Integrated Professional Skills in the Digital Age: M&S Internet Report

This report examines the use of the internet in business operations, using Marks & Spencer (M&S) as a case study. It explores the positive and negative impacts of the internet on M&S and society, including increased marketing opportunities, improved communication, and global reach, while also addressing negative aspects such as privacy concerns and cyber threats. The report identifies various threats faced by organizations, such as cyberattacks, phishing, and ransomware, and threats faced by society, including social media attacks and lack of security. It also discusses security and privacy measures, including strong passwords, anti-virus software, regular data backups, and employee education. Finally, the report compares and contrasts two unified communication providers, British Telecommunications and TalkTalk, discussing their features, applications, and suitability for businesses. The report concludes that businesses must proactively manage the risks and leverage the opportunities presented by the internet to achieve success in the digital age.

INTEGRATED
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS IN
THE DIGITAL AGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Positive and negative use of internet to business and society:.................................................1
2. Threats faced by society and organization by using the internet:............................................3
3. Discuss about the two different unified communications providers to compare and contrast
their features, applications and discussing their suitability for businesses..................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Digital skills global is the provider of higher education courses for the professionals. the
word professional skills may be defined as those skills which are presence in the profesional
individual for example manager. Under this we have chosen mark & Spencer as a company it is
the British multinational retailer company its headquarter is in Westminster, London. Marks &
Spencer deals in selling high quality clothing, home products and food products. it is listed on
the London stock exchange. Under this we have discussed the positive and negative use of the
internet in the mark & Spencer , development of the digital communication skills, develop online
research skills. This report will study about the key and consideration associate with using the
internet and it will also conclude responsibility for personal security and privacy and using the
internet.
MAIN BODY
1. Positive and negative use of internet to business and society:
BUSINESS SOCIETY
Positive Uses
There are various benefits with the use of
internet in the business operations of M&S.
Internet increases the marketing opportunities
for the businessman and helpful in the
expansion of the business at the higher level.
Through internet businessman of M&S could
find the best ways of marketing research and
identify the important information about the
business and relevant ideas and facts to achieve
the goals. M&S could find their customer
across the world for their product and services.
Networks of the social media maintain helps to
maintain the good working relation with the
important people. Internet provides the
learning courses and platform to improve and
Internet plays important role in every one life
in the society and it has lots of benefits of
social networks and websites on the society.
Societies of the world became more powerful
with the use of technologies through internet.
Internet makes the society more advanced and
developed by different facility of information.
Internet helps to increase the social relation
around the world through the online
communication facility. With the help of
internet there is the development of different
cultures across the world in the societies. By
the use of internet societies break the problems
of superstition, cultural egos and conservation
in the people (Abubakar, Ilkan, and Sahin,

increase the skills of the employers and
employees of the M&S. Through internet
businessman can start online business also by
the application software. Proper planning and
development of the business operations could
be done by the application on the internet.
Communication in the business could easier
and faster by using internet facility text, audio,
video conference. Internet gives the facility to
increase the productivity, profits and also helps
in expansion of businesses globally.
2016). Through internet facilities like online
banking, jobs and shopping helps the societies
will increase their standard of living. The
people living in the society did variety of
works with the use of internet like online
business, online jobs, and classes will change
the society positively. With the use of internet
anybody can share their ideas, thoughts and
views within the society this gives the
advantages of development in the society.
2

Negative uses
Internet brings lots of changes in the working
of business operations and on their customer
also and these changes effect negatively and
damage the single company. The biggest
disadvantages of the internet on the business of
M&S is the lack of face to face communication
between the company and its customers.
Sometimes internet give negative feedback to
the business and it will affect the success and
growth of the business negatively. For
example, if the customers will share their
negative comment on the social sites other
people assume that the comments is real and
damages the image, and reputation of the
business (Agarwal, and et.al, 2016). Business
is conducting with the use internet sometimes
it will spoil the privacy and security of the
business by the hackers and it will result in loss
of revenue, fraud and identity theft. The
competition is increasing day by day with the
use of internet and will affect the success and
growth of the business of M&S in the
competitive market.
Internet is very important for the development
of the societies but sometime it affects
negatively on the society. People share their
ideas, views and information but never
implemented in the life of their own. And this
will results in the decrease in the power of
analysis and interpretation of the people.
People will not think about their neighbour
rather they will give more preference to their
online friends because the societies feel more
comfortable. Practical problems are avoided in
respect to the environmental problems and this
is the biggest negative effect of the internet on
the society. Today's society is living the life of
digitalization so it is very difficult for the
society to decide right or wrong on the internet.
Internet has various inappropriate things which
is not good for children and teenagers.
Information of the people living in the society
is not safe and secure due to internet. Privacy
and security of the people are affected by the
uses of internet. Internet has the diverse effect
on the development of the society.
2. Threats faced by society and organization by using the internet:
Threats faced by the organisation: there are various threats which is faced by the company
while using the internet in the business operations. Cyberattacks in the company is come from
anywhere and affects the working of the company. M&S could address the most of the common
threats they give focuses and which is come from outside or within the organisation. Pishing is
the commonly method use by the cyber criminals for gaining the information of the company
3

with the help of social sites. Brute force and password attacks is the another threats faced by the
business in this an attacker gain the private information of the company by gaining the access of
the network by the system and take working passwords of the users (Cai, Fan and Du, 2017).
Ransomware causes lots of damages and losses to the company it is very harmful and damaging
threat ever. Under this theft the computer and the software locked by the hacker and it is
unlocked only by the ransom.
Threats faced by society:society has faced various threats by using the internet facility and it
will affect the society development. Attacks on the social media like on Facebook, twitter will
affect the relations of the people across the globe. Most of the people uses the social sites and
upload their personal pictures on their accounts the hacker should hack that personal account and
missuses their pictures and their contacts (McCarthy, and Muthuri, 2018). Lack of security is
also another threats which affects society because the internet is not provided proper security to
the users of social networking sites. To protect from these threat users have to maintained strong
password of the accounts on the social sites.
Measures of security and privacy that should be taken when the use of internet
applications:
Security and privacy of the data is very important in every business to run their business
successfully. The data of personal information of the customer and company financial records
are stored in the software of the company that could be secure and private. Most of the
populations are connected to the internet facility and it will increase the risk of data breach,
online frauds, cybercrime and online payments (Neging and et.sl, 2017). Company had takes
several measures to solve the problem of online privacy threats.
Encrypted Passwords: to protect from the data thefts the first and important step is to set the
strong password for the software and devices which is used within the organization. This is the
easiest step to protect and secure the official information from the online crime. Password must
be strong that no one could hack the password and collects company's private information from
the software (Salehan and Kim, 2016). A good password must have upper lower letters, symbols
and numbers. Company takes measure to safe and secure the data of the company by avoiding
the use simple passwords.
Installation of anti virous software: there are lots of anti virus software adopted by the
company which helps to protect the system and devices of the which record private information
4

of the company. This software gives alerts to the company if the information is breaches and
from the fraud. Company install this software to solve the problem of losses and damages due to
the cyberattack and data theft by the hackers.
Regular data backups: Backups are necessary for the protection of information due to data
breach and any other cyber crime. In the centralized system of the company there is minimum
possibility of recovery of data if the data is stolen and it cost high on the recovery. But in the
decentralized system their more need to take the privacy and security. So regular data backups in
every week minimize the problem of risk through online frauds.
Secure technical equipment and devices: privacy and security is equally important for the
software and hardware devices of the company. If there is a use of hardware devices in company
it must be protected because it has lots of information.
Educate employees: educate the employees of the company by the proper rules and regulations
of the privacy this will minimize the losses and damages (Siraj, 2018). When the problems of
software hacks and failure of the IT arise in the company the proper steps should be taken to
decrease the cost of losses and damages.
5

3. Discuss about the two different unified communications providers to compare and contrast
their features, applications and discussing their suitability for businesses.
Unified communication is a type of business that provide the communication services such as IP
telephony, instant messaging, presence information, web & video conferencing etc. these are
different types of real time communication services that manage and control in the proper ways
(Klotins, Unterkalmsteiner and Gorschek, 2019). Unified communication encompasses all type
of communication that exchange data through network which may include internet protocol
because it is the most integrated part of network communication and directed one to one
communication.
UC allows the individual services to send the message on the medium to receive same
type of communication to another. British telecommunication: It is based on the multinational telecommunication firm that
provider services such as mobile phones, broadband and fixed line etc. It operates 180
national which is the largest fixed line provider in global world. It was found in 1846.
TalkTalk: It is also another type of unified communication provider that provide services such as
television, telecommunication and mobile network to the business purpose. It was founded in
2003. It offers the fixed and broadband services to the consumers (RajiMohd and Mohd 2019).
Compare and contrast communication providers
S. No. Specifications BT (British telecommunication) TALK TALK
1. Features British telecommunication
provides an efficient service to the
consumers.
 Auto dialing: the service
provider is giving the
feature of auto dialing to
the consumers.
 Call forwarding: the
features allows to user,
where it is automatically
ring to another telephone
 Remote access: when
TALK TALK added
more features in their
communication services.
3rd party conference: It
allows the person to add
more than two parties and
do communication
together. It is called
three-way
communication (Zhang,
Zhang and Dai, 2019).
Parallel ringing: In this

employee always from the
department but it has an
ability to program phone to
forward all call to another
phone. It is based on
remote access.
feature, A person never
miss call even they are
away from fixed line. It
allows to transfer call into
another phones.
2. Application British telecommunication service
provider is used the software as
service (SaaS) application that can
add more features in the telephone
communication. It is the most
efficient application that allows to
maintain the data transmission
between sender and receivers
(WeiGeiger and Vize, 2019).
TALK TALK service
provider is mainly used
the centralized
information technology
infrastructure and
hosted solution that help
for managing the
communication between
source and destination.
3. Suitability for
business
It suitable for business purpose
such as retail sectors and many
more. It operates the business
under the regulation of
government.
It is continuing to provide the
services in the traditional area and
expand the profitable products or
services.
It suitable for direct
communication purpose
in the business where it
provides the products and
services such as call
recording, cloud hosting
to small enterprises.
It is the best business
solution in terms of
partner channels to build
the next generation
network system.
Table: 1

CONCLUSION
The whole report conclude about the integrated professional skills in the digital age and
the discussion about the positive and the negative factors of the Internet on the societies and the
businesses and the various threats of the internet on the societies and on the organizations and the
following measures are taken while using the Internet applications and the discussion about the
different providers of the Unified communication with their features and the applications of the
organizations. The Internet is an important creation by the humans but the bad use of the Internet
will destroy this wonderful creation in the future.

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