Impact of Digital Technology on Small Businesses: Research Report

This report investigates the impact of digital technology on the growth and innovation of small businesses, focusing on Continental Consulting Limited. The research begins with defining the aims and objectives, including identifying the concept of digitalization, advantages and disadvantages of implementation, and how technology supports business growth. The report outlines a project management plan covering cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk, and resources. A work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are also included to manage the project's timeline. The research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, primarily using questionnaires to gather data from 40 respondents. The findings are presented using appropriate tools, with recommendations based on the data analysis. The report concludes with a reflection on the research's value and its contribution to the researcher's learning and performance, along with a detailed log book and performance review. The report discusses the importance of digital technology in various sectors and the challenges faced by businesses during implementation.

Managing
successful business
projects

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Devise project aims and objectives for a chosen scenario................................................3
P2 Produce a project management plan that covers aspects of cost, scope, time, quality,
communication, risk and resources........................................................................................4
P3 Produce a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart to provide time frames and stages
for completion........................................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
P4 Carry out small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods
appropriate for meeting project aims and objectives..............................................................8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
P5 Present findings and data using appropriate tools and techniques..................................11
P6 Communicate appropriate recommendations as a result of research and data analysis to
draw valid and meaningful conclusions...............................................................................19
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................19
P7 Reflect on the value of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives and own learning
and performance...................................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................21
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................22
Log Book..............................................................................................................................22
Performance Review............................................................................................................25

INTRODUCTION
Digital technology is defines as electronic tools, device, system or resources which are
used by a company in order to produce, store and process the data, informations and statistics. In
today's time digital technology are used by almost each and every sectors such as agriculture,
business, education, medical and many more (Awais and Manzoor, 2011). Some of the major
sources which are consider as method of digital technology are social media, online sites, mobile
phone and many others. Organisation which is taken for this research is Continental Consulting
Limited which is headed by its CEO i.e. Mario Bindas. Its main objective is to re engineering
business process for the small and medium manufacturing companies which are located at
London as well as Greater London. This report or research will include several topics which are
aim and objective of research, project management plan which help researcher and organisation
in planning and it will also include Gantt chart and Work breakdown structure in order to
evaluate time duration. Along with this it will also include the number of data collection methods
and their evaluation as well as interpretation. This will also include reflection as well as
recommendation in the perspective of researcher.
TASK 1
P1 Devise project aims and objectives for a chosen scenario.
Aim:
“To identify impact of digital technology supporting to small business their growth and
innovation.” A study on Continental Consulting Ltd.
Objectives:
 To identify the concept of digitalization.
 To ascertain advantages and disadvantages of implementing digital technology in a firm.
 To analyse how digital technology supporting to small business their growth and
innovation.
Questions:
 What is the concept of digitalization?
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of implementing digital technology in a firm?
 How digital technology supporting to small business their growth and innovation?

P2 Produce a project management plan that covers aspects of cost, scope, time, quality,
communication, risk and resources.
Project management plan is a formal written document that helps to define the various
phases of the project which helps in execution, monitoring and controlling the activities. It helps
in assigning the order to different activities (Bakker and et. al., 2011). Also it determines how
outcomes can be achieved who will be involved, how the performance will be measured and
communicated. While preparing the plan various aspects are considered such as cost, scope,
quality, communication, resources and risk. These aspects are discussed for organisation and the
researcher both, which are mentioned below:-
Basis For Organisation For Researcher
Cost The estimated cost that will be
required by Continental Consulting
Limited to implement the strategies
recommended by the researcher will
be £ 520. This cost is associated with
the adaptation of digital technology at
the workplace.
The cost that will be borne by the
researcher while undertaking the
researcher is £ 7120. This cost is
associated with the data collection,
stipend to the student who were taken
in the team for conducting research.
Scope The scope for this project is large for
the organisation as it will help the
respective organisation to improve
their technology of conducting work
by adopting digital technology. Also
it will help the Continental
Consulting Limited to improve the
efficiency of the employees as well as
it will also enhance their quality of
work.
Researcher who will undertake the
research has to develop a greater
understanding of various digital
technology which will help them in
conducting research in more effective
manner (Basu, 2014).
Time The time that will be consumed by
the HR managers of Continental
Consulting Limited for implementing
The time duration which was required
by researcher for gathering more
effective as well as essential data and

digital technology at the workplace
are approx 45 days.
information is approx 3 months. This
is so because they gather data by
developing questionnaire which will
take huge time.
Quality It is define as method according to
which company need to maintain
quality of the project (Geraldi and
Lechter, 2012). In respect of this
Continental Consulting Limited may
conduct evaluation on each and every
stage so that they can adopt proper
digital technology techniques.
In order to maintain quality of
information and data which are
collected by researcher, they may
adopt proper research techniques as
well as they must also conduct
evaluation at each phase of gathering
data.
Communication In order to communicate information
about the research at Continental
Consulting Limited their management
may conduct meeting or conference
with all staffs. Through this they able
to communicate about digital
technology in more effective manner.
In respect of researcher for
communicate about the research they
may use different method like post on
social media, web page, mail to
members and many others. Through
this they able to communicate about
the research aim and objective in
effective manner.
Risk The risk which are associated with
research or implementation of digital
technology are employees are
inexperienced, unskilled and many
others. Along with this they may also
faced risk related to investors,
stakeholders and so on.
In respect of researcher, risk which
are associated are budget issues, time
duration, inappropriate respondents
and so on.
Resources Resources which are required to for
implementing digital technology at
workplace are funds, time duration,
Resources which are required by
researcher for conducting research are
skilled and experienced team

skilled labour and many more. members, funds, time, proper
respondents and so on (Hall, 2011).
P3 Produce a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart to provide time frames and stages for
completion.
Work breakdown structure
Work breakdown structure is a method that helps in getting complex project done on time
by dividing the project into small manageable tasks or activities. Breaking the project into
smaller portions will help to get work done by different teams simultaneously which will
improve the team, productivity. All the task or activities which are to be done is presented in a
flowchart in hierarchy so that those activities can be done simultaneously can be identified. It
also make activities assignable to different people as per their capabilities. The researcher will
prepare WBS to break his work into manageable tasks so that it can be completed on time
(Harish and Kumar, 2014).
Gantt Chart
Gantt Chart is a type of bar chart that help to schedule the activities so that they can be
completed on time. It allot a time period within which the particular activity should be
completed. Gantt chart helps in tracking the activities and performances thus it helps the
manager to completed the task without delays. On the vertical scale the activities are taken while

at the horizontal scale time scale is taken (Viaene and Van, 2011). The researcher will prepare
Gantt chart so that he can track the activities of his team members.

TASK 2
P4 Carry out small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods
appropriate for meeting project aims and objectives.
Various research methods are used by the researchers that helps them to collect the data.
They are classified as quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research is the methods of research with the help of which the statistical and
numerical data is been collected related to the topic by the researcher. There are various methods
that can be used by them to gather relevant information such as observations, questionnaires,
screening of the documents etc. Along with that various computerised software can be used by
them which will even help them in analysis (Verzuh, 2015).
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research are the methods where data and information is directly collected
from the samples which are part of the research. Various qualitative methods are one-to-one
interviews, case study research methodology etc. which helps them to gather detailed
information as while interrogating the questions can be modified as per the response of the
respondent (Thomas, 2011).
For this report, the quantitative research method will be adopted as the researcher will
collect the data with the help of questionnaire. With the help of which they can collected
authentic information as responses will be provided by the person himself.
The data can be collected from two sources which can be either be primary ans
secondary.
 Primary Sources are those where fresh data is directly collected from the population as
per the theme of the research. The analysis made on the basis of data and information so
collected from this source is authentic and specific as they are collected by the researcher
themselves (Stoshikj, Kryvinska and Strauss, 2014). They can collect such data from the
questionnaires, by observing the behaviour of the respondent etc. while

 Secondary Sources are the data that has already been collected by the someone for any
use but it can be reused by modifying the information available. Such data can be
collected from the websites of various organisation or the government portals, books and
journals etc. This method of gathering data is least time consuming and comparatively
cheaper source. The analysis so made on the basis of this data may not be that authentic
and appropriate as they are modified for the use by the researcher (Hwang and Ng, 2013).
For this report, the researcher will be using primary source to collect the data through
questionnaire as they need more accurate information to make reliable analysis.
Sampling and Sample Size
Sampling is the process which the help of which the researchers determine the
respondents from the population that fall under their research. Out of the entire population few
samples are selected by the researchers on the basis of some common characteristics and which
represents the population. For this research, out of the entire population 40 respondents are
selected.
Questionnaire
Questionnaire is a instrument that is been used by the researcher to collect the data. It
contain a list of questions which can be descriptive or objective or a combination of both. This
helps the researcher to enlist the questions as per their need and theme of the research. With the
helps of this instrument the information and data so collected is authentic and reliable as
respondent themselves provides such information (Kowalkowski, Kindström and Brehmer,
2011). For this report also questionnaire is prepared to gather data which is given below :
Questionnaire
Name:
Gender:
E- mail:
Q1. Do you know about concept digital technology?
 Yes
 No
Q2. What are the importance of digital technology at workplace?
 Improve work quality
 Save time duration

 Reduce wastage
 All of the above
Q3. What are the issues faced by Continental Consulting Limited while implementing
digital technology?
 Budget issue
 Unskilled and Under experienced staffs
 Allotted time duration
 All of the above
Q4. What are the measures that can adopted by Continental Consulting Limited in order
to implement digital technology at workplace?
 Proper management of funds
 Conduct proper training and development session
 Both
Q5. Do you think digital technology supporting to small business their growth and
innovation.
 Yes
 No
Q6. What type of digital technologies could be applied by Continental Consulting Limited
in their workstation?
 Cloud technology
 Artificial Intelligence
 The internet of Things
 Mobile technology
 Social media
 All of the above
Q7. Do you think implementation of digital technology can be a challenging task for
Continental Consulting Limited?
 Yes
 No
 May Be
Q8. What are the major factors which are requires to be consider by small business while

implementing digital technology at workplace?
 Budget
 Skill Staff
 Proper utilisation of resources
 All of the above
Q9. How digital technology supporting to small business their growth and innovation?
…......................................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................................... .
Q10. Any suggestion would you like to give for the further
improvement...................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................................... .
TASK 3
P5 Present findings and data using appropriate tools and techniques.
Theme 1 : Concept of digital technology
Q1. Do you know about concept digital technology? Frequency
 Yes 35
 No 5
Interpretation : Out of the total 40 respondents 35 of them knows the concept of digital
technology whereas 5 employees does not have detailed knowledge of the concept of digital

technology as they work in the factory where their job is monotonous. This implied that the
Continental consulting limited can easy implement updated technology as their employees have
knowledge of it (Leach, 2014).
Theme 2 : Importance of digital technology
Q2. What are the importance of digital technology at workplace? Frequency
 Improve work quality 8
 Save time duration 6
 Reduce wastage 4
 All of the above 22
Interpretation : On the basis of this theme it is identified that most of the employees feels that
the digital technology is important in the organisation as it reduces the wastage, saves time as
well as improves quality of the work done by the people in the organisation. While of the people
believes that they contributes to these factors individually. But it will be easier for the
Continental Consulting to convince their employees to adopt the digitalisation.
Theme 3 : Issues faced while implementing digital technology
Q3. What are the issues faced by Continental Consulting Limited while Frequency