First Class of BUS 475

Happy Syllabus Day everybody!  The easiest-- by easiest I mean lowest amount of brain-work involved-- classes of the semester are always the first couple days of the new semester, or as I like to call them, "Syllabus Days".

Anyways, it's the start of my final semester at Chapman and I plan to go out with a bang, or maybe just good grades instead.  The Capstone course is centered around the topic of strategic management.  In essence, everything we have learned at the ASBE will come together in this class.  I'm excited for the challenge!

Apart from the syllabus, we went over roughly half of the first chapter during the first class.  We went over the Wal-Mart story that we read in Chapter 1 of the textbook.  We took a look at the company's strategies and discussed why those strategies helped the retail industry leader grab the top spot on the Fortune 500 list.  During its early days, Wal-Mart used a rural market strategy to beat out "mom-and-pop stores", while the smaller market shielded them from the larger competition.  Today Wal-Mart, sets the benchmark when it comes to SCM, HR (gave their store employees the title of "associates"), and EDLP marketing strategy.

Class 12/9

In this class we focused on the implementation and maintenance phases of SDLC.  When implementing a system you first need to acquire the hardware, software, and services needed to run the system.  Then you need to modify your software, test the program, convert the data, and train the end-users of the system how to operate it.

After implementing your system you need to maintain it.  System maintenance is done by fixing the bugs and errors, adding new functions, improving its performance, and preventative maintenance to keep the system from failing.

Class 12/7

In this class we covered business systems.  In particular, we discussed the system development life cycle (SDLC) and the 5 phases of the SDLC (investigation, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance).  The benefit of SDLC over a waterfall approach is the fact that SDLC can have two or more phases running at the same time and you can back and forth between the phases.

class 11/23

In this class we learned how to use MO Excel spreadsheets.  Most of the basic commands I already knew from my MGSC 209 class, but I did learn how to use the data analysis tools of "goal seek" and "scenario".  I'm ready to get started on my first Excel assignment now!

Class 11/11

I thought the exam was fair.  Not impossibly difficult, and certainly not easy.  I was pleased with my score of 90 on the exam.  I found the true/false questions, and not the essay questions, to be the most difficult part of the test.  Anyways, I am glad to be done with all midterms and now I get to move on to the joy of preparing for semester projects and finals (slight sarcasm).  

Class 11/9

Today we learned more about E-Commerce and Social Networks (SN).  I learned that social networking helps companies with market research, marketing campaigns, and helps them plan for the future.  I also learned some about some of the differences and conflicts between online and physical selling points.

UGC's are beneficial because it builds trust between the company and the customer.  UGC's also help to keep customers loyal and help people understand better what they are buying online.

Class 11/4

In this class we learned about e-commerce.  One thing that interested me was the fact that we are running our of IP addresses under the current IPv4.  The solution to this problem... switching to IPv6 which provides more IP addresses along with better security.