CIS4970 Field Study/Internship – Fall 2013

Student Name:Jeff Smith (Not a real student, but a real proposal)

Major: Computer Information SystemsYear: 2013

Panther ID and email: 003-79-9821

Internship Outline and Objectives

Company and Internship Information

Carters is a major retail clothing organization that specializes in selling children’s clothing across America. Established in 1865 Carters is now one of the fastest growing retailors after acquiring Oshkosh B’Gosh in 2005. They are now two of the most recognizable brands in the marketplace. These brands are sold in leading department stores, national chains, and specialty retailers domestically and internationally. They are also sold through more than 600 Company-operated stores in the United States and Canada and on-line.Recently Carters made the decision to consolidate its out of state jobs and into a new facility here in Midtown. Along with the move came openings for about 200 jobs. In October of this year they are planning to change facilities and move to the Phipps Towers to hold the headquarters. This will allow the space for the extra employees they plan to bring aboard.

The Store Systems Project Manager/Analyst reports to the Senior Manager of Store Systems and provides technical/project management support for all Store Systems including maintenance and enhancements for the POS and other store related systems. Carters Retail IT department is dedicated to making sure the employees at the store level have all of the programs and tools needed to operate on a daily basis. The Retail Information Technology Services division handles new systems development including analysis and project management, enhancement/maintenance of existing systems, troubleshooting incidents, user requests and configuration setup. This position is also responsible for the rollout of new releases, including writing test plan, regression testing, quality assurance and release/change management. Provide technical support for POS terminals/peripherals, WAN configuration and Internet Applications (eTime). We work collaboratively with the Retail Store community, other analysts/project managers, 3rd party vendors, software engineering teams and the IT technical teams in Georgia to provide timely problem resolution.

Objectives:

  • Provide technical input during the selection, design, development and testing of POS related hardware and software.
  • Project Manager for the implement of new/enhancements to Store Systems.
  • Define and/or modify procedures to solve complex problems taking into consideration equipment capacity/limitations, operating time and desired results.
  • Assist in the installation and configuration of systems.
  • Understand and help define/refine the system and data needs of the Retail Store division.
  • Engage the Retail business to understand their needs and issues and collaboratively develop technical and/or process solutions.
  • Proactively seek ways to enhance the Store Systems performance by identifying strengths/weaknesses and suggesting areas of improvement.
  • Perform on-going trend and problem analysis. Ensure that issues are identified, tracked, reported on and resolved in a timely manner including root cause analysis.
  • Participate as a key member of the Store Systems support team as an escalation path for Retail Store teams and Epicor Help Desk. This includes participation in the on call rotation for off-hours support.
  • Perform system administration and configuration management for the Epicor Retail Store POS application. This requires a thorough understanding of the systems functionality and how it is applied to Carters business process.
  • This position reports directly to the Senior Manager of Store Systems and has no direct reports.
  • Serve as a Project Manager or support team member for various project initiatives.
  • Work with the Network and Retail IT community to help manage the maintenance of all Retail Store Systems.
  • Suggest areas for improvement in internal processes along with possible solutions
  • Work collaboratively to bring issues to resolution

A list of specific tasks to achieve the objectives:

  1. Work together with the network design team when building or developing POs hardware and software to input my knowledge as to what will help make it easier and more user friendly for the end user.
  2. Partner with the retail teams to get an idea of what enhancements would allow them to become more efficient at the store level along with using my 9 plus years of Store manager experience to help guide the Store Systems team.
  3. Work with different vendors and space planning teams using floor plans to make sure that we use all allocate all usable resources and take advantage of spacing opportunities.
  4. Make sure the Hughes, Granite, and Epicor all are scheduled for installations and that all networks are working before they depart the stores.
  5. Use the resources that I have and knowledge to team up with my team members to make issues that often pop up on emails and through weekly conference calls are looked at o see what we can do to make these issues disappear.
  6. Work with Sales Audit on a daily basis to ensure that all transactions show up in the Tlogs.
  7. Also working with the Sales Audit team, I check a missing and unused report every morning to see why a store did not poll or was not used. I then reach out to the store or LANDesk into the store remotely to resolve the issue.
  8. Monitor emails sent to Store Systems, take necessary steps to resolve the issue by either escalating it to the proper vendor or taking care of it in house, or find the right division to forward the emails to.
  9. For new stores and remodels, I use a NEW Store Software Updates for to send down all of the necessary updates and make sure that all of the proper logos, names, addresses, and pricing are taken care off.
  10. Daily, I partner with the department that handles the coupons and send coupons updates down to the stores daily.
  11. Daily, I put together an email and converse with my manager to update issues and resolutions done throughout the day.

Milestones:

July 8, 2013- July 10, 2013

Introduction into the company

Finish Internship orientation and become acquainted with systems

July 30, 2013

Become Proficient in using remote access to configure network POS Terminals

Learn how to complete a full software update on new and remodeled locations

August 31, 2013

Become proficient in SQL

Understand how to troubleshoot multiple issues within the network

Learn different parts of the Information Technology retail division

September 31, 2013 Become proficient in the tax process and SQL scripts for the needed locations Learn how to use the proper Command prompts to troubleshoot issues

November 31, 2013

Fully understand the Pricing division and how they handle pricing issues reported from the retail and store levels

December 14, 2013

Complete Internship and hopefully become a member of the Carters team