Business Activity: Digital Technology's Impact and Strategic Analysis

This report analyzes the impact of digital technology on business activities, using Marks and Spencer (M&S) as a case study. It begins by outlining project aims and objectives, followed by a project management plan incorporating cost, scope, time, and quality factors. A work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are included for timeframes. The report details qualitative and quantitative research methods employed to gather data, along with an analysis of the collected data using appropriate tools and techniques. Recommendations are provided based on the research and data analysis, culminating in a reflection on the entire research process. The report covers aims, objectives, project management, research methodologies, data analysis, and recommendations, providing a comprehensive overview of digital technology's influence on business operations and strategic implications for sustainable growth and improved customer satisfaction, employee retention, and operational efficiency.

The Impact of Digital
technology on business
activity

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Devise clear aims and objectives for project.....................................................................1
P2 Project management plan incorporating various factors...................................................3
P3 Work break down structure and Gantt Chart to provide time frames...............................4
PART 2............................................................................................................................................4
P4 Research for qualitative and quantitative research methods top meet the project aims....4
PART 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5 Analysis of the data received from research process using appropriate tools and techniques.
................................................................................................................................................6
P6 recommendation as per the research and data analysis process......................................11
P7 Reflection of entire research process..............................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
With the advancement of the technology on the wider level, it has been used in every
aspect of the business organisation to perform their function. The effective use of various IT
tools help in the better management of numerous business operations. Other than this, it helps in
the sustainable growth of the business organisation. For the report, Marks and Spencer or M & S
has been taken as the organisation of context (Goleman, 2017). It is a UK based retail firm. This
report will lay emphasis on the various aims and objectives of project. A business management
plan is been devised including the various factors. A work breakdown chart will be made with
various qualitative and quantitative research methods for meeting the project aim. Moreover,
various tools and techniques for managing the business operations will be identified and
discussed. In addition to this, a wide variety of recommendation has been given to have proper
data analysis and the learnings will be reflected (Armstrong and et.al., 2015).
PART 1
P1 Devise clear aims and objectives for project.
Various aims and objectives will be taken into the clear consideration by Marks and
Spencer to gain better productivity and have a sustainable market position. This will help M & S
to take into consideration a better market share which will also support in well execution of a
wide variety of operations. It will also help M & S to meet the needs and requirements of
customers. The better setting up of aims and objectives will help the company to make a
effective business operational plan and will lead to effective rise in operational capacity of the
business firm. The aims and objectives of Marks and Spencer are as follows:
Aim:
M & S has planned to provide the customers with high quality of services at the
reasonable cost and availability to allow them to have better satisfaction level. This will also help
them to generate effective revenue and gain a sustainable profitability. The main aim of M & S is
to gain better productivity and meet the operational quality of the company in market. The
company also needs to increase its employee's retention by adopting a wide variety of
technological measures of the company (Aharoni, 2015). Besides this, M & S will also look after
better handling of different operations to improve the efficiency of business firm. Other than this,
it will help the business firm to increase its operational efficiency and provide the customers with
high quality products and services to gain sustainable profitability in market.
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Objective:
There are various objectives that have been set by M & S to have a wide variety of
accessibility towards different types of business operations. It will help them to gain better
productivity and handle different business operations (Köhler, 2015). These objectives will help
in superior handling of several business operations in the company. Some major business
objectives that have been taken into effective consideration by M & S are as follows:
 Giving the customers with a sense of future: M & S will look after the effective
handling of a wide variety of business operations and provide their customers with
various futuristic services. This will help the firm to meet the needs and demands of the
clients or customers. The usage of interactive and collaborative technology will help the
cited business organisation to make its services more user friendly for its customers.
 Helps in decision making: M & S will help in looking after the better handling of wide
variety of business operations by effective and significant amount of business decision
making processes. This will help in better management of different operational functions
of M & S in market. The effective use of various operational and technological tool kits
that will help in better handling of the business operations at cited business organisation
(Scott and Poteet, 2017).
 Employee orientation: M & S will take in consideration a wide variety of operations to
provide the customers with a great range of services and handling the quality of products
and services that have been produced by the cited business organisation. Besides this,
they will look after the better satisfaction level of the employees at the workplace by
looking after their training and other operational needs. The technical software and
hardware helps in meeting the needs and demands of the employees in a better way.
 Meeting the organisational objectives: M & S will look after the proper handling of the
wide variety of operations to regain its market leadership in clothing and speciality food.
This will be achieved by the company for a long run by adopting the better quality
services and delivering effective and suitable products and services to the customers on
reasonable price range. M & S will use the suitable technical tools and measures to meet
the needs and demands of the company (Enqvist, Graham and Nikkinen, 2014).
 Improving the sales: M & S will look after the better handling of various technical
operations to improve the sales of business organisation. The better usage of high class
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business software and adoption of the hardware's to keep the record of production
processes and the total sales that is been generated by business firm to meet needs and
requirements of users in a better and sustainable way.
P2 Project management plan incorporating various factors.
The effective project management plan will be developed for M & S which will help in
better handling of wide variety of business operations that will help in the effective rise in the
productivity of the cited business organisation (Laudon and Laudon, 2015). This will help the
business organisation to effectively plan its products and services and gain high profitability by
increasing its sales targets and achieving them in a better way (Sharma, Mithas and Kankanhalli,
2014). This will improve the operational quality of the cited firm and will help in an effective
handling of the different operations of business organisation. Some major factors that will be
taken into consideration are:
 Cost: The cost will help in maintaining the good handling of a wide variety of operations
which will help the company to get a better cost effectiveness. Other than this, the
company can opt for the method of cost differentiation which will help in effective
development of better costing of the products or the services that have been produced and
developed by M & S. This will attract the maximum number of customers and help the
company to gain efficient productivity. The assessment of the costing with other
competitors will help the cited firm to gain a better and suitable idea about the effective
measures of costing and price differentiation, it needs to take into various processes in
effective thought process, to meet the demands of customers on wider extent (Santos,
Pache and Birkholz, 2015.).
 Scope: The project management plan will look after the better handling of the different
operations which will help the business organisation to identify its scope of development
in market and take in consideration to identify the extent of its operational efficiency.
Identification of the operational scope and handling of the business operations will help
in the effective rise in productivity and revenue generation of cited business firm. M & S
will help in maintaining the standards of its productivity and will take in consideration a
wide range of measures to improve its scope in market to meet its clients and
stakeholders expectations.
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 Time: The time constraint plays a very crucial and vital role in handling the various
operational functions of the organisation. M & S will look after the effective measures to
improve its efficiency to execute its business operations on the stipulated time period.
This will help in maintaining the quality of business services that will be taken into
consideration by M & S to handle its business functions, Other than this, finishing the
project on time and delivering it on the desired period will help the firm to gain a better
customer satisfaction level as well as improve their loyalty level towards the firm. Other
than this, the technologies and other tools, that will be adopted by the cited business firm
will help in execution of the business operations on the decided time period and give the
suitable as well as timely output to the user or client of business organisation (Van Der
Aalst, La Rosa and Santoro, 2016).
 Quality: M & S will look after the better operations and technical measures to maintain
and improve the quality of its services in market to meet its customers’ needs and
demands in a sustainable and effective manner. Other than this, providing high quality
product or services will help in meeting the needs and demands of the customers. The
better and good or high quality product will help in increasing the customer's satisfaction
level and handle their demands to gain good profitability and revenue generation. Besides
this, it will help in gaining the sustainable satisfaction level and improve the operational
ability to perform various business operations.
P3 Work break down structure and Gantt Chart to provide time frames
PART 2
P4 Research for qualitative and quantitative research methods top meet the project aims
The cited firm will use the appropriate qualitative and quantitative measures in order to
gain a better idea about the different measures that help in better growth and development of the
company. The qualitative and quantitative analysis will help the firms to have a better idea about
the different measures that will help in better handling of the wide range of operations. The
research methodology will help in meeting the needs and demands of the users in a better way.
This analysis and assessment processes will help in better handling of the various operations that
will help in meeting a wide variety of operations that are been taken into effective consideration
by the business organisation. This factors will help the organisation like M & S to take in
consideration a wide range of effective solutions that will help in meeting the business objectives
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and aims. Other than this, the assessment process will help in meeting the operational
requirements of the operations that will help in handling a wide variety of operations to gain an
effective productivity. This will help the firm to adopt better innovation and digital expertise to
improve its productivity and profitability at the business organisation in a very effective way
(Wild, Wild and Han, 2014). The researchers and scholars will adopt different methodologies
that will help in better assessment of the different operations. Some major operations that are
been taken in consideration are:
 Research philosophies: A wide variety of research philosophies are been taken in
effective consideration that helps in meeting the needs and demands of the users in a very
effective and sustainable way. It will help a researcher to apply these principles to handle
a wide range of operations that will help in meeting the needs and demands of the
organisation. There are majorly two types of principles such as positivism and
intyerpretivism that are been taken in the effective consideration by the organisation to
meet the needs and demand of the users as well as the organisation. The present report
includes positivism for qualitative research techniques.
 Research Approach: This approach includes measures for analysing and assessing the
entire objective of the study in excellent manner. This research technique will assist the
organisation to handle the business operations in a better way. It helps the investigator in
better focusing of the objective. Major two kind of research approach that is inductive
and deductive research approach. For examine the influence of digital platforms in order
to bring innovation and growth within the small business enterprise, deductive operations
are been taken in effective consideration (Grayson and Hodges, 2017).
 Research Design: It involves the effective planning of the different sort of studies that
are been taken in consideration by the organisation. The research design aids in
collecting, analysing and interpreting collected information in effective manner. There
are various kinds of research design such as descriptive, explanatory, exploratory etc. The
present study is based on the impact of digital technology on the business performance
and activities. Thus, scholar has applied descriptive research design through which
researcher can address the right solution about the research.
 Research technique: These techniques involves the collecting, analysing and storing of
the various kinds of informations gained through research process. Major two kind of
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research technique that are qualitative and quantitative. In the present study, examine the
influence of digital platforms in order to bring innovation and growth within the small
business enterprise scholar has applied qualitative research technique.
 Data collection: It plays a very crucial role in research methodology through which, the
information about the subject is been collected. There are two kinds of data collection
that are primary data collection and secondary data collection. In the present study,
scholar has applied primary data collection for examine the influence of digital platforms
in order to bring innovation and growth within the small business enterprise (De Mel
McKenzie and Woodruff, 2014).
 Sampling: With assistance of sampling, researcher can select some group of people from
the whole universe. This method assist in collecting information about the topic from
several respondents (Soni and Kodali, 2012). For the research process, 15 respondents
from the M & S are been taken in consideration.
PART 3
P5 Analysis of the data received from research process using appropriate tools and techniques.
The appropriate research process is been taken in effective consideration that will help in
better handling of the different operations which will help in meeting the needs and demands of
the organisation in a better way. The analysis process will involve the following factors:
Do you know about digital technology?
 Yes
 No
Do M & S uses several platforms and method of digital technology ?
 Yes
 No
Which method of digital technology is mostly used by M & S?
 Social media
 Mobile Apps
 Online web page
 Digital Advertisements
Has digital technology supported M & S in promoting and advertising its product and service in
the market ?
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 Strongly agree
 agree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
Do you agree that digital technology have improved the business growth and activities of M & S
in a better way?
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
Any recommendation
Theme 1: Employee's awareness of digital technology
Do you know about digital technology? Frequency
Yes 12
No 3
7
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Frequency

Interpretation and Analysis: From the above analysis, it can be said that out of 15 respondents
at M & S, 12 are aware about the digital technology while only 3 are unaware of digital
technology. This indicates that majority of employee's at M & S know about the usage of digital
technology.
Theme 2: Employee's awareness of digital platform and tool kits
Do M & S uses several platforms and method of digital technology ? Frequency
Yes 10
No 5
Interpretation and Analysis: From the above analysis it can be said that Out of 15 respondents
at M & S, 10 employees know about M & S using digital tool kits and methods to promote better
services and goods while five employees are unaware of the fact. This indicates that M & S
effectively uses the digital technology.
Theme 3: Digital technology used by firm
Which method of digital technology is mostly used by M & S? Frequency
 Social media 8
 Mobile Apps 4
 Online web page 2
 Digital Advertisements 1
8
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10

Interpretation and Analysis: From the above analysis at M & S it can be said that out of 15
respondents, Eight employees prefer the usage of Social media platforms for promoting the
products and services, Four employees prefer usage of mobile application, Two employees's
prefer Online web page while only one employee prefer the means of digital advertising. Thus, it
can be said that M & S effectively uses Social media platform.
Theme 4: Supporting of digital tool kits for advertising and promotion of goods and
services.
Has digital technology supported M & S in promoting and advertising its
product and service in the market ?
Frequency
 Strongly agree 7
 agree 4
 Disagree 2
 Strongly disagree 2
9
Social media
Mobile Apps
Online web page
Digital Advertisements

Interpretation and Analysis: From the above research it is been said that at M & S, out of 15
respondents, Seven strongly agree to the fact that digital technology has helped in growth of
advertising and promotion of goods and services. Four respondents also agree to it. While, Two
employees either disagree or strongly disagree to this fact. Hence, it can be said that at M & S
the digital technology is well used.
Theme 5: Acceptance of digital technology at M & S
Do you agree that digital technology have improved the business growth and
activities of M & S in a better way?
Frequency
 Strongly agree 8
 agree 3
 Disagree 3
 Strongly disagree 1
10
Strongly agree
agree
Disagree
No response