Internship at Subaru of America
At the end of May 2016, I began a year-long IT internship at Subaru of America in Cherry Hill, NJ. SOA is the United States distributor of Subaru brand vehicles and has a network of over 600 retailers throughout the country. As an IT intern, I have had a lot of exposure to many different aspects of the IT department but my primary role is working with the Siebel CRM team. Currently, our main project is gathering business requirements for our upcoming release of Generation 2 vehicles and how the Telematics on those vehicles will exist. Billing, subscription, and Telematics services for Generation 1 models were all supported by Sirius XM, but due to recent business decisions, the Gen 2 Telematics will be handled by WirelessCar, billing/subscription by Aria, and WiFi by AT&T. So there is a lot that goes into making this change and it is a great experience for me because I get to attend meetings with these different vendors and watch how these integrations will take place and also the complexity of this change. Another project I’m working on is reviewing Request for Information documents from different Dealer Management System (DMS) providers to decide which DMS will provide the best Digital Service Advisor(DSA). I have created a spreadsheet that maps out the different capabilities that each DSA can perform and will have further correspondence with each DMS provider to make clarifications and ask specific questions I may have such as can each DSA integrate with another providers’ DMS. Working closely with Business Analysts has been the most beneficially part of my internship because it is most likely the position I would have to begin my career after graduation. I have also had some experience doing work with another team where I have written SQL queries to retrieve specific data. The mixture of technology and business is essential because it directly corresponds with what I have learned throughout the MIS program at Temple. It would be ideal if I was offered a position at SOA by the end of my internship, but if not, I will have learned an array of skills that I will be able to leverage to start my professional career elsewhere.