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ASSIGNMENT BRIEF Student Name/ID Number Unit Number and Title HNBS 306 Managing Successful Business Project (Level 4) Academic Year 2017/18 Unit Tutor Adekunle Adetola Assignment Title Professional...

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ASSIGNMENT BRIEF

Student Name/ID Number
Unit Number and Title	HNBS 306 Managing Successful Business Project (Level 4)
Academic Year	2017/18
Unit Tutor	Adekunle Adetola
Assignment Title	Professional research report
Issue Date
Submission Date	28/7/2018 (Week 13) (Professional research report, Project Logbook, Performance Review)
IV Name & Date	M T Islam (11 – 05 – 2018)

Assignment

Submission Format

What you have to include in your final submissions?

1.0 Professional research report 2, XXXXXXXXXX

2.0 Project Logbook

3.0 Performance Review

Note: Please add Project Logbook and Performance Review at the end of the Professional research report as appendices.

The submission of Professional research report is in the form of an individual written report. This should be written in a concise, formal business style using 1.5 line spacing and font size 12. You are required to make use of headings, paragraphs and subsections as appropriate and ensure that the report is justified aligned. All work must be supported with research and all research resources should be cited & referenced using the Harvard referencing system. Please also provide a Reference List including all cited materials using the Harvard referencing system. The recommended word limit is 2500–3000 words, although you will not be penalised for exceeding the total word

Unit Learning Outcomes

LO 1 Establish project aims, objectives and timeframes based on the chosen theme

LO2 Conduct small-scale research, information gathering and data collection, generating knowledge to support the project

LO3 Present the project and communicate appropriate recommendations based on meaningful conclusions drawn from the evidence findings and/or analysis

LO4 Reflect on the value gained from conducting the project and its usefulness to support sustainable organisational performance

Assignment Brief and Guidance

Scenario

Introduction to theme: The impact of digital technology on business activity

Digital technology has revolutionised the way we conduct business. Over the last decade it has dramatically changed traditional business models and transformed business activities. The use of digital mobile technology has provided businesses with a wealth of choice and opportunity. This has enabled existing products to become more profitable and innovative new products to be developed, leading to increasingly diverse product portfolios. Its impact is evident at the core of all key business systems:

● Administration - cloud technology enables effective filing, storage and sharing of information.

● Communication- social media and mobile technology allows businesses to connect, communicate, collaborate and build relationships on a global scale.

● Storage and Distribution - `The Internet of Things’ is connecting and integrating systems throughout business structures.

● Production - Artificial intelligence and big data analytics are driving Innovation and product growth.

However, changes in the way we work are not without their challenges as businesses have to adopt and deal with change management, recruit and sustain creative talent, invest in new technologies and respond to an ever increasing competitive environment.

In this assignment you will examine the impact of digital technology on how we conduct business through the context of a given project. This will provide you the opportunity to contextualise the implications of digital technology in the workplace and how it is shaping the future workforce. It will also enable you to explore both the challenges and opportunities that rapid technological advances represents for businesses.

Topic Selection: The topic for your assignment is given below:

“How digital technology has transformed business activities e.g. operations, marketing, accounting, HR in your chosen organisation.”

Using an organisation you know well and can obtain information on. You are required to investigate how digital technology has transformed business activities e.g. operations, marketing, accounting, HR to this organisation.

In your investigative report, you should:

• Identify the aims and objectives for the project.

• Produce an appropriate project management plan that includes relevant actions to meet objectives and timeframes.

• Conduct research to generate knowledge which will form the basis for analysis of the scenario posed in the brief.

• Analyse your findings and draw conclusions to form the basis for recommendations.

• Present and produce your project in an appropriate manner for the intended audience.

• Communicate your recommendations in an appropriate manner for the intended audience.

• Complete a performance review that addresses the following:

• The success of the project and its usefulness in supporting organisational performance.

• Your own performance.

Your report should cover the requirements mentioned above. In addition you should follow the ‘Guidance for Students’ to adhere to different necessary steps important for successfully finish your task.

Guidance for Students

You should read all information provided before starting on your project. You should refer to these instructions as you complete work for this unit.

• Read the scenario and requirements mentioned and think about what the project is asking.

• Research about the project. How can you approach the problem, opportunity, hypothesis and requirements being posed?

• Apply a range of secondary research sources to plan/scope and support the project and its findings. Secondary research sources may include textbooks, journal articles, newspapers and magazine articles (not factual accounts).

• Develop your project plan based on the deliverables of the project, the constraints of the project and the assumptions made.

• Conduct your project according to your stated project plan and meet with your tutor to receive a sign-off at each stage of the project process.

• Primary research sources may include original first-hand accounts, legal and historical documents, results of experiments and market research data collection. Apply both qualitative and quantitative research methods to evaluate data collected from primary research.

• Keep notes of your progress throughout the project in your logbook. This is an important record of your work and must be used to record the development of your ideas and your progress through the project. The logbook should include:

• A record of what you did, when and what you were thinking.

• A record of where things went wrong and what you did to overcome any unexpected results.

• You will be asked to reflect on the success of your project and your own performance in a personal performance review at the end of the project. This is a written reflection of around 500 words.

• You must complete the project in order to complete your work for this unit.

Templates for Evidence Collection

Project Logbook

Name:

Project title:

Date:

Update on weekly research/tasks achieved

Points to consider: What have you completed? Did you fulfil task requirements? Are you on track and within deadlines set? Did you need to make any changes to your project management plan?

Any risks and/or issues identified?

Points to consider: Did you identify risks/issues with a lack of skills required for undertaking research/tasks? Did you identify any additional risks/issues that have an impact on the project management plan?

Problems encountered

Points to consider: What barriers did you face? How did you overcome them?

New ideas and change of project direction

What have I learnt about myself this week?

Points to consider: How did I feel when I had to deal with tasks/problems? Did I find it useful to complete the tasks? How well have I performed? What did I contribute? What can I improve on next week? How might this learning apply in the future?

Tasks planned for next week

Points to consider: Which tasks are priority? Have you set aside sufficient time for completion?

Project plan status to date (on, ahead, behind)

Supervisor comments to address

Performance Review

What was the project supposed to accomplish?

• Did the project succeed in its aims? How do you know? Specifically, please outline any evaluation and assessment undertaken.

• What things do you think worked well and why? Evaluate all aspects of the project (e.g. initial inception, project activities and project outcomes) from a range of perspectives.

• What problems emerged during the project and how were they tackled? Was there timely identification of issues and resolution during the project process?

• What did you learn from undertaking the project?

• How would you rate your performance as project manager?

• What strengths and weaknesses of your performance did you identify?

• How will this inform and support your continuous professional development?

What I have to submit as final submissions:

1.0 Professional research report

2.0 Project Logbook

3.0 Performance Review

Note: Please add Project Logbook and Performance Review at the end of the Professional research report as appendices.

tae_636679438251367284_119759_1.docx

Answered Same Day Jul 23, 2020

Soumi · Accepted Answer

PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH REPORT
THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON BUSINESS ACTIVITY
[TITLE: How digital technology has transformed business activities e.g. operations, marketing, accounting, HR in Tesco, UK]
Executive Summary 
In the current research the impact of digitisation of business is discussed in details and Tesco has been chosen as a special reference to the report topic. In order to provide qualitative as well as quantitative data, secondary and primary research techniques have been opted. The secondary qualitative data is collected from authentic literary sources and special emphasis is given to 2014-2015 and 2016-2017 Annual Reports of Tesco. Through the survey questions and the data collected in the form of the survey question responses, it became evident that the digitisation of business has been in favour of Tesco, increasing performance, employee skills and reliability. Although, the data findings also suggested that there some loopholes such as lack of knowledge about digitisation, issues with reliability, existed within the current framework of Tesco. Based on the issues, consideration of employee feedback about the used software and routine up gradation of organisational digital hardware were suggested. Eventually, the report concludes that digitisation generates scope for improvement, however it also creates the possibility of technical failure.
Table of Contents
Introduction	6
Aims and Objectives of the Project	6
Aim	6
Objectives	6
Project Management Plan as per Objectives and Timeline	7
Cost	7
Scope	7
Communication	7
Risks	7
Resources	8
Time Frame	8
Investigation of the Scenario	9
Findings and Conclusion	10
Secondary Data	10
Primary Data	13
Conclusion	16
Format and Audience for Presenting the Project	16
Recommendations	16
Reflective Performance Review	17
Success and Usefulness of Project	17
Own Performance	18
Conclusion	18
References	20
Appendices	21
Appendix 1	21
Appendix 2	24
List of Figures
Figure 1: Tesco’s Annual Report 2014-2015	10
Figure 2: Potential Reduction of Operation Cost in by 2019-2020	11
Figure 3: Increased Profit after the Digitisation of Business at Tesco	12
Figure 4: Role of Digitisation in Tesco’s Business	13
Figure 5: Possibility of Issues Created from Digitisation of Tesco’s Business	14
Figure 6: Preference of Tesco’s Digitisation Aspects	15
List of Tables
Table 1: Gantt chart	9
Table 2: Role of Digitisation in Tesco’s Business	13
Table 3: Possibility of Issues Created from Digitisation of Tesco’s Business	14
Table 4: Preference of Tesco’s Digitisation Aspects	15
Table 5: Incorporating Feedback of employees, who use digital media and devices	17
Table 6: Incorporating Feedback of employees, who use digital media and devices	17
Introduction 
The advancement of information technology, the need for errorless work and heightened profitability lead to the eventual incorporation of digital technology in businesses. It is evident that use of digital technology has made the business sector more reliable, efficient, accurate and very profitable as the automated machines and programs perform better that their human counterpart. However, the adaptation of digital technology creates issues like shortage of sustainably skilled employees, higher investment, and reluctance in using from the employees’ side. In the current report, a thorough investigation is conducted on Tesco, UK with the use of rational arguments, information, data interpretation, and a conclusion. The report presents the aims and objectives of the investigation, along with the adopted methods at the beginning. Then varied data sources are explored and relevant data is collected, followed by an apt interpretation of the findings and ultimately reaching a conclusion based on which, recommendations are made.
Aims and Objectives of the Project 
Aim
The aim of the current report is to offer an in depth understanding of the importance of using digital technologies in business and the subsequent issues that eventually occur within the organisation, especially affecting the performance of the employees as well as the entire organisation.
Objectives
The objectives of the current reports are:
· To locate the technique in which, digitalisation influences the workplace and workforce of business with a special reference to Tesco, UK
· To identify the challenges that arises after incorporation of digitalisation within organisation framework
· To suggest suitable recommendation based on identified issues of digitalisation of business workplace and workforce
Project Management Plan as per Objectives and Timeline 
In order to reach a particular objective of a report, a logic-based plan is necessary. According to Daniel and Daniel (2018), the quality and accuracy of a report depends on the sequence of applied methods, which is determined through a proper project management. 
Cost
In order to examine the impact of digitalisation on the level of performance of an organisation, such as Tesco, advanced level digital tools along with complex calculating devices are used. In order to describe the findings of the project, a projector and a conference room is required. According to Welde and Odeck (2017), increased cost for less significant projects and reduced cost for more significant project could lead to failure. Considering the timeframe, data sources and all the technical accessories required, a budget of 1000 pound would be sufficient. 
Scope
The current project would generate an array of information that would help managing bodies of organisations to make beneficial decisions at given market conditions. The project will improve the scope of considering the use of digital techniques within business framework, among organisations that has yet not used digital techniques.
Communication
The transfer of data, used for developing information depends on the level of communication between two sides. According to Falkheimer et al. (2017), the level of communication maintained in a project is equally proportional to the level of data quality and its accuracy. In order to form a relevant data base, email, leaflets, memo and professional conversation tone will be apt. 
Risks
As personal data is collected at the time of projects, there remains the chance of data leak. As noted by Bi et al. (2017), respondents’ data are not protected after the completion of a project and hence, it either gets erased from digital recorders or gets leaked and used by unauthorised sources. In case of the current project, the risks are identical. 
Resources
Without the availability of proper resources, a project cannot reach its ultimate potential. According to Kerzner and Kerzner (2017), understanding of an aspect and skill cannot produce best results, if there is a shortage of resources. In case of the current project, paper, pen, computer, internet connectivity, projector, calculation software and mainly monetary resources will be required. The pen, paper and the computer would help in the collection, recoding and analysis of data, while the projector and calculation software help in determining and describing the data findings, all with the help of monetary resources. 
Time Frame
	Main activities and Sequenced steps
	Week 1
	Week 2
	Week 3 to 5
	Week 6 to 8
	Week 9
	Week 10 to 11
	Week 12
	Selection of Topic
	#
	
	
	
	
	
	
	Development of research plan
	#
	#
	
	
	
	
	
	Planning the proper layout
	
	#
	#
	
	
	
	
	Selecting research technique
	
	#
	#
	
	
	
	
	Collection of primary data
	
	
	#
	
	
	
	
	Collection of Secondary data
	
	
	#
	
	
	
	
	Reviewing the data
	
	
	
	#
	
	
	
	Data analysis
	
	
	
	
	#
	
	
	Interpretation of findings
	
	
	
	
	
	#
	
	Conclusion of project
	
	
	
	
	
	
	#
Table 1: Gantt chart
(Source: Learner)
Investigation of the Scenario 
In the current project, for theoretical knowledge and authentic data base, primary data has been collected along with secondary data which tends to provide real life data. According to Knottnerus and Tugwell (2018), combination of primary and secondary data makes the process of data collection and analysis, nevertheless provides both quantitative and qualitative data. In the current project, primary data has been collected from newspapers, articles, journals, books and annual reports of Tesco, available online. The primary data has been analysed in deductive method to infer core idea from interrelating facts. In case of secondary data survey questionnaire has been used considering random probability sampling technique. The respondents are given survey questionnaires in the form of leaflets. In the survey questionnaires three close ended questions are given.

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF Student Name/ID Number Unit Number and Title HNBS 306 Managing Successful Business Project (Level 4) Academic Year 2017/18 Unit Tutor Adekunle Adetola Assignment Title Professional...

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