Dissertation: Virtual Personal Assistant Model in UK Banking Sector

This dissertation investigates the effectiveness and profitability of the Virtual Personal Assistant (PA) model within the UK banking sector, focusing on approaches like motivation, coaching, and recruiting. The research aims to assess the impact of outsourcing projects on organizational types, identify the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing, and examine the position and credibility of organizations in project management due to outsourcing. The study includes a literature review, research methodology, results and discussion, and conclusions with recommendations. The introduction outlines the background, research aims, objectives, questions, and rationale. The literature review explores the influence of outsourcing, its advantages and disadvantages, and its impact on project management. The methodology details the research approach, and the results and discussion present the findings. The conclusion summarizes the research, and recommendations are provided for the banking sector. The research emphasizes how virtual assistants can enhance customer engagement and business performance within the banking industry.

Dissertation - effectiveness and profitability
of the “Virtual Personal Assistant
(PA)model” inus on Human Resources
(approaches like motivation, couching,
recruiting etc the banking sector in the UK

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................3
Background of the topic.........................................................................................................3
Research aim..........................................................................................................................3
Research objectives................................................................................................................3
Research questions.................................................................................................................4
Research rationale..................................................................................................................4
Value of the research..............................................................................................................4
Structure of the report.............................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................6
Examine the influence of outsourcing projects on the selected organisational types?...........6
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the outsourcing projects in the organization and
its stability as well as credibility to expand into a product that can be utilised in larger
companies as well?.................................................................................................................7
What is the position and credibility of an organization owing to the outsourcing projects in
project management?..............................................................................................................9
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................11
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION....................................................................................................17
Introduction..........................................................................................................................17
Summary...............................................................................................................................21
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................22
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................24
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................27

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background of the topic
Virtual assistant is defined as the self-employed worker who is specialised in
administrative services to clients from remote locations. This is a software agent which can
perform different task in which business objectives can be satisfied (Yang and Lee, 2019). Using
virtual assistant different automation devices can be instigated within the workplace so that
critical business decision is taken in appropriate manner. In the context of banking industry this
has been analysed that using virtual assistant administrative decisions can be taken. For banking
industry using such technology assistance can be given to customers so that easy access can be
made by the customers.
The current research report is related with assessing the effectiveness and profitability of
the business in respect of using Virtual Personal Assistant in their organisation. The study is
going to examine the impact of outsourcing projects into the domain of project management
(Knote and et. al., 2019). With the help of effective outsourcing projects to virtual assistants, this
will lead into earning of higher profits by the organisation in which different challenges by the
organisation can be mitigated in terms of customer satisfaction and customer service. The
banking industry is directly related with interacting with customers so that using virtual assistant
the organisation may understand needs of their customers in appropriate manner.
Research aim
To assess the effectiveness and profitability of the “Virtual Personal Assistant
(PA)model” in the BANKING SECTOR in the UK. A study in HSBC
Research objectives
 To analyse and investigate the influence of outsourcing projects on the selected
organisational types.
 To distinguish between the advantages and disadvantages of the outsourcing projects in
the organization and its stability as well as credibility to expand into a product that can be
utilised in larger companies as well.
 To investigate the position and credibility of and organization owing to the outsourcing
projects in project management.

Research questions
 Examine the influence of outsourcing projects on the selected organisational types?
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of the outsourcing projects in the
organization and its stability as well as credibility to expand into a product that can be
utilised in larger companies as well?
 What is the position and credibility of and organization owing to the outsourcing projects
in project management?
Research rationale
The major rationale behind this research is to examine the information related with
Virtual assistant and their role with the organisation in respect of customer engagement and
business performance (Honig and Oron-Gilad, 2018). The research is based on banking industry
so by executing the current research the researcher will be able to gather knowledge in respect of
the method in which virtual assistant can be used in the organisation for increasing organisational
functions and capabilities. This is cost effective method so that can be used by banking industry
in order to manage all the business dimensions. The current research is based on dual perspective
of the researcher such as personal and professional. In the respect of personal perspective the
researcher will develop different skills within research such as communication skills, research
skills and many other (Shareef and et. al., 2018). Whereas in terms of professional perspective
the current research would lead into providing assistance to the researcher in which future
researches can be carried out by the researcher in most appropriate manner.
Value of the research
The current research is of high value which means that the research is going to contribute
to the organisation in such a manner that they can instigate virtual assistant in their organisation
so that to meet business objectives (Amin, 2016). Using information from the current research
different organisation can be encouraged in order to use virtual assistant in their organisation so
that to deal with their customer's needs and demands.
Structure of the report
In this section researcher identify the chapter which were conducted in the above investigation so
that readers can know about the section which will be covering in the research. This part in short

provide short summary of the parts of the whole dissertation. Chapters which are covered in the
investigation are as follow:
Introduction: This is the very first chapter in the dissertation which holds very important
part. This section provides the all the detailed information which is necessary for conducting the
overall investigation in right manner. This part shows the research aim and objectives on which
the total investigation is carrying on. The components which are included in this part are as
research aim, objective, research question, background on the topic and company, resech
rational, importance of the study and many more. In short this section tells about the importance
of the study and why the project is being carried out.
Literature review: The second chapter of the dissertation is literature review which
assist in collecting the secondary information for the topic. This part address the research
question so that detailed knowledge on the selected topic can be acquired. The main advantage of
literature review is to understand the study by enhancing the knowledge of the researcher so that
past research gap can be knowing. The information which is used in this is gathered from various
secondary source which are books, journal, online site and many other.
Research methodology: One of the vital chapter of the dissertation is research
methodology. In this chapter various method and strategies are chosen by the investigator in
order to gather and analyses the information in right manner. Research methodology is one of the
systematic process which helps the investigator to acquire exact data as per the topic. This
section also justifies the reason behind choosing the approach, philosophy, strategy, research
choice etc.
Data analysis and finding: Next important chapter of the dissertation is data analysis
and finding chapter. This section is vital because in this part all the collected raw data is being
measured so that beneficially information for the study can be obtained. Data analysis is the
technique through which aim and objective are attained by evaluating the gathered facts and
figures of the topic.
Conclusion and recommendation: The last chapter of the research project is conclusion
and recommendation. This chapter provide the short summary of the overall investigation so that
conclusion of the study can be gained. In this section researcher also suggest some ways or
approaches which can be used by the organisation or the industry as per the study.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Examine the influence of outsourcing projects on the selected organisational types?
As per the perspective of Fedorova (2021), outsourcing projects generally means when
bank hires third party to handle their task and perform business operation and provide services
for company. The major reason for outsourcing is to cut the cost and also it helps in releasing
capital for investment in business. There are various best practices in outsourcing projects such
as building relations between key managers, defining clear project scope and schedule, taking
portfolio seriously and many others. Through outsourcing projects, bank no needs to hire more
employees to perform their function and operational activity. When bank outsource the projects
they have to pay to contractors which allows them to avoid brining new employees within
workplace and saves their money. The money of bank saves as they don't need to provide
training to its employees which also helps in reducing the time. Outsourcing projects influence
bank by offering them access to large talent pool. Outsourcing project creates an impact on the
bank by lowering their labour cost as they don't need to hire highly skilled employees within
workplace as outsourcing allows bank to gain expertise employees with right cost that can
contribute their productive outcomes in accomplishing bank work (Dibbern and Hirschheim,
2020). Due to the regulatory framework, bank faces various challenges such as financial
reporting, issues of capital and corporate governance requirements. There are various benefits
which can be availed by bank due to outsourcing projects such as accelerating in digital and
technology adoption, push to up skill talent, increase in strategic partnership and diversification
in delivery footprint. Outsourcing projects mainly includes trained processors with accumulative
knowledge so that they can originate and fund more loans and bring stability within bank. It also
involves highly skilled team that helps in managing the excessive task which helps in giving
relief to the lenders like bank as they delegate excessive work to other company or people.
Outsourcing projects also helps lenders and brokers to adapt the new generation of home buyers
and manage their unique demands. They mainly focuses on making their customer feel satisfied
by keep strong relationship with them due to which customer give excellent ratings. Outsourcing
project is increasing rapidly as it helps in reducing cost and also strategic aims can be achieved
in effective and efficient manner. The impact of outsourcing project can be seen across the
business activity of bank, specific operation and contract function.

As per the view of Gurevich and Sacks (2020), in the globalisation market, the outsource
of labour to another country is natural which helps organisation and financial institutions in order
to derive costs for maximising their profits. There are many countries in the world where many
of skilled workers can perform the task in low cost that domestic worker conduct in higher cost.
This makes every organisation encouraged in order to sent that particular job abroad in order to
work effectively in low cost and helps in earning more profit. In the context of UK bank, there
are many jobs which are outsourced by them from another country in order to work effectively
and help them to operate their business in better manner. With the help of outsourcing, company
helps in providing employment to the skilled workers of another country and help in improving
the economic growth of particular country. Outsourcing project refers to the most effective
business strategy that helps in allocating labour in their most effectual and efficient use. This will
help in lowering the cost of production of the product and service of the company which help in
offering low cost product and service to the customers. This strategy is also effective for
attracting the most of customers towards their brand and operate their business in better manner
Many banks of UK are engaged in outsourcing their project which helps in providing better
service to their customers and gain maximum profit. Despite from these benefits, there are some
intended negative consequences that an organisation faced while outsourcing their project from
another country (Prajapati, Kant and Tripathi, 2020).
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the outsourcing projects in the organization and its
stability as well as credibility to expand into a product that can be utilised in larger
companies as well?
As per the view of Huber, Dibbern and Fischer, (2020), outsourcing is defined as the
common practice of acquiring out different functions and processes of business to the third party
suppliers. This helps the companies in maximising their rate of profitability by reducing the
overhead costs related to the business and its products. It is important for the company to
consider every element important as it helps in delivering the results in an effective and efficient
manner. There are several advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing the projects of an
organisation and are defined below:
Advantages of outsourcing projects:
 Low cost of labour – By outsourcing the projects to the third parties helps in lowering
the cost of labour because employees of the company focus on their own roles and

responsibilities in an effective manner. This is considered as the most cost effective
methods instead of buying a new equipment, relocate and change processes.
 Larger pool of talent -Outsourcing the operations of the company to the third party
helps in employing talented employees from other countries or other companies on
remote basis for performing the work in an effective way.
 Increased efficiency of employees – Shifting the projects or work to other companies
helps in increasing the efficiency and knowledge of existing employees and results in
gaining high productivity and performance in the competitive business market.
Outsourcing project allows the company in narrowing the cost of budget to specific
invoices and reports requested from the particular contractor.
Disadvantages of outsourcing projects:
 Limited flexibility and control – When the company outsource their projects to another
company, they loose their control over them and face rigid contract related agreements.
The company will have less control on procedures, protocols, scheduling, hiring practices
and software (Shan and Tang, 2019).
 Decreased morale of employees – Outsourcing might effect the operations of the
business and its working culture which results in decreasing the morale of employees. In
case employees do not understand the need for project outsourcing than they may feel
replaced by the company. This also makes other employees frustrated as the structure if
workflow more complicated, especially if the other company follows different time zone.
 Decreased security and safety – Outsourcing within the organisation make the security
and safety of data in risk as other company also know about the process of working and
their important data. Outsourcing used different sites to carry on the work and this is done
by connecting and sharing information through technology and can lead to the risk of
getting data leaked.
 Conflict among employees – Projects often lead to increase conflicts among employees
of the company as the other employees do not share the same values, culture and
priorities. It creates the working structure weak and this results in decreased growth and
profitability in the highly competitive market.

In the opinion of Newton (2019), outsourcing is describes as practice in which an
organisation hired a third party usually from another country in order to perform their task,
provide service for them or handle their operations. While using outsourcing of project, there are
numerous of benefits that an organisation can gain from product development to sales and
marketing. Outsourcing allows banks to hired third party from another country in order to earn
more profit and provides several benefits to their customers in order to operate their business in
better manner. It will also provides stability as well as credibility that help company to expand
into a product in order to gain several benefits from it.
What is the position and credibility of an organization owing to the outsourcing projects in
project management?
As per the opinion of Kerzner (2019), when an organisation is working with an
outsourced of project, a project needs to focus of numerous issues simultaneously in order to
operate their business. The project manager need to render the project remotely, ensure efficient
communication as well as keep focus on the used resources of the project. They are responsible
for preventing, tackling as well as resolving an issues without breaking the deadlines while
outsourcing the project of their organisation. They also play the role of facilitator, mentor,
teacher as well as problem-solver for the team. While outsourcing the projects in project
management, the position of the company is too high in order to make their project manager who
outsourced the organisation work required to perform according to their expectation. The
outsourcing of project help company in order to offer their better products and service in low
price to their potential customers which helps company in order to increase their credibility.
There are many others benefits that an organisation can while outsourcing their project. It allows
company to hire highly skilled and experienced employees from another country in order to
conduct their task. The outsourced employees are work with the many industries and they know
what the customers which helps organisation to increase their sales by providing better service
through outsourcing. In an outsourcing organisation, the project management team is largely
enough in order to allow their customers to find a project management that has the effective
skills in order to deliver their project in better manner (Diestre, 2018). The other benefit that an
organisation gain while outsourcing their business in efficient team as well as resource
management. The outsourcing project management team that conduct certain job of another
organisation consist efficient team that are highly skilled and experienced in order to conduct

their task in better manner. The outsourced project management shares the location, time zone,
language as well as corporate culture of their development team. An outsourced project
management team also knows each member in well manner in order to understand their strengths
and weaknesses which helps in efficiently use their team's skills in order to deliver the project on
time. The project management optimised their workload of their team as well as managed certain
existing task to ensure the team are capable in order to handle new features without involving the
additional specialists. This refers to the method that make project management to save the budget
of their customers while meeting the deadlines. Another advantages that gain by the company
while outsourcing their particular task and project is to save their customers' time at the time of
development. The time of the project management takes in solving the small issues as well as
managing the daily activities. When an organisation outsourced their project management which
help project management team of the company to focus on the internal business activities in
order to operate their business in better manner.
According to the view of Shastri, Hoda and Amor (2021), outsourcing describes the
practice of a business in which they contract with an outside party in order to take of their certain
tasks instead of hiring new staff or assigning their task to their existing staff. This refers to the
most popular methods that help company in order to lower their operational costs as well as
streamline their operations and handle their crucial functions in properly. Every size of
businesses can use outsourcing in order to help their company in order to grow as well as expand
their business while keeping their expenses as low as possible. This makes important for an
organisation to analyse the position and credibility while owing their outsourcing their project
within project management. The position of the company is too high and important for the
outsourcing team in order to understand their expectation what they want in order to conduct the
particular task in better manner. This will also make company credible in order to provide better
service to their customers accordingly. With the help of outsourcing of project, an organisation
not only provide better service to their customers but also gain several benefits from it (Modak,
Ghosh and Pathak, 2019).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology is define as the term of investigations which is analysis by piece
of research that helps to identify that how data will gathered and investigators, what techniques
they will used to analysis the information of the topic (Dion, and et.al., 2020). Research
methodology is the concept to complete the overall investigation in scientific and effective way.
It is helps to identify and analysis the overall information about the chosen topic. Research
methodology helps the investigators to provide the accurate data and information about the topic.
Research aim and objectives will be achieve with the helps of research methodology which
provides valuable information to the society. This section also used by the readers of the
investigators which helps them to gather the reliability and validity of investigation. It is
necessary to understand that overall information and data will be clear and justified because
aims and objectives of the research can be achieved in effective manner. Research Methodology
divided into many part to analysis and collect the information about the investigation. These
parts helps to analysis the information in sub parts which helps to collect the accurate data and
information (Goodman, and Marshall, 2018). In the current dissertation this section is very
vigorous as the overall validity and reliability of the research depends upon the form of data
gathered and analysed by the investigator. With the help of this part total rationality of the
gathered data is being understand which helps the researcher to bridge the gap of the past
research in valuable form. Research methodology is also important part because it helps in
addressing the research problem in exact manner. Aims and objective of the research project is
being attained with the assistance of the methods used in the investigation. In the above
investigation various methods, tools, and choices are used to gather exact information for the
selected topic. The overall data of the research can be achieve with the help of methodology
where it is necessary to put the right data and techniques. There are some different types
approaches which is helps to analysis the information of the research which are given below-
Research philosophy: It is the term which is defines as the set of framework which
helps to guide that how the research will be conducted and how it should be analysis and gather
from the social world. Research philosophy is important because it helps in understanding the
social world and the situation which is prevailing in the society in valuable manner. It is crucial
to identify the society assumption because it helps carrying out the investigation as per the
prevailing situation of the community. In other words, Research philosophy is an important term

of research methodology which is used to analysis and gather the information to understand the
community data. There are three types of philosophy which helps to attempt the accurate data
which includes positivism, interpretivism and realism. These philosophies are positivism,
interpretivism and realism. Positivism philosophy is the process of gathering quantitative data to
recognize the society thoughts. Interpretivism is the philosophy which uses qualitative data to
understand the social world and realism is the mixture of both positivism and interpretivism
philosophy. These three categories of philosophy recognise in the society as valuable manner. In
the following research, researcher has been taken the realism philosophy which helps to get the
objective as well as subjective data which is used to determine the social world in generalized
manner (Gruszczyński, 2018). Positivism philosophy is one of the most vital concept which is
used to investigation the numerical information. This philosophy helps to collect the latest
pattern which is recognised as in valuable manner. The main advantage to use interpretivism
philosophy is that subjective information for the topic can be extracted which helps in understand
the society in deeper manner. Both the philosophies help the investigator to carry out
investigation in depth way so that right phenomena can be used for the society.
Research approach: It is referring to the process of planning which is used in various
steps to analysis the assumptions which is made by the investigators. Research approach is the
important part of research methodology which address the problem of the research to attempt the
aims and objective in right and effective manner (Halaweh, 2018). problem of research is
considered with the help of theories and hypothesis which helps to maintain the distinct between
the point. There are two types of approaches which includes inductive and deductive. These
approaches helps to determine the problems and gap of the research. Research approach is the
detailed planned process to test the theories and hypothesis in order to addressed the problem for
which the research is being conducted. Deductive is the process of testing pre-defined hypothesis
in valid manner and inductive is the approach which build new theories on the basis of gathered
and analysed information. In the following research, researcher has adopted the deductive as well
as inductive approach which helps to collect the quantitative and qualitative data and testing it
with hypothesis in an effective and clear way. It is also helps to analysis the overall information
with variables in a clear term. Both the approaches will help the investigator to address their
research problem in significant manner as well as with more accuracy. In the current research