Google Docs Impact on a Company

Working for a business can entitle you to privileges that vary in numerous ways. Those who work for industries in the government, finance, banking, etc… are exposed to sensitive information that needs to be protected at all times. Why should the storage of a business be protected? It is simple to answer that. It contains personal information; confidential data, sensitive data, and information that cannot afford to be leaked. Companies and their C-level employees have trusted their document storage with windows and their Microsoft Office SharePoint for storing and sharing documents. The limitations that our company imposes are, the SharePoint sites can be used only on company systems and certain employees have different access levels. This halts me from being able to work from home unless the company provides me with the luxury of a laptop.

The importance of using SharePoint is to edit and share reports and data throughout the company. Not too long ago, I used to process reports for compliance and would appear on SharePoint and the compliance manager would track the monthly reports. With when time came, I would download the excel spreadsheet and just save it onto the SharePoint site on real –time basis. The down fall here is that there isn't a true collaborating option to process or edit a report. SharePoint is not user friendly because of its small and complicated tabs and options. It also doesn't have updated features that many users prefer such as Google has. SharePoint limits upload memory to 2GB at a time. SharePoint can be very inconvenient when access has been taken off from your username. I has happened to me and it allowed my access back in 24 hours which caused the report to be late. This can be a hassle to struggle with but it happens. Reliability in technology cannot always be 100%. I experienced both during GDrive and SharePoint where my document either does not save or it would just disappear. This would be a straight example of how reliable technology could be.

On the other hand, Google Drive allows much more then what Microsoft does when it comes to sharing and collaborating. Google Drive offers the chance of at least 50 individuals to be logged on to the same document and making edits at the same time. Each user is color coded and is also given a chance to chat while on the document and make communication that way also. You are allowed to view the same time on where the other user is on the document by view the cursor move on their end. Also, not to mention that GDrive gives 5GB for free but due to the business concept, Bank of America would have to purchase a higher degree of memory in order to satisfy the company’s requirements. The primary feature that is very important is ability to access your document any where whether it is online or offline. GDrive has allowed the chance to download a drive on your personal computer where you can open anywhere and not just at work. Google Drive would be an amazing tool to use in our company but at certain divisions of the company. For example, having GDrive for spreadsheets or reports on non personal information or non sensitive data instead of using SharePoint would be ideal. Employees would have the chance to access from home and finish any minor details that they forgot at the workplace. This Google allows the ability to share too many areas of the internet and to the users around the world.

Now that I work with Unique Assets and client accounts, it would be extremely risky to have Google Drive and its cloud technology to hold billion of dollars of information. The access from home will also create a bigger risk if not every CPU is protected the right way. Certain information should just stay at the company to avoid any fraud or loss to BOA. I would recommend that Bank of America should allow the possibility to install GDrive to certain parts of the company to allow easy access to documents and participation for those who might have a presentation or a project to accomplish.C-level employees should ask themselves should have in mind If Google doesn't define a straight forward protection for the company's interests then what should be kept away from Google is the sensitive and personal information the company has. To relate, an article on IBM, which states the ban of Apple’s Siri because a possibility exists of Siri to record any information discussed “inside” the company. This just shows you the importance with what the company works with in order to secure it’s inside information along with the “client’s protection” obviously.

Blogging about Blogs

Lets start and say that a blog, to my belief, is created to achieve a greater advantage in order to help and teach others. The reason why I strongly say this is because people type for example, the way to build the perfect home in decorating, or the importance of technology, are all possible blog titles that could be found on the internet for others to read and learn from it. Other reasons that blogs are important are because of the ability to stay connected with current events or social events that are important and are going around the world. Times like these, many people enjoy the ability to stay connected abroad with friends and family and therefore create blogs to express and share the same interests. Blogs are also used to create a stance of a certain subject, whether it be political, informative, or just for fun.

The interesting thing about a blog and being able to be use it at the workplace is to have employees be able to express their feelings and opinions about a certain subject. Though many can agree that it can become  a divided battle. The reason why I express myself this way is because, at Bank of America, we had a blog that we called  "  The Water Cooler ". It did what a blog would do. Employees had access to it during work time and only at the work place. At first it was very informative. Postings about when the next financial quarter results where going to come out , interviewing tips and hints, and dress to impress blogs were being posted. Anyone can appreciate these type of helpful information from the mangers and executives. Since many every employee had access to it, it eventually became an excuse to not complete or cause a delay from your daily tasks. Also, inappropriate postings were being read throughout the company. This cause an immediate shutdown of this company blog. The positive impact on having a company blog is for the blog  to help the company as a whole become connected in way that everyone is learning and staying on the same page with what the company asks from the employee. It also should be a tool that the company should use in order to satisfy the hard working employee by viewing any requests that an employee would request via a blog. A blog eventually is to allow progress for the company as a whole.

On the other hand, having an external company blog on where the customers and the external client can access to share some ideas on how the company should work with them would be an ideal idea. It has been proven that 80% of the United States population has a product through a Bank of America , according to its last investor relation reports. This can lead to a serious marketing opportunity for BOA to have the public give direct real time opinion on how to advance BOA to be the at a competitive advantage to its competitors such as Chase and Wells Fargo. Clients will be able to also give out valuable negative information about the company which can lead to opportunity to improve as a company along with the service they provide.
Hopefully, BOA can establish the ability to help out the community by establishing the connection that it is missing with its customers. It honestly needs it.

Introduction

My name is Jim Lozada and I am enrolled for at Montclair University's MBA program.I graduated from Kean University with a bachelors degree in Finance and a minor in Economics. With the ambition to have my degree in finance, I pursued employment options in banking. I currently work for Merrill Lynch in the Global Wealth and Investment Management.  I believe that establishing a strong foundation and  learning more about the finance and banking industry, will enable a strong desire to achieve advancement within the company. As many recent graduates, the desire and ambition to land a dream job is their first thing on their mind. I still have it on my mind and that is why I believe that this MBA will allow me to get where I need to be to complete that goal.

The purpose of being enrolled currently in Strategic Information Systems, is to learn how strategic roles that information technology and information systems will help in managing operations in business.  As I stated before, working for Merrill Lynch has opened my eyes to the use of information systems and IT because of the current position I hold there. I would regularly update market values for assets using three different operating systems. These systems are OMNI, AP, and TAP. Since Merrill Lynch is under Bank of America, and US Trust is also, the three systems have not yet been migrated to one. Therefore, I need to enter the value three times so everyone in the company is on the same page. Wouldn't it be nice if I just would have to do my job once?

With the future ahead, I plan to use the MBA degree for the benefit of being able to advancement in position to a manager or executive role. I plan to use all my knowledge learned from the courses and put it to work to show effectiveness in the workplace and outside the workplace as well.