Hello! My name is Mary Kate Morency and I am a third year marketing major from Jacksonville Florida. I am currently studying abroad in Londn. Traveling is one of my favorite things to do so this experience has been amazing for me so far. I am having a lot of fun exploring different places and meeting new people everywhere I go. I'm am in this program with twenty three other people and developed great friendships. After graduating from UF next year, I hope to move out west and pursue a career in marketing or event planning.
I think that a web page is essential for a company that wishes to be successful and expand. More than 90% of the world is linked to the internet. A website can provide a plethora of information to customers with extreme ease of access. Internet is where people first go to find more information about a company. A web site can provide not only information about their product but also about the services they provide and to what extent. Some websites can go as far as providing information about their competitor and how they relate. A successful webpage can provide a significant competitive advantage over other companies.
Podcasting can be very useful in today’s business environment. Most companies have new information to distribute daily. Email and electronic platforms are becoming the easiest and fastest way of communication for public and private use. Using emails can be effective but not everyone is willing to distribute their email addresses or even might change them without informing the company of the change therefore losing communications. Podcasts have great advantages in that you can download the episode and the user has the ability to play the video offline on a portable media player. This is important in the growing number of Ipods and blackberries that have these capabilities. Episodes can be viewed many times with only one download which gives business people opportunities to review information when it is convenient for them.
Customers and clients can also stream the podcast allowing them to seek through the episode (skipping portions of the file) without downloading the full video podcast, better statistics and lower bandwidth costs for the servers; however, users may have to face pauses in playback caused by slow transfer speeds. Podcast can provide customers with recent information at the customers’ desire which eliminates unwanted information.
Secure E-mail
Secure and encrypted emails are a new idea for me. I’ve heard of them used by my dad in the past but I have never had the need. In the business environment I feel that these forms of communications are becoming vital because of all the dangers on the internet. Secure email can also enable you to share sensitive information over the internet. Information can include anything marked restricted, with anyone in the criminal justice community, quickly and reliably. Everyday processes can be handled in a more secure, efficient and cost-effective way.
As a student traveling identity theft is one of my main concerns. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing 'cyber' crimes. The only information that a hacker would need to access all my information is my date of birth or any other type of personal information. This has been a prominent concern among us in London because of all the plane tickets and travel arrangements we make over the internet. Encrypted emails can now give me comfort when sending information over the internet. Businesses today can use this form of email even more effectively than I can. Vital information other than credit card information is sent over business’ emails. In a legal perspective secure and encrypted emails are the safest way to go. The Secure email service encrypts all the information that's sent across it. This means that even in the unlikely event that someone does manage to successfully hack-in, they still won't be able to read any of the information that's been sent or received via secure email.
Secure email users also have benefits of deflecting spam. In the past I’ve had my inbox full of unwanted and even offensive emails. Spam is definitely a problem for companies in the business world today. Superiors can monitor what their employees are receiving in emails and potential fire someone because of spam that they do not intend to receive or look at. I will definitely look into this for my other email accounts. Research has shown me that a user with a secure email account can only receive mail from someone that is either in your closed community or on a list that you have allowed.
I think one of the biggest problems that a business network can encounter is a virus. Viruses are spreading more and more rapidly in today’s society. Even with virus scanners and software companies are still susceptible to being infected. One of the problems with virus scanners is that viruses are updated every day and the software is not. Secure email uses the very latest virus-checking technology to prevent any viruses from getting through. The virus-checking software is automatically updated, stopping even the newest computer viruses before they can infect secure email users' computers.
As effective as these emails are there are some drawbacks to encrypted emails. Individuals can specifically encrypt an email so that even those within the specified community cannot read it. Unfortunately financial businesses are not the only industry growing in size and putting to use of secure emails. Pornography, child pornography and selling of illegal products are also growing at a sickening rate. These emails containing elicit information have the same effect that those of respectable companies have. Police and criminal justices are unable to decipher these emails and therefore unable to prosecute criminals. Although there are those who use these types of information for bad, I believe that the good outweigh the bad and that secure and encrypted emails are assets to the business environment.
Collabroative Computing
In our business world today companies are becoming more and more globalized. I think that collaborative computing helps facilitates the growth of team-based organizations. This faceless collaboration allows companies to communicate on a constant basis over long distances. Application of the technology in major companies, including accounting firms, seems to confirm predictions that collaborative computing will recast work patterns.
Networking is dominating in our society today. Computer technology is now available to assist teams in performing their tasks. The organizations provide the background and explain how to get started. It's hard to find a business magazine or book today that doesn't mention the revolution in thinking going on in executive suites and business schools. Most companies now encourage working together which is facilitated by collaborative computing. Living in London with the twenty four people from UF I saw them every day before we started our internship. Now that we all have jobs, I barely see the people that are on my team. This project has allowed me to communicate with my classmates while at work or on vacation.
This project has helped me to realize that emails are not the only form of communication in the business environment. This team work can help prevent mistakes and duplicates. I do not think that this will be limited to large corporations. Small companies can put this to use with distributors and customers. Using it here in London shows how effective it can be even with students. Within a few years, many companies will be implementing such systems as profit-enhancing competitive tools. While I do see collaborative computing replacing mail, E-Mail, faxes and other communication tools, collaborative computing will take its place among them and those who are able to harness its advantages will be the early beneficiaries.
Excel
Excel 2003/2007 Skills
This project like the first few have shown me new aspects of the computing world that are very useful. Excel is used more and more throughout the business industry. Excel allows users to input multiple sources of information and sort through the relevant parts. It helps to organize information in a precise matter. Through this project I learned how to break up information and have displayed in a neater more intelligible manner. Analyzing data is very important to companies and this project made the analysis process that much easier.
I have used Excel in the past but not to this extent. Formulas and pivot tables make analyzing a large amount of data simple and easy. This program and these tools can be very beneficial to companies if they use them to their full capacity. Pivot tables can save users much time and worry through its organization. In today’s business society it is a great attribute to have knowledge of Excel when applying for jobs since it is so widely used.
Database
Microsoft Access Skills
I did not even have Microsoft Access on my computer before this project, needless to say I didn’t know much about the software. I had heard of the program before but was not aware of its uses. I had no idea what any of the tools in the program could do.
I found this project challenging and confusing. I have had three office jobs and have not had to do anything like this. Now that I have completed the project and watched the presentations I have a wider knowledge not only of the program but also about databases in general. This program has shown me some useful tools in organizing data. I feel Access’ strongest quality is ease of updates and information retrieval.
I feel more confident about the program itself in general but still have more to learn about all its capabilities. In the ever growing business society I feel it is important to have as much knowledge about different aspects of the computer world as possible. The skills I have learned during this project will definitely help me in the future.