Week 10: Clear

MS Access

Probably everyone has seen MS Access in the MS Office package, but not everyone has a clue about its purpose and functions.

In the following I will give some basic insights into the usage of MS Office Access.

Graphic 1: Layout of Access

MS Office offers Access as an easily-usable program to store and administer data. Generally, a MS Access-database consists of four different basic elements: Tables, Forms, Queries and Reports. As can be seen from Graphic 1, all four elements serve different purposes, but are linked with each other. Following I will explain the purpose of each basic element.

Tables

Tables save the data and hence, represent some kind of data collection. They can be seen as the backbone of the database.

Forms

Forms make the entry of data into tables and the modification of data in tables easier.

Queries

Queries access the data in tables, can display chosen data next to each other and it is even possible to do calculations within queries, e.g. add one variable to another as functions can be used.

Reports

Reports are based on queries and serve the purpose of displaying data and providing a basis for nice print-outs.

By providing the possibility to store, modify, administrate and print data in an easy and convenient way, MS Access is a great program not only for large companies and organizations, but also for small or medium sized enterprises. Even individual people, like you and me, can use it in our everyday-lives e.g. for the management of a DVD collection.

Graphic 1 by Nina Maria Scherl.

Excel Project

Project

The Excel Project was about a research study on the effectiveness of a particular workout program being conducted by a large fitness center. 1000 participants of both genders and different age groups were part of the study. To assess the effectiveness of this particular workout the heart rate was measured at the start of the 15 minutes workout, at one minute intervals during workout, and at one minute intervals during the 5 minute cooldown phase after the workout was finished

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For the maximum cardiovascular benefit, it is important that the participants reach a particular target heart rate, which is a certain percentage number of their maximum heart rate. Therefore, it was examined whether the participants reached these target rates. Moreover, the owner required to be flexible to choose different target heart rates being based on different percentage numbers.

Another aspect the owner wantsed to investigate is the percentage by which the heart rate increased from the start of the workout program till the maximum heart rate was reached.

Graphic 1: "AvgIncrease" pivot table

Finally, in order to visualize the data and the results two Pivot charts had to be created as those make it much easier for the manager(s) of the fitness center to get an overview about the research study and its implications.

Skills

During the project I learned different skills. First, of all I had to learn how to apply the knowledge I gained in the previous week to a practical real-life example. So the transmission from comprehension to action had to be made. Furthermore, I learned how to create clear excel sheets that are user-friendly. I got to know how to adjust the size of columns and rows and how to make a print-out look good. In addition, I practiced using basic and more complicated functions like the if-function for example. Finally, by creating Pivot tables I learned how to easily prepare visual and clear tables to present the main points of a research study. 

All in all, the project helped me to learn how to upgrade basic Excel sheets, and to become more secure and efficient in handling Excel.

Graphic 1 by Nina Maria Scherl.

Week 9: Clear

What are the 5 Waves of IT?

It is not uncommon in the IT world to experience disruption. Basically, at every level in the IT market new technologies and ideas are regularly introduced. Some of these ideas are able to cause real disruptive change, whereas others do not.

The development of IT and computers is evolutionary and when examining the history of IT up to the present, there appear to be five clear waves. These waves do not refer to specific technologies, but they represent major changes in the way computer technology was deployed.

Following, we will have a closer look at each of the five waves.

Photo 1: Five Waves of IT

 

Wave 1: Mainframe

In the 1960s computing was limited to large, room-sized mainframe computers. The computers were batch processing machines and they ran like a serial production line, where all the work was brought to it. IBM was able to position itself as the dominant IT vendor.

Photo 2: IBM 704 as an example for a mainframe computer

Wave 2: Mini-Computer

Ten years later in the 1970s, Moore’s Law kicked in after Gordon Moore has published the first article about his observation in 1965. He forecasted a doubling in processor capacity each year, and corrected it to two years in 1975. At this time mini-computers, which were anything but mini seen from today’s perspective, were the new development.

Photo 3: PDP 7 as an example for a minicomputer

Wave 3: Personal Computers

In the 1980s personal computers got favorable and common. The disruptive element of this wave was that individual person got access to computing resources. Companies like Microsoft, Intel and Compaq (now HP) became IT giants. At the end of the decade nearly every white-collar worker in the US had a fast and cheap computer on his desk at work. The increase in productivity and efficiency was enormous.

Wave 4: Mobile Computer

In the 1990s the fourth wave took place with internet computing being on its rise. Servers and networks got cheaper and cheaper, and nice graphical interfaces came into existence. From then onwards it was possible to issue commands very easily via mouse-clicks. Moreover, as the name of the “wave” says, computer become mobile and users were able to carry their computers with them.

Wave 5: Ubiquitous Computer

Nowadays, computers have become so fast and cheap that there are regarded as ubiquitous as they are used in almost every part of our lives. Wave 5’s disruptive element is the fact that intelligence is provided to objects by embedding sensors and processor in them. It gets easier to track things, report things etc. The value however, does not lie in the individual information but the value comes from integrating them.

With the year 2011 one might claim, that probably a new wave has started when referring to the ten year rhythm. However, what is going to come is not yet clear, but we should be curious about the future…

Original photo 1 by szeke on flickr.com:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosz/4296580747/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Altered by Nina Maria Scherl

Photo 2 by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Wikimedia Commons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ibm704.gif

Photo 3 by toresbe on Wikimedia Commons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pdp7-oslo-2005.jpeg

Week 7: Clear

Software as Money Making Machine

Today’s Software Business is a very lucrative business. Not for nothing do so many different companies engage in this industry. So what are aspects which make this business so attractive and why do these companies earn so much money with it?

There are three general concepts which make the Software business so profitable and popular, namely marginal costs, network effects and switching costs.

Let us have a look at all three of them:

Marginal Costs

Marginal costs with respect to software are effectively zero. Once a software is developed and all development expenditures are paid, each additional copy of it is easy to manufacture. Just another hard drive is needed (e.g. a CD) and the code can be copied without any effort. Hence, the marginal costs is so low that it can be neglected.

Network Effects

Graphic 1: Network Effect of the Telephone

Another reason why software is considered as “money making machine” are the network effects. The network effects describe the phenomena that as more and more people are using a software, the value of the program grows. So the larger the user base the larger the value. Professor Olsen  compared it to an avalanche coming down a mountain. It starts small but get bigger and bigger quite soon.

A simple example for this is the telephone (see Graphic 1). When only two people own a telephone the value they can gain is limited as they can only call each other. However, if five people own a telephone each, the value they can gain is much larger, as each of them can not only call one other person but 4 other people. So the more people are using a telephone, the higher is the value one can gain by being connected to this community.

Switching Costs

The last concept being explained is the concept of switching costs. Switching costs are high with respect to software. Once a company has engaged in expenditures for a certain software, has installed this program on all technical devices and has for example provided training for employees to work with this software, the company is less likely to switch to another software or software vendor. The switching costs are high as significant effort, time and money has to be spend on the software itself and on the activities making the software usable.

So keeping in mind that once all accrued costs due to development are paid, the marginal costs are zero, that the more people use a software, the more valuable it gets and that once a customer has spend money, time and effort on a program, he or she is unlikely to switch, it gets clear why the Software industry is such a profitable and popular business. However, one should not forget, that it might also be hard to survive in this industry as it is very dynamic and risky.

Graphic 1 by Fernando S. Aldado on Wikimedia Commons:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Network_effect.png