Mr. Dimpz Blog

These are the list of our prospective companies:

1. Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
2. AMA Computer College
3. PLDT Company
4. Dole Philippines

Our Final company selected was The Dole Philippines.

Company Background

Dole is the world's largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and fresh cut flowers with a growing line of quality packaged foods. Dole’s dedication to quality is a commitment solidly backed by: comprehensive programs for food safety, scientific crop protection programs, stringent quality control measures, state-of-the-art production and transportation technologies, continuous improvement through research and innovation, and dedication to the safety of our employees, communities and the environment. Dole is committed to nutrition education to communicate to the public the health benefits of eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

In the Philippines, Dole has introduced premium quality, healthy food products in fresh and packaged foods. Its focus on health and nutrition remains strong even as Dole continues to expand its healthy food products. Its product lines range from canned pineapple solids, canned mixed fruits, canned beverages, packaged fruit snacks to tomato sauce.

Yesterday, we have already contact a person to interview but unfortunately he was not around it’s because of having an emergency, that’s why we have to look for another organization or company to interview. Last night, we contact our friends in different companies we know and ask a favor. Finally, one of the companies that we’ve contact, respond on our request. There’s an available person who is willing to be interview and give us her vacant time. She is an MIS programmer in one of the offices of Dole Philippines and to be interviewed at SJRDC Building, Lanang, Davao City. We told our friend that the interview that we are going to conduct is an ambush interview.

During the interview, there are lots of questions we ask to the MIS programmer. The first question we ask was “How do we identify Dole’s Information Technology and Information System?” According to her, DOLES IT department is categorized as IT for Regional and IT for local. In their branch, they are categorized as IT for local and they are divided into two groups: the application group and technical group. In the application group, software and system are being discussed while the technical group discuss about hardware and the network. She also mentioned that they are using different systems categorized according to their departments such as payroll system, production system, logistic system, research system, manufacturing system and many more. DOLE has internal programmers that develops and maintains the system to be used by the company.

As she mentioned earlier, DOLE has different systems in every department. We ask her if they have a system that connects all the systems from different department and she says “yes” but selected systems only because they don’t have an integration warehouse yet.

Among all the questions we ask, we are very much concern about this question, “What are the best practices in IT/IS?”.

In DOLE, as the programmer said, the best practices are as follows:

Determine the project

Is the capability to find, retrieve, report, change, or delete specific data without ambiguity. This applies especially to information stored in databases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_(information)

In making a system we or programmers should identify first or determine the project for them to know what they are going to make and they’re planning on how to develop the system. They identify the uses of the system. They determine also the cost of the system they’re going to develop it must be cheaper, but a good system that can make there companies improve or succeed.

System Analysis

Dealing with analysis of sets of interacting entities, the systems, often prior to their automation as computer systems, and the interactions within those systems. This field is closely related to operations research. It is also "an explicit formal inquiry carried out to help someone, referred to as the decision maker, identify a better course of action and make a better decision than he might otherwise have made. The systems discussed within systems analysis can be within any field such as: industrial processes, management, decision making processes, environmental protection processes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_analysis

System analyst analyzes the software to be used, the hardware specification, and the compatibility of the system to the hardware for them to fulfill the needs of a company or organization. And analyzes the cost of the system according to the software they were going too used and the hardware purchased.

Development

As of now the programmers are on going to start their system. Members of the programming project will now be designated according to their field. They'

Testing

Using a test method, perhaps published by a respected standards organization, is a good place to start. Sometimes it is more useful to modify one or to develop a new one. Again, documentation and full disclosure are very necessary. A well written test method is important. However, even more important is choosing a method of measuring the correct property or characteristic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_method

Before using the system you have made, programmers ensure the quality of the system. They are going to test there system, so that programmers will know the capability of the system. Testing can help eliminate the errors that may occur during the operation or in using the system. So before using or deploying the system made they see to it that the system is ready to use by the company. In testing also we or the programmers can identify the weakness and in testing they well know on how to improve or complete the needs of company who will be using the system made. And programmers identify some revisions of their system and this saves time.

Implementation

Is the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy.

Is a realization of a technical specification or algorithm as a program, software component, or other computer system. Many implementations may exist for a given specification or standard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implementation

In this step the System made is ready to use by the company or an organization.

Based in our interview in Dole Philippines about their IT/IS their organization is very systematic and highly classified. According to the MIS Programmer, Information System is the brain of the company because it holds all the information of the organization.