Avatar

To create my avatar, I went to Doppelme.com.  It is a free and very easy site to use when creating your avatar.  You start with basically a blank slate for the avatar.  You get to choose male or female, your desired skin color and eye color.  This was amusing to use because I had the chance to test out the different skin tones with various eye colors, which obviously is not something I could do myself in reality.  

In the next screen, you have the options to change the expressions of your avatar, the hair style, eyewear, hats, tops, bottoms, and shoes.  There are basic options available for free users or guests.  Users who use or visit the site frequently and who have a login id are privileged to more options to add to their avatar.  However, for me, the free options did just fine.  

I enjoyed browsing through all the different clothes and hairstyles I could style my avatar with until I finally settled on one I liked.  This was a cool and different experience for me because it is the first time that I have created an avatar for me. Below is a picture of my avatar that I created using Doppelme.com

Presentation Project

Well I must admit that this presentation project was a lot harder than I imagined!  Putting together the information onto a few PowerPoint slides was not the difficult part because I have been making basic PowerPoint presentations since I was in middle school, but the hardest part was recording the audio and getting it to play when I would upload the file!

For my presentation, I decided to present a case study for Barclays, a global bank with its headquarters located in the United Kingdom.  One of my first slides tells a little bit more about the bank, but not a lot because the history and proceedings of the bank were not what my presentation was about; therefore, I kept that to one slide.  Barclays conducted a case study which focuses on discovering customer needs through market research.  I believe I followed a logical sequence in presenting the case study, because I followed closely to the case study itself.  As far as answering audience questions, I believe that I just met the minimum requirements, because honestly, I think that I knew the research well from the given information on the , but not well enough to go into depth when the case study described the quantitative and qualitative research.  If I knew more about which methods and examples of studies they utilized, I believe I would be better prepared to answer those questions.

I also think that I meet the minimum requirements in grabbing my audience’s attention in the first 30-60 seconds.  I used the same title as the case study, because I felt like that was a very accurate description of the study.  I was not sure how to make it more exciting, yet just as accurate.  However, I do believe that I was able to explain everything clearly by using the student markets example as found in the case study.

I also made sure to proofread my slides so that there were no visible typos or errors that could be found.  My slides were also kept free of clutter; they were simple and to the point with corresponding images.  I recorded the narration on the slides, so that way they would be embedded within the PowerPoint itself and the audio would be able to be heard by those viewing the video.

Finally, the biggest issue I had with the project was uploading it to a website!!  I tried several different websites to make the audio work and even bought “video credits” on one website so the audio would work but no luck!!  I did not try Camtasia or any other similar program because I was unable to download it, but finally my luck struck with www.PowerShow.com and the audio worked.  However, I did not that on one computer, it would not play for me, so I included a second link to my presentation which is uploaded on www.authorstream.net.  Enjoy!
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I wanted to update my blog because I realized that unfortunately PowerShow.com would not play my presentation after all.  It played once for me, but every time after that, it seems to never load... Therefore, to view my presentation, you should visit the link on authorstream.com.  It may just be my connection, but even with my slow connection, you can view my presentation on authorstream.com.

USE THIS URL TO VIEW MY PRESENTATION!
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/areesham-859291-presentation-final/

Here is the previous link to my presentation, in case this will work for you, and not the authorstream link:

http://www.powershow.com/view/2ac162-OTY0Z/Barclays_Case_Study__Discovering_Customer_Need_Through_Market_Research

Tutorial 2: Run your business with Excel!

For my second tutorial blog, I have decided to blog about the basic functions which can be found in Excel and how these simple functions can provide to be so useful to understanding a business’ operations.

To begin, Excel is an electronic spreadsheet program that allows users to organize data and be able to perform calculations by entering constants and variables into pre-defined formulas.

Excel comes with many different functions which are grouped into categories.  Examples are Financial, Date & Time, Logistical, Database, Text, Statistical, etc.

When it comes to crunching numbers in businesses, there are many simple, yet very effective, financial functions that are used to alleviate the strenuous task of organizing large amounts of data.

For example, let’s say that your boss gives you a large spreadsheet containing customer’s data, but in our example, we will be using a smaller one that I have produced to be able to understand the formulas better.  Every time a new customer was created, his or her contact information was added to the spreadsheet.  Your boss wants to know how many customers there currently are.  If the customers were designated by numbers (meaning if the relevant cells you wanted to count contained numbers), you would use the ‘COUNT’ function.  This function will simply count how many cells have relevant data in them.  If there is text in the selected cells, like in our example, you would simply use ‘COUNTA.’ This just indicates that our customers are recognized by names and not numbers. In our example, there are not many customers and you can count them manually to check the formula, but you can also use the formula for efficiency and convenience.

This tells us that there are currently six customers.

Now if by mistake you were to use the COUNT formula for cells containing textual information, you would get an answer of zero because there is no numerical data in the cells.  Be sure to note in the formula bar that we have used the COUNT function for the same range of cells rather than using COUNTA.

To find the sum of all the visits combined, you would use the SUM function under the Visits column.  The SUM formula is very easy to manipulate for any cells you would like to sum up the numbers contained in them.  You would type in ‘=SUM(cell range)’.  Just select the desired cell range you would like to add up.

The formula shows us that there were a total of 51 visits made by all of the customers. If you wanted to find the average number of visits that were made to the store by each customer, you would insert the same selected range of data, this time into the average formula.

We can see that an average of 8.5 visits was made to the store. With a larger selection of data, the average may not come out as such a pretty number as the one we have in our example.  There is an option where you can select to increase or decrease decimals by using the two buttons found at the top of the Home ribbon, in the Number options. 

To go just a bit further on this, what if your boss wanted to start a new program giving customers who come in often a special discount but he wanted that to be constrained to only certain customers who come x amounts of times in a month.  To find the maximum number of visits of visits, you can use the MAX formula.

=MAX(selected range)

If you wanted to find out what the least number of visits a customer made, you would alternatively use the MIN formula.

=MIN(selected range)

To conclude, this is just a basic tutorial on how one can use Excel to start managing their business.  The formulas are very easy to manipulate and provide powerful information that helps managers understand more about their business.  There also are hundreds of more ways Excel can be used to help run a business, but in order to keep my tutorial blog, well, a blog and not a manual, that will all have to be excluded from this.  I hope that I have shown you at least some basic functions that will help you get started on managing your business.

Excel Project

Well I just completed the Excel project and I must say that it did not take me that long at all.  Much of the credit goes to the first computer class I took here, Problem Solving Using Computers, CGS2531.  I guess I never really realized how much I learned in that class, especially how quickly the formulas came back to me as soon as I entered the = button.  I enjoyed working on this project because trying to understand customer statistics is very important not just to a business but also to new research studies.  Organizing the raw data together and formatting it even just a little into a more comprehensive view enhances the value the data provides immensely.  It gives the researcher, or anyone utilizing the data, a better understanding of the results.  When I added the two new columns of what the target heart rate should be and the column with what the highest target of the subject was, it made comparing the two results easier to view.  Rather than going row by row through each subject, the new additional columns simplified searching through the data.  The formulas used in the columns were made in just a few seconds and in turn would save the manager a lot of time than if they were to try and find each subject’s comparison heart rate one by one.  I also want to note that I absolutely love the autofill feature!  Just by double-clicking on the bottom right corner of the cell, the one formula I entered in the first cell was automatically copied to the remaining 499 cells!

The formulas also are such an important tool to Excel users because they do all the work for you! It’s exciting to know when you are entering a formula of all the hard work and calculations it saves you were you to do everything by hand.  The PivotTable is one tool that I have never used before and I was a little confused at first on how to choose my data to review.  However, I soon realized that it also is very easy to use. With just a few clicks, you quickly understand that with four criteria boxes, the format of clicking and dragging a field to one of the boxes could not get any simpler.  Anyone using Excel, from an IT guy to an average person who gets on the computer to pass time is able to understand how to use a PivotTable to organize select data.  It also helps remove all the detailed data without losing it and just providing the user with the requested organized results in such a simple format. A picture of my PivotTable is below:

Excel is such a powerful and useful tool for everybody.  It helps organize vast amounts of data so simply but so effectively; it saves time, money, and provides the user an understanding of what the current situation is whether it is financially, or for research, like our example of the fitness center. Excel can be used for personal or business use.  In either situation, it does not fail the user; it only enhances the data for the user.  I must say that while doing this project, I was able to polish up my Excel skills that I previously learned and I was happy to know that I did not forget how to use Excel because I really value it as such a helpful and important tool for everybody regardless of who you are.