Personal Analysis and Reflection - Essay Example

Personal Analysis and Reflection Identification of your professional goals and your current interests iProject is undertaken as part of the module on advanced web designing. The main purpose of the project is to create a website for expressing my professional identity on the internet to prepare myself for future career in the field. This website would be one of the methods or ways to enable professional individual and organizations access the information contained and present views. In addition, this project also provides opportunity to implement the knowledge and insight gained through formal class room studies and informal conversations on the subject at the Business Information Technology School in the University of Salford to real world environment. Besides, iProject would allow me to gain practical knowledge in the field of technology marketing, develop understanding on importance of documentation and in turn generate a high quality report. With the advent of Smart Phone technology, a number of apps are being released on daily basis with a sole aim of gaining more business (Audely, 2011) and to provide customers with better after sales services in a way to facilitate them in gaining access to required information, saving time and ensure customer loyalty and customer satisfaction (Owen, 2010). iProject attempts to highlight the significance of the Smart Phone Applications in the developing the market strategy by illustrating the new creative application technology which is Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) in this website asmaalghafis.wix.com/asma. The project is aimed and planned for completion with minimum cost and resources. Identification of your career goals in the short and medium term. iProject has two main phases i.e., short term and medium term plan. For this purpose, project has been divided into two phases where phase 1 corresponds to short term career goals and phase 2 corresponds to medium term goals. Figure below shows the short term plan The main purpose of short term plan is to develop understanding of project management and planning, real world application of the knowledge and learning gained through formal courses that would help to comprehend the main essence of the topic of the assignment. I, Asma Ibrahim Al Ghafis would be managing the entire project and the website would be www.asmaalghafis.wix.com/asma. In this project, I would be assisted by Mr. Waqas Jeral, who has extensive knowledge and experience in marking as he has been working with a number of firms as a marketing consultant. He has extensive interest in techniques and method that circumference the online marketing strategy and building online, the personality identity. We together started working together to prepare a plan for the project including timelines and resources that may be required and most importantly the contents that were required to be contained in the website. For this purpose, we decided to develop website through www.wix.com which allows constructing and free hosting of the website. We also decided to include online form that would help the visitors to provide their feedback; however, the site has the ability to be linked to external social networking sites and other relevant information that is required to be made of the final website but this was planned for later part of the project. The system’s technical aspects and the finalization of the contents of the website fell into my domain of the responsibility since I was the project manager assign for this project. The phase was not aimed to generate any revenue but to assess the worth of efforts and identify opportunities for improvement. However, this website may generate income when we move to the next phase. The purpose is to identify the mistakes and actions required for improvement in first phase before the medium term plan is initiated in the second phase. In the medium term phase, we plan to program, construct, release and host our and third party downloadable smart phone apps o our website. In earlier part of the phase two, we would aim to partnership with top app making companies to ensure continued generation of revenue and improve our reputation as a Smart Phone App website. This would allow us to move to strategic phase of the project where the long term plans would be materialized. In this part of plan, we would not only offer online download able apps but would also connect to downloading on Smart Phones through direct web links while visiting the site and purchasing the app on mobile. Also we aim to host commercial ads and online banner for other business to generate revenue In which modules have you achieved well during your time at university or in other extra-curricular activities During past two year that I spent at Salford University while study at Business Information Technology School, I enjoyed number of modules including Dynamic web Development module where I learnt website creation using either HTML or PHP codes. Also modules on emerging Technology and Principles of Marketing were most interesting to me. As part of my second year learning, I undertook a Management Development Programme or Life Project, to create web site for a known company in Manchester, where I had the opportunity to combining the knowledge and experience gained from three main core streams of my course business, social networking and programing into a single project. This project allowed me to develop understanding and comprehension of interactions and integration between these three main aspects of business information technology and marketing. Due to this very fact, my dissertation topic is has the same idea of website designing. What areas of interest do you have that could support your project: There are quite few of areas that could support my project. The first one is web designing and the usability of a web site by understanding how the superstructure, Graphic, content, colour, readability and the page layout helps to make my project easy to use for the users. The second area is the social networking and its importance as a tool that has a speed benefit on businesses. Furthermore, e-commerce concept is also very essential because all business wants to know how to be well-known in the Internet, as to the website ranking is very significant on the internet to make my website in the top result search list in Google or any search engine (Chang, 2009). Finally, concepts of marketing and strategies for business development are the process that guide any organization to focus resources on the opportunities while mitigating or eliminating the risks to business for gaining a competitive advantage in the business. What aspect of your current online identity requires improving, changing or simply deleting? Currently, the basic structure and the contents contained in the website are of very basic nature that needs a lot of improvement. The videos hosted on the site are not linked to same topic and appear to be somewhat disconnected and probably we would have to make categories on videos for visitors to facilitate what specific area they want to know about. Also only one page contains the relevant information that should be extended to cover the broader the topic at broader spectrum. Besides superstructure, graphics, colour and flash animation for visual appearance of the site may be required to be revitalized. Apart from this, drop down menu and dynamic linking would be another option so if the information on external source is changed, same is depicted on our site. Professional and relevant information on the subject would enable visitor’s interest in the website and would allow them to comment and provide feedback. Implementation Planning Documentation Description of your specific project. The goal of iProject is to build a website for hosting Smart Phone apps directly downloadable to any smart phone. A brief description of the project is Benefiting from Management Development Programme or Life Project to create web site for a known company in Manchester and formal class room training gained at the university. Develop understanding of marketing and the significance of the Smart Phone apps To improve the layout, contents and related aspects for bringing improvements to the website. Ensure proper planning to complete the project with minimal cost and efficient utilization of resources. Update the website contents and video to keep the visitors interested and up to date on the topics of interest. Develop, release and host own and third part Smart Phone apps Ensure availability of most hot apps in the market Facilitate multiple downloads of single same app by different users simultaneously Provide facility to customer for downloading apps for different mobile operating systems i.e., android, windows 8 and ios. Use Smart Phone apps for the purpose of business marketing The project is a combination of e-commerce and website creation. The aim of the project is not just develop a website for personal professional identity but to develop a business website to generate revenue in longer term. Description of any existing projects or examples that have inspired your work The idea for using Smart Phone apps was borrowed from the website http://www.marketingzone.com/how/mobile-marketing/smartphone-apps. This site provided comprehensive information on Smart Phone apps and how to use these as an effective tool for marketing. This website contained enough information to educate on what works and what actually not. After browsing through the website and surfing other blogs in the subject, I realised that I can build a website to attract visitors and customers enabling them to download their desired and required phone apps where by using the same app as an effective marketing tool. The company aims to be a how-to site for small business on marketing. Description of the tools to be utilised, including specific sites, APIs or other tools. The most important tool that would help me to devise strategy for my medium term and long term planning and actually allowing the website to acquire the desired shape are the comments and feedbacks collect online through the website. This would require a more methodological and systematic way of analysis suggesting preference for utilization of any appropriate statistical tools. Here, I am of the view that for such an analysis a survey form along with general comments and feedback form can be designed to collect visitor’s views on the topic is a more systematic way and in areas of relevancy. Any changes made so forth for the purpose of improvement need to be monitored and controlled. Best analysis tool for this is the website ranking on search engines like Yahoo and Google. Major reason for this that majority of internet users limit themselves to just first two to three pages of the search engine for any search they make online and if our site is not with in the first pages of the search engines then the effort made is not worth improvement. Website at initial pages of any search engine ensure more traffic and more customers, thus creating revenue not only through sale of own business but also through increasing opportunities for third party commercial ads (Marshal, 2007). Use of conventional planning techniques e.g. Gantt Charts, Critical Path Analysis Project schedule was planned using the Gantt Chart Techniques as shown below: Activity Duration Start Date Finish Date September October November December Finalize Project 7 17-09-12 23-09-12 Finalize Team 2 24-09-12 25-09-12 Project Planning 7 26-09-12 01-10-12 Finalize Website Contents 7 02-10-10 08-10-12 Create Website 10 09-10-12 09-10-12 Seek Feedback 7 10-10-12 16-10-12 Analyse feedback 1 17-10-12 17-10-12 Update Website 1 18-10-12 18-10-12 Evaluate & Monitor Performance 7 19-10-12 25-10-12 Update Website 1 26-10-12 26-10-12 Seek Feedback 7 27-10-12 03-11-12 Analyse feedback 1 04-11-12 04-11-12 Update Website 1 05-11-12 05-11-12 Evaluate & Monitor Performance 7 06-11-12 12-11-12 Update Website 1 13-11-12 13-11-12 Seek Feedback 7 14-11-12 20-11-12 Analyse feedback 1 21-11-12 21-11-12 Update Website 1 22-11-12 22-11-12 Evaluate & Monitor Performance 7 23-11-12 29-11-12 Finalize the Work 3 30-11-12 02-12-12 Write Initial Report 10 13-12-12 13-12-13 Initiate Phase 2 1 14-12-12 14-12-12 Systems design and structure, including UML diagrams Description of Activities Undertaken Clearly outline the steps that have been taken in the project The steps taken for the project include Project Selection Team selection Finalizing topic for the website Preparing plan for short term and medium term Identify long term business objectives Finalizing contents for website Optimization of keywords and topic index Identify methodology for marketing and advertising Test idea on university website Upload / construct website for online global user access Provide provisioning of feedback form, online survey and links to social networking sites Seek comments and feedback Conduct analysis of the feedback using statistical tools if required Based on analysis, update website for improvement Monitor and control updates and changes to website by watching on incoming web traffic look for performance indicators like visitors per day, path of incoming traffic flow, links used by users, peak and off peak hours of the days, and peak days of the week Use Google Webmaster and Yahoo Webmaster to add website to the index crawler. This would allow the troubleshooting of indexing and crawling of website and monitoring of website statistics. Two tag keys were tested; “asma Ibrahim al ghafis” and :Smart Phone apps help marketing”. With the first tag key, the website appeared at line 1 while with second tag key, the website appeared at number 9 of Google search engine which was satisfactory. The test was repeated with other top search engines like Bing and MSN and results were again satisfactory. Planning to initiate phase 2 of the project. Clearly outline the decisions and choices that have been possibly a decision tree. From very beginning in summer this year, I was quite excited about finalizing my topic for the dissertation in this semester and for this purpose I started to research online on search engine, social networking sites and blogs. In addition, I engaged my peer in informal conversations on the topic to grasp some ideas that may be helpful to start with a website project. While surfing through the social networking sites, I found that most of the visitors talk about their routine, status updating, current affairs and above all entertainment ranging from celebrity gossips to new smart phones and their apps. Then I happen to visit www.marketingzone.com while surfing on the internet. This site helped me to shape my ideas and give direction to my thinking process. I started realizing and appreciating that smart phone app can be used as an important tool for business marketing. Then I happened to meet few persons online specializing in e-commerce, business marketing and website development from who I received good support to materialize my idea. I then extended my research to fully explore the topic and came up with number of options. But considering the risks involved and a heavy budget that might be required to start up with this idea, I decided to make use of Salford University account and using www.wix.com before purchasing any online account or domain. Many visitors offered suggestions and ideas for developing, releasing and hosting own and third party smart phone apps. I also received a lot of suggestion and information on the possible competition and the strategies being employed currently by small businesses in the industry. Actions were taken around the existing profiles and presence. Following actions were taken around the profiles:- Asma Ibrahim Alghafis is the owner of the website and project manager and is responsible for decision making in technical issues and finalizing the specifications of final product. The initial website would be constructed using facilities of a free website building facility. The domain would be registered under the name of owner through the fee web hosting company. The main language of the website is English; however, other languages may be introduced based on the monitoring of inflow web traffic regions. The responsibility for finalizing and authorizing changes and updates to the website contents rests with the owner. New domain would be bought after sufficient confidence has been achieved based on the feedback and comments of the visitors. Sponsoring of budget and resources would be the responsibility of the own while the control would stay with the project manager. The project team would assist the project manager in carrying out tasks and activities considered appropriate for the completion of the project. Code of conduct would be made for allowing the type of commercial ads. A systematic mechanism would be defined to authorize and control display of commercial ads on the website. The revenue would stay with the owner; however, team would be paid in monthly salaries from the earnings. The password for website account is the responsibility of owner and site developer. Any team member has the flexibility to quit with a notice of one week. The contents on the website remain the property of the website owner. Links and references to the activities those were undertaken. Salford University Buddy Account The main domain is www.asmaalghafis.wix.com/asma View of searching the first key tag “asma Ibrahim alghafis” on Google Search engine http://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbo=d&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=asma+ibrahim+alghafis&oq=asma+ibrahim+alghafis&gs_l=hp.3...1432.8981.1.9027.25.23.2.0.0.1.776.6438.2-18j3j6-1.22.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.q5E1_3WUuBg&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355325884,d.Yms&fp=6fa986a3276db36d&bpcl=39967673&biw=1366&bih=646 Link to Social Networking Sites Link to Feedback / Comment Form for visitors Link to attract business Creativity and Originality Indicate any documentation developed to support the project (links to documentation wiki or blogs) The Smart App Marketing (2012) Website uses blogging to educate people on latest Smart Phone aps updates, new technologies being introduced in the industry and how to effectively use smart phone apps for marketing and business development. This site is likely to help me educate on the subject and would allow me to build my own blog in this respect. Grant Griffiths in his article Building the Successful Blog on site “Blog For Profit” highlighted three major components of building a blog. I am confident enough that a better understanding of these three components would help me to build my own blog successfully in future. To what degree does your project present a creative solution to the task? The immediate benefit that I attained from this project was actual application of all the concepts and knowledge that I had through formal class room sessions in pure academic environment. This project gave me exposure on a number of aspects of website development and marketing including Project planning Risk Management Controlling and Monitoring Managing budget and resources Importance of social networking Web designing techniques Role of e-commerce in website development Techniques for Search engine optimisation Significance of Smart Phone Apps in marketing Indeed, my project was worth an effort that enlightened me on different aspects of project management, business marketing and website development. It has helped me to give direction to my thinking, shape my ideas and appreciate opportunities in the business world. To what degree is this is original or distinctive? What ways? Although the idea is not totally new or original, the importance of smart phone apps for marketing has recently been realized. In future, purpose and aim of smart phone apps would not be entertainment only; rather these would be used for marketing and after sales customer services. A small link at finger’s single tap in a free game can help invite a potential customer to a variety of products of his / her interest. It is likely that the future smart phone apps would contain a lot of commercial ads and banners like the present day web sites. This involves reasonable amount of financial investment besides purchasing a domain. However, at present website offers a worth endeavour to educate masses on the subject and invites suggestion and comments for improvement that may guide the final structure, shape, contents and customer services required to be contained in the website. Sustainability Plan How will this project be realistically sustained beyond the project deadline? This project is critical to my future plans. After completing my graduation in the field, I intend to establish my own online business and undertake graduate program in marketing. As discussed earlier, after success of initial website, the plan is to purchase a domain and start up with my own online business with the assistance of my current project team. During this time period, I would aim to give final shape to my website and would focus on hosting third party and free apps rather than developing my own. I would endeavour to use these third party and free smart phone apps as a tool for marketing my website and business and other paid apps on the website to generate revenue. What mechanisms and tools will be employed to ensure this sustainability? Following mechanism would be adopted to ensure sustainability:- Apply project management methodology Keep project team focused and intact Continue and follow the short term and medium term plans. Attract business by building up the repute of the website Generate more web traffic to the site for increasing the site ranking Advertise and promote website through text messaging, social networking sites and blogs. Review and analyse the update provided Control and monitor changes and updates to website on the basis of the analysis conducted and to suite the preferences of the visitors How realistic is this for a final year Honours degree student? In my point of view, this project is a real opportunity to apply the class room academic concepts in the real world business environment with efforts to generate revenue income. It helps to develop creativity and originality devising innovative solutions rather than blindly following the market trends. I am certain that this idea is the right project for a final year honours degree student to pursue his final dissertation and career in future. References Audely, A. (2011). A guide to smart phone applications. [United States], Websters Digital Services. Bing Webmaster, Bing Webmaster Center. Available at: http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster /. [Accessed 14 November 2011] Blogforprofit.com (2012) Blog For Profit | Using a Blog and Social Media To Promote Your Business. [online] Available at: http://blogforprofit.com/ [Accessed: 14 Dec 2012]. Chang, Y. et al. (2009) Smart Phone for Mobile Commerce. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 31 (4), p.740-747. Google Webmaster. Webmaster Tools. Available at: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en . [Accessed 14 November 2011] Marshal, J. (2007) Smartphones are the PCs of developing world. The New Scientist, 195 (2615), p.24-25. Marketingzone.com (2010) Marketing Resources for Small Businesses | MarketingZone. [online] Available at: http://www.marketingzone.com [Accessed: 14 Dec 2012]. Owens, M. (2010) Theres an App for That (or Soon Will Be): Smart Phones, Social Networking, and Internet Gaming. Gaming Law Review and Economics, 14 (13), p.171-174. Smartappmarketing.com (2012) SmartApp Marketing | The Business of Apps. [online] Available at: http://www.smartappmarketing.com/ [Accessed: 14 Dec 2012 Wix.com (2006) Wix Free Website Builder | Wix.com. [online] Available at: http://www.wix.com [Accessed: 14 Dec 2012]. Appendix A: My website address is sent to the person I invaded in the Empire game on FaceBook as a work invitation. Although this person is listed in my FaceBook account, I do not know him/her. Read More