Research Project: Digital Tech Impact on Smith & Williamson in the UK

This research project examines the impact of digital technologies on the business activities of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, with a specific focus on Smith & Williamson, a financial and professional services firm. The report explores how digital technologies, including social media, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, are affecting business operations, cost reduction, and market reach. Through interviews, questionnaires, and quantitative analysis, the study identifies the benefits, challenges, and implications of digital transformation for SMEs. The report includes a literature review, research methodology, data analysis, and discussion of findings, offering conclusions, limitations, and recommendations for Smith & Williamson and other UK SMEs. The research aims to analyze the impact of digital technologies on UK SME's business activities, assess the improvements that digital technologies are bringing in different functions of Smith & Williamson, determine the basic influences of digitalization on the business activities and performance of Smith & Williamson, and ascertain the merits and demerits of applying digital technologies in the business function of SMEs in the UK. The report also includes a reflection section and references.

Research Project on
Implications of Digital Technologies on Smith
and Williamson in UK

Table of Contents
TITLE .............................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................................1
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................6
Chapter 3: Research methodology.................................................................................................10
Chapter 4: Data findings, analysis and discussion ........................................................................14
Chapter 5: Conclusions, limitations and recommendations...........................................................33
Chapter 6: Reflection ....................................................................................................................34
References......................................................................................................................................36

TITLE
The implication of digital technologies in the business activities of SME in UK context.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Over View of the Research
Digital Technology has opened up a plethora of avenues for entrepreneur and small
business owners in respect to reach out to its customers to develop an influence on the overall
operations of firm. The digital economy is progressively essential to the UK economy. It
recognised as an intrinsic aspect of the government’s vision for a competitive UK information
economy is for all UK businesses and organisations, particularly SMEs, to confidently use
technology, trade online and gain revenues in domestic and international markets. Smith &
Williamson is the chosen organisation for this particular project. It is financial and professional
service firm which operates from United Kingdom. SME sector is approaching towards digital
technologies for business operation purposes. To maintain a position on market application of
digital technology is getting prime need for all (Dixon, S. 2010). To identify the implication of
digital technologies 20 companies were selected as sample, through their interviews and
questionnaire answers. This information’s were used a primary information for the research
project. In quantitative analysis chi square, charts, figures and scale are applied to analyse the
outcome of the research project. While conducting this research some limitation were there,
which affect demand-supply of digital technologies in the SME sector. After evaluating and
comparing the limitations with the output some weakness and strength were pointed out
(Blayney, 2007). Along with it some recommendations were also there to support the issues. By
using those techniques the company will be able to reap the best possible outcome, through the
total report Smith and Williamson will get a clear overview on the current market and its
movement nature. This report contents study about the influence of digital technologies on the
business activities of small and medium size business organisation.
Background of the Research
The importance of small as well as medium sized business for the economic growth of
each country is effectively acknowledged. In the modern business environment competition is so
high within the market place and organisations are widely concern on adopting new of advance
technologies in respect to attaining higher growth and success within the commercial centre.
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Technology has the prospective to impact small or medium size business in positive and adverse
ways, depending on the end aim a business has a in place, the products they chose to use, and
how well entrepreneurs and their employees adapt to new systems. Digital technologies has
involve various aspects like social media tools, online plate form, cloud technology, artificial
intelligence, thus organisations are using digital technologies as per the basic requirements of
their business operations. Digital technologies are effective in making organisational operations
more easy or reliable and technologies provide a easy living to people, thus in the modern era
each individual is crave for digital tools and technologies. Small businesses are majorly rely on
technology in respect to help them to operate on a daily basis, thus this is also effective in
smooth functioning of organisational operations. From laptop computers with Internet
capabilities to printers, online file storage and Web-based applications, technological advances
impact small businesses across various industries. The financial and professional firm, Smith &
Williamson is significantly focused towards improvising its business operations in regards to
attainment of higher growth and profitability within market place.
Business world is getting too competitive with the changing time; all of the companies
are implementing new techniques to grab more customers. The product criteria of similar
industrial companies are almost the same what makes them distinct is the service they are
providing to the customer. In this way to grab more potential customers by fulfilling their needs,
the use of digital technologies is very essential. It reduces the cost and time wastage of paper
work, administrative functions and market operations also. These techniques are helpful in both
manufacturing and market activities; like the companies need to collect and store the client’s data
and those information is huge in size. I prior time they used to do it in physical manner in the
storage house but the application of digital techniques made this ask hazard free now they can
store the data in cloud storage (Thomson, P. 2018). To expand the business and reach more
customers online market is the best way, the companies can launch their product in their websites
also, where the customers who cannot go directly to market can check the price, features,
delivery procedure and place their order. After the completion of delivery task their positive
feedback will attract lots of new customer and through the negative ones they can identify their
lacking and work on it. Smith & Williamson is a well known financial and professional service
industry, with the operating income around £266.7m for the end of 2018. The headquarter of the
firm is in London, United Kingdom. The company was founded in the year of 1881 with the
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significant efforts of David Johnstone Smith and Andrew Williamson. The company majorly
operates in accounting, corporate services, investment management, tax etc. The company is
widely focused on implementing new or advance technologies in respect to improvising its
operation and function. As a financial and professional sector, Smith & Williamson adopt
various innovative accounting tools and technologies in respect to providing effective facilities to
their customers and clients. The potential motive of each small as well as medium size
organisations is to developing its business operations within commercial centre through adoption
os suitable digital tools and technologies.
The rationale of the Study
Every research report required truthful and correct representation of the data set and
collected information. This report took ten consecutive weeks for completion. The interviews
were taken with the total consent of the interviewees and we tried to grab the correct
information. Any sort of copy from the result of this research report is completely against the
copyright law.
The scope of the research
There many scopes that were identifies in the report. First of all the market intuitions
about what the others accountancy firms are achieving with the implementation of digital
technologies in heir business. The SME’s of UK that are using digital technologies are gaining
competitive advantage the market through cost discount, more connectivity with the clients and
business expansion in both physical and online shops. An enhancing level of motivation is got
through this positive outcomes are points are shown in the report (Thomson, P. 2018).
Research Aim
This report aims at focusing on the impacts of using digital technologies in the business.
The companies that have already implemented the techniques what benefits they are receiving. In
this way the research report is helping Smith & Williamson to take the decision of using digital
technologies in their business. The potential aim of this particular project is "To analyse the
implication of digital technologies in the business activities of SME in UK context". A case
Study on Smith & Williamson.
Research Objectives
The basic objective of this research report is to identify the impact of using digital
technologies in the business activities of UK SME’s. Smith & Williamson is an accountancy
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firm they are planning to advance their operations to satisfy them fully. In recent times some of
the competitors of Smith & Williamson have adopted the techniques of digital technology and
analyzing the positive sides they are also planning to implement those. The positive sides were
documentation, hazard free data storage, expansion of business through online promotions and so
on. So evaluating the results of this report Smith & Williamson should think about applying
those techniques in their firm (Hoq, M. 2009). The major objectives of this research are
associated as under:
 To identify the impacts of Digital technologies on the business activities of UK based
SME’s.
 To access the improvisation that digital technologies bringing in different functions of
Smith & Williamson.
 To determine the basic influences of digitalization on the business activities and
performance of Smith & Williamson. To ascertain the merits and demerits of applying digital technologies in the business
function of SMEs in the UK.
Research Questions
This research paper has tried to answer all the below mentioned questions in terms of
SME sectors of UK. The significant research questions are described as under:
 What are impacts of Digital technologies on the business activities of UK based SME’s?
 What are the improvisation that digital technologies bringing in different functions of
Smith & Williamson?
 What are the basic influences of digitalization on the business activities and performance
Smith & Williamson? What are the merits and demerits of applying digital technologies in the business function
of SMEs in the UK?
Research hypothesis
The main hypothesis of this report is similar to the topic of this report. It emphasizes on
the basic purposes to detect the impact of using digital technologies on the business functions of
small and enterprises in the UK. To identify the points and represent the connection with the
business operation is the prime hypothesis.
Research structure
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There are several parts that built the whole research structure. It is described below;
Sections Descriptions
Introduction The part gives an overview of the research topic “Implication of
digital technologies on the business activities” in the context of
UK.
Literature Review To make this report several literatures is applied to fulfill the
objective of it. Along with it some articles, journals and books
were analyzed to prepare the research report.
Research Methodologies Three are mainly two types of methodologies were used;
qualitative and quantitative.
Primary and secondary
research
A research paper requires both primary and secondary data.
Primary data are collected through interviews and questionnaire.
And the secondary data is gathered from annual report, articles
and websites.
Data analysis and findings This chapter shows the outcome form analyzing the collected
information. The results are represented with numerical numbers.
The efficiency of the
research methodologies
and other alternatives
The section shows the effectiveness of the methodologies to
achieve the research objectives.
Conclusion and
recommendations
This part summarizes the outcome of the total report and
recommendations are also given here.
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Chapter 2: Literature review
The impacts of Digital technologies on the business activities of UK based SME’s.
As per the views expressed by Alex Pirouz, 2012, Digital tools and technologies are
considered as the key source of attaining growth and success for business in United Kingdom.
Technology has revolutionised a business and is a fundamental aspects to success. It has
transformed the way an individual or organisation work, interact, learn or develop. In the UK,
Small and Medium size account for 99.9% of all private sector firms, 59.3% of all private sector
employment and 48.1% of private sector turnover. Thus, it fits that SMEs requires to be at the
heart of digital change if the UK is to fully embrace the potential of digital. In UK organisations
are widely concern on using digital tools and technologies as their primary source in respect to
improvising its operations and attain higher competitive edge within the commercial centre. The
potential impact of technologies on the business operations of small and medium size business in
UK are associated as under:
Reducing Business Costs: Cost is the key aspect of each business organisations growth and
success. Small or medium size businesses are concern on using digital tools and technologies in
respect to reduce extra business cost. Business technology helps an organisation in automate
back office functions, likewise record keeping, accounting and payroll. A firm owners can also
adopt technology to develop secure environments for holding sensitive business or consumer
information in appropriate manner.
Improving Communication: In small and medium size Business, technology helps improvising
the communication processes, thus an effective communication process is required to proper
implementation of organisational operations. Emails, texting, websites and personal digital
products applications, known as “apps,” can help a business to improve communication
internally as well as externally.
The improvisation that digital technologies bringing in different functions of Smith &
Williamson.
According to the opinion of Mark P. McDonald and Andy Rowsell-Jones, 2012, Digital
technologies like social media, mobile applications, smartphones, big data, predictive analytics
or cloud etc. are significantly different than the preceding Information tools based technologies.
As a financial and professional industry, Smith & Williamson is focused towards implementing
new or advance technologies in their business operations in respect to developing its business
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operations within the commercial centre. Application of digital technologies on the business
operations of Smith & Williamson. can bring success, efficiency and higher output to the
organizations. For instance through digital technologies one can set and maintain better
communication on their business, proper communication aids a complete teamwork and an
effective employee friendly environment which ultimately results in good productivity. As SME
sector is facing immense competition in there is a huge chance to implement digital technologies
in the business operations of Smith & Williamson to attain more profit and continuous
development. So evaluating the current competitive market scenario it is proven that use of
digital technologies will help the SME’s to survive and maintain a sustainable growth.
There can be brought massive changes through the use of digital technologies. As a
financial business, Smith & Williamson have huge range of activities to maintain all of theme
equally gets a big challenge for the business. To expand the business activities and areas digital
technologies is working as blessing. The Smith & Williamson who have adopted these
techniques in their business have received tremendous success; through this other organizations
are also having interest to accept digital technologies in order to make the working procedure
smoother and faster than ever before. Innovation and advanced technology is the basic secret
behind the continuous growth of the leading small and medium enterprises in UK. The
companies are enriched with efficiency and effectiveness in their regular operations and adopting
new policies also. According to Taylor, The implementation of digital technologies is all about
technical knowledge, organizations that have extensive digital based knowledge and resources
have the chance to attain progress in their business (Boon, L. 2008).
The basic influences of digitalization on the business activities and performance of Smith &
Williamson.
Smith & Williamson founded in 1881 by David Johnstone Smith and Andrew
Williamson. It is a financial and professional service firm, headquarters located in London,
United Kingdom. It has 1700 people who serves clients in Ireland,UK and Jersey. They had
number of mergers,which includes- NCL (Securities) Limited, Solomon Hare and LHM Casey
McGrath.
Influences of digitalization in Smith & Williamson
Digitalization exert influence on various business activities in Smith and Wills by
enhancing relationships with customer and employees. It helps in pushing companies to work on
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their current strategies and explore new opportunities. It is allowing to be more efficient and
strategic. All the work from storing document, to remote working. The performance is more
faster, more efficient and more safer. Digitalization helped the firm in successful management of
their accounts,clients and their resources. It enabled data to be analysed, lead to increased
efficiency and reduced operational costs. The productivity was increased through automated
workflow.
The merits and demerits of applying digital technologies in the business function of SMEs in
the UK.
According to Sudhir Nayar(02Apr2018),Everyone knows challenges of running and
grading a business in today's world. In UK, businesses on daily basis has to deal with tight
budgets and fierce competition. But as we are surrounded by the digital technology like
smartphones-majorly by teens. It cannot be denied that technology is present in every aspect of
our lives , be it at work or home. Digital technologies have played a major role in success of
Small and Medium Enterprises as they realise the importance of digital marketing in their
business. Use of digital technology is considered as the most cost effective method as most of
digital marketing techniques offer free services. They find it beneficial as no long term
commitments are required.
MERITS DEMERITS
In SMEs, use of Digital Technology will help in
improving the productivity of the personnel
In SMEs, use of technology may sometimes lead
to distraction at work as it effects the
productivity of workers.
Innovative ways to reaching customers and
engaging them will be developed.
Unauthorised access of information will create a
huge loss for business.
It saves time as each task can be done efficiently
which reduces human efforts.
Employees are no more creative at
work,technology kills their creativity
It made the process of recruiting and hiring new
employees easy.
It affects workplace relationships as there is no
one-to-one communication between employees.
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Chapter 3: Research methodology
This considered as the most essential part of an investigation work, thus it provides a
systematic direction to implement all investigation activities in right manner and also provide
support to the literature. Research Methodology is an appropriate systematic, theoretical
evaluation of the methods that are applied to a specified area of study. This section has involves
various applications in which some are associated as below:
Type of Investigation
To accomplish a research project there are several research approaches and
methodologies, but the selection of it depends on the research objectives, available data and
theoretical background. A research is either qualitative or quantitative in nature and the selection
of methodology is based on researcher. The description of research types are associated as under:
Quantitative Tool
This approach involves collection and evaluation of data in numerical form to represent
in in graphs and charts. Here the researcher take some hypothesis based on the variables they are
using. In the research report of Smith and Williamson the secondary data is collected from
annual reports, prior financial reports, various journals and articles. After the collection the
information was analyzed to compute the result (Patten, K. 2014).
Qualitative Tool
This approach follows social situations, opinions of people and society. It follows a
certain procedure in collection of data but the process is quite flexible than quantitative method.
Data is collected in the textual format through observation and face to face interview with the
participants.
In the present investigation work qualitative research tool has been applied by the
researcher as it is the most effective tool that provide a brief theoretical analysis on the research
issue.
Research Approach
It refers to various steps of assumptions made by the researcher in the process of data
collection, analysis and interpretation. There are two types of research approach, Inductive and
Deductive. Inductive Research refers to the testing of a new concept from the data whereas
Deductive refers to a test of an old concept. Here, the Research approach utilised is Inductive as
the new concept is need to be adopted from the secondary data available.
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