Assignment-One

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Assignment 1_Mr Yannick Fitzsimmons_s3689469_s3689469@student.rmit.edu.au

Personal Information

I was born to a French (New Caledonian) mother and a New Zealand father (Scottish heritage) in Box Hill Victoria, Melbourne, 1985. Sadly my French is below average. I grew up and lived in several locations throughout my childhood. These places ranged from Melbourne, Sydney, New Caledonia, back to Melbourne, Gold Coast, New Zealand (various locations on the North Island) and then back to the Gold Coast where I finished my high school education. A year after finishing high school I joined the ARMY and moved to Townsville, QLD. I served in the Australian Army for approximately 8 years and 6 months, serving on various operational deployments. After finishing my career in the ARMY I worked in the mining industry, predominately as a machine operator in underground coal for approximately 22 months. From the mining industry I moved back into the defence industry as a civilian contractor. The company I work for provides a wide range of exercise support for simulation based training to the ARMY. I have worked in roles such as a training analyst supporting ARMY trainers deliver training packages to soldiers, to a technical manager who supports project managers to build the capability of our programme. I have always had some interest in finance and investment. From this interest, I slowly built my knowledge on personal finance and investment practices until 2016 where I decided to enrol in a Diploma of Financial Planning. I managed to complete this in 2017. From there I decided to apply and enrol in a Bachelor of Business, Majoring in Financial Planning. This has been a part time adventure whilst I juggle full time work, kids and the rest of lifes pleasures. So far I am 12 subjects finished, 12 subjects to with introduction to IT being one of RMITs core subjects for this degree. Living in North Queensland rewards the enthusiast of all things ocean and outdoors (minus the nice surf beaches). Having a boat is part of the lifestyle here. Having a boat enables you to explore the hundreds of reefs that are off the coast and the several Islands as well. When not fishing or diving I can be found playing numerous sports and outdoor activities, doing study or wrangling my 3 children.

Interest In IT

What is your interest in IT? When did your interest in IT start

I was never much of a serious gamer or IT devotee but I did enjoy the benefits and endless capability that IT possesses. From my career in the defence force where technology and IT had become a crucial component of both simulation training and using IT based equipment in battlefield integration. When I commenced my career working for a defence tech company, IT skills and capability were at the forefront of simulation technology and a crucial component of the operation. Not having an IT background, the discovery of some of the capabilities of both IT staff and equipment was impressive. My interest has developed as the IT capability that my company offers has developed. This ranges from the IT staffs skills, equipment such as remotely synching telecommunications and wifi to remote training areas, servers, numerous evolutions of software down to the basic internal staff operations utilising Zoom, Microsoft, VBS gaming and cloud based storage and file sharing. Although I dont have the skill sets of a systems administrator, audio visual technician or software developer, I do have to liaise and coordinate these staff members with those skill sets on a daily basis to achieve the same goal and outcome. After completing my diploma in Financial Planning and deciding that completing a Bachelor of Business was going to be more beneficial for my career in the long term, I set out to short list which universities would offer a competitive programme. The Financial adviser standards and ethics authority (FASEA) had shortlisted several universities that it recognised as having suitable programmes. From those universities, RMIT was one of the only universities that offered full online learning capability and was recognised by FASEA. The end goal from my studies is to achieve a degree in a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Financial Planning. The focus within this end goal is to learn as much as possible throughout all the various subjects to position myself to be not only be a qualified Financial Planner, but a highly competent one as well. The non business subjects such as IT will enable me to broaden my skill sets and value add to my career in the future. Eventually living the dream, working for myself and offering clients of all wealth sizes an opportunity to improve on their financial situations.

Ideal Job

The Position

The opportunity and flexibility to work part time and build your client portfolio is highly appealing. This suits my intentions of moving towards a work week of 20-35 hours instead of 40+ hours. The company are interested in a candidate who has energy and a genuine desire to help people financially. This role involves all the facets of an experienced financial planner and provides the opportunity to control your workload and client base.

Skills, qualifications and experience required

The role requires a planner with at least some experience in a majority of the technical aspects of a financial planner. There is significant emphasis on the person having attributes which are not specifically technical or education related. These required skills allude to personal individual skills such as: work ethic, empathy, sense of humour, energy and ability to work independently. These “must have” attributes are not necessarily taught in tertiary education but have been collected over time and with experience. A bachelors degree is a minimum, with a graduate diploma enhancing your resume. A wide range of above average IT skills is required, ranging from Microsoft office to Xplan (Financial Planning specific software).

What Skills, qualifications and experience do I currently have

During my 24+ years of employment, I have gained valuable skills that can be utilised within the Financial Planning industry. These include working under pressure and to deadlines, team work and team leadership and management, problem solving and a sense of humour in adverse conditions. The past 8 years have enabled me to develop my skill sets further in a business and professional environment. From an education viewpoint, I have completed a diploma in Financial planning and have completed 12 subjects of a Bachelor of Business degree (24 subjects required). The subjects completed are primarily business and Financial Planning orientated, ranging from; economics, accounting, superannuation, insurance and portfolio management.

The plan towards my ideal job

My primary goal is to continue studying part time to complete my Bachelor of Business while maintaining my full time employment. In the next 12-18 months I have confirmed an opportunity to join a holistic financial company. This company provides a range of services ranging from taxation, financial planning, mortgage lending and business development. I will commence on a 2 year graduate programme until I have achieved full qualification and certification. The completion of certification will be a final financial planning exam to gain my license to be work a representative of a licensed business.

Personal Profile

Myers Briggs Test

Online Learning Style test

Creativity Test

Testing result summary

From my work history and experience, I have developed a good understanding of my predominate personality traits. The results provided from these tests are not that much of a surprise to me. There are some positives and negatives to some of these traits. From these results it allows me to be conscious of my personality within any given team. I maintain awareness of some traits such as being extraverted and too energetic at times. This has to be catered to suit the other members of a team. I naturally like to assume a leadership role and coordinate tasks, but can be happy to assume a back seat if needed for other individuals. I find that I can work pretty well with most individuals, even if polar opposites in traits and personality. As long as the work load is evenly shared I can be very flexible when forming a team.

IT Project Idea

Project Summary

The app would be designed predominately for mobile phones, smart phones being essential. It would allow local businesses to provide their sale items and their sales prices to users of the app. The businesses would be your local retailers and consumer goods stores such as bakeries, butchers, corner stores bottle shops and any other stores that have small goods and services to sell. The user of the app would enter in their preference of goods they are looking to buy. This information provided by the businesses would connect with the user and provide the user the best value, prices and sale items in their immediate vicinity (users mobile service GPS) as a notification.

The Why

Sometimes it can take a considerable effort to scroll through websites looking for the best price or bargain of a product you are after. Pair this up with trying to fit bargain attainment into your day to day life when you are going from one place to the other. I found sometimes my mind was elsewhere on other matters and would love a notification telling me that the fancy craft beer I wanted is on sale at the best price, just around the corner from where I am walking. No need to search multiple sites to see the best deal, the app has informed me on my way to get a coffee. Put that down as time and dollars saved.

What is the App

The User-

This app will provide the user the option to list some items on the app they want to purchase; Eye fillet for tonight’s BBQ, specific bottle of red or a specific brand or type of BBQ to cook that eye fillet or even a new cordless drill to finish that home project in the next few weekends. This can be done by the user whenever they want, and the user can prioritise their desired items in the app if needed; today, tomorrow, next week or next month. Once this information is uploaded from the user in their individual profile, the app will price hunt and data source all local retailers for the best price and availability on the users requested items. The app will utilise the users GPS from their smart phone. When the user is nearby/ within close proximity of a desired product, the app will notify the user on price and availability. It will also compare that product to identical ones in other retailer locations, asking the user if they want to purchase this item close by or wait.

The retailer/ vendor

The retailer or vendor gets the opportunity to upload their products, prices, specials and availabilities via the app. This can be sourced from the meta data provided from their logistics and supply chain documentation, stocktake data or receipt of goods. The retailer provides all their basic business details and has the option to continually provide information on clearance sales or specials. The more up to date their information, the better they provide for the consumer. The app will use the information provided by the retailers and deliver that to users as a price comparison. It will show that retailer 1 has a Ryobi cordless drill for $100, retailer 2 has the same price for $95 but is positioned 1 km further away from users current position. Additional features can include: same store loyalty rewards, automatic payment setup such as paypal and projected travel time information to the neighbouring stores. The user will be able to stream line or focus their search on products such as petrol stations, food and groceries, fast food and takeaway stores, alcohol stores, pet food stores and fashion items. The meta data collected from searches and successful transactions will enable the app to develop better recommendations for both parties.

Tools and technologies required

The 2 main smart phone systems will be targeted; Android and Iphone/ IOS. The product called “Appmakr” allows development for both Android and I phone without needing extensive coding knowledge. The product “Conduit Mobile” offers more capability to niche products which would suit this project idea. These products will come with various costs.

Required Skills

The products mentioned are able to create a suitable app without the need for extensive knowledge in coding. The development would require the expertise of IT personnel, business and marketing personnel would also benefit this product idea.

Outcome

This app would enable vendors to connect their competitive prices and suitability to potential consumers. Consumers would mostly benefit with time being saved of having the app source the product you want, at the price you want and advising you where to purchase this product. It would essentially outsource the bargain hunting for the consumer and enable the vendors to remain visible with potential consumers.