Assessing Digital Technology's Role in Business Growth: 3Com

This report examines the impact of digital technology on small business growth and innovation, using 3Com as a case study. It begins with an introduction to digitalization and its significance, followed by an analysis of 3Com's business context. Task 1 defines the project's aims and objectives, focusing on how digital technology supports growth. Task 2 details the project management plan, covering scope, cost, quality, risk management, communication, time, and resource management. Task 3 includes the work breakdown structure and Gantt chart for project scheduling. The report then delves into research methodologies, data analysis, and recommendations. Finally, Task 4 provides self-reflection and conclusions based on the findings, with references to support the analysis. This report provides a comprehensive overview of how digital technology influences business strategy and operational efficiency within a small enterprise.

MANAGING
SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS PROJECT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P 1. Project aims and objectives..................................................................................................1
P2. Project management plan......................................................................................................2
P 3. Work break down structure and Gantt chart........................................................................4
P 4. Small scale research by using quantitative and qualitative research methodologies...........6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P 5. Analysation of research and data using appropriate tools and techniques...........................9
P 6. Recommendation for the project.......................................................................................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
P 7. Self reflection.....................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Digital technology simply refers to those processes that take use of electronics and
current media methods in order to communicate messages to the specific audience by using
internet. This has now become an eminent part of present era as whole work is dependent on the
modernised machineries and equipment that are needed to be adopted by each and every
organisation (Sheffield and Lemétayer, 2013). These help in enhancing the production in few
days in very less investment. Current report is made on the grounds of 3Com which is providing
computer network based products and services to their customers. It is a small sized venture that
was set up in the year 1979. They are popular for computer network goods or services. They
manufacture several types of products such as IP voice systems, routers, network interface
controller, wireless access points and controllers. Key purpose of this report is to understand the
impact of digitalisation on business growth of small firms and the way it helps in creating
innovative goods. For this, aim and objectives have been designed that are needed to direct all
activities of this research project.
TASK 1
P 1. Project aims and objectives
Title: “ The impact of digital technology in supporting small business growth and innovation”.
Back ground of the study :
The current globe has changed into battle ground where every entrepreneur wished to
maintain a leading position in market place. This is the ain reason of the rise of competition and
its level is increasing day on day. 3Com also participated in this race and desires to run quickly
in comparison to their challengers. For making a strong presence in market, they have to make
alternation in their current business plans and the ways they have been using to manufacture their
goods or services (Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund and Hansen, 2012). For example, they can take
use of new machineries for the purpose of creating innovative products. Besides this they can
also utilise social media such as Face book, Twitter, You tube, What's app, etc. in the field of
advertisement or for doing promotional activities as it is very less expensive in nature and also
takes few time period in doing the same. Apart from this, they can introduce cloud technology in
their sales and accounting department as well as save important data on the server or cloud for
more time period as information here are kept by providing it more safety and security. In
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addition to this, they can use artificial intelligence as well as Big Data Analytics for making
innovation based products and services. By adopting this, they can attract a large number of
people towards their corporation and improves their selling rate even in a month.
Aim: “The impact of digital technology in supporting small business growth and innovation”
Objectives: 3Com comes under one of the leading organisations which is offering such
commodities that are based on computer networks. This venture desires to manufacture their
products at a fast rate in order to increase their level of productivity and as a result, it is earning
large amount of profitability in less time interval (Morrison, 2013). By examining the scenario of
present project, some of the objectives are formulated that are listed as below:
 To find out the effect of digitalisation at the working place of 3Com
 Evaluating the importance of digital technology in 3Com
 To earn more profit by enforcing digital tools and techniques within 3Com
Thus, 3Com needs to focus on the stated aims and objectives as this direct them to
continue their work in right way.
P2. Project management plan
Project management plan is a formal approved document by superiors in organisation and
thus, it includes control and execution. It is used in every organisation where some projects are
going on. Project management plan includes planning, controlling, monitoring, initiate to
complete work (Sahin, 2011). Purpose of making this is to complete project efficiently and
effectively on time with less cost. Simply, it is a blueprint of project from starting to ending of it,
that how it will start and end. Various area involves in this are explained below: Project scope- It includes all the things which will be performed in a project. This is
blueprint of 3com project it help organisation in achieving their desired goal. In project
each area related to digitalisation is explained. So project scope will help the respective
enterprise in improving productivity and turnover of company also. In the given company
their each and every area related to digitalisation are discussed and rules, regulation
related to these are mention. Modernisation in organisation develop scope of their
business. Cost control- This helps in controlling extra cost that is occurring in project so that
resources and money of enterprises can be saved. 3Com introduce digitalisation this help
in cost controlling by using latest techniques and there is no chances of errors. Latest
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software like Ms-excel, power point, Microsoft word etc. are used by employees these
help in controlling cost and in time saving also. With the help of this, many departments
of organisation are improved like sales, accounting, etc. and employees in organisation
complete their respective project on time. 3com introduces digitalisation and thus, it helps
in taking online interviews that are taken in enterprise for hiring new employees. It
reduces the cost of conducting face to face interview. Thus, cost is controlling mainly
with the help of modernisation. Quality control- Maintaining good quality of products and services providing to
customer will help organisation in building relationship with customers and they also
become loyal towards their services and products. These also helps in creating a strong
brand image in market that helps 3com in easy capturing market and in maximisation of
profit. This also reduces the complaints and negative feedbacks from customers (Kew,
and Stredwick, 2017). For quality control, companies take support of digitalisation so that
constant quality of products will be produced with less utilisation of resources that also
help in time saving. In some machines, there is no need of workers they can work by
themselves. Workers in organisation should be trained for using the latest technologies
and machines so that these equipment would not affect their health and company
property. Quality control helps 3com in immediate answer of their customer’s problem
with the help of social media and they are connected with their clients. With the help of
this demand for the product and services are increasing day by day.
 Risk management- It is mainly concern with elimination of risky factors involved in
various business task. It is the work of risk manager in company because they are aware
of coming risk and different ways to extenuate them. 3Com can use digitalisation to
perform their task properly and free from risk (Matos and Silvestre, 2013). With the help
of modernisation there is less chances of risk and work complete on time with less
number of employees their will we less use of resources or fund and help in maximum
revenue generation. It will help in avoiding big disaster, provide mental satisfaction to
manager, gives competitive side over others.
 Communication- It is beneficial for both in the organisation and outside the organisation.
In the given company it is useful for motivating employees and maintaining good
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relation between each other, proper two way transfer of messages help organisation in
many ways like assigning task to employee or for guiding them to complete their work
(Brunswicker and Ehrenmann, 2013). Outside of the company it is useful for conducting
market research, respective company have to communicate with the citizen of country
properly to determine their needs and demands and producer carry on their work
according to that.
 Time- It is all about time management and controlling the time to complete project on
given period. In order to complete project on given duration they should make Gantt
chart and use work breakdown structure also. This help manager in taking decision that
how much time will taken in completing task. Extra time using will produce expensive
product because of excess utilisation of raw material, funds, electricity, labour and goods
will not deliver on time will effect relation with customers.
 Resources- Effective use of resources are important for growth and making profit it can
be human resources, funds, technological resources etc. proper amount of resources
should be necessary for achieving company's objective. If there is no sufficient amount of
resources then it will create conflicts between employees and because of that organisation
will suffer. These are necessary for conducting market research also. This is essential
elements for production with the help of these organisation fulfil need and demands of
customers.
P 3. Work break down structure and Gantt chart
Work breakdown structure can be simply defined as a hierarchical segmentation of the
objectives of report into deliverable oriented tasks that is performed by project team members in
order to attain whole goals of projects (Mathur, Mathur and Kenyon, 2012).
On the other hand, Gantt chart refers to a kind of bar chart that elaborates the scheduling of
project activities. It displays the start and accomplishment dates of the terminal elements and
summary of a report. It is important for holding or keeping every activities in correct queue so
that there will not occur any confusion in future. Thus, Gantt chart should be designed in below
queue : Aims and objectives : Aims is nothing but the statements of intent. They are normally
written in board terms. This helps in setting out what a researcher hope to attain at the
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end of project (Chang, Walters and Wills, 2013). On the other hand, objectives are
particular statements that is used to define the measurable results. This generally
describes what steps would be taken in order to achieve the wished consequence (Lin,
and Chen, 2012). For this project, certain aims and objectives is also required to be
formulated prior to make any business scheme or plans so that work forces can get a
broad idea about how they need to start and complete their task in order to accomplish
pre - determined aims and objectives. This is the first step that is to make realistic aims
and objectives according to the topic of research so that rest work can be started
appropriately. A researcher would take more than 5 days in designing this. Project management plan : It is important to make strategies before starting the
research project. Investigator should make plan regarding cost cutting, scope of project,
time management, quality management, etc. They will accomplish such actions in
minimum of ten days through this they can complete these tasks in effect-able manner. Primary data sources : In order to collect data from primary sources, researcher have
to take interviews of customers as well as workers of 3com. This would take around 8
days. Data collection : All the information whether theoretical or practical is collected by
using several research methodologies such quantitative and qualitative methods. This
will consume around ten days. Data analysis : After gathering all the information, the next task of investigator is to do
analysation of data. This will take approx 7 days. Conclusion and recommendation : After conducting whole research, the last but not
least work of research team is to summarise the overall project and give suggestion to
the corporation on the basis of that. This will take around 3 days.
 Submission of project : After completing these research activities, investigator need to
submit the project before its deadline. This will consume 2 days.
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P 4. Small scale research by using quantitative and qualitative research methodologies
In order to collect appropriate information in context with the theme of project, a
researcher should use proper research methodologies. The key methods of gathering actual facts
and figures are listed below : Qualitative research : Qualitative research includes many research methods by which
have the organisation can understand the behaviour of human beings as well as the way
of performing the task regarding the expected standard of performance of the employees.
It helps to identify the problems and threats to solve them at the right time to avoid loss
of the company (Sikdar and Payyazhi, 2014). Qualitative research basically helps in
decision making and understanding the different situations to work effectively in the
company. Research is needed in the company to identify the requirements of new
strategies and policies as well as the training and development programmes .
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 Quantitative research : The prime objective of the quantitative research is to boost up
the mathematical tools and techniques for the measurement of performance in terms of
statistics and percentages as the firm having numerical data. The quantitative research is
very common in psychology, economics, demography, sociology, marketing, community
health, health and human development, etc. (DeMarco and Lister, 2013) Quantitative
research can also use statistics to do future predictions regarding the productivity of the
organisation and by observing the connectivity between the variables, the firm can
establish the possibility of the cause and effect with controlled situations or
circumstances. Primary research : Primary research can be known as to collect the data from the
original sources directly by doing surveys, questionnaire and direct interviews
individually or in small groups. It can formal or informal to collect the data. Primary
research is conducted to find new and real information so that the research will be done
correctly regarding the desired decision making. It is useful to find the answers of the
specific questions and issues. Original material or content is required to carried out the
correct observation, analysis and the evaluation so that it seems to be factual and
effective for the company.
 Secondary research : Secondary research is based on the data collection of primary
research, books, magazines, newspapers, databases, market consultants and internet
(Graham and Englund, 2013). It is very famous for market research, health research and
legal research as lots of study is needed and then analysis can be done. The research is
conducted to identify the problems to solve them as well as to make the correct and
effective decisions in the organisation. Basically the firm can identify the need of
implementing new technologies and strategies to make the performance more effective
and easy through research methodology in an organisation.
This has been noted that qualitative research methodology is applied in this research
project for finding correct information and facts. Questionnaire is created below in order to
receive feedbacks of workers and consumers. Researcher has taken 20 as sample size. The
format of questionnaire are formulated below :
Questionnaire
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Name : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gender : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Is technological advancement assists in designing goods or services at less time period ?
 Yes
 No
2. Have you feel any effect of modernised technology in medium and small sized organisations
?
 Yes
 No
3. Which sector needed to be changed by taking assistance of digital techniques within 3Com ?
 Human resource department
 Production department
 Accounting
4. Which form of application is used for the intention of stocking sensitive data of the firm ?
 Hard disks
 Cloud technology
 The Internet of Things
5. Which type of digital tools are used for the purpose of doing communication in 3Com ?
 Social media
 Mobile technology
6. Which modern technique will aid company in making innovative products and services ?
 Artificial intelligence
 Big data analytics
TASK 3
P 5. Analysation of research and data using appropriate tools and techniques
Theme 1 : Results of advancement in technology in developing goods in minimum period of
time.
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1. Is technological advancement assists in
designing goods or services at less time
period ?
Frequency
Yes 15
No 5
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16 15
5 Column G
Interpretation : 15 persons said that modern technologies are contributing in manufacturing
products or services in very less time. But 5 respondents are not accept this and are saying, it is
not necessary that without using expensive advanced techniques, works can be completed in
minimum time. So, there is no need of wasting money for purchasing advanced machineries. It is
better to invest revenue in other important works.
Theme 2 : Impact of contemporary technology in the development of businesses activities
2. Have you feel any effect of modernised
technology in medium and small sized
organisations ?
Frequency
Yes 16
No 4
9

Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18 16
4
Column G
Interpretation : Most of the people around 16 has said that they feel positive impact of modern
technologies on the small companies as it helps it in increasing their production level and earning
high profitability. On the contrary, 4 persons are against this and do not think the same.
Theme 3 : Necessity of modification in various sectors of corporation
3. Which sector needed to be changed by
taking assistance of digital techniques within
3Com ?
Frequency
Human resource department 5
Production department 10
Accounting 5
10

Human resource department
Production department
Accounting
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
5
10
5 Column G
Interpretation : Approx 10 people has said that production department necessarily requires to be
more digitalised by taking use of artificial intelligence and big data analytics applications as this
helps in creating innovative products and services that aids in seeking attention of large number
of users towards their firm. But 5 worker said that accounting department needs to be modified
by taking use of contemporary software like Spreadsheet, Ms excel, etc. so that physical errors
can be removed and quality of calculation can be improved. On the other hand, 5 users are voted
for human resource department as 3Com is recruiting workers by taking their face to face
interviews which is so time as well as money consuming. Hence, they need to take their online
interviews because this can be done very easily and it also takes very less time in relation yo
physical interviews.
Theme 4 : Requirement of current techniques for holding important information
4. Which form of application is used for the
intention of stocking sensitive data of the
firm ?
Frequency
Hard disks 4
Cloud technology 10
The Internet of Things 6
11

Hard disks
Cloud technology
The Internet of Things
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
4
10
6
Column G
Interpretation : Most of the person around 10 has chosen cloud technology as a means of storing
sensitive information of corporation as data remains stored on server or cloud for a long period
of time and such information are also kept by prioritising their safety and security so that no
other individual can hack those data. But few people approx 6 supported for The Internet of
Things as they think it as better option for doing the same work. While 4 people voted for hard
disk as it is very easy to handle.
Theme 5 : Utilisation of digital means of communication
5. Which type of digital tools are used for the
purpose of doing communication in 3Com ?
Frequency
Social media 15
Mobile technology 5
Social media Mobile technology
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16 15
5 Column I
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Interpretation : Almost all users said that social media should be utilized for conveying their
information in most effective way with their workers as well as consumers as by using
applications of social networking sites like Face book, What's app, email, twitter, yahoo, etc.
company can connect with their employees and users as well for 24 hours in a day. So, company
should do alterations as per this. At the same time, 5 people is responded towards Mobile
technology as they understand that as more suitable technique of doing communication.
Theme 6 : Contribution of digital technologies in generating innovation based products or
services
6. Which modern technique will aid company
in making innovative products and services ?
Frequency
Artificial intelligence 16
Big data analytics 4
Artificial intelligence Big data analytics
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18 16
4
Column B
Interpretation : Most of the citizens approx 16 are in favour of artificial intelligence as it helps
in manufacturing best quality innovative goods or services. But 4 people are voted for Big data
analytics because they feel that best tool of doing the same work.
P 6. Recommendation for the project
By carrying out investigation, researcher has given certain suggestion to the 3Com which
is listed below :
 3Com have to take use of social networking sites like Facebook, twitter, gmail, yahoo,
etc. for transferring information to workers and connecting with their customer as well.
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 They can utilise Artificial Intelligence as well as Big Data Analytics in their venture for
producing innovative products and services and attract more people towards their firm.
 Apart from this, they can utilise Cloud computing technology for storing large amount of
data over cloud for long period of time as their data remains safe and secure.
TASK 4
P 7. Self reflection
After accomplishing this research project, I faces several issues regarding time as time
given for the submission of report is very less. Different research activities are carried out that
takes a lot of time. But as I have build Gantt chart, I manage my work load and given specific
time to particular events. Besides this I also face monetary problems as large sum of money is
needed for carrying out all the operations of research like surveys, taking interviews, collecting
data by using primary and secondary sources, etc. But I have limited sum of revenue, however I
completed this project by using that money only.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report, it can concluded that digitalisation is very important now a
days as need of people is changing day on day. They need more innovative goods and services
and this demand can be meet by taking help of modern technologies. 3Com also has to introduce
digital tools and techniques in their business operations. Such as they can use cloud-computing,
artificial intelligence, social media, big data analytics, etc. in their company and increase their
productivity as well as profitability.
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REFERENCES
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