My Information Technology business experiences became more apparent to me after hearing my class speak on their experiences. Not only does IT play a massive part in my business life, but my personal life as well with technologies such as the smartphone operating 24/7. IT directly facilitates every business activity throughout my company’s day.

I use IT, and IT most certainly uses me and my information for data, so why not manage IT? There was a time in the not so distant past before the economy crashed with the recession where I used a more dated, paper form of information technology day-to-day as a Marine Recruiter. We used file cabinets with rotating timetables to ensure we didn’t work the same contact twice before its time. At most, we used various software programs to print pages to the printer for us to read and sign to send both a hard copy and faxed copy to where the file was going. Fast-forwarding to today, where I used Adobe Sign for similar paperwork and contracts as tech has progressed.

From a CEO standpoint of an eCommerce based company, IT runs the majority of my operation and helps me keep up with demand in a hyper-speed industry. The operating software used in the background of Shopify is known as Ruby on Rails. They are a Canadian based company that brings stores across North America to your door from your phones and tablets. The platform created ease of use for eCommerce clients across the continent, bringing dreams to their clients’ reality.

IT business has grown in its reach and my life since the days I served in the military as a recruiter using file cabinets and printers as the staple of my business IT experience. I’ve experienced a change in IT’s role in the industry, now that there is an unprecedented amount of momentum it has surrounding business activities.

My plan to use what I have learned in the IT Management class.

The first step after learning information systems is the application process. Before understanding IT from a management viewpoint, I left relevant data analyzing techniques out of my process. For example, I often use handwritten notes to pass or save information that I would misplace and have to rewrite again. My past mindset revolved around saving space in the database because my desk or filing cabinet can hold it. I have begun the process of creating more detailed database warehouses as I would for the products I sell. The steps of acquiring data include: 

• Obtaining social data, expert knowledge purchased data, and operational databases.
• Cleansing data and data extraction
• Organize and relation to data
• Catalog data for maintaining a record

Whatever you can think of in the business, there might be a way to make your life easier when it comes to IT management. In my case, for example, using inventory management software can increase business efficiency with deadlines and low inventory warnings in place. Especially in an eCommerce store where failing to track a stock is detrimental to an online business. Nothing is more embarrassing when a customer is shopping on a site. Without knowledge, they place an order of an item that is no longer in inventory. Nothing reflects more poorly on your website because of the lack of a tracking system in place to keep customers updated.

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The most intriguing Information Technology business topics learned over the past month began with creating a blog website, relational database systems, and analyzing business intelligence.

Relational database systems are how to manage data using a structure and language where all data is organized and grouped in relation.

Purpose and benefits of using the relational model for database management:

• Data Structure using tables, rows, and columns, foreign key relations.
• Data manipulation with SQL power to modify and retrieve data.
• Data integrity mechanisms for business rules maintaining data integrity.

Another topic in IT that is intriguing and important to grasp the idea is the Business Intelligence process. Business Intelligence is vital to understand because it helps process valuable information to the users. Business Intelligence process includes: 

• Acquiring data by obtaining the data, cleansing it, so it is relevant. Organizing and relating the data so it can be cataloged. 
• Then perform analysis with data mining and reporting.
• Finally, publishing the results on web servers, automation, and printing.

Where does the Business Intelligence System retrieve the data from raw:

• Operational databases
• Social data
• Purchased Data
• Employee Knowledge over time