management. This structure distributes whole project activities in different parts. This helps to
perform project in more effective and efficient manner. As in project there are different activities
such data collection, data philosophy, data analysis, etc. So with the help of work break down
structure, these activities are performed in better manner (Shen and et. al., 2010). This structure
provides distributes activities among different departments and project can be done with positive
results. In case of Continental Consulting Limited, it is easy to allocate roles and responsibilities
and in case of negative results cause can be known effectively. If work break down structure of
organisation is not clear then there is risk of duplication of project activities and this may lead to
wastage of resources which is costly approach to Continental Consulting Limited.
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Illustration 1: Work Breakdown structure
(Source: Work Breakdown structure, 2017)
Gantt Chart- Gantt Chart is a horizontal chart launched in 1917 by Henry L. Gantt, an
American engineer and social scientist. This is the chart which provides knowledge about start
and finish date of project. This helps managers to perform project activities in effective and
efficient way. This chart helps to perform activities at appropriate time and hence project will
complete at specific date. There is ease in coordination and monitoring of project activities.
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Time scale is part of Gantt Chart which provides specific time for every activities. In
short, time scale divides whole project activities on the basis of specific time. This assist in
completion of project on time. In case of delay in project, then managers of Continental
Consulting Limited can take appropriate actions as they are aware of are of flaws. Time period
for completion of Continental Consulting Limited project is approximately 15 weeks.
TASK 2
P4 Small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods
Research means collecting data in systematic way so it can provide some information
about the subject. In case of Continental Consulting Limited, they are planning to apply social
media in working, so with the help of research they can analyse whether implementation of
social media is effective or not. Research data can be collected with the help of qualitative an
quantitative method.
Qualitative research- This is the research which is conducted to know about opinion,
views, reasons, etc. of people. Qualitative research helps to know about ideas, thoughts related to
some subject and helps to give overview on it (Meredith and Mantelm, 2011). Information
collected from qualitative research is in unstructured form which might differs as per perception
of researcher. Qualitative research can done through exploratory research. Data from this
research can be collected with the help of focus group, individual interview, etc. In this research
population is small and recommendations are given on this basis.
Quantitative research- This is the data which contains numerical, statistical data which is
relevant and related to the subject matter. In this research data is organised in systematic manner.
As per this research, problem quantifies and then actions are taken in order to resolve issue.
Quantitative research can be descriptive or experimental. In case of Continental Consulting
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Limited descriptive research is used. Online portfolios, questionnaire, etc. are sources to collect
quantitative data.
There are two types of data which is collected in order to pursue research in effective
way. They are primary and secondary data.
Primary data- This is the data which is collected from individuals themself. This data s
current and relevant as per problem.
Secondary data- Secondary data is collect from different sources such as online source,
newspaper, journals, etc. which might be old and published for some other author (Schwalbe,
2015).
In case of Continental Consulting Limited, quantitative research is done and data is
collected through primary data. Questionnaire is used in this report as collecting source of
primary data. In this report research is done to know relevance of social media at work place so
sample size is 50 respondents. Customers and employees are target respondents for Continental
Consultancy Limited.
Questionnaire
Q1) Are you aware about concept of social media?
Yes
No
Q2) Do you use social media?
Yes
No
Q3) Do you think social media implementation is beneficial for purpose of business
communication ?
Yes
No
Can't say
Q4) Which departments of Continental Consulting Limited gets affected with implementation
of social media?
HR
Finance
Research and development
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