The Impact of Digital Technology on Business Growth and Innovation

This report examines the impact of digital technology, particularly cloud technology, on business operations, focusing on a case study of Continental Consulting Ltd. It includes a project aim and objectives, project management plan, work breakdown structure, and Gantt chart. The report further delves into qualitative and quantitative research methods, analyzing data using appropriate tools and techniques, and offering recommendations. The research explores the benefits of cloud technology, such as improved communication, data storage, and business operation upgrades. It also identifies potential challenges, including data privacy and service provider reliability. The assignment concludes with a reflection on the findings and provides recommendations for implementing cloud technology to enhance business operations and growth. The report uses primary and secondary research methods, including questionnaires, to gather data and draw valid conclusions about the impact of cloud technology.

MANAGING SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Project Aim and Objectives...............................................................................................1
P2 Project Management Plan..................................................................................................2
P3 Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt Chart....................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Small- Scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods...........6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5 Analysis of research and data using appropriate tools and techniques.............................8
P6 Recommendations...........................................................................................................17
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................18
P7 Reflection........................................................................................................................18
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20
Appendix .......................................................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
Digital can be define as electronic technology that helps company in storing, generating
and processing data. Therefore, digital technology is determined as an electronic transmission i.e.
limited to analogue technology, utilised by organisation each and every day (Avram, 2014) .
Thus, it is used primarily for physical communications by many of the firms that has vast scope.
According to the case scenario, “Continental Consulting Limited” is a consultancy firm and
provide services of Re-engineering to other companies. As company is now going through a bad
phase and thinking of upgrading their business operations for which they have planned to
implement cloud technology to store and share information effectively (Carayannis, Sindakis
and Walter, 2015). Present report will include a project aim and objective on the basis of which
entire project will be developed. Other than this, project management plan will be included in
this assignment. In addition to this, work breakdown structure is mentioned in this report.
Therefore, on the basis of this, a small research will be conducted to draw a valid conclusion.
TASK 1
P1 Project Aim and Objectives
Topic: “The impact of digital technology supporting small business growth and innovation”
Digital technology was initially started in the mid-twentieth century. In recent times, it is
playing a crucial role for many companies in order to take their business in forward direction.
Thus, digital technology has transformed the way through which a person communicate with
other individual. Cloud computing is determined as an important component of digital
technology as it provide a shared pool in which several computer system are configured and
connected with one another. This makes the process of transferring information more properly.
With the help of cloud computing, company can enable themselves in many services like
software development, servers, storage and software etc. Henceforth, cloud technology has
evolved as a new paradigm in software development as it provides access to organisation that are
established in different locations but dealing in same business.
BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
Cloud technology is rich technology that can be utilised by organisation because through
this they can save, store and access data and information. For example: If Continental Consulting
Limited will implement cloud technology than through solid internet service connection, they
1

can access to personal and office files. Those who provides cloud technology are known as cloud
providers and according to current scenario, company have many options for opting this
technology like Dropbox, Box.com etc., but as Continental Consulting Ltd is a independent
enough in making their own cloud and for this, they just have to hire a technician and a software
developer who can help company in doing the same (Corsaro, 2014) .
Therefore, Continental Consulting Ltd can use cloud technology as a back-end of the
application mainly hardware and other than this, company can implement cloud technology as
pay for services. As a result, it will assist firm in upgrading their services and business
operations. Henceforth, with the help of this, research firm will get to know about how cloud
technology or any other kind of software company can implement so that they can upgrade their
business operations.
Aims: “To identify the impact of cloud technology in upgrading business operations”.
A case study on Continental Consulting Ltd.
Objectives:
1. To determine the concept of cloud technology.
2. To evaluate how cloud technology is assisting Continental Consulting Ltd in upgrading
their business.3. To determine different kinds of challenges which can be faced by Continental Consulting
Ltd while implementing cloud technology
Research Questions:
4. What are the concepts of cloud technology.
5. How is cloud technology assisting Continental Consulting Ltd in upgrading their
business.
6. What are the different kinds of challenges which can be faced by is while implementing
cloud technology
P2 Project Management Plan
Planning is determined as a process under which activities which can provide benefits
that are taken into considerations so that desired goals and objectives can be achieved in a
speculated time frame. In every business, they have proper plan which they follow in order to get
maximum benefits (Crane and Matten, 2016). Project management plan is a kind of document
that act a baseline for a company which can be further go through by respective firms if in near
2

future they faces any kind of difficulties (Project Management Plan, 2018). Therefore, a project
management plan is used as a references so as to make any kind of decision that can further help
organisation in obtaining their set targets and objectives in a limited time frame. In most of the
companies, Project Management Plan (PMP) is available to all project members so that they can
communicate the important information to its team members in order to execute their activities in
a better manner .
In addition to this, there are certain contents that are to be included in Project
Management Plan for making it more effective in nature and these are executive summary,
strategic/organisational alignment, project scope definition, feasibility assessment and
contingency plans, human resource requirements, material/equipment needed, budget, risk
management, issues related to the project, change and communication management (Hillson,
and Murray-Webster, 2017).
Cost: Basically, the cost of cloud technology is based on three components i.e. network,
storage and compute. According to the data used by an organisation, cloud providers charge their
rates. In relation with Continental Consulting Ltd, as they are making their own cloud so for the
entire process from software development to implementation will be require £18K.
Scope: Earlier for Continental Consulting Ltd, connecting with its clients and transferring
information was quite difficult as their range of area was limited but after implementation of
cloud technology firm can connect in 50 regions worldwide through their AWS providers . As a
result, resolving issues and problems of other organisation and providing them with solutions is
quite easier as compared to technologies which Continental Consulting Ltd was having.
Time: This is requisite to scheduled time duration of execution of numerous decision to
carry out effective outcome. In order to implement cloud technology properly, Continental
Consulting Ltd, will take around 8 weeks. Under this duration period, company will provide
proper training to their employees so that they can manage the task and do their activities in a
better manner (Hillson, 2017).
Quality: With the help of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) company can improve their
network, PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service) will assist firm in
developing different kind of software Therefore, by implementing all these, Continental
Consulting Ltd can upgrade their business operations and improve their quality as well.
3

Communication: According to the current market scenario, through cloud technology,
company can enhance their communication system as cloud technology assist firm in sharing and
storing information in a better manner. To interact this information with stakeholders and other
public, organisation will use new media tools.
Risk: Although cloud technology provides maximum benefits but there are some risk as
well which can put company in difficult situations. Major risk of implementing cloud technology
is misuse of information as cloud technology performs a method of making multiple copies as a
backup store which can further be used by other sources. Therefore, there might be a possibility
that critical information of clients are disclosed (Larson and Chang, 2016).
Resources: In terms of cloud technology, resources mainly includes software through
which system can become dynamic. In order to develop this technology, company needs key
resources including Infrastructure-as-a-service, Platform-as-a-service, Software-as-a-service
along with financial assets etc.
P3 Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt Chart
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): It is determined as a hierarchical tree structure that
shows the activities which are to be performed are segmented into smaller segments. This is used
by most of the companies in order to manage their task so that receptive teams can execute the
plan in an effective manner. Therefore, Work Breakdown Structure is an important component
that helps company in dividing the task according to section from where it can be managed.
WBS can be classified into product, data, services or a combination of all these.
4

Gantt Chart: It is a type of chart that demonstrate a project schedule so that company can
have an idea about the task that are to be performed under a speculated time frame. Thus,
according to modern Gantt Chart it is used to show dependency and relationship between
activities and scheduled status. Moreover, it is represented in bar chart which illustrates project
schedule.
5

TASK 2
P4 Small- Scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods
Qualitative: In simple terms, this comes under exploratory research and it is being used
by many researcher for having a proper understanding between different reasons, opinions
provided by various scholars. Basically, qualitative research is based on theories and includes
research concepts and methods from different academic field. Furthermore, it is used by
researcher in order to vary their conducted research from various disciplinary backgrounds (Li
and et. al., 2012).
Quantitative: It is determined as a systematic empirical investigation with the help of
statistical or mathematical database. Most of the companies use this kind of method so as to
conduct their research using sampling methods, online surveys etc.
6

Primary: This kind of data collection method is used by many researcher as information
collected from this are for the first time and no one else has used it yet. Thus, it can be said that
in order to make the research authenticate, investigator use primary method of data collection.
Therefore, for this research as well investigator has used this method as a result, it is will assist
researcher in evaluating a valid conclusion (Pekuri and et. al., 2014).
Secondary: It includes information that are already present or conducted by other
investigators. Moreover, secondary method of data collection is being used by researcher for
making their research more reliable and valid. Furthermore, such information are collected from
books, journals, magazines etc.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Name:
Age:
Email:
Q1) Do you know about the concept of cloud technology in business?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Is cloud technology beneficial for business of Continental Consulting Ltd ?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) What are the benefits that Continental Consulting Ltd will get by implementing cloud
technology in businesses?
a) Powerful server capabilities
b) Data backup and storage of data
c) Increase in productivity
d) Cost effective & time saving
Q4) What are main reasons for executing cloud technology in Continental Consulting
Ltd?
a) Ease of Use
b) Increased Storage Capacity and Automation
c) Agility, Flexibility and Scalability.
Q5) Is company getting benefits after implementing cloud technology, as per your view?
7

a) Agree
b) Disagree
Q6) What are different platforms which Continental Consulting Ltd can use for Cloud
Computing at large scale?
a) MapReduce
b) Apache Hadoop
Q7) What are the complexities that Continental Consulting Ltd can face while
implementing the cloud technology in business?
a) Service Provider Reliability
b) Data privacy
c) Downtime
Q8) Does cloud technology helpful in provide competitive benefits to Continental
Consulting Ltd ?
a) Yes
b) No
Q9) According to you, is installation and implementation of cloud technology is a simple
process?
a) Agree
b) Disagree
Q10) Any suggestions for Continental Consulting Ltd for further improvement in Cloud
Technology to manage?
TASK 3
P5 Analysis of research and data using appropriate tools and techniques
Theme 1: Aware about concept of cloud technology
Q1) Do you know about the concept of cloud technology in
business?
Frequency
a) Yes 19
b) No 11
8

Interpretation: Cloud technology is one of the essential element which company can
implement in order to upgrade their business as it assist firm in sharing and storing information
in a better manner. Therefore, with the help of above graph mentioned it can be evaluated that 19
respondents out of 30 were agreeing with the fact that they were aware of the concept of cloud
technology. Whereas other 11 respondents wasn't know what cloud technology is and for what
purpose it is being used by a company or any other individual.
Theme 2: Cloud technology beneficial for business
Q2) Is cloud technology beneficial for business of Continental
Consulting Ltd?
Frequency
a) Yes 17
b) No 13
9
a) Yes b) No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Column B

Interpretation: As Continental Consulting Ltd is a consultancy firm and they provide
suggestions to companies so that they can re-engineer their business operations. Henceforth, with
the help of this, company can easily store and share information. From the above mentioned
graph it can be evaluated that according to 17 respondents implementation of cloud technology is
beneficial for the company and they can further sustain a better position at market area. Whereas
other 13 of them were saying that even after introducing cloud technology in their firm, company
will not gain any kind of benefits.
10
a) Yes b) No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Column B