ISM3004 Computing Portfolio Project, 2008 for Kimberly Hilger


INTRODUCTION


Website Podcast Secure Email Collaborative Excel Database


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My name is Kimberly Hilger and I am currently a student in the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida. I was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but wanted to come to UF because I was attracted to the reputable business school and the great weather. Since arriving in Gainesville three years ago, I have had some great classes, met some amazing people, and visited some beautiful Floridian habitats. Although I may move back up north after I graduate, Florida has been a wonderful place for me the last few years. My main hobby is traveling, and I would like to get an opportunity to travel more in my future. I lived in Mexico for a year during high school, and would like to return to Latin America for some extended time. I am fascinated by other cultures and peoples and am excited by situations that are unfamiliar. Hopefully I will find a job that will allow me to travel and see the world.



Webpage Project


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


In an ever increasingly technological world, it is important for all businesses, regardless of their size, to have a presence on the Internet. The majority of the US population now uses the Internet as their main source of information, and if your business is not accessible through that medium, customers will not be informed about your products or services. Regardless of how complex you want the website to be or how much information you want it to display, creating a website will cost you a small amount in comparison to the market exposure and potential benefits your company will reap from the added advertising. In addition to advertising, a business can take advantage of the billion dollar e-commerce industry with an online presence. All businesses today should make it a priority to be aware of technological advances; otherwise the entity could be sacrificing efficiency, market share and/or new cost savings.

Podcast




Podcasting and similar technologies are dramatically changing the way information is obtained and distributed. It is important for businesses to be aware and take advantage of emerging and influential technologies, because it is essential to be at the forefront of technological advances in order to maintain competitive advantage. Podcasting is a great way to instantaneously distribute information to a large group of people at a very low cost. Most consumers, especially younger generations, are using iPods, MP3 players, and other such devices to download information from the internet, whether for educational, recreational or professional purposes. It is important for businesses to observe this trend and correctly adapt to the change in order to reach this mass market and sustain a growing customer base.

Another important aspect of podcasting is the fact that you can subscribe to a certain podcast in order to continuously receive the newest additions. This element is critical because it provides a way to avoid problems which would arise from using email or other information distribution mechanisms which may have spam blockers or other obstructions. A user can decide that he/she wants to subscribe to the podcast, much like subscribing to a magazine or newspaper, and then rely on their application software to keep them updated. Also, the fact that the podcasts are distributed in an MP3 format makes it especially attractive to users because they can then download the information and make it portable, thus being just as versatile as a brochure or pamphlet or magazine.

Click here to listen to Podcast

Secure E-mail



Most businesses rely heavily on Internet communications, especially email. Although this is an effective method of rapid communication, it is not as secure as one would hope. The fact is, information sent via email is vulnerable to hackers who can access the server through which your email is sent and view the content. Although large businesses may have their own server with encryption software to regulate the incoming and outgoing information, small businesses that rely on other servers will be at an increased risk if they do not use some sort of encryption method.

To encrypt a message means that a user is going to convert the content to indecipherable data which can only be deciphered if one has the encryption key. Encryption keys vary according to the specific software a user may employ, otherwise a small business might choose to write its own encryption software. Although this method does have some weaknesses, it provides an additional access barrier to sensitive information.

There are many ways to encrypt an email, but both of the methods we used in our project fall under the public-key encryption category. This method requires the user to have two keys – a public key and a private key, both of which are generated by the encryption software and given to the user at the same time. The public key is available for anyone to see, while the private key is known only to the individual. When we signed up for the Verisign email certificate, we were given both a public and private key. Encrypting an email requires the sender to have the receiver’s public key. The user sends an email using the receiver’s public key, and then the only person who can decrypt the content is the one who has the corresponding private key. In our project, we obtained Professor Hairston’s public key when we received his response to our first email. Once we received his public key, we could encrypt an email message so that only he could decrypt the content with his private key.

The other privacy method we used in our project was the digital signature. The digital signature works as a method to ensure that the email is authentic – that it is indeed sent by the person claiming to have sent it. It works because the sender signs or encodes the message with his/her private key, which can then be decoded if the receiver has access to your public key. For our project, we used the Verisign Digital ID method to digitally sign our email. According to the Verisign website, their method works by attaching your public key and an encoded version of your email message, called a message digest, to your email, and then it uses your private key to encrypt the message digest. When the message is received, the receiver uses your public key to decrypt the message digest, and then runs the email text through the same encoding process to generate the same message digest. If the two message digests match, then the receiver can be certain that no third party has tampered with or changed the email. The method provided by Verisign effectively ensures authenticity as well as security while the email is transmitted through servers from the sender to the receiver.

Collaborative Computing



The modern business world benefits greatly from the Internet and vast communication networks. Worldwide instantaneous communication has expanded opportunity and revolutionized business interactions. A century ago, completing a group project with team members scattered throughout the world in less than two weeks would have been utterly impossible, yet this is what my group members and I were able to accomplish in the collaborative computing project. One member of our team was studying in Spain, others were scattered throughout Florida, and yet another took business trips to Los Angeles. Our project was completed successfully and was generally unaffected by these geographic separations.

Collaborative computing has effectively enabled the formation of new business organizational structures. One such structure, the Network Structure, consists of a centralized core that is linked to independent firms via computer connections and is treated as a single organization. For example, the business may use an accounting firm in Canada, a marketing firm in the United States, a customer service provider in India, while still operating a cohesive business. Businesses with this type of structure greatly decrease their overhead and payroll costs. Another business practice made possible via global connection is the Follow-the-Sun approach to production. This way a project can be worked on in Florida, and then passed to California, then Japan, then India, and so forth which greatly increases productivity.

Businesses use computers to effectively communicate on the global scale. However, there are still aspects of the technological communication process that have yet to be perfected. In many ways, using the Internet as the sole means of communication hinders efficiency when planning, collaborating and executing projects. What I found throughout my project was that our discussion did not follow a logical progression due to sporadic participation which made communication unclear and brainstorming difficult. For example, our group had to make several decisions regarding certain elements of the advertisement we created. Members posted their ideas, and others responded. A couple days later a team member may question whether or not guidelines were fully understood and we would discuss requirements and ideas simultaneously. Other times, people would add ideas a couple days after the topic had been introduced and their ideas were essentially excluded from discussion. It is possible that a chat room would have solved the problem of sporadic participation, but there are weaknesses to that approach as well. In this case, I think the project could have been completed more efficiently if the team members had been in one location at one time. Although we completed the assignment and the results were satisfactory, the same results could have been achieved quicker and easier had we been operating without the hindrances presented by technological communication.

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Excel


Excel 2003/2007 Skills


The Excel portion of the Computing Portfolio Project was an interesting one because of its applicability to the business environment. Almost all businesses have large amounts of data that must be sorted and accessed easily, and most rely on database management systems like MS Excel. I learned how to extract specific data from cells by using text formulas which is a skill I am not particularly familiar with. I also learned how to make a pivot table, which I found to be a visually appealing way to present information. The goal seek function was also something I had not been familiar with, but it is a good way to calculate simple algebraic equations that would be necessary in figuring out budgets and so forth. Database management is a great skill to have in the business world.

Database


Microsoft Access Skills

Microsoft Access is an excellent database management system to become familiar with because it is useful for managing information and is prevalent in the business environment. Access presents different tools and ways of organizing information than many other DBMS, including Excel. Although I had no experience with Access before this assignment, I can see how important and useful this tool could be to business computing. Access makes it easy to manage many databases at one time, and facilitates manipulation of both the format and data in each field. A user can import data from Excel to create tables, which is an important aspect because many businesses use spreadsheet and database software similar to Excel to store their information. Access allows the user to import this information and then converts it to an Access file so the user can manipulate the data.

In this project, I also learned how to perform a query, which I believe is probably the function that would be the most useful for businesses. A query is a request to retrieve information, and the user can select any fields from any of the tables, and then set criteria for desired information. For example, if a business wanted to see the name, address, and phone number of all the customers who bought a certain product within the last two months, they could perform a query and instantly view this information. Using the query wizard, they would just enter the fields they wanted to view, probably from a customer information table, and then set criteria for the type of customer they want to view, in this case recent consumers of a particular product. This kind of tool would be useful for marketing, sales projections, and maybe even recalls.

For me, this project was the most difficult one to complete because I had no prior experience with MS Access. However, I am glad to have learned more about the DBMS because I believe it is a marketable skill to have and knowledge of the system will prepare me for future jobs. In talking with friends and family, many people have told me that they either use Access on their job site or for personal information management. Everyone assures me that it is important to understand how to manipulate data because it increases efficiency when completing projects or assignments. I now know how to import tables, perform queries, define relationships, and create effective reports, and this knowledge will serve me well as I enter the business environment.