FY028 Inquiry Project: Digital Transformation Impact on Businesses

This report investigates the impact of digital transformation on businesses, with Marks and Spencer as a case study. It examines the benefits, such as improved efficiency and customer service, and the challenges, including employee resistance and budget constraints. The research employs a qualitative methodology, using secondary data to explore the effects of digital transformation on business processes and models. Key findings highlight the importance of technology in gaining a competitive edge, the need for employee training, and the impact on data security. The report also discusses the role of digital workplaces and data analysis tools in enhancing decision-making and overall performance. Ethical considerations are addressed, ensuring the reliability and accuracy of the research, which aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of digital transformation in the business environment and also provide training programs for employees to enhance their knowledge and skills in order to apply digital transformation in business.

Inquiry Based Learning
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Table of Contents
Title – Impact of Digital Transformation on Businesses.................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................4
Research Methodology...............................................................................................................5
Research Analysis............................................................................................................................6
Findings............................................................................................................................................6
Summary..........................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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Title – Impact of Digital Transformation on Businesses
INTRODUCTION
Digital technology has impacted the way in which businesses carry out different
processes as well as compete in the market (Babaci-Wilhite, 2017). The company chosen for this
report if Marks and Spencer, a multinational brand that offers high quality clothing, food and
household products. The company was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in the
year 1884. This report describes the impact of digital transformation on Marks and Spencer and
how it has changed the way in which carries out its operations. The company uses different types
of technology in order stay competitive and constantly improve its products and services.
Problem Statement
The respective research has been carried out to develop a complete understanding of the
impact of digital transformation on businesses across different industries. This will be beneficial
in carrying out different business processes effectively as well as reduce the amount of
unnecessary manual labour. The main problem that will be addressed by carrying out this
research is to determine the impact of technology transformation on different businesses
(Buchanan and et. al., 2016). It will also help in assessing the different benefits as well as
challenges of digital transformation on organisations. Thus, for this, the researcher has developed
the most effective and suitable research objectives as well as questions which will further assist
in making sure the complete research generates effective outputs and thus attains the goals and
objectives. The research aim. Objectives as well as questions are described below -
Research Aim
“To determine the impact of Digital Transformation on Businesses.”
Research Objectives
 To investigate the Impact of Digital Transformation on Businesses.
 To assess the benefits and challenges of digital transformation on businesses.
 To implement training program for employees to enhance their knowledge and skills in
order to apply digital transformation in business.
Research Questions
 What is the impact of Digital Transformation on Businesses?
 What are the benefits and challenges of digital transformation on businesses?
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 How can training programs for employees enhance their knowledge and skills in order to
apply digital transformation in business?
Literature Review
In today's competitive era, digital platform play an important role that provide enormous
growth opportunities to the organisation. In a dynamic environment, it is important for the senior
position of the company to provide advanced technology in order to gain a significant position
within the market. It provides various benefits such as it saves time and money and ensure fast
operations of a business and it also provides effective solutions to their clients through increase
speed and agility and thus assure success in an entity (Chu and et. al., 2017). The digital
transformation is all about changes in the trends and preferences of people and provide new
insight in order to increase the efficiency and productivity of a company. The manager of Marks
and Spencer aims to provide technology transformation programme with a view to drive future
growth and thus improves the overall growth of a company. Its major focus is to deliver fast and
efficient services to their customers and therefore improve the overall performance of the
company.
Digital transformation has both benefits as well as challenges, for example- it helps
organisations in delivering a better service as well as experience to customers (Coffman, 2017).
This is because advancement in technology has enhanced the way in which organisations interact
with their customers. As a result, it assists them in providing a consistent experience to them and
fulfilling their requirements. Marks and Spencer has incorporated latest technology in its system
in order to improve the skill set as well as enhance knowledge. Also, the quality of work of
different departments is also improved. If the company decides to carry out a research, it can use
technology effectively to collect data and analyse it using various digital tools. This helps in
enhancing further strategies for it (Ernst, Hodge and Yoshinobu, 2017). On the other hand,
challenges of digital transformation include impact on the organisational structure, employees
showing resistance towards etc. If employees show resistance, the organisation will not be able
to accomplish its goals and objectives. There can be chances that the customer data is not used
effectively by the company bas the employees may not have any idea about how to use the same.
One of the major challenges of digital transformation is lack of budget due to which many
organisations cannot implement latest technology in their system.
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Training programs can help in enhancing employees' knowledge and skills apart from
enhancing a company's overall productivity. The employees feel more valued and as a result, put
in their best efforts to get a task complete. This also leads to a decline in staff turnover of a
company. Training can help employees develop new skills and enhance the ones that already
exist. Training can be provided through different ways like – on-the-job, off-the-job training,
guest lectures etc. It also reduces the chances of employees making any kind of errors. Less
supervision is required as the employees become acquainted with all job requirements and
therefore there is less wastage of time. Learning can boost the morale of the employee by making
them more confident. Therefore, training must be provided to make them understand how can
various activities and tasks can be managed within the organisation. As a result, they are more
satisfied and engaged with their jobs and don't seek other opportunities in the market.
Research Methodology
This section in a research will allow readers to assess its reliability as well as validity.
This research is about determining the impact of digital transformation on the businesses. The
main methods included in research methodology are explained below -
Data Collection – Data collection is an important step in a research and thus, should be
collected by making use of effective methods. A researcher can either use primary or secondary
methods to gather data. Primary methods include interviews, focus groups, surveys etc. Whereas
secondary methods include books, journals, diaries, online reports etc. In order to carry out this
research, secondary methods have been used to collect data like books and journals (Kang and
Keinonen, 2017). The main reason of the researcher for choosing this method is to gather as
much amount of data possible in the given time period.
Types of investigation – In this stage, all the information that is gather is analysed by the
research with the help of effective tools. Investigation can be done in two ways- quantitative and
qualitative. For an effective research, the researcher has opted for qualitative method which will
provide help in analysing the data and coming up with accurate and reliable results.
Research Design – It can be defined as a framework of different methods as well as
techniques of research. Research design is an important component of a research as it explains
what type of research has been conducted (Nunaki and et. al., 2019). The three types of research
designs are descriptive, exploratory as well as experimental. To conduct this research,
exploratory research design has been used to obtain effective as well as reliable results. The
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primary reason behind choosing this research design is that it will help in generating a valid and
accurate output about the topic of research. Also, it will ease out the process of gathering data
and analyse in an effective manner.
Research Philosophy – It can be defined as a belief about the way in which data for the
research should be gathered and analysed. This is of two types, namely- positivism and
interpretivism. In order to conduct this research, interpretivism type of research philosophy has
been used which will help in effective evaluation and analysis of the data. The researcher will
also be able to provide justifications with his findings of the research.
Ethical Consideration – Ethical considerations comprise of all the ethics that must be
followed by the researcher at all times while conducting the research. If ethics are followed while
conducting the research, it is considered to be reliable and accurate. In context to this research,
the researcher has made use of secondary methods to gather data. All methods that are used in
this research are ethical and no viable resources have been used to damage the quality of the
same (Psycharis, 2016). For this, authentic and reliable resources have been used so that as much
accurate as possible information can be gathered. Besides this, a lot of preference has been given
to recent articles and journals so that latest information can be gathered with the minimum
amount of unreliable data.
Research Analysis
By conducting the analysis and undertaking the research, an understanding of the impact
of digital transformation on businesses has been achieved. It was also realized that technology is
getting advance day by day and it has become important for organisations to adopt the same in
order to stand out in the market and gain a competitive edge against competitors. Digital
transformation has been beneficial for businesses as they are able to cut down on unnecessary
costs and also enhance their overall productivity as well as performance in the industry. On the
other hand, employees of organisations can become resistant when a new technology is
implemented and also have a sense of job insecurity.
Findings
Through this research, it was found that not only functioning of businesses, but their
business models have also been impacted due to this transformation. Technology is no longer a
choice among businesses, but it has become a necessity to make the best use of resources that are
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available with them (Song and Wen, 2018). Digital transformation has impacted the way of
carrying out business both positively as well as negatively. Businesses can now partner with each
other effectively not only nationally but across international borders as well (Five reasons why
digital transformation is essential for business growth, 2020).
Digital Transformation helps the employees of a company to become more effective as
well as creative. It provides an opportunity to the different functions within a company to reduce
the amount of manual labour and move towards digitisation. This is both cost as well as time
effective. Also, with the rise in digital technology being used by organisations across different
industries, the need to secure data has become a priority. Thus, digital transformation has
provided effective means to safeguard useful information of the company's employees, clients
and stakeholders. The demands of customers are also increasing day by day with an equal growth
in the competition. Therefore, as a result organisation are becoming
It was also found that digital technology makes it easier for different departments within
an organisation to collaborate with each other and find new innovative ways to complete various
tasks. This helps in enhancing their overall performance as well as improving their efficiency. It
also updates the knowledge as well as skill set of the employees do that, they put in best efforts
to get tasks complete in a much more refined way. Digital workplace is a concept that has been
gaining popularity in recent years. Incorporating this concept will be helpful as the employees
will remain engaged and committed to their jobs (Van Uum, Verhoeff and Peeters, 2016). Also,
there productivity levels will increase and a better output will be generated. The process of
analysing data has become a lot easier as compared to ways in which it was analysed earlier.
Besides analysing, the process to gather data has also become easier. Decision making has also
become easy as there are a number of analytic tools that help a business in tracking its overall
performance as well as campaigns.
Summary
Technology helps a business cut out unnecessary costs and utilise them in an effective
way to generate profits. It assists in improving the productivity as well as the overall
performance of the employees. New untapped markets can be reached with the use of
technology. Digital transformation has eased out the processes of recruitment and selection as
well as training and development. Managers can now easily track the performance and progress
of their team members. Digital Transformation has led to eliminating any kinds of mistakes and
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errors, thereby helping the organisation to increase its overall accuracy in order to make much
more informed decisions. Small businesses can expand and grow their business in new and
untapped market.
Thus, such businesses should adopt latest technologies, strategies as well as tools so as to
enhance their growth in the market. Organisations should provide regular training to employees
to enhance their skills as well as performance. It offers continuous opportunities of learning an
remain competitive in a digital environment (Voet and De Wever, 2017). Today, people look for
jobs that offer them more than just a job like learning and developing opportunities etc. Thus,
digital transformation is the new way that is taking the industry by storm. Organisations should
incorporate latest technology in their system to enhance productivity as well as performance in
the market. Manual work and other unnecessary costs can be reduced with an increase in the
efficiency. Also, the company can get access to a lot of opportunities which it can utilise to grow.
CONCLUSION
From the above research, it can be concluded that digital transformation has indeed led
businesses by storm and impacted the way in which they carry out their operations. It can impact
the same either positively or negatively. Also, for a research to be effective, appropriate methods
of data collection should be used so that the results obtained are accurate and useful. Therefore,
managers within organisation should provide effective training to the employees in order to
enhance their productivity and also encourage them to adapt to the change.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Babaci-Wilhite, Z., 2017. A rights-based approach to science literacy using local languages:
Contextualising inquiry-based learning in Africa. International Review of Education.
63(3). pp.381-401.
Buchanan, S. and et. al., 2016. Inquiry based learning models, information literacy, and student
engagement: A literature review. School Libraries Worldwide. 22(2). pp.23-39.
Chu, S. K. W. and et. al., 2017. 21st Century skills development through inquiry-based learning.
Springer Singapore:.
Coffman, T., 2017. Inquiry-based learning: Designing instruction to promote higher level
thinking. Rowman & Littlefield.
Ernst, D. C., Hodge, A. and Yoshinobu, S., 2017. What is inquiry-based learning. Notices of the
AMS. 64(6). pp.570-574.
Kang, J. and Keinonen, T., 2017. The effect of inquiry-based learning experiences on
adolescents’ science-related career aspiration in the Finnish context. International
Journal of Science Education. 39(12). pp.1669-1689.
Nunaki, J. H. and et. al., 2019. The Effectiveness of Inquiry-Based Learning to Train the
Students' Metacognitive Skills Based on Gender Differences. International Journal of
Instruction. 12(2). pp.505-516.
Psycharis, S., 2016. Inquiry based-computational experiment, acquisition of threshold concepts
and argumentation in science and mathematics education. Journal of Educational
Technology & Society. 19(3). pp.282-293.
Song, Y. and Wen, Y., 2018. Integrating various apps on BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) into
seamless inquiry-based learning to enhance primary students’ science learning. Journal
of Science Education and Technology. 27(2). pp.165-176.
Van Uum, M. S., Verhoeff, R. P. and Peeters, M., 2016. Inquiry-based science education:
towards a pedagogical framework for primary school teachers. International Journal of
Science Education. 38(3). pp.450-469.
Voet, M. and De Wever, B., 2017. Preparing pre-service history teachers for organizing inquiry-
based learning: The effects of an introductory training program. Teaching and Teacher
Education. 63. pp.206-217.
Online
Five reasons why digital transformation is essential for business growth. 2020. [Online].
Available through:<https://www.itpro.co.uk/strategy/29899/three-reasons-why-digital-
transformation-is-essential-for-business-growth>.
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