Austin Fraser: Digital Technology Impact on Business Growth Project

This project examines the impact of digital technology on the business growth and innovation of Austin Fraser, a small UK-based consultancy firm. The project begins by outlining the aims and objectives, emphasizing the need for digital technology to improve areas like marketing, HR, and accounting. It then details a project management plan, including scope, cost control, quality control, risk management, and communication strategies. A work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are used to organize tasks. The project incorporates both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to gather data. The research findings are interpreted and analyzed, leading to specific recommendations for Austin Fraser. Finally, the project includes a self-reflection on the value of undertaking the project, offering insights into the process and outcomes. The report underscores the importance of digitalization for small businesses and its potential to enhance competitiveness and profitability.

MANAGING
SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P 1 Project aims and objectives..............................................................................................1
P 2 Project - management plan...............................................................................................3
P 3 Work – breakdown – structure and Gantt Chart .............................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P 4 Small scale research by using quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.......7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P 5 Interpretation and analysis of research and data using proper tools ...............................9
P 6 Recommendation............................................................................................................14
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................15
P 7 Self reflection on the value of undertaking project .......................................................15
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
There has been a dramatic change in the technology now a days which is changing the
whole scenario of business in all organisations. The requirement of technology in every firm is
increasing day on day as modern technology aids in each and every sector either it is the sector
of retailing or consultancy. In past years, technical advancement is not done and that is why
ventures are not able to attain their goals and objectives 1. But now in this modern era, most of
the firms are introducing technical equipments and various digital services to improve their
performance. The present report is based on the digital technology and its impact on the business
growth of Austin Fraser. It is a small consultancy firm in United Kingdom which offers
recruitment services to various small companies. In this project the aims, objectives, project
management plan, etc. of this venture has been explained so that it effectively plan their
strategies according to that.
TASK 1
P 1 Project aims and objectives
Before making any strategies, every organisation needs to create its own aims and
objectives so that they become clear about what they wish to achieve. This will aids in their
growth and development. By taking help of digital technology, ventures can make improvement
in their various sectors like accounting, marketing, human resource department, etc. 2 Now the
world become battle ground and every one wants to be at first position, due to this competition
has been increased at greater extent. So, to become a part of this competition and for holding a
good position in market , Austin Fraser has to take support of modernised techniques. They can
run their business of consultancy in effective manner by using digital methods. In fact, this also
aids in making good decisions for present as well as future. Therefore, it can be said that
digitalisation is giving a positive impact on the business growth of small-scale organisations.
Theme : Contribution of digital technology in growing small business and innovation
1 Aral, Sinan, Chrysanthos Dellarocas, and David Godes. "Introduction to the special issue
—social media and business transformation: a framework for research." Information Systems
Research 24, no. 1 (2013): 3-13.
2 Coad, Alex, Agustí Segarra, and Mercedes Teruel. "Innovation and firm growth: Does
firm age play a role?." Research Policy 45, no. 2 (2016): 387-400.
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Back ground of project :
Digital technology has revolutionised the way of conducting business. It has been
observed that it has dramatically altered conventional business models and totally transformed
business activities. The utilisation of modern technologies has provided business business with a
wealth of choice and opportunities. So, it is very essential to change policies and strategies
according to the changing world. Now technology has become an external or macro
environmental factor which is impacting a lot the overall business of every firm. With the aid of
technological advancement, ventures can promote their services and goods in an effect-able
manner by doing their advertisement on small as well as large scale. On the other hand, human
resource department of company can do their recruiting and selecting activities via online
services. In addition to this, enterprise can also use digitalisation in accounting sector and store
their financial records safely 3. Company can also develop new services by doing some
innovative things. Thus there are several aims and objectives of Austin Fraser that are mentioned
below :
Aims : The primary aim of this project is to determine the influence of digital technology on the
business growth and innovations in context with cited venture. Additionally, there are some other
aims of this project which is listed below :
 This project wants to find those areas where there is a need of technical advancement in
the organisation so that aims and targets can be achieved effectively.
 Impact of digital technology on growth business activities like promotion, marketing,
production, innovations and human resource management.
Objectives : Austin Fraser is one of the leading enterprise that deals with the recruitment and
training of skilled person and provides consultancy services to other firms. Organisation desires
to do this job of recruitment and selection of suitable applicants at faster rate so that they can
satisfy their clients and earn high profitability from it in minimum period of time 4. They also
wishes to find those areas which need some modification. Some the major objectives of this
report are discussed below :
3 Gijić, Nebojša, Oliver Dimitrijević, and Adriana Jović-Bogdanović. "AGGRESSIVE
IMPLEMENTATION OF DIGITIZATION IN THE MODERN BUSINESS."
Ekonomika 60, no. 4 (2014).
4 Hänninen, Kai, Harri Jokela, Martti Saarela, and Matti Muhos. "How to Identify Micro-
Firm Owner-Manager's Potential Growth Intentions." In 12th European Conference on
Innovation and Entrepreneurship ECIE 2017, p. 280. 2017.
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 Evaluation of enforcing digital technologies at working location
 To determine reasons behind need of modification in business related activities
 To identify effects of digitalisation on various sectors like production, accounting and
human resource management.
 To maximise the profitability
Hence, some of the aims and objectives of this project is described above that needs to be
provided focus by the Austin Fraser. As all of the aims and objectives are associated with the use
of digital technology in business growth , so it is proved to be very beneficial for this cited firm
as they can make their strategies as per that in order to earn more and more profits. Almost all
the consultancy firms are taking help of modern technology as this the process of recruitment
very easy and fast.
P 2 Project - management plan
It is very necessary to identify all the risks factors before making any project
management plan, otherwise this will create problems in future. By doing this planning, a
researcher can avoid all the risky factors that can affects adversely while attaining goals of
venture. Some of the major areas of this planning are described below :
 Project scope : It consist of all those areas which would be covered in this whole
project. This business project is made for the Austin Fraser, a consultancy firm that
offers recruitment services to different ventures. As this is a company which provides
consultancy services so in this project, importance of digitalisation is discussed along
with their impacts on growth of the business activities 5. In this assignment, all the
expected ways has been explained that aids Austin Fraser in communicating with their
workers as well as customers so that they can acquire organisational goals and
objectives.
 Cost control : This is the method of controlling extra costs so that company can save
their revenue and spend in other important sector. As Austin Fraser is a consultancy
organisation, a lot of paper work are performed that should be reduced. Due to more
paper work , large sum of money goes on purchasing papers that should be controlled.
Venture should use computer system doing their different works like calculations,
5 Wu, Desheng Dash, Shu-Heng Chen, and David L. Olson. "Business intelligence in risk
management: Some recent progresses." Information Sciences 256 (2014): 1-7.
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budgeting, form filling, etc. This not only saves money but also time as physical work
is eliminated from this. Enterprise can use modern software like Spreadsheet, Ms-
excel, Power point, etc. In these software, employees have to put some formulae that
automatically work and do calculations. In addition to this, errors occurred in manual
work get removed. Venture should design their Critical path and Gantt chart so that
they take decisions regarding budgeting and can invest proper amount of money in their
business activities.
 Quality Control : This is another aspect that deals with the control of quality. In order
to attract large number of clients towards their organisation, Austin Fraser has to
maintain a good quality in the services provided by them. For this they take technical
support in areas of recruitment and hiring. They should use digital communication
services so that they can keep in touch with their customers as well as employees in all
time. Social web services like Face book, Twitter, Gmail, etc. can be utilised for this
purpose 6. This consumes minimum amount of revenue as well as time. Company
should hire skilled and qualified workers in their venture as the job of recruitment is
very difficult. The hired employees will be going to select and train those candidates
that would be placed in other firms. So, they have to maintain quality at the time of
recruiting. If they will not offer skilled workforce to their clients then this will create a
bad impression of their corporation in their eyes and for next time they will not give
them contract. So, organisation has to a deep research before taking any decision. Such
type of research can be done in a budget of approx 500$.
 Risk management : This is another important part of this project as it is a tool for
determining all the possible current as well as future risks within corporation. By using
this concept, Austin Fraser has to eliminate all those risky factors that can become
obstacle in the way of attaining organisational goals and objectives. Venture can take
help of digital technology for this purpose also and can make correct decisions. The
cited firm should complete this report in minimum time period as extra time will cause
additional operational costs. Company should also use minimum or limited budgets for
removing the risk factors.
6 Huhns, Michael N. Distributed artificial intelligence. Vol. 1. Elsevier, 2012.
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 Communication : For conducting market research, Austin Fraser should talk with the
common people and examine their requirements and current demands. They can take
use of external communication process for doing research but should use internal
communication method in solving their business problems. This will cost around 600$
in doing this task.
 Time : This is all about the maintenance and management of time while conducing
marketing research and doing various other activities like setting objectives or aims,
etc. There are two areas that consumes more time that are research process and its
analysis as researcher has to think properly before and at the time of performing these
activities 7. Investigator can make Gantt chart as well as critical path for the
management of time as this may help them a lot in deciding which work should be
given how much time.
 Resources : Austin Fraser needs different resources for doing the market researches
effectively. It can be financial resource that is money, work force that is workers and
technological resources. Such all resources will assist effectively the corporation in
achieving their business goals and objectives.
P 3 Work – breakdown – structure and Gantt Chart
All the activities performed in the project should be aligned properly so that no confusion
would create while doing tasks. A proper format of those activities are mentioned below :
 Aims and objectives : This is the first step where researcher needs to formulate some
real aims and objectives for the project. This will take around fifteen days.
 Management plan : In the second step, investigator should make evaluation of different
aspects like costing, project scope, time, communication and quality control. This
evaluation would take minimum of ten days.
 Primary and secondary research : By taking help of primary and secondary research,
company can determine the impact of digital technology on business growth of small
firms and innovation. Researcher has been taking help of primary research by conducting
interviews of workers as well as customers. This will take around twelve days. Secondary
7 Xu, Jun, and Mohammed Quaddus. Managing information systems: Ten essential
topics. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013.
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data research is also carried here to determining the views and opinions of scholars and
various authors. This will take around eight days.
 Data interpretation and analysation : This task would take minimum period of time of at
least three days. In this method, researcher use graphs and diagrams for representing their
allocated information via doing primary and secondary research.
 Recommendation : This is most important section of this project as researcher give some
suggestion to the cited company so that they can change their business structure. By
concentrating on these recommendation, Austin Fraser can make necessary modification
at their work place. This would take around 5 days.
 Self reflection : This can be done within three days where by researcher give their own
experiences of doing this project. He discuss problems faced by him while completing
this task.
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Gantt chart
Action plan
People participated in this project : Various person have been taken part in this project like
customers, employees and data analyser experts of the Austin Fraser.
Location : Some of the information are collected from various web sites and others are gathered
by taking interviews of customers as well as workers.
Data inputting procedure : Data is filled by the audiences in the questionnaire sheets.
TASK 2
P 4 Small scale research by using quantitative and qualitative research methodologies
Researcher should use proper method of research that can give accurate data about the
theme of this project. Some of the methodologies for collecting the relevant information are
discussed below :
 Qualitative research : This is the process of accumulating feelings and opinions of
common people. This can be carried on by conducting surveys, taking interviews and
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filling up the questionnaire sheets 8. Most of the investigator uses this method for getting
deep knowledge about the topic of their reports. This method shows the psychology and
ideas of human about the theme. Thus, this is proved to be a better method for doing
research.
 Quantitative research : Numerical data can be aggregated by using this methodology
that can help researcher in taking effective decisions in context of business. This is
completely different from qualitative method as data is gathered here from a large
number of population.
 Primary research : By this process, information can be accumulated by taking use of
primary sources. This can be done by carrying out both quantitative as well as qualitative
research. Surveys, questionnaire, feedbacks and observations are some common formats
that can be utilised while doing primary researches.
 Secondary research : Investigator can collect both current as well as previous
information regarding the theme of project. Books, internet, journals, census, web pages
of libraries and government, etc. are some of the general sources that can be used by the
researchers. It is a faster mode of gathering data as investigator only have to search
authenticate sources from where he or she can collect data.
Qualitative research method has been used here for accumulating data. Questionnaire is
used for this purpose where sample size is taken 20. The structure of questionnaire is designed
below :
Name : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gender : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Is online recruitment is more effect-able for recruiting workers in less time period ?
 Yes
 No
8 Marston, Sean, Zhi Li, Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Juheng Zhang, and Anand Ghalsasi.
"Cloud computing—The business perspective." Decision support systems 51, no. 1
(2011): 176-189.
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2. Is Austin Fraser requires digitalisation in their business activities ?
 Yes
 No
3. Which sector needs more technical advancement in corporation?
 Recruitment
 Solving Feedbacks
4. Which kind of technology is needed for storing data in Austin Fraser ?
 Cloud technology
 Computers
5. Which type of techniques used for the purpose of communication ?
 Social media
 Mobile technology
6. Which technology should be used for producing innovative services ?
 Artificial intelligence
 Big data analytics
Secondary Research : Digital technology should be make available in every venture so
that their productivity can be increased effectively. Customers are even using advanced
technologies, thereby it is mandatory for the corporation to introduce digital techniques in their
task of recruitment, external as well as internal communication, etc. Digitalisation also aids in
doing effective promotional activities and by this way company can represent their services and
goods to the entire world 9. This make their brand image very strong in the market place. Austin
Fraser can conduct online interviews of candidates and hire them in minimum period of time.
This saves the time that is being consumed while taking face to face interviews after going to
various institutes and universities. This also saves a lot of money of travelling.
9 Voorsluys, William, James Broberg, and Rajkumar Buyya. "Introduction to cloud
computing." Cloud computing: Principles and paradigms (2011): 1-41.
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