"ISM3004 Computing Portfolio Project, 2008 for "Kristen Simmons"

I am currently a junior at the University of Florida, majoring in Marketing and pursuing a minor in Mass Communications. I love spending summer weekends at the beach, trying new restaurants and watching Gator football and basketball games. My parents are my greatest inspiration and I don't know what I would do without them. I hope to one day experience big city life, until then I am absolutely loving college and all of the opportunities it has brought.

Click here to take a look at my resume!

WebPage

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

Today's global environment creates an absolute necessity for a web presence. Adding credibility to the organization, a website can offer a business a network to its consumers and effectively establish its position in the market. Consumers do not hesitate to look up products online. It is by far the fastest way to attain information. It is essential for businesses, both large and small, to offer a website about their firm and their products. Businesses must also consider the growing trend of online shopping. Ultimately, a business must at least offer the basic information of their company, ie. history, operating hours, contact information, so that the consumer-business interaction is easily facilitated. Now, it is often surprising when a company does not offer a website - it is almost an expected form of communication.

Podcast

Click here to listen to my very own podcast!

Podcasting allows businesses to communicate messages about their companies, products or their respective industries via a medium in which users control. Users can subscribe to podcasts of their choice, deciding whether or not to continue to receive the information provided by the source. This has the potential to create lasting relationships between listeners and providers. Podcasts are convenient, timely and relevant. So many individuals already own an Ipod, or portable music device, so by adding additional, meaningful content users can access it readily and frequently.
Personally, I have enjoyed downloading serveral podcasts to listen to either leisurely or for timely information. I have Diplomat Dish delivered straight to iTunes every time a new episode is released. I am also very interested in the marketing/PR industry, so I have interesting podcasts from industry leaders about current trends and advice. Podcasts don't clog one's inbox, and the user can stop delivery at any time. Podcasts provide yet another medium for information dissemination, keeping up with the current trends.

Secure E-mail

Today, email is the primary form of communication in the business environment. Because it is almost an instaneous communication form, workers can send and receive correspondence continually. Email is also quite possibly the least expensive means of communication, so companies spare no great expense to communicate even globally. Anything from quick memos, to presentations,to multimedia items, to highly confidential information can be sent via email.
Previous to this part of the Computing Portfolio Project, I was not familiar with the use of sending and receiving encrypted emails. The process is actually quite simple, requiring a simple download of a free trial of a security certificate. After this, one just needs to register the code and create and store a master password. Next, simply enter the security certificate into your email client.
Emails may be easily sent to the wrong address because of a typo or intercepted before it reaches the proper recipient. Sending encrypted emails, only to be unlocked by the proper sender, allows for the secured sending of confidential information. This feature further allows rapis business communication while lowering the risk of interception by an unauthorized source. Secure email facilitates continued communication.

Collaborative Computing

Collaborative computing practices allow fellow employees, in this project my fellow classmates, to work simulataneously on projects without the requirement of being physically present. This practice is so practical, considering how vast the reach of businesses has become and how global the use of computers and the internet has become. Project contributors can work physically miles apart, yet be instantly connected via a collaborative workspace. With a program such as Sharepoint, users can consistently communicate via a discussion board, offering suggestions, ideas and assigning tasks to specific members. This website offers a number of components which facilitates the ease of completing an assignment completely virtually.

During this specific project, our team utilized the features of surveys and uploading images. The surveys gather everyones opinion quickly. Each author of a survey can then create a report about the statistics of the results - either graphically or numerically. For this ad assignment, we each researched and uploaded potentially usuable pictures into the ad space. With everyone's additions, we had a number of excellent shots to chose from.

As everyone uploaded a new version of the ad, the other members we able to make changes and upload a new one, without losing any previous work. This system working a lot more efficiently than emailing new versions to everyone, then waiting for endless replies filling up one's inbox. Everything is available in a neat workspace. Also, you can set up alerts so you know when someone commented on the discussion board or uploaded a new document. This was a truly enjoyable experience. Even though I did not meet any of my teammates in person, I believe we worked well. We helped each other remember deadlines and remain on task.

Click here to take a look at our finshed ad!

Excel

Excel 2003/2007 Skills

This project involved a number of different tasks completed in Microsoft Excel. Personally, I was using the newest version, 2007. First I had to manipulate the data provided by extracting out certain information and placing it into its own column. This is done by the use of Excel text functions, specifically I used the RIGHT and LEFT functions. Next, I created a Pivot Table to better display the data on a monthy basis. A portion of the table is shown below. Finally, I ran some analysis on potential profits. The Goal Seek function made this task remarkable easy. In order to meet a target profit, I was able to instantly manipulate the number of units sold or to see the effects of price changes. This formula eliminates the need for painstaking calculations.
Prior to beginning this assignment I had installed Excel 2007, but had not yet had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the new interface and layout. This gave me the perfect opportunity to navigate my way through the program. This was the first time I had created a Pivot Table and used the Goal Seek function. I find that tool to be especially helpful in the business environment when trying to determine the best ways to obtain a certain goal, in this case profit through changes in price and units sold.

Database

Microsoft Access Skills

Microsoft Access offers numerous functions for maintaining a database of information, sorting that info and creating reports. This program can be used in a number of different industries from academia to major corporations to managing a little league team's information. Access allows you to import information from other programs, input new data and create relationships based on the data. This project required importing data from Excel, creating new tables, running queries and designing reports based on certain fields of information. Access has the power to organize and maintain thousands upon thousands entries of data.
Rather than just creating a table of data, a database management software can create reports, find relationships among various entries and organize this data according to a number of specifications. This would be particularly helpful for maintaining a consumer database, sales records, employee information, nearly every facet of a business. For example, this project required that the data be linked via relationships and to run a query to pull data from multiple tables into one succinct table.
I truly had no idea of the capabilities of a database program, like Microsoft Access. Businesses can make great use out of the organizational benefits and ability to determine where relationships exist. Hopefully I will be able to utilize such a program when I am doing marketing work in my career. Below is a screen shot of the relationships between DVD Titles and the OUtlets that offer them.