Marks & Spencer: Revenue, Technology, and Financial Performance Report

This report analyzes the financial performance of Marks & Spencer (M&S), a major UK retail organization, focusing on its revenue generation and the impact of technology implementation. The report calculates monthly revenue after VAT for the year 2016, using the IF function to determine profit or loss. It then explores the benefits of integrating Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access to enhance productivity and management within the store, as well as the current financial situation of M&S. The report also examines the technological advancements in hardware and software, including the use of EPOS machines, online platforms, and in-house software development, to improve operations and adapt to market demands. The conclusion highlights the significance of technology in sustaining and improving the firm's global market position, emphasizing the role of Microsoft Office and other technological tools in enhancing management and revenue.

Introduction To Computer

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The use of technology and computer is increasing in all the parts of economy. Marks
and Spencer is the best performing retail sector organisation of UK which is operating
worldwide. The present report will cover the profit and loss statements of Marks and Spencer
to calculate profit for each month. The report will also cover the benefits of implementing
technology to increase the productivity and enhance management within the store. It will
evaluate the financial situation of the store during previous year 2016.
TASK 1
1 Calculating revenue of each month of year 2016 in £ after VAT of 17%.
Illustration 1: Revenue after VAT of 17%
§
Illustration 2: Formula of taking VAT amount
2 Using IF function taking profit which is 1 where the total revenue after VAT is >=£200000
or loss which is 2 otherwise.
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Illustration 3: Profit or loss indicated by 1 as profit and 2 as loss
Illustration 4: Formula
Illustration 5: No. of profit and
loss months
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Illustration 6: Pie chart showing the revenue of 2016
TASK 2
1 Brief introduction.
Implementation of Microsoft office and use of technology in store will surely help in
growing productivity and profits of the company throughout the world. The use of Microsoft
office in the accounts department of Marks and Spencer is very limited to only making
budgets for the firm. Office is used to evaluate profit and loss of the firm and then calculate
the budgets of the firm for financial year (Wang, Qian and Lehrer, 2017). The present section
of report will cover what is the financial position of Marks and Spencer in market and how
can they increase productivity of store by using Microsoft office.
2 Current financial situation of Marks and Spencer.
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Illustration 7: Revenue of 2016
Marks and Spencer is one of the best and most profitable retail store of UK which is
operating all over the world. The financial situation of the store is very good at the present
time but the profits are decreasing just because it is not using technology at its best level. The
total revenue before calculating VAT amount is £2799000 for the whole year and the highest
was in the month of April of about £312000. The lowest revenue in the year was £156000 in
January. While the revenue after applying 17% VAT was decreased to £2794241.7 in total. It
was clear from the above revenue of the year 2016 that it need to put more efforts to generate
higher amount of revenue in the coming year 2018. They need to implement and encourage
the use of technology among their staff and also need to train them regarding the use. As in
the present year 2017, there was a decrease of sale of about 64% in clothing.
The current financial condition of Marks and Spencer are very good but they were not
able to earn a good amount of profits or revenue. There was about 17% value added tax on
the total revenue earned by the firm in 2016. And they need to calculate revenue after
deducting the 17% VAT from the given data.
3 Explaining usefulness of Microsoft Office to Marks and Spencer.
Microsoft office is the application which is used in many parts of operations of the
firm and also in day to day working of individuals (Nissim, Cohen and Elovici, 2017). There
are many components of Microsoft office which is used by firms to do accounting,
production, financing and marketing of Marks and Spencer. As the company is using
Microsoft office and its applications serving different purpose and are compatible with other
programs as well. The different components of Microsoft Office and their uses are as follows:
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Microsoft Word- This is the most commonly used application in Microsoft feature and this
is the universal software used all over the world. Word is used to make reports and different
types of documents and is also very easy to use and operate (Hoffman, 2017). Microsoft word
is used to write reports and proposals for business and research projects in educational
institutions.
Microsoft Excel- This is also very popular and easy to use application of Microsoft office as
this allow the user to use mathematical and accountancy formulas. Further, it assists in
calculating and converting the given data and it also forms charts to demonstrate presentation
of the available data. Excel is having many types of formulas and standard functions like
taking out average of data and then to make interpretations. This is widely used in Marks and
Spencer to make out their profits and calculate loss during the financial year and to prepare
budgets of coming years.
Microsoft power point- This is basically a presentation application which is used by the
project and marketing team of Marks and Spencer to make attractive presentation which will
demonstrate products. PowerPoint is used to grab the attention of the audience who are
watching it or the one to whom the relevant data will be helpful. It is made and presented in
slide form which has to be made and project are then shown to the management to make the
relevant changes.
Microsoft Access- This is used to combine the database management system with that of
relational Microsoft jet database (Chouksey, Satish and Chouksey, 2016). Access is used to
store the data not in the given format but in its own format with graphical user interface and
software development tools.
All these applications of Microsoft office will help Marks and Spencer to increase the
productivity of the firm and help it to grow its profit to larger extent. Like Microsoft
PowerPoint will be helping firm if they are producing any new product and launching it in
market then they will make presentation and show it to investor or supplier. Thus, supplier
will decide whether to invest or supply that product or not (Nasuto, Roesch and Spencer,
2015). Excel will assist the accountant of Marks and Spencer to generate and calculate its
profits and loss and also in making budgets of different departments. Hence, ultimately
increasing productivity of firm and market share of Marks and Spencer will also be increased.
4 Describing technological advancement of hardware and software in Marks and Spencer.
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Marks and Spencer being the most profit earning retail store of UK and serving a
wider area of operations but is rarely known for their technological advancement. Because of
this, they need to modernise retailer IT systems and is presently lacking behind rivals like
Next and John Lewis (Marks &Spencer technology evolution, 2017). In the coming new year,
it wants to create a roadmap of technological advancement so that they can earn higher
profits. Following are the new technological changes which are happening in company:
 Marks and Spencer is making a new team of 150 software engineers who all will be
working for the in-house development expertise and increasing growth prospect of the
firm.
 It is introducing more and more use of electronic point of sale (EPOS) machines to
make payment system for customer more easy and quick (Pillow and Yip, 2014). This
will be linking all of its stores all over the world to the distribution network.
 M&S will also be increasing the use of all application of Microsoft office to make out
all relevant data and to calculate profit and financial situation of company.
 Before it was using the online platform of Amazon for doing online business and now
it is developing its own new web platform to serve its online customer.
 By giving more home delivery options to its customer like the same day delivery to
the nearby customer is helping firm in microchannel service which will be of great
significance.
 The international supply chain of Marks and Spencer is also developing with
advancement of technology of company.
 Also, it is using and improving algorithms for predicting future demand of its product
in market and use of software in the food department (Marks &Spencer technology
evolution, 2017). This will assist food department to improve and analyse the demand
of their product in market.
 Use of computer and other IT systems like CCTV camera in infrastructure is helping
Marks and Spencer to keep them aware of frauds in stores like theft of products.
 Marks and Spencer also announced new digital lab in retail store which is aimed to
describe Silicon roundabout style start-up which will be increasing rapid development
of new technology for retailer.
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CONCLUSION
It is concluded form the report that use of technology will be increasing the
productivity of the firm and enabling it to sustain in global market. The profits of the firm are
increasing because they have increased the use of IT in their operations like production and
marketing. Currently, it is going through a drastic change in its technological advancement
like development of own new web platform to allow its customer in shopping. Use of
Microsoft office and all its components will also be assisting company in enhancing
management within the store. M&S is also expanding its international supply chain and
enabling the supplier and customer in easy mode of payment. All the stores all over the world
are now using electronic point of sale (EPOS) machines which help the customer and supplier
to easily make payment of their purchase by debit or credit card. Overall, it is reported to
decrease the sale by 64% and making the annual profit of the year 2017 to £176.4 million in
clothing business.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Chouksey, N., Satish, Y. and Chouksey, R., 2016. DIRECT, INDIRECT AND RESIDUAL
EFFECTS THROUGH PATH ANALYSIS USING THE MICROSOFT OFFICE
EXCEL. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND STATISTICAL
SCIENCES. 12. pp.75-80.
Hoffman, R., 2017. Microsoft Office and Metadata Forensics: A Deeper Dive. In Computer
and Information Security Handbook (Third Edition) (pp. 659-667).
Nasuto, S.J., Roesch, E.B. and Spencer, M.C., 2015. Zombie mouse in a Chinese room.
Philosophy & Technology. 28(2). pp.209-223.
Nissim, N., Cohen, A. and Elovici, Y., 2017. ALDOCX: detection of unknown malicious
microsoft office documents using designated active learning methods based on new
structural feature extraction methodology. IEEE Transactions on Information
Forensics and Security. 12(3). pp.631-646.
Pillow, T.H., and Yip, V., 2014. Site-specific trastuzumab maytansinoid antibody–drug
conjugates with improved therapeutic activity through linker and antibody
engineering. Journal of medicinal chemistry. 57(19). pp.7890-7899.
Wang, I.K., Qian, L. and Lehrer, M., 2017. From technology race to technology marathon:
A behavioral explanation of technology advancement. European Management
Journal. 35(2), pp.187-197.
Online
Marks &Spencer technology evolution. 2017 [Online] Accessed through
<https://www.retail-week.com/topics/technology/analysis-marks-spencer-technology-
boss-darrell-stein-on-the-retailers-evolution/5056397.article>
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