Integrated Professional Skills: Challenges and Strategies

This report examines the integration of professional skills in the digital age, focusing on the distinctions between online and offline sales strategies, using Missguided as a case study. It highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, emphasizing customer convenience, operational costs, and market reach. The report also addresses critical security and privacy challenges, such as e-skimming, credit card fraud, DDoS attacks, and malware, detailing the measures companies like Missguided undertake to mitigate these risks, including anti-malware software and vigilant transaction monitoring. Furthermore, it compares and contrasts online service tools, particularly in light of the shift towards online services accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Desklib provides access to this report and other solved assignments for students.

Integrated Professional
Skills in Digital Age

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Comparison and contrast among positive as well as negative aspects of products and services
that are being sold offline and online..........................................................................................1
Discussion about challenges together with measures of security and privacy which people and
companies take while going online..............................................................................................4
Because of COVID-19, various entities are turning to provide their services online. Choosing
two tools and them comparing along with contrasting their characteristics, applications,
suitability, etc...............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
In digital age, there are huge number of new, advanced and innovative technologies
available in market that assist individuals and businesses to carry out operations along with
activities properly (Atolagbe and Floyd, 2020). Integrated professional skills could be described
to combined skill sets which dictate the ways in which an individual interact with people that are
around them. Interest in work, initiative, setting goals, quality of work, creativity, problem
solving and ability to learn are assimilated in digital era for smooth running of a venture in
competitive environment. In current times of COVID-19, technology has played huge role in
various businesses so to keep their services online as well as conduct communications in form of
conferences, meetings and many more online.
The report highlights positive and negative aspects about selling products as well as
services online and offline. It further discussion challenges together with measures of security
and privacy which are undertaken while going online. At last, it includes details of two tools that
help many businesses to provide services online.
MAIN BODY
Comparison and contrast among positive as well as negative aspects of products and services that
are being sold offline and online
When products and services of company are being sold online and offline, they result in
huge positive and negative impacts on business. Missguided is a UK based retailer that is popular
for selling clothes online and offline (Missguided, 2021). Mentioned below includes comparison
and contrast about various aspects to sell products and services offline and online in context to
Misguided:
Comparison
basis
Products and services being sold
online
Products and services being sold
offline
Positive aspects  Convenience: It is foremost
positive aspects of
commodities being sold
online. It is because
customers while shopping
online do not find huge lines,
 Forming and managing
personalised relationships
with audience: When
products as well as services of
company being sold offline, it
positively impacts in
1

traffic on internet and carry
heavy shopping bags. For
example, business such as
Missguided offers same day
delivery in certain cities that
is convenient for customers to
shop online.
 Less operation cost: Selling
products and services online
lowers cost of operations of a
company. For instance,
selling online by Missguided
remove requirements of
expensive premises, customer
no storage space is needed to
perform online transactions.
 Customer intelligence:
Online sales improves ability
of company to adopt online
marketing tools for the
purpose of targeting new
customer’s addition to
website analysis tools for the
purpose of gaining insights of
needs of customers.
Generating higher revenues:
Selling organisational
offerings online permits direct
sales of low prices
commodities with discounts
addition to promotions. When
establishing relationships with
stakeholders including
customers and many more
(Zhang, Liu and Feng, 2019).
In context to Missguided,
selling products offline helps
in meeting customers’
personally, understanding
their demands and showing
them first hand so to make
them loyal clients.
 Lesser chances of product
return: While selling products
from store, customers try by
themselves that is better for
them. It impacts positively on
company, such as Missguided
as customers while purchasing
from stores makes trials of
each item that decreases
chances of return rate.
 Customer retention: Selling
offerings of venture offline
impacts positively to retain
customers for future period
(Li, Chen and Zhang, 2020).
For Missguided, it is easier to
retain loyal customer base
through selling products from
its physical stores.
 Huge personalisation to
2

Missguided initiated to sell
products and services online,
it impacted positively to
reduce distribution costs with
the help of intermediaries
which assisted in generating
huge revenues.
customers: When selling
products and services offline,
it impacts positively to
provide one to one
interactions between
customers and experts of
company. For instance, when
company sell wearable from
stores, it provides huge
personalised facilities that
satisfy customers.
Negative
aspects
 Increased competition:
Through selling products and
services online, not only
customer base of a company
enhances but also increases
level of competition (Kang,
Chai and Kim, 2017). For
Missguided, getting accurate
level of online visibility in the
retail industry is not easy nor
granted.
 Website costs: To sale
products and services online,
planning, designing,
developing, hosting and
maintaining professional
website is not cheap. It is
analysed that selling products
online increases website costs
for Missguided, particularly
 Limited audience reach: It is
analysed that online sales
provides global exposure to
business, however, offline
sales causes limited reach to
audience. Areas that are
covered by managers of
Missguided are restricted to
some geographical areas while
selling products from physical
stores.
 Time frame: Selling
organisational products and
services offline impacts
negatively on constraint of
time. In case with Missguided,
the company open its stores or
perform operations for some
time only because they are
required to be closed at certain
3

when the business is
expecting growing sales
volume.
 Legal issues: Attaining grips
for selling products and
services online requires
adherence of legislations that
is challenging in nature for
business. For instance, when
products being sold online,
Missguided is required to
have awareness about laws
and plan to cope with
customer’s rights.
time.
 Deals alert: There are
multiple types of deals
launched by company when
its products are sold offline
(Wilk, Soutar and Harrigan,
2019). However, limited
people have awareness about
them. In context to
Missguided, there is lack of
communication while
notifying potential consumers
about current and upcoming
sales deal.
There is similarity when products and services of company being sold offline and online.
One of it is good customer services as when managers of Missguided are selling wither by online
or offline modes, delivery of good customer service is required. Another similarity in online and
offline sales is that both offers great variant of services and products as per taste, demand and
preferences of end user. Both of these modes offers large product line to customers so to meet
their satisfaction level and retain them for achieving sustainable competitive edge. Another
similarity in online and offline sales is interactive experience (Zifla and Wattal, 2019). Through
enhanced characteristics of website and stores of company, that is Missguided, shoppers have
possibilities to see what a product could look in distinct size, colour and many more for
determining customers about exact fit addition to shape.
Discussion about challenges together with measures of security and privacy which people and
companies take while going online
Security and privacy of data in a business is essential in digital age. While going online, all
people and organisations, faces various kinds of security and privacy issues. It has been
determined that security related challenges arises at the time when hacker gains unauthorised
access to site of written language or protected coding. At same time, privacy issues comprise
4

unwarranted access of private information. In aspect to Missguided, mentioned below are some
security and privacy related challenges faced and measures undertaken:
E-skimming: It is a hacker method for stealing data including card information, ranging
from payment card that processes to pages on online sites (Hathaliya and Tanwar, 2020). This is
a significant security challenge faced by Missguided while going online as shoppers are
misguided by misleading portals as well as external links to payment pages. It is analysed that
cyber criminals gain access to E-commerce site of venture through a third party that is successful
phishing attempt or any cross site scripting. With this, people faces issues in maintaining security
of payment information. Also, organisation faces threat to secure shopper payment information
when customer accesses payment page. For avoiding the challenge, it is essential for the
company, that is Missguided to ensure that website is secure, remind target and potential
customers about never entering details on unverified websites as well as prompt them to have
continuous check about whether payment page is genuine.
Credit card fraud: In old classic and digital era, credit card fraud is most common
security challenge that is faced by people and company while going online because of the fact
that it is so difficult to trace. In online sites, detecting that any fraudulent transaction arise is
important step, however, it is not easy task, particularly in case when site processes huge number
of transactions in a day (Mollah, Azad and Vasilakos, 2017). Some of signs related to security
challenges that help people of Missguided spots while going online are sale of much higher value
than the company is used to receiving, successful order preceded through multiple unsuccessful
ones, order which is set to ship to an address other than address of billing and IP address of
customer is not in sale location according to billing details of order. It is significant to attempt
trial as well as verify kinds of transactions while going online prior undertaking any payment.
For Missguided, staying vigilant against security challenge of card fraud is vital for protecting
practices and maintain great customer experiences while going online.
Distributed Denial of service attacks: DDoS attack is a privacy challenge faced by
businesses while going online. It is an attack wherein attacker opts diverse computers for hitting
private server with fake traffic for making organisational website inaccessible or not able to
function properly for legitimate users. It entails organisational website’s servers that are being
flooded with requests from potentially huge people of untraceable IP addresses. In Missguided, it
is driven by manipulation of IoT devices that are most sophisticated attacks causing entire site to
5

go online and leaves path open for more vicious attacks. Frequency of the privacy challenge is
on rise because of peak sales period. It costs the company thousands of lost revenues along with
mitigation. The costliest damage that are done by the challenge is reputational that enhances
losing trust and confidence of customers.
Malware: It is said to a piece of software which is designed through cyber criminals in
order to gain access or damage a computer network. While a person and business goes online,
they face the privacy threat that emphasis on retrieving private and confidential information
along with encrypt ample number of disks together with drivers (Kumar, Saini and Cuong,
2020). In case with Misguided, malware is kind of privacy challenge faced by the company. It is
bets linked to online payment data, card data or stole any other personal information illegally and
then further sell it out. When inserted into web pages with the help of techniques such as SQL
injection, files of malware could permit hackers to take control of network and computers of
company, send malicious emails on organisational behalf, temper databases and gain complete
access of all private data on systems.
For the purpose of dealing with mentioned challenges of privacy and security, there are
huge measures opted by people and entity at the time of going online. Some measures that are
used by information technology manager of Missguided to handle the challenges while going
online are as follows:
Anti-Malware software: It is a software program that is created and installed to protect
information technology systems as well as individual computers against privacy challenge that is
malware. Within Misguided, installation of anti-malware program scan computer system with
the purpose of preventing, detecting addition to removing malware. It renders all types of hidden
malware on organisational website. One of program that is used in the venture is ‘Astra Malware
Scanner” that helps in scanning the web system for all malicious software round the clock
together with is at disposal. Moreover, the measure lets business and people to automate scans
with feature of schedule a scan in which they schedule scans on the basis of daily, weekly,
monthly addition to fortnightly (Swamy, Jadhav and Kulkarni, 2017).
Strong passwords: In a business who is going online, strong password is one of measure
for food online security. Within Missguided, setting strong password helps to deal with security
challenge of credit card fraud. It is because strong password provides essential protection against
financial fraud as well as determine theft. It is determined that hackers break into system while
6

going online through guessing passwords as simple together with most commonly used password
enables intruders in easily gaining access to computing devise on online business. People and
businesses are changing ways to set password that are unrecognised by hackers which protect
practices to go online against challenges by setting strong passwords for websites along with
other aspects. The entity makes password that are complex to be guessed by others (Cram,
D'arcy and Proudfoot, 2019).
Scheduled backup: It permits the venture to relax as managers know that all types of
private information are being backed up as well as they are limiting what they might lose. In
Missguided, scheduled backup is a measure to deal with security challenge that is E-skimming,
because it performs huge significant practices to address challenges. Information Technology
managers of the organisation schedule backups to some external hard drives as well as in cloud
for securing information safely.
Because of COVID-19, various entities are turning to provide their services online. Choosing
two tools and them comparing along with contrasting their characteristics, applications,
suitability, etc.
Some of the tools that are used in business, that is Missguided for providing its services
online are as compared and contrasted underneath:
Basis of comparison Team viewer Zoom
Overview of tool Team viewer is one of tools that
allow maintaining computer as well
as other devices while providing
services online. It was first released
in the year 2005 and further
expanded phase by phase
(Marakana, Parmar and Shah,
2021). It is an application that
permits for remote control, sharing
of desktop along with files among
computers. Purpose of Team viewer
in Missguided is to connect to
various workstations for providing
Zoom is proprietary video
teleconferencing software
program that was initially
released in 2012. The tool allows
approximate to 100 concurrent
participants with 40-minute
restriction of time. In
Missguided, purpose of Zoom
app is to set webinars, virtual
video along with audio
conferencing, screen sharing,
live chats, etc for providing
services online. It is type of
7

services online which are not
located at same location. It is
complete package for online
meetings and establishing
connection immediately.
communication tool whose
appeal is simple and easy to get
started for completion of
practices.
Features Key features of Team viewer are
mentioned below:
 Easy transfer of
information: Team Viewer
is characterised for easy
transfer of control from one
person to another. In
Missguided, use of Team
Viewer to provide services
online speeds of workflow
together with improvises
productivity by transferring
information easily.
 Managing multiple
parties: Team Viewer
arranges team sessions that
make it easy for
administration to manage
various parties at particular
time while delivering
services online (Abraham,
2021).
 Recording sessions: Team
Viewer help businesses to
record remote access
meetings along with
Features related to Zoom are
discussed underneath:
 Dynamic voice
detection: Zoom have
primary camera view that
automates toggle to
active speaker (Haqien
and Rahman, 2020).
 Large rooms along with
webinar: Sessions on
Zoom could be expanded
for participation of larger
groups, including 500
interactive participants in
10000 viewers through
webinars or large rooms.
 Recording: Use of Zoom
helps Misguided people
to record meetings locally
together with uploading
to OneDrive video,
YouTube and other
platforms.
 Screen along with
applications sharing:
Zoom allows team of
8

sessions which the team
hold remotely to deliver
services online.
 Multi-platform access:
Electronic devices such as
laptops, mobile phones
together with tablets are
fully compatible with the
tool connections. The
feature helps Missguided
and the team members to
have accessibility of any
computer regardless of
devise they are using.
company to share whole
desktop as well as
individual applications.
 Collaboration: Zoom
have feature to
collaborate with 300 UR
together with external
non-UR people
comprising white
boarding, breakout
rooms, chat and
annotations.
 Scheduling: Zoom have
various options such as
browser, client as well as
plugin, comprising
delegation to co-hosts
together with schedulers.
Applications One of application of Team Viewer
is providing scheduling function for
set up of business. In Missguided,
Team Viewer is applied to conduct
meetings with huge number of
participants along with arranging a
date, time, etc that suits best to
deliver services online.
Application of Zoom is majorly
seen in Universities or other
educational places wherein study
related content are shared on
personal accounts of Zoom app.
Moreover, application of Zoom
in Missguided are to drive
workflows addition to engage
experiences.
Suitability Team Viewer is suitable for
businesses that remotely control
other devices. In Misguided, Team
Viewer is suitable tool as it let the
Zoom is a tool that is suitable to
bring best of breed applications
into experiences for engaging
experiences addition to seamless
9