Inflation Lab

Sales Chart

Sales Database

Databases In Hotels

As we have learned a database is "a collection of information organized to provide efficient retrieval". This can obviously be applied to many businesses in any field. A bank must keep a database of money in accounts and a store maintains a database of all the items it has in stock. Databases can be more though. Google keeps a database of images and Netflix has it's database of videos. [1] One database system that interests me is how a hotel can keep track of all of the rooms it has available and keeping track of various prices of different rooms. Through some research, Microsoft Access, a popular database program, seems to have all the tools a manager would need to fully operate a small or large scale hotel. [2] With the help of this powerful program a user could keep track of all the rooms in the building and their status, number of beds, and pricing along with other information like employees and their pay roll. [3] This all inclusive software can also be used to create reports to give to marketing teams to try to increase sales and profitability. There are even full time jobs for maintaining databases. Here is one i found online that lists responsibilities like: Supporting and monitoring the Hotel Partner Hotline 800 number and addresses hotelier concerns. Coaching and educating hotels on operational policies and procedures. Ensuring that each new hotel is functioning properly and has a comprehensive understanding of the Priceline program prior to activation by test booking all new hotels. Databases are really a massive field that one could study and take a full time job in. [4] 1. What specific challenges does your database system implementation have? One problem I could see is the issue of connecting several hotels together as we see in chains like Hilton or Marriott. Single hotels could manage their own data but if company executives wanted to have access to all the data from all the hotels, there could be a problem. A solution would be to implement cloud computing and linking all of the data together or storing it in a central data center for the company. 2. In what ways does it provide competitive advantage for the organization using it? A computerized database grants a huge advantage in speed vs a company keeping track of rooms manually. Also, computers can implement tactics like data mining to find trends in the staying habits of customers to try and make them book more frequently. 3. What improvements would you suggest? One interesting improvement could be giving customers access online to some parts of the database to make reservations. This could eliminate the need to store the availability of rooms twice, once in the database and once online. If this is done, hotels could probably save money on storage or use the same storage to store some other sort of data. [1] http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit04/primer04_01.phtml [2] http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/access-2010-database-software-features-and-benefits-HA101809011.aspx [3] http://www.functionx.com/access/applications/ceilinn.htm [4] http://www.fairfieldcountyjobs.com/job/13920871/hotel-database-analyst/

Blog List

To make my Blog List i went to the layout of my blog and then clicked add widget from the side bar where I wanted to place it. I then took all the blog URLs from the moodle forum and added them to the list. I sorted by most recently updated. Adding all the widgets seems very natural and user friendly.

Database Lab

Mobile Hardware and Software

With people becoming more and more connected to technology it is becoming necessary that people are constantly in touch with their data. Mobile solutions to business problems are being cheaper and are now seen everywhere. The first solution I would bring to my company is the implementation of netbooks. These are a toned down version or laptop or notebook computers. They are both smaller and cheaper. They also sacrifice some computing power, but the main purpose of these machines are not to do any heavy computing. They are a great solution to let employees take their work with them home and increase productivity. An even cheaper and more portable way to let employees work at home is using flash drives. This will let workers transport documents they are working on between home and work in a simple and effective fashion. Next, I would provide employees with company smart phones like the Apple iPhone. With these, I would always be able to reach my employees. Also, they would be able to answer urgent emails and take care of other business tasks on the go. This would be used in conjunction with Personal Information Managers or PIMs to keep track of important employee and client information. This information would then be synced with the main computer system of the company to allow employees with sufficient access levels to get hold of this information to allow higher ups the chance to also get in touch with clients and any employee they need to talk to. Finally, I would encourage the use of cloud computing especially when using word processors or spreadsheets. This would make sure that all data is backed up to "the cloud" and in case of computer failure, the data would not be lost. Also, the use of the cloud like with Google Docs allows other people to access and collaborate with you on your work from any computer or mobile device. With all of these devices, a company can become highly mobile and can work from anywhere.

Blog Gadget

The gadget that I decided to add is the Google Adsense widget. To add this widget I went to the layout page of my blog and then clicked add gadget where I wanted to place it. From the list I searched for the adsense widget. This gadget is linked to my Adsense account where I earn money for page views on the sites I own. This adds value because it gives bloggers a way to make money. Obviously, the more popular a blog is the more money you will earn. On this blog it is not a big money maker because no one is really searching for our blogs specifically but on blogs on bigger topics, authors have a chance to make big money. In short, it adds value by adding another income to a company on individual.

Monitoring Social Networks

With the recent boom in Social Media it is imperative for businesses to take part in the expanding technology to keep their competitive advantage. It is hard to find a company nowadays that doesn't participate in several different forms of social media and to be honest they have every reason to be. For some, it can be annoying to see companies on their Twitter timelines or Facebook news feeds but subliminally companies are getting their name out there. It is a strategy that I take part it with my online T shirt business. We use Facebook advertising to focus on certain demographics that are prone to buy t shirts that we sell. With the social network monitoring from the companies mentioned in the text, we would be able to see if our advertising is effective. Also, we would be able to monitor the quality of our product and the perception that the public has on the shirts we sell. This is definitely an interesting idea for a company, but I believe that with enough time and computer knowledge a person could do this on their own. That is why having one person in your company to focus on social media like Comcast does is not a bad idea. Another effective tool that I use to increase sales is Google Trends. On the site, you can type in keywords, for example "shirts" and see what people are searching in relation to that word. So shirts comes up with funny so I know that at that particular time people are searching online for funny shirts. With this in mind I can aim to make more comedic shirts instead of anything in an attempt to capture the market. Google is quickly becoming a hub of social media and information surrounding it.

A Value Chain

Buying and selling used products to make profit is not a new idea. It has been going on for years with all sorts of products. One example is the company Gazelle which buys people old electronic devices, like cell phones, and then re sells them for a profit. Here we are extending the idea to used CDs. This is going to be done through a website available to students. The first step of the value chain is the raw materials. Here we are not producing the items, simply buying and selling existing items, so this step does not really apply. Next is the inbound logistics which in our case will be receiving the CDs from the customers. We can let the clients track their outgoing shipments if we are able to strike a deal with one of the many shipping companies today. For example, UPS offers tracking off all of its packages. The next step is the warehouse. This can be done either in a filing cabinet if we are talking small scale or can expand up to a full size storage facility depending on the quantity of CDs we are going to be trading. All of the CDs can be databased or we can you an inventory control system. These three steps complete the upstream management. Next there is production which we can again skip since we are not producing anything. The next step is then finished product storage, which should be covered in the warehouse step and our inventory control system. Although it doesn't say it on the chain we will need some way for students to browse the selection of CDs we have and order them, so one options is to give everyone access to our database so they could pick a CD. Now the outbound logistics comes into play. Again we could use UPS or another carriers existing IS for the benefit of our customers. As a customer I would definitely want to know when my CD is going to be arriving. Next is the marketing and sales of our product. We could use traditional advertising in a campus newspaper or on Facebook while also implementing a promotion planning system that could help us target customers more directly. The final step in the value chain is the customer service. We have to insure that the clients are happy with our product and service to keep them coming back. We could use a customer service tracking system to keep track of reviews from various sources and use that feedback to better the company. These last four points are the downstream management phase of the chain. With the use of many different systems, we can build a strong and profitable company.

Systems

Systems are a broad and somewhat elusive topic. A system is defined as a set of interacting components to form a whole. They have characteristics like structure (the components), behavior (process from input to output), and interconnectivity (relationship between structure and behavior). [1] As you can tell this can be applied to many different fields. In fact, the General System Theory or GST states that system thinking can literally be applied to anything in our every day lives. With this being said we use system thinking everyday to make decisions. One basic example of a system is an ecosystem. An ecosystem is a "biological community that occurs in some locale, and the physical and chemical factors that make up its non-living or abiotic environment". [2] In an ecosystem things like the plants and animals living there along with the lay of the land and the transfer of energy are studied. This is considered a system because it is clear the all of these individual things are interacting to create something bigger. These eco systems are not limited in size and the world as a whole can be considered one massive eco system. An interesting application of input and output is applied to a specific system with the measure of mass. Scientists who study ecosystems calculate how fast the system is changing by finding the difference between input less the output and then adding internal change. This can also be applied to energy because energy in a system can not be created not destroyed. An elementary example of a system is our solar system. This includes our Sun and everything in orbit around it, like the planets and their moons. The objects in orbit is the structure of the system while gravity and other forces define the behavior. These two combined form the interconnectivity. Energy is the input and output here as well as mass. If you can wrap your head around it, is it interesting to apply this type of thinking to not so obvious things. A final and very small example of a system is the Microsoft program Excel. Excel is a spreadsheet application that lets its users easily manipulated data in a grid of cells. Each cell can hold letters, words, or number according to whatever the user inputs. This data can then be processed in many different ways using hundreds of different complex formulas or using simple operations. [3] The data which can now be considered important information can now be stored for later use or further manipulated or analyzed. The output is valuable information to an individual or company that can be used for improvement. As you can see, everything can be a system if you look at it the right way. With the application of GST and knowledge from our textbook, we should all now have a good understanding of how to do so. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System [2] http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/kling/ecosystem/ecosystem.html [3] http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/

Student Info

Hi Everyone, My name is Alex Rowlett and I am a Information Technology Management major with a minor in computer science. I have a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.8 and it can also dual boot to Windows 7 and Windows 8. It is my personal computer so I should have no problems updating software. I have taken a lot of the Computer Science courses since I began as a CS major like Comp Sci 1&2, Data Structures, Artificial Intelligence, Assembly Language Programing etc. Normally I use my computer to interact with friends on facebook and twitter and use email to keep in touch and what not. I have taken 2 online classes before; one in high school (AP Computer Science) and one earlier this summer (Business Law I). I have Office 2010 for both mac and windows on my computer. I currently work at a summer camp as a counselor and run a small online t shirt company with my roommate at school. I really enjoy working with computers and technology so I think I will really enjoy the class. I also am a big New York sports fan and my favorite sport is soccer. I enjoy playing sports with my friends in my free time and also like online gaming. I am planning on graduating in two years in the Spring of 2015. Looking forward to working with all of you! Alex Rowlett

Flash Drive Comparisons

The BarVision Information System

     As I was reading over the assignment to write about a specific information system, I had the TV on in the back ground to a show called Bar Rescue where they try to save failing bars. A problem they over have is bartenders over pouring liquor which ends up cutting profits. The system that they implement is the BarVision platform ( http://www.barvision.com/index.html ). This seems to be a great example of an information system. The input of the raw data comes from the bottles of liquor. A special pouring lid is attached to each bottle an owner wants to monitor and that top will wirelessly transmit data instantly about every pour that is made from the bottle. All of this data is then captured by a computer somewhere on site where the data is ran through the BarVision software. That is the processing step of the system. After, reports are generated that gives the operation full reports on how accurate the pours were and if a bar tender is over pouring or under pouring and how frequently they make these mistakes.  Finally, this information will be passed on to the workers and they can change their practices to maximize profits. This system adds value in several clear ways. First of all when a bartender more accurately pours alcohol it not only makes the product better, but it also insures that the bartender is not throwing away money. When a customer enjoys a drink, it is more likely that they will return to the establishment and the accurate pours should let the owners better keep track of inventory and track trends in customers. In short, this system adds value by increasing profits margins, while keeping customers happy. This is a good idea for any bar considering they have options available starting at around $2000.