ISM Computing Project Portfolio, 2008 for Dave Patel

About Me My name is Dave Patel and I am a currently a sophomore at UF. I like to do many things outdoors such as play tennis, fish, and go to the beach. I volunteer at various places in Gainesville because I think its fun and it gives me an opportunity to give back to the community. I also research at the neurology clinic. I work with patients that have Alzheimer’s disease. I am a pre-health student majoring in microbiology. Whoever is reading this is probably asking why I am taking this class. Well, there are two reasons. First, all of these skills taught in this call will benefit me if I ever want to open a private practice someday. Second, I love to work with computers. I might want to minor in computer science so I took this class thinking it will give me an insight to the computer world. The most important thing about me is that I am a huge gator fan! GO GATORS!!! Click Here For My Resume

Web Page

Why do you think a Web presence (site) is an "essential" for businesses of all sizes?

Businesses today realize that this world is becoming more technological. In coping with this change, larger businesses and corporations are making websites that allow their customers to be more informed about what is going on within the business. Some businesses allow their customers to purchase their products through a website. A web presence is essential for businesses because it is the fastest way to get information out to the world about their business. Web sites provide communication between the business and customer, which I believe is the most important part in building a business. A better designed web site may show the customer that the business is more significant than other competing businesses.

Podcast

Podcasting in the business environment has its advantages and disadvantages. I personally believe that any advertisement is good advertisement. The internet has revolutionized the way we communicate; therefore podcasting through the internet will have a greater impact in the future for businesses. Podcasting allows people to be more informed about a business even if they are half way around the world. It doesn’t require third party individuals such as television or radio stations to broadcast about a business. Having this freedom allows businesses to be more creative and direct attention to specific groups. It is also cost effective for businesses. Since this piece of technology is a recently new way to get information to the consumer, I believe it will continue to grow and become more popular in the new future.

However, podcasting does have several weaknesses. The consumer may not want to here about businesses because they are more visually inclined. This world is changing everyday when it comes to technology. Since there has been vodcasting (a visual form of podcasting), it may compete against podcasting when businesses are advertising. People pay more attention to visual aids rather than just listening.

Podcasting will continue to grow even though vodcasting is becoming more popular. It requires less amount of money and will be easier for consumers to obtain a podcast. I believe that podcasting in the business environment will undoubtedly change they way businesses communicate within the each other and to the consumer because it is more efficient and reliable.

Secure E-mail

In today’s world most businesses rely on e-mail as a form of communication. It is the fastest and most efficient way to get information to a person even if they are half way around the world. Most prominent businesses rely on e-mail to transfer information that must not be seen by other people. The way they secure this type of e-mail is through signing and encrypting. This type of security allows businesses to feel more comfortable with what they are sending.

Personally, any e-mail that is sent should be signed which allows the acceptor to see who sent the e-mail. I get many e-mails and most of the emails are not signed. This makes feel uncomfortable because I feel that opening these e-mails will cause damage to my computer. Businesses have these security protocols so that people know who sent a certain e-mail which allows the acceptor to feel more comfortable.

Encrypting allows important information to be transformed into information that is unreadable to other individuals that are not being sent the e-mail. All businesses want to keep the information private mainly because of monetary issues. The government, which I believe is the most sophisticated and complex business of all, uses this technology so that the infrastructure of the government doesn’t break down. The government is full of secrets and they use secure e-mail to communicate within the departments of the government.

The use of secure e-mail will continue to become more popular because there are individuals out there trying to intercept important e-mails. This type of technology is changing and it will have a bigger influence in the business world in years to come.

Collaborative Computing

Collaborative computing is an important tool that is used in the business environment. It allows ideas from a person to be seen and discussed by other individuals in the team. Companies today can use this technique to form presentations about a certain project. The biggest advantage about collaborative computing is that it can be done by people from different parts of the world through the internet. A program called Sharepoint allows users to post and discuss ideas about a certain project over the internet.

Collaborative computing is a growing technique. A company is not built by one person. It takes many people that work together to create something that is bigger than them. Sharepoint gives us the basis to begin a project where the team members are all over the world. People do not have the time and money to meet at a location and work on the project. Sharepoint gives members the freedom to work on the project at home or at work. When working on the Gator video presentation, I thought Sharepoint was necessary for us to create this presentation. It would be very difficult for us to meet at one location. We presented our ideas and created surveys which gave the team an overall direction for the presentation.

Collaborative computing is a necessary tool for any growing business. The businesses in our society are turning to technology for a business to succeed. It is important for individuals to receive ideas from other individuals on a team. Having other people’s input about a presentation allows other people to see things they wouldn’t have seen.

Excel 2003/2007 Skills

Excel is a program that has numerous functions that are useful for businesses. This project entailed three parts where certain functions within Excel were used. The first part was using text functions and manipulating columns. The data within a column was used to make another column. The second part of the project was making a pivot table. This pivot table helps organize data so that the user can view the information with ease. The last part of the project used the Goal Seek tool. This allows the user to determine what is needed to reach a certain goal. For example, if there is a specific unit price and you want to reach a certain amount of money, how much of the product must be sold? This tool allows you to figure out the specific number.

Personally, this project gave me a greater insight to what Excel really is. I did not know how useful this program really is. I have used Excel in the past to organize information and to make graphs, but this project went to a new level in organization. Using these three skills will benefit me in the future, especially in the business environment.

Microsoft Access Skills

Throughout this project I had several difficulties operating with Microsoft Access 2003. I have never used this program before, but I do see the importance to it. This database manager can store vast amounts of information while organizing it the way the user wants it to be. Making the tables, queries, and reports was easy to form, however detailing the way you want it was where the difficulty came in. This has not been the best project; however I did gain valuable information on how to operate Microsoft Access.

This project first started with importing files from excel and then making three tables that had information about DVD outlets, movies, and outlets that store the DVDs. A relationship diagram was made to see how these tables are connected. This makes it easier to see how these tables share information. Two queries were made where the first consisted of outlets that had PG movies and the second was an update query where it changed PG13 to PGTeen in the movies table. The last thing made was a report of what PG movies are in what outlet and who the contact person is for that outlet.

Microsoft Access is a valuable tool in the business environment. Many businesses can store information about their store such as their products that their selling. This will allow people to keep track of inventory or any information necessary to have a successful business. Any database software is so versatile because it can be used for many things. A business survives on technology. Our world is changing and many business people are becoming more computer literate because of the change. This program can save time and money for business people because of how it is user friendly. Hopefully, more programs like Microsoft Access will form in the future.