Online and Offline Business: Security, Tools and Comparison Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolving business landscape in the digital age. It begins by comparing and contrasting the advantages and disadvantages of online versus offline sales and service models, considering aspects like market access, overhead costs, competition, and customer trust. The report then delves into the challenges related to security and privacy that individuals and businesses face when operating online, including unauthorized information transfer, weak security, and data breaches. It explores measures for safeguarding data and privacy, such as two-factor authentication and VPN usage. Finally, the report compares and contrasts the features, applications, and suitability of GoToMeeting and TeamViewer as tools for digital communication and remote collaboration, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, offering insights into their functionalities and practical applications for businesses adapting to online operations.

Integrated Professional Skills in the
Digital Age

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Positive and negative aspects of services and products being sold online and offline................3
Challenges and measures of security and privacy that individuals and business take when they
go online......................................................................................................................................5
Comparing and Contrasting features, application and suitability of Go To Meeting and Team
Viewer..........................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Technology has become important part of every individual’s life and all the organisations
operating in current business scenario. Technology has proven to be effective and helpful in
several aspects and among all of them some of the important are increasing reach of the
businesses to its customers and functioning with technology within the organisation. Technology
earlier had important place in business but this has become more important because of current
situation of Covid 19 pandemic. This pandemic brought a new aspects to every type of work and
disabled existing practices. Businesses in order to remain productive and functioning are
requiring that business adopt online practices of working. In this pandemic situation many
business are operating online and are also functioning online such as online communication in
meetings etc. These changes in working pattern are requiring that individuals integrate digital
skills and techniques in their professional skills.
MAIN BODY
Positive and negative aspects of services and products being sold online and offline
Increasing digital utility and convenience being provided by online shopping of products
and services became important part of current business environment. This became important for
businesses to adopt to sell product and services online in order to sustain in competitive
environment of the business. But in times of Covid 19 online selling of products and services
became a requirement to function normally rather than mere convenience. But this also has
positive and negative aspects (Thaichon, 2017). Along with this offline selling of products and
services also has its own positive and negative aspects. Comparison and contrast in them is as
follows-
In terms of online selling of products and services positive aspect of this are;
Easy access to market- This is one of the biggest benefit of selling products and services online
as this enables businesses to easily access to market and increase their customers.
Reduced Overhead- This is another benefit of selling products and services online. This means
that in online selling of the products and services business is mainly required to maintain stock.

They are not required to organise their stock for customers. Customers can check about products
online, give order and businesses are required to deliver the product to the customers. This
reduces unnecessary overheads.
Vast availability of the products and services- One positive aspect of the online selling of
products and services is that it increases availability of products and services. Customers can
purchase products and services by comparing and according to their increased suitability.
Negative aspect of online selling products and services are;
Website cost and maintenance- This is negative aspect of selling products online. Online
shopping is all about attractive website offering all the requirements that customer might need on
the website while shopping. This creates and increases cost of the business and for its
maintenance expertise is also required.
Increased competition- This is an advantage for customers that they can compare with various
brands and product choices before buying products from online website (Rahim and Syahhirah,
2018). This is a negative aspect for businesses that it increases competition.
Offline Selling of Products
This is a traditional way of selling products and services in which customer purchase
products at the physical store of the business. Presently during Covid 19 this type of businesses
had to limit their activities due to fear of spreading the virus. But there are several elements that
reflect its positive side, these are;
High Margin- This is important benefit of offline selling of products and business can maintain
high margin. This is because customer expect online products to be available at less price. This is
not the case in offline selling and business can manage high margin.
Benefits of Trust- Online shopping have a important drawback that customers do not trust
online commerce easily but this case is different in offline selling (Dekimpe, Geyskens and
Gielens, 2019). This is because customers when are able to feel and touch the things they are
able to trust about the quality of the product. Individual and personal relations of business people
can also play important role in building trust.

Dependency of personal relations- Unlike online selling which is mainly dependant on
hardware, software and technology offline selling of product have dependency on the style and
behaviour of the person selling the product. Positive and attractive behaviour of sales employee
and seller of the product can make significant contribution in building positive impression on the
customer in offline selling.
All these are positive aspect of offline selling but along with this negative aspect are also there
and this became significant in time of Covid 19 because selling product through physical stores
can increase possibility of spreading Covid 19. This is the reason that many businesses went
online due to Covid 19 pandemic in order to ensure that their business remain least affected
because of the pandemic situation. Other than present situation of Covid 19 some of the elements
and factors that reflect negative aspect of offline selling.
Limited Availability of the Products- This is most important factor which is an negative aspect
of offline selling the goods and services. No matter what is the size of the store and how much
the store can stock yet it is less than products that are available in online shopping.
Time consuming- This is a negative aspect for customers rather than business that offline
shopping is time consuming and they can get things online as per their convenience. This
perception of customer is negative for business.
Above discussion about positive and negative aspect of selling product online and offline
can be concluded that both have their own benefits and drawbacks (Sarkar and Das, 2017). In
this benefits and positive aspect of the online is negative aspect and drawback for offline and
offline’s positive aspect and benefits are drawback and negative for online selling of products.
Challenges and measures of security and privacy that individuals and business take when they go
online
Digitalization has came with several opportunities for businesses and individuals as well.
Online business and online working all has proved to be very beneficial for individual and
businesses. Present situation of Covid 19 is one of the biggest example which suggests the
benefits and advantages individual had being online. But online working and being online has its
own challenges. Working online and being online for other purposes like shopping individuals
possess several threats to their security. Mainly these threats are in form of security to privacy

and businesses also possess this threat. This threat can become more dangerous and challenging
when businesses and their security is attacked when they are operating online (Sugiura, Wiles
and Pope, 2017). This is because in working online and shopping online customers are required
to share their detail and when security threat affect business this means that there is a threat to
security to data of all customers who are dealing with and have deal with the online business.
This is one of the important challenge for individuals and business while they are online.
The challenges mainly exist in possibility of threat of corrupting and stealing data of
business and individuals and using the data for wrong and illegal means. Some challenges that
business and individuals face are;
Unauthorised transfer of information, this can also be dome by unauthorised access to data and
sources. This is also known as hacking. This is crime and strong measures have been taken by
governments to protect business and individuals from this. Hacking can also be considered as
stealing the data, using the data inappropriately, changing the data affecting accuracy of the data.
All these are serious challenges for the business and individuals concerned with their privacy and
security.
Weak security- This is another challenge for business as well as individuals. Weak security
possesses a challenge and threat for security and privacy of the data. Concerned with weak
security businesses and individuals can create a threat in which their data and information can be
affected unintentionally (Hadwin, Bakhtiar and Miller, 2018). This means that individual and
party causing harm to privacy and security might not be willing to do so but information gets lick
because of weak security of the online system of business and individuals.
Safeguarding data and privacy of customers- This is challenge that is mainly faced by businesses
and they have a challenge that while they operate online. This is because businesses deal with
more data of customers in different ways. This means they collect their financial data and
personal data which enables to identify them. This is a challenge for businesses that data of
customers is kept safe and secure.
Data Magnets- Many times customers data is collected without they have any knowledge and
this is also a challenge of being online. Data magnets operate in several forms and these are;

Collecting information through online registration- Registrations is a process where users and
customers are required to share details about themselves. In terms of challenge customers remain
aware about information that is shared by them and to whom they are sharing the information (de
Grosbois and Tremblay, 2018). But still the threat remains in terms of how the data will be used.
some other challenges in form of data magnets are;
Using Cookies
Identifying users through IP (Internet Protocol) address
Measures for security and privacy of data by individuals and business
There are several challenges to security and privacy of individuals and business and they
can take some measures to ensure their security and privacy remains safe.
Two-factor Authentication- This is a measure that can reduce the threat for both businesses and
individuals. This increase security by providing extra layer of protection for the account, this
includes PIN or confirmation request send to the account holder.
Private Browsing with VPN- This is another measure that businesses can take as this reduces the
risk and threat as VPN protects the data which is shared through private networks (Helsloot,
Tillem and Erkin, 2017).
Blocking Cookies- This means that individuals while they are online they should block third
party cookies because cookies allow third parties to access the information of the individual.
Comparing and Contrasting features, application and suitability of Go To Meeting and Team
Viewer
Covid 19 pandemic came up the threat to life of people and changed every aspect of life.
This has made its impact on all aspects of life which includes living, education and work also got
significantly affected by Covid 19. In such situation business started providing their services on
online platforms. this situation also made its impact on working as employees were not able to
work the way they earlier used to work by being present at the place of work. This required that
business came up with solutions that businesses keep working regardless of present situation. In
this situation digitalization played important role and businesses moved to online platforms for

working along with providing online services. There are several tools has been designed that can
help businesses to move online (Täuscher and Abdelkafi, 2017). Among all the tools two of the
tools are Go To Meeting and Team Viewer. These are tools which enable employees to connect
with each other and share desk and these tool operates in form of software. Features, application
and suitability of these is as follows-
Features of Team Viewer are as follows-
Remote device control- enables to control devise as individual is sitting in front of it.
Cross-platform access- this means that PC to PC, PC to mobile can be connected
VPN Alternative- this feature enables to get enterprise class security and scalability
Secure unattended access- this features enables to access unattended computer servers, mobile
devise and point of sale device
Mobile device access
Wakeup, Restart and Install- this feature enables to remotely wake, restart and install application
on sleeping device
Flexible file sharing option
Remote printing- this means that documents can locally be printed while accessing to remote
computer devise and along with this several other features are provided by TeamViewer.
Features of GO To Meeting
This is another tool that can be used by businesses and this tool helps individual in
connecting with their colleagues, clients in real time through internet. This also include desktop
sharing. Features of the tool are;
Screen sharing- allows to share desktop, smartphone screen quickly and securely from anywhere
Conference calling
Video conferencing

Mobile conferencing- this allows to start online meetings from the mobile devise
Meeting recording and transcription- This feature allows recording meeting, taking notes,
marking action item and sharing them once meeting is over
Conference room equipment- Hardware bundled with professional, user-friendly video
conferencing software in one simple kit.
Schedule meeting and along with this several other features that enables individuals and
businesses to conduct meeting as they are meeting in real time and physically (Kuhn, Galloway
and Collins-Williams, 2016).
Application of TeamViewer and GoToMeeting
TeamViewer is applicable for remote control, desktop sharing, online meetings, web
conferencing and file transferring between computers. Application of this also allows to remote
monitoring of the devise.
GoToMeeting application enables individual to take their work along with them and in
this Covid 19 situation they can work from home instead of going to office. Application of
GoToMeeting also allows to host and join meetings anywhere and at any time and at any devise.
Suitability of TeamViewer and GoToMeeting
Tools come up with their different suitability and all the tools are not suitable for every
problem and every situation (Athanasopoulou and De Reuver, 2020). This is why suitability of
TeamViewer and GoToMeeting differ on the basis of nature of problem and situation.
Suitability of TeamViewer
Suitability of TeamViewer varies as this has several features that are suitable for different
problems and situations but this is mainly suitable for remote control. This is because though
there are several features for this it specializes in remote control and this suggests that its
services are more qualitative in remote control due to extra emphasis on remote control.
Suitability of GoToMeeting

Features in GoToMeeting are also of several types and provides solution for different
problems of the business. But major emphasis of the problem is on meeting organisations and
this is why it is more suitable for conducting meetings. This is because meetings can be
conducted through this and along with this it also provides management related to meeting
referring to their scheduling and organisation and recording to the meetings (Koupaei and
Khamseh, 2017). This suggests that this is suitable in conducting and providing qualitative
services.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion it can be concluded that online platforms and tools has
become important and significant part of businesses. Businesses that are able to sell their
products offline are also moving to online platforms. But this does not ensure that all the aspects
of online are positive and favourable it comes up with its own challenges. Challenges extend to
several forms and these are challenges for security privacy and in these challenges individuals
and customers also have to deal with threat to privacy and security. Overcoming all the
challenges and retaining to its benefits Covid 19 required that all the businesses will require
adapting to online platforms in order to ensure their survival. Regarding this two of the online
tools were also discussed in the report regarding their features and suitability.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Athanasopoulou, A. and De Reuver, M., 2020. How do business model tools facilitate business
model exploration? Evidence from action research. Electronic Markets. pp.1-14.
de Grosbois, J. and Tremblay, L., 2018. Which measures of online control are least sensitive to
offline processes?.
Dekimpe, M.G., Geyskens, I. and Gielens, K., 2019. Using technology to bring online
convenience to offline shopping. Marketing Letters. pp.1-5.
Hadwin, A.F., Bakhtiar, A. and Miller, M., 2018. Challenges in online collaboration: Effects of
scripting shared task perceptions. International Journal of Computer-Supported
Collaborative Learning. 13(3). pp.301-329.
Helsloot, L.J., Tillem, G. and Erkin, Z., 2017. Privacy concerns and protection measures in
online behavioural advertising.
Koupaei, M.N. and Khamseh, A.A., 2017. An integrated enterprise resources planning
framework for supply chain management using business intelligence tools. International
Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling. 9(3). pp.202-214.
Kuhn, K., Galloway, T. and Collins-Williams, M., 2016. Near, far, and online: Small business
owners’ advice-seeking from peers. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development.
Rahim, A. and Syahhirah, N., 2018. A study on concern about disadvantages online shopping
among online shoppers/Noor Syahhirah Ab. Rahim (Doctoral dissertation, Universiti
Teknologi MARA, Melaka).
Sarkar, R. and Das, S., 2017. Online shopping vs Offline shopping: A comparative
study. International Journal Scientific Research in Science and Technology IJSRST, 3
(1), pp.424-431.
Sugiura, L., Wiles, R. and Pope, C., 2017. Ethical challenges in online research: Public/private
perceptions. Research Ethics. 13(3-4), pp.184-199.
Täuscher, K. and Abdelkafi, N., 2017. Visual tools for business model innovation:
Recommendations from a cognitive perspective. Creativity and Innovation
Management. 26(2). pp.160-174.
Thaichon, P., 2017. Consumer socialization process: The role of age in children's online
shopping behavior. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 34. pp.38-47.