Group Project Reflections

Purple Group: Ashley Poore, Adrienne Marsolino, Jordan Lumbatis

Overall, the group project wasn’t hard for us, it was just very tedious at times. We picked which business we were going to use quickly by just picking one that we came up with when we had to draft our ideas. We decided on Ann Taylor Loft becuase we all had an interest in the company and Jordan works there, which was able to help us gain more informatin on the company. Through each draft that we did we refined each one to be better and go into more detail about what we think would help Ann Taylor fix their scheduling problem. We didn’t run into many obstacles except trying to find a software that would fit the company and woudn’t cost much. Our breakthrough came when we fianlly did find a cost efficient software that would work well with Ann Taylor. Once we came to our final draft of the paper everything fit together and shows how Ann Taylor will benefit from this software.

Ashley: I think the hardest part about working on this project was not knowing exactly how Ann Taylor ran their business. I kind of had an idea of why many of the employees at Ann Taylor got frusturated with the scheduling system because the restaurant I work at uses the same kind of system. This system is just writing down when you can work on the back of the schedule. However, since I only knew little about it and what Jordan told us I decided to do a little bit of research on my own to find out more about the comapny. Once I did that I was able to understant more about the company and what they had to work with technology wise. One of the best things I learned from this project is that there are many different technologies available for companies to use for this kind of problem, most of which are fairly inexpensive. By doing this project, it has helped me to understand which course concepts would apply to a company like this with the same problems and which concepts would not. The main concept that I feel applies to this project is Business Intelligence. I feel that this concept applies because it deals with business performance management, competitive intelligence and much more. Those two things that I mentioned play a major part within Ann Taylor. Since Ann Taylor is a competitive women’s clothing store they need to be as technology savy as their other competitors while making wise decisions to enhance performance such as sales. Because of this is one of the many reasons I feel that this concept applies. Overall, I feel that the project went very well and I learned alot from it and learned more about the concepts that we talked about in class. I feel that I have a better understanding of them from doing this project and hope that I can continue to use these concepts in the future.

Jordan: The hardest part about working on this project was finding times to meet with my group in person. As an Ann Taylor Loft employee, I knew a lot about their scheduling system and was able to give a lot of insight into the company. The best thing I learned from this project was how information systems really can help business run more effieciently. Technology is available all around us and we should take advantage of it. I also learned that working in a group project is not totally horrible. I was fortunate to have a great group! This project really helped me to under stand how BI or business intelligence can be helped with technology. Scheduling of employees is very important to BI because you need to know how many employees are needed for each shift.

Adrienne: I felt the hardest part of working on this project was trying to figure out the estimated costs for our proposal. I had to go to several websites to determine what all the costs would be. It was very time consuming. The best thing I learned was there are many types of systems that help improve the running of a business. The scheduling software for the Loft would be inexpensive and would free up more time for all of the employees. It is a great example of information systems that help businesses. This project helped me to understand BI better because our project was all about Ann Taylor Loft keeping better schedules for their employees by the management. This system deals with a process that managers have to continuously perform and makes the task simpler while reducinig errors.

Reflection on IT150: Spring ’09

When I first signed up for this class, I honestly was not sure what it would entail. I did, however, think that it would be one of my easier classes for the semester. This was not the case.

Being told on the first day that this was not going to be an easy class kind of scared me and almost made me want to drop it. Then I decided that I would go through with it and continue in the class knowing that it would be a lot of work. IT 150 was definitely a lot of work.

The assignments keep coming non-stop and the Google Online Market Challenge hovers in the background with its own assignments. Now, looking back on the semester, I realize that every assignment taught me something new or built upon skills I already had.

The Google Online Marketing Challenge introduced me to a whole new concept that I had no knowledge about. The project was difficult at times and took a lot of work to understand the logistics of online marketing and how it worked. Once you figure it out though, it’s actually sort of fun to watch and see who is visiting your client’s website and the number of clicks. Completing this advertising challenge has even helped me with interviews and given me a “real life” experience to reference.

Some assignments were difficult and there were times when I had no idea what I was doing, but Rachel was always willing to help. She was available to assist students all the time and answered email questions very promptly. Having an instructor that was dedicated to the class made it easier to keep up with the work and learn.

I had yet to realize all the new skills I have acquired in this course until we did the assignment about our resumes.  The “Enterprise Me” lecture really got me thinking about how important it is to stay informed and read up on people in my desired career area.  The lecture got me thinking and I am going to try to read up on accounting more often and try to subscribe to an online newsletter to stay informed.  I think that the lecture was a good way to get the class to start thinking about careers and how to make you marketable after college.

Overall, this class was a lot of work and taught me many new things that will follow me into my future career.

Reflection on IT150 with Rachel Chung

To be completely honest, I – like most of you – only took Information Technology I at Carlow University in the Spring semester of 2009 because it was part of my major’s requirements.  I didn’t even know what Information Technology was when I registered, but I figured my first semester classes were pretty easy and I’d be able to fly through this course too.

I was wrong.

When I walked into the classroom the first day, it was almost full.  By the next class half of those students had disappeared.  Rachel had spent most of our first meeting warning us about how much work we were going to get and it scared some of the students away. I, on the other hand, didn’t believe her.  I’d heard that so many times before and it always turned out to be an over exaggeration.  Again, I was wrong.

IT150 is a lot of work, but for what you get out of it, it’s completely worth it.  In the beginning we got packets of homework assignments almost every class and I spent hours each night just trying to get it done in time for the next class.  Then on top of that, the Google project was added and we had to do even more work every day.  It was hard and stressful and I didn’t always agree with the workload, but in the end, it was useful.  I don’t think there is one thing in any of those assignment that I won’t use again in the future or that won’t give me an advantage and put me ahead of other people in the workforce.

I liked the hands on work we did with Microsoft Access and Excel and the in class exercises.  I also liked learning about the different Information Systems businesses use in the background to help themselves improve and the other little things we learned like how the internet works, Google’s various useful applications, and how to read database language.  The Google AdWords project was a lot of work and could be really confusing sometimes, but it was fun to work with a real business and real money and it really gives you a lot of experience and a great advantage.

If I had to give advice to any future students all I would say is don’t give up and don’t slack off.  It’s a lot of work and it’s going to stress you out and overwhelm you, but I think that what you get back from it is the dealbreaker.  Not only will you learn inside the classroom, but also outside of the classroom because it’ll teach you how to teach yourself, how to learn from your mistakes, and it will really get you ready for the workload that you’ll face throughout the rest of your college experience.

The best thing that you’ll get from this course is a competitive advantage.  Of course you only touch on things like Access and Excel, DreamWeaver, information systems, HTML/database language, and various other useful things, but you can build on those skills and use them to your advantage in your career because there aren’t a lot of other people out there who are going to know what those things are let alone how to use them.  I bet you’ll meet plenty of employers who have no idea what Google AdWords or Google Apps are and might not even know what information systems are and because you do, you’re going to stand out and they’re going to want you.  IT150 is tough, but like I’ve said before, what you learn from it will continue to help you throughout your career.