Thursday, May 30, 2013

Blog 17: Fourth Interview Questions

1. What is the best way to set up a computer system that meets the technological needs of a clothing and accessory company?
2. How does your company work with third party programs or devices that are used by clothing companies (that you have no experience with)?
3. How can a computer system’s analyst best update a clothing and accessory company’s legacy systems to meet modern industry standards?
 4. Since most systems have to be on 24-7, is there a way to a systems analyst can properly update or downgrade a system without having to shut it down completely?
5. Have you run into any situations where you’d feel that knowing something beforehand would have made it easier in that situation? Can you provide a specific example?
6. Oftentimes, updates or upgrades are not always perfect. Would you suggest an update or upgrade to a client when it was just released, or would you wait a while? Why?
 7. Has there ever been a request from your clientele/employer that you were unable to complete? Why or why not and how did you deal with it?
8. What are some useful sources when keeping up to date with modern day software?
9. As a service provider, what methods do you use to ensure that your clients get the most out of your service?
 10. Do you feel that obtaining certification would be more worthwhile than getting a degree in the current economy?
11. In what ways do you feel an EDI system helps a clothing and accessory company?
12. How often do you find a company that doesn’t deal with EDI and how does it compare to the ones that do?
13. What are some warnings that you feel would be appropriate in regards to companies relying heavily on 3rd-party programs?
14. Is there a particular type of EDI (AS2, IIE, etc.) that you feel is more effective in the industry; or anything in particular for the clothing and accessory business?
15. Is there any particular software that you feel would benefit a clothing and accessory company? Something that you could call essential to the business or operating the company. 16. What is your opinion of how the EDI industry is moving towards cloud computing? How have you been adjusting to it?
17. What are some myths that you have heard and corrected from the people you have worked with regarding computers?
18. Why does or doesn’t your company work with mobile EDI (Cellphones, etc.)?
19. What are some ways you assist the company you work for in efficiency or cost savings (such as using the same computer system to keep costs minimal)?
20. How do you feel about certification in comparison to getting a degree in this area of business?
21. Are there any books or sources that you would recommend to be useful in my research on systems analysis?

Monday, May 20, 2013

Blog 25: Mentorship

L:

Total hours clocked: 200

Duties: Manage business, request help as necessary.

Contact: Robert Kellohen
Cell: 909-538-6652

I:

I have gained a lot of experience overall with working as a systems analyst and as an EDI service provider. The most important thing I have gained here is the knowledge of a customer base and how to deal with people-to-people interactions as well as knowledge about the EDI system that I did not know previously.

A:

What I've done helped me with my EQ because it has in some way or another lead me to all three of my answers.  The first answer was found purely through mentorship and observation of the various companies we worked with.  While the second two were also found through research, it was the mentorship that primarily exposed me to those two answers.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

(1) What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?
My essential question is "What is the best way to set up a computer system that meets the technological needs of a clothing and accessories business?"

My best answer to this question is to implement the EDI system. This is because the EDI system allows for the most optimum performance of a company dealing in this area–usually decreasing costs by up to 80%.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

I simply observed the differences between companies during mentorship and noted the applications each one used in order to achieve optimum performance.

(3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

The main problem I faced this year was obtaining research.  I feel like initially I didn't know what was expected of the research I was supposed to get and that held me back from obtaining the research to the best of my abilities.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

My most significant source is my mentorship with Robert Kellohen.  This allowed me to see what happens while working in the industry and allowed me to come to two of my answers.

My second most significant source is Tech Republic.  This website sent me constant newsletters regarding the tech industry and assisted me in providing a constant source of articles. The articles were better here mainly because they were not all from Tech Republic–they would link me to trusted external websites that I could also use as a source of information such as ZDNet.

(5) What is your product and why?

My product is that I have obtained experience in dealing with customers of this industry and knowledge that I did not have before even though I had felt that I was already familiar with this business.  Through my independent component one, I learned how to wire serial cables which I had early-on believed to be an easy process of just matching the cables to one another. However, I was surprised to find out that each of the devices that used serial cables needed to be wired differently.


Monday, May 6, 2013

Blog 23: 2014 Interview

1. Who did you interview and what house is he/she in?

Gabriela Murillo
West House

2. What idea(s) does she have for her senior project and why?

Business management, just interested.

3. What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentorship experience?

Close family member does something similar and will work with him.

4. What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-Hour presentations?

Something business related

5. Any questions relating to senior project I can help with?

-What is your topic? System analysis
-Does it really take up the entire year or just semester based? The entire year is spent on developing your topic

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Blog 21: Independent Component 2

Literal:

(a) I, Brent Kellohen, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Mentor: Robert Kellohen

(c) Reflected in mentorship log

(d) Completed mentorship hours, delivering labels, taking calls, etc.

Interpretive:

Each day I would come into the home office and assist with answering phone calls and performing basic office duties. Two of which are data entry into the computer system and the printing of labels through a Zebra Z4X model printer. Over my 30 hours of mentorship, I had to learn how to load and unload the supplies in the printer.  This may seem rather easy at first, especially with the very clean design, but there were problems that I would run into caused by simple mistakes on the way.  In my 30 hours I have printed over 2500 labels for various different clients.

Inside label printer, had to resupply this multiple times.

The second main aspect of my mentorship was the data entry. I would have to perform data entry for over 200 entries at a time. You can already imagine how time consuming this can be–having to change line item quantities and the weights of their shipments one by one every time.

Secondary server monitor... and tissue roll.

Server (monitor currently off)

A third aspect in my mentorship was maintaining the health of the server. In the second photo,  you can see the task manager of a windows computer running in the top right hand corner showing some amount of usage. It is part of my job to ensure that it is not overloaded so that it will continue to provide service to the customers that work with us.  The second part I maintain in the server is the FTP server. Also in the second photo, there is a two identical boxes that are used to manage the FTP server and to view who or what is logging into the system.  One of my jobs here was to maintain the FTP server status and ban any hackers that occasionally try to get into our system.

Label & Ribbons Supplies

Over the 30 hours I worked, this large pile of labels and ribbon had run dry, and I was required to drive to Los Angeles and refresh the supply.  Fortunately our supplier had extras on hand.

Workstation

The last photo here is a workstation that is used to manage label designs for our clients.  The system is actually hardly used because the clients we have do not usually demand for label format changes on a day to day basis; this explains why the desk appears to be so cluttered.

Applied:

The 30 hours worked supported my first answer and in some ways, my second.

My 30 hours worked applied to my first answer in the data entry section.  The data I entered directly correlated with the need for an EDI system.  I was able to get the amount of work done that would normally require two to three days time.

The way my 30 hours supported my second answer is through the printing process.  The Zebra printer system is compatible with mainly the Windows operating system, and for that reason most of the clients I deal with use Windows. Another way to print labels is with a laser printer, but this method is not commonly used here in our office.