Business Performance: Digital Application Impact at Best One Retail

This report examines the impact of digital applications on the business performance of "Best One," a UK-based retail establishment. The assignment includes a project management plan, detailing scope, quality control, risk management, cost control, communication strategies, and timelines. A work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are also provided to outline project tasks and timelines. The report explores various research methodologies, including primary and secondary data collection, and quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data analysis and recommendations are presented, focusing on the importance of digital technology in enhancing marketing, reducing operational costs, and improving overall business activities. The report concludes with a reflection on the research findings and their implications for "Best One's" future growth and competitiveness.

MANAGING SUCCESFUL
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Aim and objective..................................................................................................................1
P2 Project management plan.......................................................................................................2
P3 Work breakdown structure and Gantt chart ..........................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P4 Research methodologies........................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5 Analysing data.......................................................................................................................8
P6 Recommendations ...............................................................................................................14
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................15
P7 Reflection on research .......................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................18
Appendices.....................................................................................................................................20

INTRODUCTION
Technology has completely changed the way of conducting business. There was time
when innovations were not giving much priority but now, most of the companies are dependent
on adoption of new techniques of working. Artificial intelligence and automation are some of the
popular ideas which are assisting many enterprises in performing their operations in an effective
manner. There are many firms that are allotting significant amount of money to their research
and development department so that they can produce improved goods. ''Best One'' is an
establishment which is operating in the retail sector of UK. This assignment will discuss about
the project management plan. A work breakdown structure will also become the part of this file.
Various modes of investigation shall be stated in this report as well. Further, recommendations
and own learning will be a part of this study.
TASK 1
P1. Aim and objectives
Research Title:
What is the impact of advance application on business performance - Case study on
“Best One”
Most of the enterprises are receiving little extra edge over their competitors as they have
adopted recent trend applications. It has reduced their administration cost and provide various
kinds of assistance in other activities. Main reason behind promoting innovation is that it directly
helps in increasing the profit of company. The enterprises that are using updated technique of
production are earning more money and their sales is also continuously enhancing.
Aim
This project will aim at resolving various problems which ''Best One'' is facing in their
organisation so that they can attain better growth in upcoming time. Its prime target is to enhance
the number of customer by at-least 10% and reduce operational cost by 5%. Technology can
assist them in achieving these aggressive goals. This project will study the impact on digital
technology on marketing and other operations of company.
Objectives
 To recognise the importance of updating present digital technology
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 To analyse the ways of reducing operational cost by using updated techniques of
marketing
 To understand the impact of digital technology on transformation of business activities
Research Question
 What types of up-gradations are needed in digital technology.
 What are updated techniques of marketing.
 What affect can digital technology make on transforming business.
These objectives will become a significant part of this report. In the present scenario,
''Best One'' has 550 stores but they have capacity to expand their organisation and improve
operational work. By doing aggressive marketing they can become a big corporation in short
period of time time. Digital technology will play an important role in their growth as it can
reduce their administration and operational cost.
Background of project – Effective communication is essential for growth of the
business. Most of the firms face different types of conflicts in organisation because they fail to
communicate in a proper manner. When management asks managers to convey a message they
use in messaging soft-wares, it helps in sending complete information without missing any data
or important content.
P2. Project management plan
Planning for every work is very important because it can minimise the amount of risk and
help manager in optimum utilisation of available resources. This plan will cover various
activities and essential requirements for this project:
Scope – This program has wide range, mainly it will focus on marketing department but
operational division will also become its significant part. Adoption and up-gradation of digital
technology in the organisation will also help human resource wing. New techniques of
communication will reduce the confusion between managers, this project will support ''Best One''
in expansion of their business.
Quality control – Significant amount of focus will be kept in maintaining high quality in
the research. The authenticity of primary and secondary data will be checked in order to get
better outcome. If researchers fail to record correct information then they can never provide good
report. Monitoring of whole project will be done in regular interval of time so any kind of
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deviation or mistaker can be stopped at then point of its generation. Gantt chart and data analysis
will help in better understanding of the gathered content.
Risk management – One can easily identify the general threats like wrong collection of
figures but there are some problems like finding hidden risks. These issues are needed to be
addressed on priority because they can create problems in the whole project. Determining
authenticity of information will be a big challenge. There is a big question mark on genuineness
of content which is present on internet. Over expenditure on program is a major risk, most of the
manager cross the budget which is allotted to them by senior managers of the company. Delaying
in the completion of project will be another risk, if these main troubles are not addresses then
''Best One'' may fail to use digital technology for solving major problems in their business and
this will also make a negative impact on organisational growth.
Cost control – Keeping an eye on expenditure is very important for ''Best One'', they are a
medium sized company and they do not have deep pocket like many retail giants. A budget will
be allotted for every activity so overall expenses can be controlled in a proper manner.
Monitoring of whole project will be done on continuous basis in order to reduce the wastage of
money funds. Normally the fund given by top level management to the manager are enough for
completion of a project but there are many external factors like hike in taxes etc., they can
increase the cost of programme. Making plan is easier but its implementation hard. 1000 pounds
will be cost of this project.
Communication – Most of the conflicts in an organisation arise due to
miscommunication. At the time of making plans for using latest technology, manager of different
departments will give their views about various matters. Regular communication with the
employees who are part of this project can assure smooth implementation of plans. Their
feedbacks can resolve the troubles which can arise in execution of ideas.
Time – It is important to decide the time for a project because it can help organisation in
setting some specific and time-bound goals for the employees. This program will take at-least 6
months for its completion. ''Best One'' believe in setting aggressive objectives and they
are have to focus on improving their operation performance for attaining these goals.
P3 Work breakdown structure and Gantt chart
A company can accomplish a task in better way if they break their the work that is
needed to be done in significant number of part. This will help them in focusing on every
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essential segment of a project. It will assist organisation in attaining better results, most of the
mistakes, committed by manager, happens because they do not follow the strategy of ''one step at
a time''. An action plan contain all the details about various activities which is needed to be done
for completing a project. Below are some of its main steps:
Identifying the issue – An administration continuously attempts to carry modification in
their organisation when they believe that present system is not working for them. In this action
plan, the main issue is expansion of business by using digital technology (Ajmal, Helo and
Kekäle, 2011). It is important for ''Best One'' to make some alteration in their administration and
formal communication, like every firm they also want to expand their business but by ignoring
digital technology they cannot accomplish this major task. Primary research will help company
in gathering authenticate and reliable data and secondary research will assist in finding more
information in less period of time.
Site of literature review – Net is the best source for collection of distinct type of data.
Beside this, surveys can also support in understanding the thinking of participants (Bloch,
Blumberg and Laartz, 2012). There are many authors who have written blogs and books on the
impact of adopting digital technology in a business. These suggestions shall be taken in account
at the time of execution of plans.
Conferences – The duration of gathering with various people who will become important
part of this project will be decided so confusions and miscommunication can be avoided at the
time of execution of research. While collecting primary data, a schedule will be followed so
participants do not face any problems at the time of interview.
Area of data gathering – Information will be recoding at the workplace. Employee will
become main part of this research along with various experts of digital marketing (den Hertog,
van der Aa and de Jong, 2011).
Interpretation of data – Various statical tools and analysation of completed questionnaire
can help in ascertaining better outcome.
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Review project – All the collected and analysed information will reviewed so any
necessary changes can be done in appropriate time.
First task, that is selecting appropriate topic of research will take 1 day for completion.
Aim and objectives will be set in next two days and after this the step of literature review will be
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executed. This process will get complete in next 3 days. Primary data will be collected in from
9/14/17 to 9/18/17. The process of analysing data will take around 4 days and recommendation
will be made in next 2 days. 1 day will be spent on submission of the report.
TASK 2
P4 Research methodologies
Researchers has to decide the approachers and methods of research will they are going to
use at the time of conducting a research. They should choose methods according to the funds and
time given to them. Their are two types of data which are as follows:
Primary data – These are the figures which are collected for the first time (Eckerson,
2011). When a company want to collect reliable information then they rely on this type of data.
Personal interview, questionnaire, observing activity etc. are some of the popular methods for
gathering primary content. Sometime researchers do not like to collect this from of information
but it is very costly and requires significant amount of time. But, the data gathered can be trusted
by an organisation and it can provide great help in making sound future plans.
Secondary data – This type of data is already present in the market and researcher just
need to find and copy it for various sources (Freeman, 2011). Wide range of information
secondary content can be recorded in very less time. This form of data is easily available and it
does not cost much compared to earlier one. News paper, social media, government report,
books, journals are some of the prime source of collecting secondary information.
Research methods
Quantitative – All the information gathered through this methods is collected in numeric
figures (Gareis, 2011). Close ended questions are significant part of this approach and generally
they start from ''How much '' or ''how many''. This type of research method help in collecting
accurate information which is essential for making effective plans. Participants also do not face
any big trouble at the time of filling questionnaires because they just have to choose one number
for giving their view (Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods, 2017).
Qualitative – This kind of research is related to finding the opinion of the participants. It
do not have any relation with numeric figures and open ended questionnaire are considered as an
significant part of Qualitative research (Thamhain, 2013). Interview, questionnaire are some of
methods which can used at the time of gathering this type of data.
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Questionnaire will be used for gathering primary data
Questionnaire
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Q1. Do you think there is need of new software for file sharing among various department?
A. Yes
B. No
Q2. Do you think ''Best One'' should adopt latest technology for marketing?
A. Yes
B. No
Q3. Can digital techniques of communication can reduce problems of miscommunication?
A. Yes, but up-to an extent
B. No
Q4. Cloud technology can remove operational problems.
A. Strongly agree
B. Agree
C. Not agree
Q5. How can better marketing of company's product can be done?
A. By doing mobile advertisement
B. T.V advertisement
C. Promotion on social media
Q6. Do you believe that adopting latest digital technology can will grow business of ''Best
One''?
A. Yes
B. Yes, but limited growth
C. No
Q7. Can ''Best One'' use artificial intelligence in their organisation?
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A. Yes, it is the future of technology
B. No, it is very risky
Data collection through secondary method
Internet is the best mode of selecting secondary information. It assist in collection huge
amount of information in short time period. Most of the blogs on internet made favourable
comments relating to utilisation of digital technology in business. Their are many organisation in
retail sector who are already using latest techniques like cloud computing (Sarantis Charalabidis
and Askounis, 2011). Some experts of IT think that using artificial intelligence can help a
medium sized enterprise in attaining rapid growth. If data sharing tools are used in ''Best One''
then they can improve their administration and significant decisions can made in less time.
TASK 3
P5 Analysing data
Analysis of primary data
This questionnaire is filled by 20 respondents who have significant knowledge about ''Best One''
and they are also aware about current developments in digital technology.
Theme 1
Q1. Do you think there is need of new
software for file sharing among various
department?
Frequency
Yes 15
No 5
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Findings: 15 out of 20 participants think that modern software of file sharing should be
introduced in the organisation.
Theme 2
Q2. Do you think ''Best One'' should adopt
latest technology for marketing?
Frequency
Yes 13
No 7
9
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16 15
5
Column B