Direction: Made 2 comment in 2 research papers bellow. In your comment of atleast 300words, identify the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the research work–the method of collecting data from 2 interviewees, and the quality of summarizing the interview findings.Include in your comment what you learned from reading and critiquing this research summary.
Research paper 1:
Robert works for a freight broker company, which means that people that need something shipped will call him and he will figure out what to classify the freight as and find the carrier that will be the cheapest and quickest to get that load to where it needs to go. He takes new clients and puts their load information in a system that figures the numbers and how long it will take depending on the carrier. All the information is stored on a site that takes averages of loads that size and how costly and quick it will ship. One of the things that’s very effective is how the site mines all the data to figure out how much something will cost based on the dimensions and weight based on past shipments. With customers most come back trying to ship similar things so you just have to pull up their info and confirm it’s the same location and dimensions and youre good to go. The information my company has is very valuable because it has already done all the hard work and all you have to do now is plug in the right numbers and youll get an accurate time and price for the shipment. The whole company stores information that’s based on past shipments to further narrow the price down to a more accurate number and the get the shipping times to as pinpoint as possible.
Katy works at a car dealership; she sells cars to people who want new ones. Her company gathers info about what type of car was sold when and to whom and for how much. They do this to better their sales down the road to see if there is a pattern about when certain cars sell at certain times. They take that info and run ad campaigns to try and boost their sales even more. They store this information on an onsite server. They keep the server on site so they can quickly repair it if it ever needs it. The company uses this information to push them ahead of their competition because it can help them run certain deals at the best times to help sales and with the info they are getting it will edge them ahead of the competition.
Jim works in a company that sells receipt tape. The company sells tape to other companies that need it and they also sell advertising space on the backside of the paper. Some of the things he does are look for trends in ads that are more frequently redeemed or how many ads relate to how many redemptions there are. How this works is the companies keep track of how many coupons are redeemed and at the end of the cycle they send back the numbers of how many of which coupon were redeemed. This gets put on file and after a few cycles one can start to see trends about what styles work the best and how many ads per strip influence the most redemptions. They can use this information to get ahead because if the coupons are working for the stores then they will want to buy more ad space which in turn gives you more money.
Research paper 2:
Since I was a young kid my Father has had his own small business located outside of Houston in a little town called La Porte, Texas. This family company has been through a lot of ups and downs but with newtechnology and the internet playing huge roles in keeping this company running smoothly. It only made sense to interview my father Richard Couch, my brother Philip Couch and Charlie Moore another co worker who all playmajorroles in keeping a multi-million dollar barging and shipping company called Couch Lines operating at peakperformance.
The first person I interviewed was Richard Couch Owner of Couch Lines. This interview was done over the phone. Here is the informationI received about his company. Couch Lines is a small privately owned commercial transportation industry that uses water ways such as bayous, rivers, shipping channels and the intercostalwater ways. Couch Lines is a service industry that sells a dry dock for loading and unloading any type of products but they mainly deal with containers ranging from twenty-foot containers to forty-foot containers. The tasks that Richard performs are everything from lining up times to work barges at certain docks up and down the Houston ship channel, to cutting checks and maintaining good standing status with customers that contract out order numbers and bookings with certain products going into containers. Some technologies that Richard uses in everyday business is Quick Books to keep track of the financing of what is being paid and bought. Also using Microsoft Excel to track and follow the locations of containers and the status of the box whether it be loaded or empty.
Next I interviewed Philip Couch my oldest brother who has been working for Couch Lines for over five years. His job title is Port Captain/ Crane operator which means he has all responsibility for the safety and activity that is going on during normal running hours at the dry dock that is located in Bay Town, Texas off of Cedar Bayou. Being such a small company with 6 employees you quickly realize that you have to learn and master how to use all the machines such as yard mules, empty container handler to running the biggest equipment piece called a Fantuzzi Barge stacker that allows you to load and unload over weight containers that cannot go over the road because of weight requirements. Philip told me that they have two computers one laptop for out in the field and one desk top that they use in the front office that they use Microsoft Excelto keep records of traffic in and out of the terminal. He also told me how a certain container can be tracked from the dry dock to the warehouse where the container gets filled with a variety of different products such as plastic pellets to make tires and a lot of food aid such as rice and grains that are transported all over the world to starving nations. All these records can never be to safe so backing up all the systems through a removeable hard drive that is stored in a safe place away from natural disasters and people who are looking to harm the company.
Last I interviewed Charlie Moore which his job title is crane operator as well as assistant manager. He keeps track of the other co workers and calls in hours for the remaining workers. He often uses the computer the most constantly emailing and printing out sheets of paper that contain information to yard mule drivers on where and when to take certain containers and knowing where toare place the containers in the warehouse.He also uses a proprietary database system called N4 that gives him access to certain terminals around the Houston ship channel and lets him review and update very key information about what kind of container, how much it weighs, where it is coming from and where it is being shipped to. All this is capable from a computer and is nearly impossible to work without having constant internet connection andcommunication from the producers to Couch Lines then to the consumers.
Listening to all three of these normal people who have to use information and communication technologies on a daily basis to get their jobs done is truly a site to see. Couch Linesrelies on location to compete with the larger corporations that try and out bid jobs that can clearly be beat with the use of less people, high tech cranes,machinery and better location. This operation will continue to compete and supply great quality work day and day out. “Work doesn’t sleep when you own your own company thereforeyou might care more about the quality of work a little more than the quantity of work” Said Richard Couch.
