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Information Technology: How can an IT department best meet the demands of a real estate company?

Blog 22: Senior Project Reflection

Thursday, May 22, 2014

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Block Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?
  • I am most proud of completing my presentation and of the powerpoint presentation as I felt it was effective at being a visual for the information being taught.
(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)?
  • P
b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?
  •  P
(3) What worked for you in your senior project?
  • What worked for me was my Independent components, my mentorship hours and my presentation.
(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?
  • I would have included more information into my presentation in order to have gone past the time requirement.
(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.
  • Senior Project has been helpful in showing me what it's like to put almost a year full worth of effort, from mentorship and research, into a project and to be able to present that to an entire class in a final presentation.

Blog 21: Mentorship

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Literal
Log of specific hours with a total and a description of your duties
Contact Name and Mentorship Place
  • Maria Tarozzi, Jeved Management
Interpretive
What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
  • I would have to say the most important thing I've gained from my mentorship experience is the work experience that it has given me. It's something that could be included on my resume and it has given me a sample of what this particular line of work would be like. There is also the possibility that my part time job will become a larger part of my life as an independent contractor for IT as my mentor Maria has resigned from Jeved Management for personal reasons.
Applied
How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.
  • Mentorship has helped me to answer my EQ through the work I've done with CRMs at Jeved. It allowed me to actually try to see if my answer 1 had an impact in a real life business and it did. It also showed that the research I had done contributed to actually helping a business become more successful.

Blog 20: Exit Interview

Monday, April 28, 2014

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

  • EQ: How can an IT department best meet the demands of a real estate company?
  • Answer 1: An IT department can best meet the demands of a real estate company by improving customer relations with social CRMs.
  • Answer 2: An IT department can best meet the demands of a real estate company by creating a website tailored to the company's needs.
  • Answer 3: An IT department can best meet the demands of a real estate company by ensuring a robust and efficient infrastructure.
  • Best Answer: An IT department can best meet the demands of a real estate company by improving customer relations with social CRMs.

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

  • Research into how a Real Estate company can be more successful led me to the conclusion that gaining a larger client-base is one of the best ways to do so. It then came down to finding ways that IT can help with this leading to my answer 1.

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

  • Some problems I faced included finding research for my third answer, and one way I resolved it was through the use of the Cal Poly Pomona databases for more research. Another problem I faced was my mentor having to leave to San Francisco due to a family emergency, in order to deal with this I made sure that my 3rd answer and 2nd independent component wouldn't really require her presence for any assistance.

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

  • Taylor, Anne. CRM FOR REAL ESTATE PART 1: WHY CRM? Jersey City: HIPERCEPT, 2012. Web.
    • This article helped explain major standpoints as to why having a good CRM in Real Estate is important, along with some of the social aspects that the CRM should make use of or have.
  • Weir, Tracy. "In Real Estate, It’s About the Relationships." Web log post. Nimble. Nimble, 29 July 2013. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.
    • This post was on a blog run by a CRM company & employees, it went over how a company should work with clients and how their CRM and the use of Social CRMs improves the "relationship" aspect to doing business in Real Estate.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Literal
  1. I, Carlos Cerrillos, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents more than 30 hours of work, currently 35.5 hours, which is still rising.
  2. The articles I felt best helped with this independent component were:
    1. Price, Seth. "How to Build a Better Real Estate Website." Web log post. Inman News. N.p., 13 June 2013. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
    2. Yank, Kevin. "Build Your Own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL, Part 1: Installation." Web log post. Site Point. Site Point, 2 July 2009. Web.
  3. Look to the right for the log of hours. or click here
  4. Through my research and work at my mentorship, I've been toying with the idea that a proper website can really help a company grow. Unfortunately my mentorship was not in any current need of a website, so I went to where there was a demand for a website, and that was iPoly High School. I decided on this independent component so I could experience what it is like to lead a team to create a final product, a website, and to also take part in the creation of it as well. To be concise, I've spent time researching different ideas of what things are important to have on a website, and how to actually go about doing that. I then went from researching this, to actually creating a site which is currently being hosted at http://ipolyhs.org/
Interpretive
An important part of actually achieving success in the component, creating the website, was the research that went into how to go about creating a website, making sure that every aspect is planned out and prepared for. After that was an approximate three hours of work that went into establishing the expectations of what the site would have, along with preparing content to be put on the site. A majority of the rest of the thirty hours was spent actually programming the framework for the site, designing and changing layouts, and filling the site with content and formatting it properly. This all showed an example of what it'd be like creating a site for Real Estate, except it lacks some functionality that a Real Estate site would have, such as an IDX search & real estate. However other features that work well on Real Estate websites to draw in clients would also work well for a school website when trying to improve their admissions and outreach, such as a school blog that gives insight into the student life at the school, and as with a real estate blog, it is important for it to be updated and maintained.
Thanks to the wonders of technology, there are three places where evidence of 30 hours of work can be seen, the first is simply the site, as it is for the most part the final product of this component. The second and third are logs of work that have been kept throughout the development of the site. One of the logs is the history of GitHub commits, which can be interpreted as "checkpoints" through out the development of the framework/design of the site where features were completed. The third log is the logging part of the framework of the website that logs changes to content that I had created to give the site the functionality to undo changes made to content, and who made those changes. The reason I am adding links two logs that provide evidence is because once major parts of the framework were completed, little in the actual code was change, and the changes and updates that occurred after that were done on the site, as each page is generated from information stored in a database, no page is hard coded into its own file, making the site very flexible when it comes to adding/changing/removing content.
The above screenshot is a graphic that I find very interesting that summarizes contributions to the site (can be seen on GitHub), the reason I find it interesting is because it gives you an idea of when I was most productive with this project and what time throughout the day I spent working on it. This is not a summary of one week, but of every single commit from the beginning aggregated into a summary view.


Applied
I felt that this component helped me answer my EQ by helping support my answer 2 and all the work that goes into actually creating a site. A specific example would have to be when I had meetings with the administration to discuss their expectations and requirements for the site, which must be done when creating a site for Real Estate, along with the creation of layout that attempts to be intuitive. Many pieces of research stated that it is very important for a site's design not be overly complicated and to make sure that the site is intuitive. Along with the work that's going into creating a blog built into the site that can be used to promote the school and bring in more students, just as a Real Estate website should, showing that they will get a great experience working with the company.

Blog 18: Third Answer

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

  • How can an IT department best meet the demands of a real estate company?
  • Answer 3: An IT department can best meet the demands of a real estate company by ensuring a robust and efficient infrastructure.
    • Daily operation workflows that use services that have more integration options lead to less compatibility issues. (Box has integration options for 50+ services)
    • Reliable computers & networks have more uptime. (Using computers with i7's & gigabit switches)
    • Using a highly rated ISP & top-notch computers leads to less problems. (Fios & Dell/HP workstations)
  • Research
    • Independent Component 1
    • Mentorship
    • Research 10
IT has the potential to help a company increase productivity around the office but one of the best places it can help with workflows in the workplace.

Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

Thursday, February 27, 2014

EQ:
  • How can an IT department best meet the demands of a real estate company?
Answer #2:
  • An IT department can best meet the demands of a real estate company by creating a website tailored to the company's needs.
Support:
  • Creating a personal website about you as an agent/company can help give clients an insight into what kind of agent/company you are and an idea of how you treat business. Using a personalized domain can help as well, giving you a more professional look to your website. (RID 29 RC 11)
  • There is a difference between a real estate website, & a company website. You don't want to have a long tedious domain name, keep it short & simple. I then comes down choosing a custom or personalized template. Another option is to have a web designer customize a template. (RID 31 RC 12)
  • Websites that have a blogging aspect to them tend to generate more traffic, and it is very important to get more traffic as it increases the amount of potential clients that you can work with. The major focus of WordPress content and it is content that makes the difference on a real estate website. (RID 33 RC 12)
Research:
  • Clark, Sabrina. "Personal Branding for New Real Estate Agents." Web log post. Personal Branding Blog. Personal Branding Blog, 20 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.
  • Price, Seth. "How to Build a Better Real Estate Website." Web log post. Inman News. N.p., 13 June 2013. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
  • Price, Seth. "11 Reasons to Choose WordPress to Build Your Real Estate Marketing Website." Web log post. Placester. Placester, Inc, n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
Concluding Sentence:
  • There are many factors that can lead to a successful real estate company, but as with many companies today, success, requires a website.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

  • A major part of what my mentor does is management of projects in IT. It is important for a project to be managed properly and for all steps taken to be documented clearly. I feel that I should take on a technical project to manage such as the creation of iPoly's new website to try to plan and manage the daunting project.
2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

  • A final product, the school website.
  • Meeting logs
  • GitHub Logs (GitHub allows a user to keep track of changes in code)
  • Documentation of the framework of the website so future iPoly students can make changes.
3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

  • Every project in IT must be handled in a professional way, and it is important that the school's website is taken on as a serious project as it will need to survive for many years. IT in real estate can help a company by creating a website and that can either be done from a template, a blog, or from scratch, like in this case.
4.  Post a log on the right hand side of your blog near your other logs and call it the independent component 2 log.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

Thursday, February 6, 2014


  • Literal
    • I, Carlos Cerrillos affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 32.5 hours of work.
    • My main source of information regarding company needs for computer requirements was my mentor Maria, I worked with her to plan how we would go about replacing everyone's computers. The article "The Nuts and Bolts of Making BYOD Work." by Brent Gatewood was helpful due to the laptops-as-desktops scenario being similar to a BYOD infrastructure.
    • Independent Component 1 Log
  • Interpretive
    • The work I did was essential to my senior project as an important part of IT deals with setting up new technologies, making sure that they work & that the employees have the knowledge to use them, which applied to my earlier EQ.
     The only new desktop we purchased as the employee doesn't need to work on the go.
     A picture I took of the office printer's model number so I could find the drivers online.
     Optimizing settings for the printer & creating presents for Color/BW/Double-sided.
     Installing those necessary programs.
     A little Gandalf reference while I was waiting for loading bars >_>
     A shot of the HP laptops we chose.
     Working on two computers at once, the other laptop is connected to the monitor in the background and can be seen on the left.
     Another computer.
     Yay! The 2TB WD drives arrived!!
     Fitting two of the hard drives at the bottom of the server case.
     A shot of one of the WD hard drives.
     Two more of the 5 hard drives at the top& the arrow points to the CD drive that I had to remove.
     Wiring up the power for drives.
     Enabling the drives in the server's BIOS.
     Checking in the operating system to see if all the drives are being properly detected.
     Stickers that come with the drives.
     My hands would have been dirtier if the server hadn't been cleaned a few months back.
    Semi unrelated, but while I was at the Jeved office I noticed that Ale had put up the flyers I had made for AgaveGirls (a part of Jeved) over the last year. If you look closely you can see the reflection of my Tardis slippers, it was Sunday, and I wanted to go to mentorship in comfort x]. I felt proud of my work being displayed :]

  • Applied
    • This component help me understand the foundation of my topic by working on the back bone of IT which is the actual hardware, and learning what it takes to set it all up. Along with teaching the employees how to make the most of their technologies.

Blog 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

Thursday, January 30, 2014


1) What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
  • I felt most proud of my PowerPoint as I believe that it was able to deliver the content I was trying to teach in an efficient way in case the class was not paying attention to what I was saying. I also believe that it was a great PowerPoint as it followed the 1/3 rule and wasn't too text heavy.
2A) What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation?
  • I would give myself a P on this presentation.
2B) Explain Why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
  • I feel I deserve a P because I met all the P considerations along with no concerns with any professionalism, organization/creativity, answer justification or audience involvement.
3) What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
  • I met the time requirements and was able to deliver my content effectively.
4) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
  • I would probably try to get more iPads or use the computer lab and allow students more time to research CRMs in the activity, or create set of hand outs that contained consolidated information. I also would like to include parts of an infographic in my next presentation.
5) What do you think your answer 2 is going to be?
  • Something along the lines of making services in house or making sure that any work can be done on the go if needed.
 

Mentorship

Topic: Information Technology

Mentor
Maria Tarozzi (626) 260-107(four)