Systems Analyst at Convenient Food Marts of PA
Convenient Food Marts of PA is a chain of food marts in Pennsylvania. Each store is unique and operated by a franchisee of CFM of PA. CFM of PA is owned by Chris Gilchrist. He acquired the franchise four years ago and is now the president of CFM of PA. The corporate office is located in Clark Summit, PA. This summer, July 2016, CFM opened its 31st location in Wilkes-Barre. Chris has been in the convenient mart/gas station business for 20 years prior to his acquisition of CFM of PA. Each location has a franchisee responsible for the daily operations of that mart. CFM has locations all throughout Pennsylvania.
What I learned from my experience first and foremost was how to conduct myself in a professional manner. This includes communicating professionally with Mr. Gilchrist and employees of CFM, creating professional presentations, and developing my leadership skills. These soft skills will be helpful in any job position/title. I learned how to pitch my ideas for software and look for what is useful for particular areas of business in software solutions (this was very similar to the MIS 2501 course). I learned how to create process flow diagrams for business functions (I had prior knowledge of this from MIS 3504). I also learned how to work on the back-end of a POS system to enter product data, organize it in logical ways, and update inventory.
During my full-time (8 week) internship as a Systems Analyst this summer at CFM of PA, I worked both at the corporate office in Clarks Summit and on the site of the new store in Wilkes-Barre. At the corporate office I assisted with installing software to computers and researching software that would benefit the corporate offices functions. I had to prepare presentations using PowerPoint to showcase software I thought would be useful and present to Mr. Gilchrist what value I thought it would provide for his office. I also had to observe the current process flow of how data is collected from each location and make suggestions for improvement using process flow diagrams. My main project was to be on site at the new Wilkes-Barre location prior to it opening. At the store, my first assignment was to compare the price margins for the new store with that of local competitors. I was asked to make adjustments where I saw necessary and present margin comparisons in Excel. I also completed data entry in Excel to create a price catalog for each product and organize it by vendor. Most of my daily responsibility on the site was to enter product data into the Point of Sales system for hundreds of products. I had to create UPCs for products from local vendors that did not have any. I also had to organize the product data into both categories and departments in the POS for easy lookup. As the store received product I completed inventory maintenance through the POS system. This internship put some of the things I have practiced in my classes into practical use and showed me their real world applications. It was also very interesting to see all that goes into setting up a POS system and all the data entry it takes.