Assessing Digital Technology's Impact on Business Growth: A Project

This project report analyzes the impact of digital technology, specifically social media marketing, on the growth and innovation of small businesses, using Continental Consulting Limited as a case study. The report outlines the aims, objectives, and research questions, focusing on the significance of digital technology in modern business operations. It includes a detailed project management plan, incorporating cost analysis, risk assessment, and timelines. The research employs both quantitative and qualitative methods, with a positivism research philosophy and an exploratory approach. The report covers data collection methods, including primary and secondary data, and presents findings through Gantt charts and work breakdown structures, offering recommendations for improving digital technology implementation. The project aims to determine how social media marketing influences the marketing activities and customer relationships of the company and its overall impact on its development and growth.

MANAGING
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P.1. Aims and Objectives of Research...................................................................................1
P.2. Project Management Plan................................................................................................2
P.3. Gantt Chart and Work Break down structure..................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P.4. Small scale research by applying quantitative and qualitative methods.........................6
LO.3.................................................................................................................................................9
P.5. Analysis of research data.................................................................................................9
P.6. Recommendation...........................................................................................................18
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................19
P.7. Reflection......................................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
Digital technology is a word that is very popular in era of modernisation and
globalisation. Each and every companies have to follow and adapt digital technology for smooth
working of organisation's functions and operations. Even in daily activities of a person, digital
technologies plays a vital role (Nazari, 2017). In the present report, Continental Consultancy
Limited is chosen which is a research and consultancy firm situated in United Kingdom headed
by Mario Bindas. Company was using outdated technology that resulted in failure. In this given
case, to update their technologies, the organisation is focusing on social media implication to
improvise their marketing and communication division. This research project will identify the
significance, scope and limitations of implementing new technologies within the cited firm. This
examination will provide a brief understanding related to the concept of digital technologies.
Addition to this, various research tool and techniques will be used to obtain effective outcomes
in respect to the topic.
TASK 1
P.1. Aims and Objectives of Research
Social media marketing help company as well as people to collect huge information. It
has transformed the landscape of engagement of customers, marketing, commerce and many
more in such a manner that it influence each and every area of areas of business (Importance of
Digital Technology, 2017). The purpose of this report is to identify the impact of social media
marketing on the growth and innovation within small business. Thus, it is not only enough that
companies only use and implement digital-technologies for making the work easier and faster
but it is very essential for corporate survival of company. The pace of innovative technologies is
increasing rapidly, resulting in making very challenging in maintaining position in the market. In
the present report, Continental Consultancy Limited is chosen which is a research and
consultancy firm situated in United Kingdom headed by Mario Bindas. Company was using
outdated technology that resulted in failure. The actual business of company is Business Process
Re-engineering and potential customer's including small and medium manufacturing firms
situated across London (Nazari, 2017). Addition to this, digital competition is also increasing and
is putting pressure on companies to complete modification in digital world. On the other hand,
customers expectation is also becoming very higher which increases switching cost (Polonsky
and Waller, 2014). If any other company comes with any innovative products or services than
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customers instantly move to other, thus for companies it is very challenging for them to retail
there customers. Beside this, in order to implement social media marketing within operations and
functions as it is also very crucial to have digital literacy to understand the importance and its
concept. Knowledge of digitalisation or innovation is very necessary as this has become
significant for organisation.
Tittle: “Impact of digital technology supporting small business growth and innovation.”
Aim - “To identify the impact of social media marketing on the growth and innovation within
small business – A case study on Continental Consulting Limited”
Objectives
 To determine the concept of social media marketing.
 To determine how social media marketing influence the marketing activities of
Continental Consulting Limited.
 To determine how customer relationship is influenced by the use of social media
marketing in Continental Consulting Limited. To analyse the impact of social media marketing on the development and growth of
Continental Consulting Limited.
Research Questions
 What is the concept of social media marketing?
 How does social media marketing influence the marketing activities of Continental
Consulting Limited?
 How does social media marketing influence the consumer relationship in Continental
Consulting Ltd?
 What is the impact of digital-technologies on the development and growth of Continental
Consulting Limited?
P.2. Project Management Plan
Project Management plan comprises task, activities, dependencies, resources and
milestones that are very necessary for completion of the project. It is the duty of project manager
to create and develop a plan for project (Hussain and Dimple, 2018). There are various software
to maintain the plan of project. Project management plan is very important as it helps in
accomplishing strategic goals and objectives. Addition to this, the main intention of project
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management plan is systematically describe each and every phase of the project. It includes
initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing.
Cost- This factor is most important element in project management plan. Research before
starting the project work should have to measure and evaluate the cost incurred in completing the
analysis on social media marketing. This is requisite to analyse the cost of the project in regard to
operate numerous practices within the available financial resources. To implement the social
media marketing, the organisation has set their budget approximate £500.
Risk- It is also one another factor that has vital impact in completing the project. It is
very important that risk should be calculated. There are various types of risk emerge while
implementing social media marketing within the company including risk of market, liquidity,
credit, inflation's etc. This is requisite for organization to plan entire activities in order to reduce
the risk (Carnall, 2018). In implementation of digital technology for Continental Consulting
Company, there will be risk of theft, over utilization of resources, wastage of resources,
employees dis satisfaction. It is important that appropriate steps are taken to overcome them.
Time of project- Time is also a very crucial factor in preparing project management plan
as there was a deadline in completing each and every task in collecting social media marketing.
In implementation of digital technology in Continental Consulting Company, the firm has
determined to accomplish the set objectives within 30 days. Thus, there must be a schedule of
each and every task. With the help of the schedule, efforts which researcher put will easily meet
their goals and objectives of study.
Quality- This is a fundamental determinant i.e. requisite to manage while executing a
project within an organisation. There are various elements that can affect quality of project
which are process and tools, methods used to competed research study etc. In order to achieve
the goals and objectives of social media implication, it is important to have quality of work
(Storey, Basterretxea and Salaman, 2014). While implementing digital technology in Continental
Consulting Ltd, company will focus on improvement of security of personal data, use of reliable
data.
Communication- While developing an effective project management plan, it is very
crucial that it should be effective communication to implement social media marketing with the
organization (Clifton, 2015). Effective communication is when researcher has used proper tools,
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techniques and actual path of communication to implement digital technology in Continental
Consulting Ltd.
P.3. Gantt Chart and Work Break down structure.
The above picture presented the work break-down structure of Continental Consulting
Company's functions and activities. It is an approach to distribute all the actions to distribute all
the activities that are involved in this project. It consist of proper planning and framing of all the
activities and resources so that the chances of mistakes and errors can be minimized. Addition to
this, all components and resources that are used to achieve the aims and objectives of research
study which are also described in work break-down structure.
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Time Scale
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Gantt Chart
Networking Plan
All the activities that helps in achieving the aims and objectives of research project is
demonstrated in Gantt Chart. It is as per the current position and situation of market. Gantt Chart
also represent deadlines that helps in achieving aims and objectives of research.
TASK 2
P.4. Small scale research by applying quantitative and qualitative methods.
Research methodology is a special technique or method that are utilized to identify, select
as well as analyse important information regarding the subject or topic. In order to achieve the
aims and objectives, it is very essential to use appropriate methods and techniques. Quantitative
and Qualitative are the two types of research that aids in analysing of research study. For
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improvement and development of the outcomes of the result, it is very important to use the best
and effective methods in research to evaluate the best outcomes of the study. Furthermore, this is
also very important to collect effective information to make the research successful as well as
reliable (Vannini, 2015). The selection of all the methods of research depend on the research
questions. It enables the team to organize the efforts of researcher into the achievement of aims
and objectives of the study. It deals with wide range of ways to make the best solution for the
research problems.
Research Philosophy- The explanation of philosophy helps in developing and creating
the impelling design that can be applied in the examination of research in order to achieve aims
and objectives of investigation. It is very essential part of research study to select the most
appropriate method of research. It is the way by which data is collected, analysed and used.
There are different types of research philosophy which are positivism, realism, Interpretivism
pragmatism and ontology and many others. In the present research project, researcher have used
positivism research philosophy. It is derived from natural science and it is characterised by
testing of hypothesis that was developed from existing theory. It is term i.e. used to depict an
approach to the study of community that relied particularly on technological evidence like
statistics and experiments. In this type, information or data is interpreted through logic or reason
(Gandhi and Sharma, 2014.).
Research Approach- The explanation of approach helps in making plan and procedure
that comprise effective path of wide assumption to detailed techniques in collection of data,
analysis of data as well as interpretation. In approach of investigation, several types of decision
for collecting information is included. Approaches helps in decision making activity in research
study to assemble the data. exploratory, predictive, descriptive and explanatory are the types of
approaches of research. Exploratoryexploratory methods of study approach has been used by the
researcher in making research study successful. It is the best approach to study the impact of
digital technology on Continental Consulting Limited Company. With the help of this approach
investigator can identified the best design for research (Saaroni, 2018). This is also used when
past research is not conducted properly and issues were not solved.
Research Methods- The explanation of the strategies in research is a bit by bit plan of
action that gives way to the efforts and thoughts researcher. In order to conduct the research in
effective manner, strategies help scholar to produce a quality of result. Qualitative and
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Quantitative are the two types of research strategies methods. It is choice of researcher to use
whatever scholar want to select, either researcher can be selected only one method or
combination of both. Quantitative method means when data is collected and measure in statical
form and mathematical or numerical form collected with polls such as questionnaire and survey
whereas Qualitative method aims over quality and human behaviour to develop information and
insights over determined research aim. In this present research, quantitative method has been
used in this research. Scholar has analysed behaviour of managers of Continental Consulting
Limited. Information about the impact of digital technology has been collected from manager of
company.
Data Collection- The explanation is data collection is the process of assembling and
gathering information on the interest of variables in a systematic manner that enable scholar to
test hypothesis as well as calculate the result (Gleerup, Andersen and Wathan, 2018). Data
collection is one of the most important and critical part of researcher methodologies. Methods of
data collection is different according to different field. Primary and secondary are the two types
of data collection method. Primary collection of data means when scholar collect data own-self.
Secondary collection of data means when scholar collect the data from other person or source.
Secondary data is used data while primary is fresh and unused data (Research Methodologies,
2017). The information collected from primary source has more reliability than secondary
source. In this present research study, scholar has collected data from both the sources.
Sampling- The explanation of sampling is referred to the group of respondents that
participated in interview or survey to answer the question prepared by scholar related to the topic
of research. In order to select the unit, this is the best activity called sampling. There are two
types of sampling which are probabilistic and non-probabilistic sampling. To collect the data or
information on the impact of digital technology of the operations and functions of Continental
Consulting Company. Questionnaire has been formulated by the scholar by selecting 20
employees of company.
Ethical Consideration- Ethical consideration is the critical as well as important part of
research. There are some norms and standards for collecting information that makes difference in
between what is right and wrong. Here are some rules that scholar has to follow while
conducting research are as follows-
 Information that are assembled should be informed consent.
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 Privacy concern.
 It should not harm anybody.
LO.3
P.5. Analysis of research data.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Company: Continental Consultancy Limited
Respondents: Employees
Name:
Age:
1. Have you heard the name social media marketing?
 Yes
 No
 Not Sure
2. Do you think your organisation functions and operations are having the impact of social
media marketing?
 Yes
 No
 Not Sure
3. Do you think the productivity of your company is influenced by the use of social media
marketing?
 Agree
 Disagree
 Neutral
4. In your opinion, which among the department of company is highly influenced with the use
of social media marketing?
 Marketing
 Human Resource
 Sales
 Account
5. State whether customers of your company are satisfied with new social media technology
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implication?
 Yes
 No
 Not Sure
6. Do you think, digital literacy is very important for using social media marketing in
Continental Consulting Ltd?
 Yes
 No
 Not Sure
7. Do you think transformation of social media marketing will positively affect market
position of Continental Consulting Limited?
 Agree
 Disagree
 Neutral
8. Do you think digital technologies make your work faster and effective?
 Yes
 No
 Not Sure
INTERPRETATION
Theme 1. Maximum employees heard the name social media marketing.
Have you heard the name social media
marketing?
No. Of respondents
Yes 14
No 5
Not Sure 1
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