ASSIGNMENT : Explain how the needs of the organization you chose differ from theirs and why.

*** My organization I’ve chosen is a “Contracted Technology Consultant at an Engineering Organization”. The organization I’ve chosen is attached to this post so you can compare it to both of the posts below. I’ve bolden the organization names my peers decided to write about in both of the posts below. ***

POST # 1

To keep with the themes of the Milestone assignment, I will be basing this off the Publishing Business. As companies of this nature tend to manage the client’s ads and media. They would require some sort of media management tool. As well as requiring traditional word and document processing and graphic design and media development suites of some type. I would start from here: I would assume the customer would prefer Microsoft Office Suite for document and word processing as it offers a number of different applications and tends to be the one most people are familiar with. Thankfully this is an easy one to find system requirements for as they are easily obtained on Microsoft and vendor websites. Microsoft also offers a web client feature as well that most browsers are capable of using. This can also be expanded to include other features such as SharePoint and OneDrive, which are cloud storage and file sharing solutions that can either be hosted locally or through Microsoft. SharePoint does however require a bit of training to manage effectively. Next I would look into graphic design and media tools. Again, I know in my experiences Adobe suite of applications tends to be the most widely utilized. These are simple to obtain systems, as they are readily available online both through Adobe and third party vendors. I also know that there are a lot of people that use these programs that prefer to use them on the MacOS. This is not a requirement but does add restriction on the hardware used in conjunction with MacOS, if that is what the client wishes. Also note that not every user may require access to these applications. The publisher is probably going to need some sort of media management tool. This is to aid in rolling out ad campaigns and manage social media resources. In my brief research into these tools the system requirements are not as readily available as the specialized software listed above. This may be due to these companies hosting the server for their clients or providing equipment as part of the packages. They may require training to support these types of software which would be crucial to a publisher. In this case, once the client has chosen a solution, you would then need to develop the system requirement with the application provider to ensure it is adequately supported. The important thing to remember here is not all users need access to everything. Again, the number of users and the level of support and access they need is going to be very important in this phase. As the system should be built to support the highest system requirement of the software being utilized by that user. The graphic designer that requires Adobe’s creative suite and Microsoft office system should look different than the editor that might only need Microsoft Office and Adobe reader to view documents. The Graphic designer may require a Mac or custom-built system, and the editor may be fine with an off the shelf machine. This is done to save the client money, especially on a small scale. When building custom systems, it is also important to remember the relationships between components. The processor, RAM and graphic card all work together to create and render images. If there is an imbalance somewhere in a system, this can cause a bottleneck in these processes. Everything will adjust to the speed of the slowest component. As far as security for a business of this type and size, I would stay away from any physical solutions as these would be rather robust and expensive for this footprint. But otherwise, there are numerous software firewall and anti-virus solutions to safeguard both employee and client data. Encrypting data as well as other financial and personal employee data might be a bit of overkill for this, but it is a practice. I would also look into a virtual private network solution especially when connecting to any off-site servers, databases, or when employees work off-site or from home.

POST # 2

I am choosing a financial institution for this discussion. I am hoping that I can choose a small accounting/tax prep business? I picture a small office of maybe 3 or 4 associates. I feel that the business would need obviously accounting/book keeping software and tax-prep software. I am not sure if the software would be one and the same or separate. There are various tax-prep programs out there; Turbo Tax and H&R Block come first to mind but I am not a tax pro. There are probably many choices. If the business will be handling commercial accounts, which it most likely will, then that is also a consideration for deciding on software. Since the information that will be taken in needs to be kept secure, virus protection software is important in conjunction with a strong firewall. I would use a windows operating system as most people are familiar with windows and there are lots of options. Also, I am picturing an office manager that has all admin permissions; this is the person that oversees and checks the other associates work. The other associates might have more limited administrative permissions. As far as hardware goes, from what I have read so far about memory; would SRAM be a better choice than DRAM? I am basing this on the speed and that it can be non-volatile; it retains data even with loss of power. I also was thinking that external hard drives to back up information would be a good idea. All associates need desktop computers and access to a printer. I feel the printer should be a laser, printer, copier and fax all in one and that the office can share the one printer. If any of the associates need to go off site for client needs, then a laptop or tablet is ideal for taking information out of the office. On a side note, I am kind of intimidated by this discussion. I am feeling unsure of my knowledge but am appreciative of any/all feedback…I will only learn more! Considering that there is only one other post, I am thinking a few of you are a bit unsure as well. It’s all a learning experience and honestly, you learn more from your mistakes than your triumphs.