BUS171: Individual Assignment 10

From Marta Dalton's presentation, I learned the basics of digital marketing. There is business to consumer marketing, but also business-to-business marketing. Business to consumer marketing is more complex than business-to-business marketing. When marketing to a consumer, the company must segment and understand the different demographics of a wide variety of people. In business-to-business marketing, the company must segment based on the characteristics of the business, which is much more narrow and focused. I think the presentation was very informational and it refined my understanding of what I learned in a previous marketing course I took last year.

I could not make Karl Herleman's presentation at MSA, but I did learn that MSA operates as a business-to-business organization. MSA uses information systems to aid business in decision-making in order for their businesses to be successful. Having a business like MSA is beneficial because those at MSA can enhance wide variety industries with their creation of new information systems or some that already exist. 

From Ginger Polozoff's presentation, I learned that project management can be used for personal and business operations. The project's objective and outcome has to be clear, measurable, verifiable, and traceable. When the project is complete, there must be a deliverable such as a website, recording, manual, and more! Project management requires a great deal of planning. The plan must be executed by producing deliverables as stated above, managing the different roles each person has in the project, and providing qualitative feedback. I liked the presentation because it was very interactive; she included jokes, quizzes, pictures, and a worksheet to follow along with the information on the slides. 

Information Systems and Operations has pushed me to exercise my skills in Microsoft Excel, learn the how to work Microsoft Access, and was exposed to different programs that could be used to manipulate and graph data such as Tableau. I am interested in learning how to code. I feel that learning how to code will make me more marketable to potential employers. I plan to work on my Excel and Access skills at my work-study (Career Development Office). I use Excel on a daily basis, and some functions that I have learned in class has helped me become more efficient with my projects. When I took the pre-course survey, I put ones on a lot of the topics listed; ones meaning no knowledge of. The post-course survey I took after the course ended did not include any ones, which means that I have basic knowledge of all topics and concepts presented in the course. 

BUS171: Individual Assignment 9

The most important things that I learned was how to created a code for the "IF" function and creating a Pivot Table and Pivot Chart. The "IF" function can be very useful when an organization needs classify combined pieces of data. The Pivot Table and Pivot Chart was helpful to know because it can graphically represent data represented in the Excel tables. The tables can do all the calculations of the data by a click of a button.

By looking at the data from Tableau, I learned the three primary activities in the business intelligence process. The first step is to acquire data, but the data we used was an Excel file of NFL Offensive Player Stats from 1999-2013 provided by Tableau. The second step is to analyze the data. We analyzed the data by using different Excel functions, the "IF" function was one of the many we completed. The final step is to publish results. For this assignment, we published our results by inputting the data into a Pivot Chart and Pivot Table.

An advanced Excel skill that we did not use in this assignment was "HLookup". HLookup is similar to VLookup, but the difference is that "VLookup" finds data placed vertically, while HLookup finds data placed horizontally. A user can lookup data in a specific column and duplicate it somewhere else in the Excel table. The example on Atomic Learning showed a case where a student's test score, homework, and project score needed to be copied onto another chart. Teachers can use this function to pull up a student's score on assignments if the student's parent called and wanted to know what their grades were in the class.

Map

BUS171: Individual Assignment 8

In this assignment, I organized an excel table with data on brand recognition of pittsburgh breweries. After organizing the data, I found the aggregate data for each persons rate on brand relevancy, familiarity, and regard of each brewery. I saved the excel file and uploaded it to Tableau Public. Tableau allowed me to see the data graphically and show the individual and aggregate data as a story.

The graph can be seen here: Brand Equity Data

BUS171: Individual Assignment 7

The basic principles of digital data collection through Google Analytics are data collection, processing, configuration, and reporting. These basic principles of Google Analytics aid business to make decisions about managing their social media accounts or how to market to customers through websites or applications. An organization such as Flowerama could use Google Analytics to better market to their customers. For example, many customers visit the page of an item (flowerpot) on Flowerama website. When the user views the page, Google Analytics will collect that data and store it using JavaScript coding language. After that data is collected, the JavaScript code is translated so that it can be used for decision-making. Flowerama would have the ability to configure the data they acquired from the users. They can look at the types of flowerpots customers viewed the most and compare it to all flowerpots sold. There are many ways Flowerama can configure the data. The final piece of Google Analytics is reporting, which is simply Google Analytics presenting the findings of the data the organization configured. Flowerama can view the report and began to make marketing decisions about flowerpots, such as putting the most viewed flowerpots on their homepage to make buying the flowerpots more convenient for customers.

According to Professor Dan Jurafsky & Chris Manning from Stanford University, sentiment analysis is the “detection of attitudes”. When evaluating sales, organizations can collect feedback from customers and make marketing or social media decisions based on customer responses to already purchased products. For example, customers can rate and comment their flowerpot purchase. Flowerama needs to know if their customers are satisfied with their purchases and why, but also if they are not satisfied and why. Customers that have purchased the metal flowerpot can rate or post a review on that specific flowerpot page for potential buyers and Flowerama to see. Customers can talk about their overall experience with purchasing the metal flowerpot, which ranges from the quality of the flowerpot or how fast they received their flowerpot in the mail. The sales and customer service department of Flowerama can use this information to make a decision on whether they should purchase more or less of those specific flowerpots. 

Social network analysis is the "the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers, URLs, and other connected information/knowledge entities" (OrgNet). A network is composed of nodes and links. The nodes are people and the links represent the relationship between those people. Flowerama's marketing department can use data from social network analysis to determine what segment of the market to advertise to and how. For example, Flowerama can do a network analysis by visiting local gardener blogs and make a decision to contact the most popular gardener who blogs because the blogger (NODE) who would have many links to other bloggers/viewers. Flowerama could send their products to the popular gardener and ask them to test out their flowerpots and review it. That is a strategic way Flowerama could use the data from network analysis to market their products better. 

In the process of completing this assignment, I learned that digital marketing and social media data could be used to make important decisions within the business functions of an organization. As a professional, I can learn how the target audience will and will not respond to the marketing and social media efforts of the organization.

References

Lee, D. (2013, March 7). Lecture 1.1- 1A Why Social Network Analysis (1354). Retrieved March 16, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjOVhWfh6iI

"Social Network Analysis: An Introduction." By Orgnet,LLC. Valdis Krebs. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.

Jurafsky, D., & Manning, C. (2012, April 4). 7 - 1 - What is Sentiment Analysis- Stanford NLP - Professor Dan Jurafsky & Chris Manning. Retrieved March 16, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxPBv4Skj98

BUS171: Individual Assignment 6

A relational database (Access) and spreadsheet (Excel) differs in the way that information can be connected to one another. I believe that Access is an easier way to manage order information compared to Excel.

 In Access, "keys" are like the titles/headings of the various data. "Queries" are similar macros in that you can ask the database for a particular piece of data. "Database Relationships" connects information between tables that include a the same label. Forms can be created so that an order can be entered in a more efficient way.

We use queries and forms in Access to make data entry efficient and hopefully effective.

A relational database could be useful for my work in the Career Development Office because there are many students who make multiple times a year for different reasons. To keep track of all of the traffic and student information, a relational database would aid in the input of all of the student's information. Currently, their information is entered into Excel which can be very tedious. Using Access would help tremendously.

BUS171: Individual Assignment 4

Excel Macros are codes that are created to easily perform a task in Excel. Programming language such as "Dim" "NameField" and "InputBox" are used to create a set of prompts for the macro. Businesses and non-profit organizations need macros because it makes them more efficient. When data must be updated, using a macro will reduce tedious and time consuming work. Excel macros is an example of computer software because it is intangible software. When creating a macro, the developer must use coding/programming language to successfully create a macro.

In IA4, I learned how to create a macro and the appropriate coding language necessary to complete a macro. Macros are like interactive shortcuts that I used to update information in the data sheets. When writing out the code for the macro, I learned the terms and syntax rules to ensure the macro will work. I then recorded the macro to replace the name of the employee by doing "Command F, searching the "NameField", then click Replace All, then entering the "NewName Field" so that the original name is replaced with a new name.

BUS171: Individual Assignment 3

Dear Grandma,

A central processing unit or CPU is the part of the computer that will select instructions, process them, and stores the results in the RAM. The CPU is the brain of the computer. (In One Lesson, 2013) There are different types of CPU which are made from different companies. Computers can have dual-processors or quad-processors. A dual-processor contains 2 CPUs, while a quad-processor contains 4 CPUs. A central processing unit can vary in the way that it computes and the rate at which it can compute.

RAM is the acronym for Random Access Memory. The RAM of a computer is attached to the motherboard, which is the place where all cords attach. Having a larger amount of RAM in a computer will help the computer to run faster or speed the processing time. (Fowler, 2014) The RAM stores data and instructions that the central processing unit will read. Also, a computer's RAM will store the data received after the central processing unit has completed a task.

I would like to have my own non-profit organization. In this case, I would need to have a computer that has a quad-processor because the small volume of employees would be using computers for a wide variety of tasks. 


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