University of Suffolk - LSC: Professional Skills in Digital Age Report

This report, prepared for the London School of Commerce in association with the University of Suffolk, analyzes the integration of professional skills in the digital age. It begins by comparing and contrasting the positive and negative impacts of the internet on businesses and society, exploring how the internet is utilized for various purposes like marketing, communication, and information gathering. The report then delves into the threats faced by organizations and society, including data breaches, hacking, and privacy concerns, and proposes security and privacy measures. Finally, it differentiates between two communication providers, BT Group and SCT business communication, assessing their features, applications, and suitability. The report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the digital landscape and the skills needed to navigate it effectively.

Integrated professional
skills in the digital age
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1) Compare and Contrast the positive and negative use of internet of businesses and society3
2) Threats faced by the organisation and society when using internet and measures of security
and privacy that should be taken............................................................................................6
3) Difference between features, applications and the suitability among two communication
providers.................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Knowledge has two components content and skills which are interlinked. The skills are
acquired on the basis of the content for which they want to acquire knowledge. In digital age, it
has become very important for the individuals to acquire the professional skills which enable
them to resolves the challenges faced by them efficiently. Nowadays the society conducts
various activities using internet from research to online shopping. In this report the positive and
negative impact of internet on society and businesses is considered along with that the threats
and the measures to meet with those threats are discussed. Also the comparison between two
unified communication service providers i.e., BT Group and SCT business communication is
done which helps to determine their features, application and suitability.
MAIN BODY
1) Compare and Contrast the positive and negative use of internet of businesses and society
Internet is the system that helps to interconnect the computer networks worldwide using TCP\IP.
Internet has been used for variety of purposes by the businesses, individuals etc. as it is source
for gathering information, news, conducting research, establishing communication across globe.
Every business uses internet to conduct their business and to communicate their customers about
the products and services which they offers. Individuals uses internet to search the data and to
communicate with each other. Nowadays the use of internet has increased thus making
everything completely dependent upon the digital technology (Alaba, 2017).
Use of internet for the business:
Internet is being use by every business in some or the other way as it the easiest way to
connect with the customers and their channel partners. With the help of this they collect the data
about the customers and their buying behaviours on the basis of they which they develop various
marketing strategies. In 21st century the business uses internet for the development of their
business that helps them in marketing and advertising their products and services around the
world to attract more and more customers. Online advertising helps them to get the competitive
advantage by creating awareness as the use of social media has increased. With the help of
internet they can easily gather the data about the product by conducting the survey and taking the
feedbacks about the products. It is a platform that helps the businesses to sell their products and
services online through their websites and other online shopping websites.
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Positive use of internet to businesses:
 The businesses with use of internet can cater their customers 24x7 to a large number of
customers.
 Internet has excelled due to which tremendous innovation is required in the way of
communication. The businesses with the help of which advertises their products and
services at various online platforms.
 Through internet they can take feedbacks from the clients which help them to take
immediate decisions either to change the features of the offerings or to add-on some.
 To stand differently in the market the business with the help of internet undergo
aggressive marketing campaign as it is a cheaper source in comparison to other
advertising (Ncube, A.C. and Tshabalala, T., 2016).
Negative use of internet to businesses:
 Due to frauds in the payments the customers may not prefer to buy the goods and services
online which adversely affect the operations and objectives of the businesses.
 In the digital age the technology that is adopted by the businesses become obsolete so
often this leads the company to bear huge cost.
 It also reduces the productivity of the employees as they uses internet at the workplace
which distracts them.
 Security is the major concern which is regularly faced by the businesses as the sensitive
data such as addresses, passwords, credit card details etc. that they have about their
customers are hacked. Due to which this creates the loss of thrust of the customers on the
businesses medium (McKnight, 2016).
Use of internet for the society:
The internet has influence on the customers as it has change the way they communicate.
It helps in building the powerful society as with the help of internet the society can be kept aware
and a sense of unity can be developed among them. The availability of the educational resources,
information, shopping sites, research and automation of the social skills has helped in uplifting
the knowledge and the standard of living of the people. It brings equality in the society as it does
not discriminate among the users. It has various positive and negative impacts on the society
which are given below:
Positive use of internet to society:
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 The internet has connected the different societies and culture by way of effective
communication which has developed strong relations among them. This adds value to the
life of the people as they get to know about various issues and can share their opinions,
thoughts etc, on social media platforms.
 Internet has removed the geographical barriers between people which helps them to
create understanding and easy access to various resources which they could not because
of distance (Huda, 2017).
 It leads to the development of the society as this enables them to do online shopping,
online banking etc. that helps them to explore new heights. Internet influences the social
interaction as through the blogs, profile descriptions, selfless guides help the other to get
to know about the other person.
 As everything is accessible through the internet be it information, entertainment or
anything all the humans wants to be connected to it.
Negative use of internet to society:
 One of the major negative impact of the use of internet is that people are nowadays are
living a digital life which keep them away from the culture, nature and everything. It
involves people so much that it becomes difficult for them to identify the difference
between right or wrong.
 Excessive use of internet has put the security and safety of the society at stake. The data
and the personal information can easy be hacked by anybody, the personal information
available on the social media can be misused, while undertaking any transactions the data
is compromised and many more.
 Emergence of artificial intelligence has taken away the opportunities for the humans.
Today everything is controlled by the internet which has the capability to make money
and change the live of the people living in the society. This has adversely affected the
economic condition of some (Hocking and Melissen, 2015).
 Dependency on the internet has increased so much that no one is left untouched due to
which various medical issues has emerged.
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2) Threats faced by the organisation and society when using internet and measures of security
and privacy that should be taken
It is important for the users to know the threats that exist while they are using the internet
application and the services. This can affects lead to loss of identify, monetary theft etc. for these
threats they need to undertake some measures so that they can reduce the impact of such threats
on the organisation and society both.
Threats faced by organisation:
 Data and complexities: The threat that is faced by the organisation is related to the data
and the information which they have of the clients. The businesses uses sensors to collect
the data but the when data is collected in large quantity at a time it can lead to loss of data
and the processes become quite complex (Donner, 2015).
 Hacking: The data of the companies are if hacked then it can leads to major losses of the
company. This can leads to loss of their information related to their clients, their process
etc. It also makes their business paralyse as it affects their operations and the advantages
in terms of trust of the clients and the competitors from their strategies does not realigns
with the organisation.
 Business and IT buy-in: This is a threat which is faced by the organisations as it is
difficult for them to convince other to use internet to carry out their operations. This
generally happens in financial sectors as the customers are more concerns about their
information. In spite of the use of various cloud managed IoT products it becomes very
difficult to convince the customers to buy out their products and services.
Threats faced by the society
 Security and privacy: The common threat which is faced by the society while using the
internet is of security and the safety of their information. Due to hacking of the
companies and hijacking of the app of the companies the personal information of the
customers are at stake. While undergoing any transactions they provide their details
which are if stolen can leads to huge losses as such details can be misused countries
(Comer, 2018).
 Viruses: The society gets affected when their systems are attacked by the viruses. This
infects the computers of the user and other devices connected to the system which affects
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the performance of the system. They can enter into from unwanted ads, spam emails
which are commonly used by the people.
 Overseas money transfer scams: These are the threats where people from an email
someone misrepresents them as foreign government officials. With aim of conducting a
fraud they ask the person to help them to take the money earned in one country to other
for which they will be paid a handsome amount. Such mails are threats due to which
frauds occur (Arnold and Boggs, 2019).
Measures of security and privacy: Various measures that can be taken by the businesses and
the society to protect their data and the information:
 The person should have to be smart to use the device securely by using the pass codes
which are strong one that will help them to identify the devices if stolen and to protect the
data in the devices with the help of various passwords.
 To ensure the safety and security the data must not be provided by filling out the online
forms as various organisation ask for the data for their use but it can affects the privacy of
the individual.
 Avoid using the free Wi-Fi and the public computers as they may not be protected device.
The hacker can spy on your work which will help them to gather your data.
 One should always use the encryption program which makes sure that you are following
the safety measures that protect your device and the accounts.
 Antivirus and anti malwares should be installed in the devices which will ensure that the
system is not attacked by any virus. They help to prevent, search, detect and remove the
viruses but also help in identifying the Trojans etc in the system (Baym, 2015).
3) Difference between features, applications and the suitability among two communication
providers
Unified communication is a business concept in which the business communication
services are integrated with the customers to make them aware. This can be done by unifying the
enterprise communication services such as instant messaging, audio, web and video conferencing
etc.
Overview of the company: SCT mobile business communication is known as one of top unified
communication service providers who have been providing services over 30 years to the
customers. SCT mobiles have been providing their services in Surrey, London, Hampshire and
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the home countries. They offer various services to the customers to make their relations with the
customers strong.
Overview of the company: British Telecom is a multinational telecom service provider which
has been operating in 180 countries and is one of the largest providers of fixed line, broadband
and mobile services. It has various other subsidies. They cater corporate and the government
customers both at global level.
Basis BT Group SCT business communication
Features The services which are offered by them
are :
 They have been offering the
services of fixed-line and
mobile telephony along
with that the broadband
internet services.
 They also provide
telecommunication
equipments and digital
television.
The features of the services that are
provided by SCT mobile are that :
 They sync all the devices of
the clients such as their
Smartphone, tablets, laptops
etc. together so that they
can easily respond to their
clients straight away.
 Also they offer the services
of unified messaging,
interaction systems and
collaboration tools.
Applications  They are leading telecom
service provider who sell
their products and services
to small, medium and large
enterprises. The products so
offered by them help the
enterprise to securely store
their data on the cloud
network.
 They have been serving
customers worldwide with
their services of security,
 The services that they
provide help the clients to
maintain the relationship
within the workplace and
with the clients. This helps
their clients to respond to
their clients from any place
as all their devices are
interconnected.
 Their services streamlines
the communication
structure of the clients as it
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cloud and networking
services which help the
enterprises to connect to
their customers.
interlink all forms of call
and messages.
Suitability for business The services of BT Group is effective for
the businesses as their telecom and
networking services helps them to
communicate to their staff and to their
clients. Also the cloud and networking
services keeps the data and information of
the customers of the enterprises safe and
secure.
The unified communication services so
offered by them is suitable for the
businesses as it helps them to maintain
relationship and to promptly respond to the
customers (Satyanarayanan, 2015).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that the use of internet has increased so much that
everything is dependent upon it. This has adversely affected the lifestyle of the people. The
organisations and the society need to undertake various measures to make ensure the safety and
privacy of their data by keep antivirus in their systems and many more. It is also concluded that
various organisation has been providing unified communication services to make the customers
experience better and for effective communication.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alaba, F.A. and et .al., 2017. Internet of Things security: A survey. Journal of Network and
Computer Applications, 88, pp.10-28.
Arnold, E.C. and Boggs, K.U., 2019. Interpersonal Relationships E-Book: Professional
Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Baym, N.K., 2015. Personal connections in the digital age. John Wiley & Sons.
Comer, D.E., 2018. The Internet book: everything you need to know about computer networking
and how the Internet works. Chapman and Hall/CRC.
Donner, J., 2015. After access: Inclusion, development, and a more mobile Internet. MIT press.
Hocking, B. and Melissen, J., 2015. Diplomacy in the digital age. Clingendael, Netherlands
Institute of International Relations.
Huda, M., and et .al. , 2017. Empowering children with adaptive technology skills: Careful
engagement in the digital ınformation age. International Electronic Journal of
Elementary Education, 9(3), pp.693-708.
McKnight, K., and et .al .,2016. Teaching in a digital age: How educators use technology to
improve student learning. Journal of research on technology in education, 48(3),
pp.194-211.
Ncube, A.C. and Tshabalala, T., 2016. An Investigation into the Challenges Faced by Secondary
School Teachers in Integrating Internet into the Teaching and Learning Process in
Zimbabwe: a Case Study of Harare Province. Nova Journal of Humanities and Social
Sciences, 3(3).
Satyanarayanan, M, and et .al., 2015. Edge analytics in the internet of things. IEEE Pervasive
Computing, 14(2), pp.24-31.
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