SEKANEWANA LEWIS F (R2013125Y)

FACULTY OF COMMERCE

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ATTACHMENT REPORT For the year 2015

PURPOSE/ABSTRACT This report is prepared in partial fulfilment of the Bachelor of Commerce Honors Degree in Business Management and Information Technology a requirement by the Catholic University of Zimbabwe, that every 3rd year student has to undergo a yearlong industrial attachment in order to acquire Industrial knowledge and experience in a bid to bridge the gap between the theory learnt prior to attachment and the actual corporate practice. Data was gathered through carrying out specific tasks, sharing ideas, observation and experimental work. The main goal behind this report is to give the conceptual view of the department and how it fits in the overall performance of the organization. It is also an analysis, evaluation and assessment of whether the department is complying with the recommended information and technology practices.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSMy sincere gratitude and acknowledgement goes out to the old mutual, CABS OPERATIONS & HELPDESK teams that have been actively involved in my development this entire year of 2015. The wealth of knowledge shared, the impartation of skill not just on a professional level but also the development of my personal gifts that have long lay dormant is just but a sample of what this organization has enriched me with. Special mention and thanks to various Shift Leaders I worked with for their patient and steadfast dedication in assisting with my development throughout my attachment period. It has been an honour, I hope to receive such an honour again of working with you in the near future. Special recognition also extends to my family for their continual much needed support and making sure I get the best life has to offer.

Over and above all would also like to acknowledge greatly the help and guidance from the Lord God our heavenly father for being there for me and continuously blessing me with endless opportunities.

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CONTENTS PAGE

CHAPTER 1 - back ground to industrial attachment

-preface …………………………………………………………….. 6

-executive summary ………………………………………………… 7

-company’s mission & values ………………………………………. 8

-organogram ………………………………………………………….9

CHAPTER 2 - Review of related literature

-history of internship…………………………………………………11

-management theory view……………………………………………13

-benefits of hiring attaches……………………………………………14

-extra related literature………………………………………………. 15

CHAPTER 3 –METHODOLOGY

-interviews……………………………………………………………17

-observation……………………………………………………………19

- SWOT analysis……………………………………………………... 20

CHAPTER 4- INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCES

-Day shift tasks…………………………………………………………21

-night shift tasks…………………………………………………………26

- Helpdesk duties ……………………………………………………….31

CHAPTER 5- SUMMARY

-recommendations to the IT Dept……………………………………… 34

-recommendations to the university………………………………………35

-conclusion………………………………………………………………36

-Social pictures…………………………………………………………383

PREFACE In an effort to try and train graduates who possess academic, technical, and professional skills and knowledge, the CATHOLIC University of Zimbabwe Faculty Of Commerce, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & IT, has seen it fit to develop a curriculum which enables students to have one year for Industrial attachment period during their four year course program.

The period tries to expose students to an intellectual and professional environment hence moulding and preparing them to compete in the job market. This gives them hands-on interactive experience with the work environment. They are given a chance to blend theory from the university with the real work situation in the industry. Having completed a year in a working environment, graduates will be armed with the knowledge; experience and expertise needed to tackle the problems that are encountered in the industry and it will lead to the growth of the economy at large.

It is in compliance with this background that I joined OLDMUTUAL (CABS) for my industrial attachment, on 05 JANUARY 2015.

It gives me great pride, joy and honor to present my attachment report, having been able to match theory to practice has made me a better competent student and more prepared to complete the remaining part of my degree. I believe I may have managed to Grasp content of what is expected of me in the industry and I can now answer some of the unsolved questions in my field of IT. This document serves to report on all of the departments and sections that I have covered in a clear and understandable manner. I hope the reader will be able to go through the report without any difficulty as emphasis was on clarity of its presentation as well as the soundness of its approach.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The idea of this report is to put in plain words the experience of the writer during the industrial attachment period. It shows the details of the company its formation; core values the activities of each and every department, the activities of each and every department.

It also shows the link between the theoretical skills at school and the practical work environment. The industrial attachment period was twelve months and this report shows the personal experiences of the author and the experience obtained during the attachment period.

The data used in coming up with this report was mainly taken from the personal experience of the writer, the information from other members of the staff as well as the observations by the writer.

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INTRODUCTIONCABS is an established and strong brand name in the financial retail market in Zimbabwe. The Society offers a diverse range of financial products and services that includes transaction and savings accounts, mobile banking, mortgage loans, money market investments, term deposits and pay-roll loans.

ICT OMSS (Old mutual Shared Services) Computer Operations department at CABS Central Avenue Data Centre that’s where was working for 10 months & the other 2 months at Old mutual Head office , working at the moment and the OMSS department it’s a combination of many departments Networking, Database management, Infrastructure maintenance and lastly Banking Support. Computer operations mans and operates servers that are located at the three computer sites namely

Live site – located at Central Ave

DR site – located in the 1st Street Branch basement

Development Site – located at Mutual Gardens

MISSION STATEMENTWe will be a world class provider of secure innovative and profitable financial services delivered by motivated staff for delighted clients.

The statement above shows that CABS have their customers at heart.

CABS has about fifty seven branches operating nationwide and the vision shows that the society has the customers at heart and is willing to help the customers dreams become a reality.

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Values For an organization to be successful there must be a set of rules, regulations and a code of conduct that governs the organization’s activities and which the organization’s employees have to abide by in order to meet the organization’s mission and finally achieve the laid down objectives. Thus for CABS, these include:

Accountability

Integrity

Respect

Pushing beyond boundaries

All these values are brought together by ACT NOW!

Aim high and take your team with you

Customer first - they're the reason we're here

Treat the business like it's our own

Need to listen carefully and talk honestly

Own our decisions - decide and deliver

Win together - help others succeed

CABS STAKEHOLDERSCABS is a subsidiary of the Old Mutual Zimbabwe Limited which is a diversified financial service provider. OMZIL has interests in banking, life assurance, property, unit trusts, investment as well as security.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCECABS is devoted to put into practice and to maintain of the highest standards of corporate governance. As a result CABS operates within the framework of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance and Best Practice implemented through the offices of the Board of Directors. The Board of directors consists of both executive and non-executive directors, who monitor operational and financial activities through conducting regular meetings, through the closely controlled implementation of internal controls and systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THESE COMMITTEES

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Board of directors

The Board of Directors includes Executive and Non-Executive Directors who are chosen for their expertise, business intelligence and skills. The board is responsible for devising strategies and the direction of the organization. They meet regularly to monitor executive performance and progress against set objectives and to devise ways to improve the performance.

Risk and Compliance Management Committee

This committee ensure compliance with own policies and procedures and international best practice in risk management. Monitor regulatory compliance and make sure that the organization comply the agreed statutory requirements. They conduct their meetings on a quarterly basis and need be they can have more meetings.

Credit Committee

It consists of senior executives, the chairperson is a non-executive director and is independent and the deputy chairperson is an executive director who is appointed by the board of directors. Its main function is to implement policies to control the organization and its credit exposure. It is this committee that approves or decline loan applications.

Executive Committee

The executive committee points out the duties of the company’s board of directors relating to the transaction of regular, organizational matters that occur between regularly planned meetings of the board of directors

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Organisational Structure

Every organization must have a structure in order to achieve its set objectives. Failing to structure the organization properly may cost the organization because it may be unable to utilize opportunities and to put in place strategies to cope with any threats in the business activities. Old mutual acquired full takeover of CABS & has total control of the hiring of personnel, hence have the Group director at the top of the hierarchy, followed by executive management, departmental bosses and the rest of employees at the bottom. Due to the companies big structure the writer created the organogram of the IT department only;

The above diagram tries to illustrate the structure of IT department & its sub departments:

Application support- this was a group of 6 employees who specialised is application & software development.

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ICT MANAGER

APPLICATION SUPPORT MANAGER

INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGER

DATABASE SUPPORT BANKING SUPPORT

TEAM LEADER

TEAM MEMBERS

TEAM LEADER

TEAM MEMBERS

SPECIALIST

SUPPORT CREW OPERATIONS TEAM MANAGER

SHIFT LEADER

SHIFT MEMBERS

NETWORKS

TEAM LEADER

TEAM MEMBERS

HELP DESK

Infrastructure – this team had the responsibility of repairing broken machines& devices & also provide new hardware to new employees. This team consisted of 7 members.

Database support- this was a very small team consisting of 3 members who had total access to the companies database & were the ones responsible to update, repair, & backup offsite.

Banking support- this team constituted the large part in numbers of the IT department (40). This team was responsible in supporting CABS in its day to day operating, thus shift work which required employees to be @ work 24/7.it was the only team which had most members not working at he head office.

Networks- this team was responsible for the connection of the whole organisation nation-wide without room for failure. Consisted of 10 members.

The helpdesk – this was the first line support platform whereby employees would request their query/ challenge and the team would know which department to give that particular request. Consisted of 5 members.

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CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF RELATED LIETARATURE

This chapter builds a conceptual framework by looking at a thorough review of related literature this involves the history of internships and management theory on industrial attachment.

During the course of the attachment period theories, skills, concepts and knowledge imparted on the student by the University were very relevant to the industrial attachment experience and assisted the writer in carrying out the duties and tasks expected successfully.

Over years the placement of internships have become increasingly visible in the curricula of universities. It is now widely recognised not only that placements are beneficial, but that, as competition for jobs intensifies, work experience is becoming an essential component of an applicant’s CV within the post-graduation employment market Internship has in many instances proven to be a relevant and vital component of university education.

The relevance and necessity of internship can be derived from its objectives and benefits outlined below :

-To apply theory into practise in a work environment.

-To carry out research activities that will benefit industry/commerce and the university.

-Develop a liaison between industry and commerce and the university.

-Have hands on working experience.

-To strengthen your professional skills and interpersonal relationships in professional settings.

-Appreciate the importance of human relationship and work attitudes.

-Understand the constraints of working life and functional relationship within and between organizations.

-Be orientated towards work processes.

-Develop work attitudes like curiousness, self-confidence, maturity and self-reliance.

-Obtaining knowledge of potential careers develop new areas of interest.

Therefore Academic internships are defined as an opportunity to integrate work-related experience into graduate education by participating in scheduled and supervised work.

These real-world experiences are an integral component of an academic program and provide students with the opportunity to develop not only work skills but also an understanding of the workplace. The quality of internship learning heavily depends on the quality of feedback and supervision by both the company and the business schools.

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Early studies have shown that internship students improve their academic performance as well as their professional performance compared to students who do not follow an internship—thereby building a strong resume. Students have the opportunity to acquire valuable experience by integrating the knowledge they gain during their studies in a real-world setting.

For example, the students have the possibility to gain appreciation of professional careers and specific skills needed for success in their chosen profession. These experiences provide more realistic job expectations for students and they can help develop good working habits and other personal qualities by following an internship. For example, students become more confident in order to contribute towards enhancing the early employment experiences.

Students also enhance their interpersonal and communication skills during an internship. As a consequence, students will receive sooner and more high-quality job offers.

However In Zimbabwe because of growing number of universities producing graduates each year and dwindling employment opportunities employers have raised the stake by looking for those graduates who are self-starters and who have gone through the working environment .There has been much concern on the quality of practical experience the students gain in the job market on their industrial attachment .

Many employers who take students on attachment do not provide adequate on the job training as required by the university .Some end up doing menial jobs and never really do the essentials of the job .Some employers find cheap labour in these students since some will not be offering these students any form allowance.

In 2009, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE 2009) in the United States found that despite the reduction in hiring, students who followed an internship had a distinct advantage to obtain a job above non-internship students. A recent study in the UK has shown similar results (McDonald et al. 2010). However, there are also some drawbacks for students. For example, recent development has shown that students feel exploited by the employers who hire interns without financial compensation. A second drawback is that the learning objectives are not always clear although they play an important role in order to get the most out of the internship experience.

While there is “ample” evidence on the practical benefits of internships, there has been less research into the exact role internships play in the teaching of business. Early research into learning theory has highlighted the importance of teaching students how to apply the knowledge and concepts they have acquired through previous coursework (Bloom, 1956).

However, there has been significant criticism of the effectiveness of business schools in reaching this goal. Candy and Crebert (1991) argue that business students are well-versed in theories and knowledge, but lack the ability to solve business problems.

The seminal study by Porter and McKibben (1988) concluded that business programs are too narrow and disconnected from the real world of business. Some of these problem has been attributed to a perceived

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disconnect between the abstract and theoretical bias of business schools and the pragmatic needs of the business world (Angelidis et al, 2004).

Management theory view of internship

Management theories that focus on motivation, training and efficiency support the view that students who undergo attachment perform better at the workplace .How these type of theories support the view will be outlined below:

Motivation

Students who had gone through the attachment will get to industry motivated to do better than they did on attachment. This may be because of a variety of reasons including the prospect of getting more remuneration and promotion & that of raising the university's flag high. This will ensure that they perform better than those who did not go for attachment as everything will be new to them and they will not know what to expect or what is expected of them from the organization. This feeling of uncertainty lower the individuals level of performance.

Efficiency

Efficiency is achieved by an employee when he/she is able to produce the most whilst utilizing the least resources. A student who has gone for attachment would have acquired knowledge of how company resources should be used to reduce wastage and increase efficiency. Thus, when compared in industry after completing their programs, a student who did attachment will more likely be more efficient than one who did not because of the knowledge he has.This will result in that student outperforming those that did not go for attachment.

Furco (1996) defines Internship have been viewed by different researchers as offering a diversity of benefits to the student intern. They engage the intern in service activities primarily for the purpose of providing them

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with hands-on experience that enhances their learning or understanding of issues relevant to a particular area of study. They assist the internee to bridge the gap between the academic learning process and the practical reality (Furco, 1996; Lam and Ching, 2007). McMahon and Quinn (1995) note that internship is supervised work experiences where students are closely supervised. Research highlighting the importance of relevant practical experience for students has been carried out (Mounce et al, 2004) but the effects of these internships on the success of the intern to transfer the field practice into the actual workplace engagement needs follow up

(Beard and Morton, 1999). The importance of internships have also been established in recruiting decisions by employers (Pasewark et al, 2001) and research studies in accounting internships have shown improved subsequent academic performance (English and Koeppen, 1993)

The internship programme contributes significantly and positively towards enhancing the knowledge base and motivational level of students (Beard, 1998).

The best outside classroom learning activities are through an internship attachment (Burnett, 2003). Several studies have reported the benefits of internship programmes in conventional colleges and universities on the rationale in offering attachments as part of the academic programme, to the conventional student who at most is graduating out of high school he/she benefits through gaining experience and exposure. Further benefits include improvements in career-related direction, gaining practical experience (Lubbers, 2001), improved marketability of graduates (Swift and Kent, 1999; Hymon-Parker, 1998), interpersonal skills (Beard and Morton,

1999) and understanding of the theories of classroom learning (Cook et al., 2004; Hymon-Parker, 1998).

However, unlike the conventional student intern, the ODL intern is at times already an experienced employee and has already made up his/her mind on a career choice. To further cement this view, http://polisci.osu.edu/ugrads/internship.pdf and Scott (1992) state that internship is the best way for students to explore the suitability of a particular job.

Benefits to the employer for getting attaches

Can evaluate the student for potential full time employment. The employer is able to employ the students after they

have graduated .This is very beneficial as there will be no need of retraining or organizational orientation .Also , the student will get straight to work on employment as he/she already knows their way around the organization and its processes.

Gives the employer access to quality candidate’s .The employer can select students from reputable institutions and thus screen candidates to ensure that they maintain a standard in terms of their workforce performance.

Students contribute new ideas to the work place .As they will usually be in bid to impress their supervisors, students will usually come up with new and innovative ideas to improve organization processes. These will highly benefit the company as they can get new ideas for a very low or even zero cost from the student.

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Cost effective .Interns are very cost effective for an organization .This is because it is not mandatory to pay them a salary but maybe just a small allowance to cater for transport and food. The cost effectiveness is in the fact that an intern is able to do the same amount or even more work than a full time employee but paid a very small allowance. This may increase the business profits.

Benefits to the University

Strengthen ties with organisations students are attached too .For those students who get full time employment from the internship as the students will have developed an attachment to the school that gave him the skills to be where he is. Also, the students will have proven to be worth the opportunity.

Curriculum can benefit through feedback from employer’s .The university is able to update its degree content based on feedback for companies in industry .This will enable the University’s degree programme to stay relevant and marketable as it will always be in line with industry requirements.

Challenges faced in internships

Most students in previous studies felt confused on who should arrange the internships (Gault et al., 2000).

Asked who should be responsible for arranging their internship placement, the majority of interns feel faculty should work for their placement (Tackett et al., 2001; Maskooki et al., 1998).

Previous research studies also show that internship periods were too shot and the majority of interns think that the most appropriate internship period should be six months (Oliver, 2010; Mihail, 2006). Mihail (2006) also found in his study that most of the interns preferred to have internship periods ranging from six to nine months instead of three months. This indicated that interns are willing to have a longer internship period and believe that they can learn more within a six month period. Oliver (2010) remarks that the short amount of time an internship lasts really never lets the student become a fully functional employee because there is not so much to take in for them.

According to some, internships bring about discord among workers in a variety of ways. Perlin (2011) says this is sometimes so since internships displace paid workers and allow companies to dodge liabilities through the non-payment of intern labour. Interns accept the post at no price to survive the duration of the internship.

According to Rothman (2007) and Cannon and Arnold (1998) at times complaints have been raised against employers for treating the interns as cheap labour.

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Supervision of interns has been cited as being problematic. Qualified staff to supervise the interns has been in short supply (Tackett et al., 2001; Gault et al., 2000). Universities should be responsible to ensure that internships are offering meaningful learning experiences for their students. According to Tackett et al. (2001), students feel that there should be careful examination of feedback from employers and interns followed by the modification of the internship programme accordingly.

To conclude Some of the theoretical courses that were very relevant to the student’s industrial attachment include which other people don’t recognise:

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

This course learnt in first year of student’s studies was a robust foundation for the student during the attachment for both oral and written communication. Communication skills course equipped the student on how to communicate well with colleagues, supervisors and managers at the company. Moreover, This course enabled the student to be fully immersed and fit well into the organisation.

ETHICS

Principles learnt in this course were useful to the student on a daily basis. This course groomed to the student to be broad minded resultantly, the student was able to develop and retain good working relations with colleagues. The course also enforced the importance of accepting diversity and this helped the student to work well with colleagues of different backgrounds and values. Attributes of integrity, loyalty and togetherness which were fostered into the student during this course, enabled the student to be a good team player.

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

In order to give a better description on how I went about collecting my data ,the writer partook an intensive data capturing techniques such as interview, observation attending meetings, as the first attaché to work for the operations department some techniques such as viewing past attachment reports couldn’t be implemented.

Methodology is defined as the way in which information is found or something is done. It refers to more than a simple set of methods; that is the rationale and the philosophical assumptions that underlie a particular study (Creswell, 2003). Research Design is a term that covers a number of separate but related issues associated with a research study. These issues are; the aims of the research, the final selection of the appropriate methodology, the data collection techniques intended to be used, the chosen methods of data analysis and data interpretation (White, 2000).

Research Philosophy

Research is defined as an active, diligent and systematic process of inquiry in order to discover, interpret or revise facts, events, behaviours, or theories or to make practical applications with the help of such facts, laws or theories, (McNamara 1999).

The use of interviews as a data collection method helped the writer a lot, it began with the fact of knowing the participants’ perspectives are meaningful, knowable, as the participants were the permanent staff members who had more experience in the day to day running.

The writer used Interviews because they can be used at any stage of the evaluation process. During the interview the writer would ask the fellow work mates simple questions such as:

What does the department look and feel like to the participants/ and the clients?

What do other departments which are in day - day linking with the IT department know about new projects & procedures?

What thoughts do fellow workmates feel about the system?

What are participants’ and stakeholders’ expectations?

What features of the new changes are most salient to the participants?

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What changes do participants perceive in themselves as a result of their involvement in the company's day - day running?

Advantages of using this technique:

The writer yielded richest data, details, and new insights at 1st hand.

Permit face-to-face contact with respondents gave the writer feel of things just by seeing the facial expression on the participant when expressing something.

Provide opportunity to explore topics in depth e.g. bonus & overtime payment.

Allowed the writer to experience the affective as well as cognitive aspects of responses.

Allowed the writer to explain or help clarify questions, increasing the likelihood of useful responses.

Allowed the interviewer to be flexible in administering interview to particular individuals or in particular circumstances.

Disadvantages of using this technique:

Time-consuming as it would interrupt with our work.

Interviewee may distort information through recall error.

Selective perceptions, desire to please interviewer was seen as some would withdraw their statements after hearing the boss would see this document.

Flexibility can result in inconsistencies across interviews.

Volume of information very large; may be difficult to transcribe and reduce data.

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Observation

Observations were useful to the writer during both the formative and summative phases of evaluation the data collected.

During the formative phase, observations were useful in determining whether or not the service provided is being delivered and operated as planned.

During the summative phase, observations were used to determine whether or not the service has been successful.

Advantages:

Provided direct information about behaviour of the fellow workmates and other departments groups.

Permitted the writer to enter into and understand situation/context.

Provided good opportunities for identifying unanticipated outcomes.

Exist in natural, unstructured, and flexible setting.

Disadvantages:

Time consuming

Affected behavior of participants who were not used to be working around the writer.

Selective perception of the writer may distort data.

Behaviour or set of behaviours observed may be atypical

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SWOT ANALYSIS

As a way to get data the writer conducted a swot analysis in looking at the variables in the world in which Old Mutual/ CABS is operating in these directly affect the day to day running of the business and as a result there is need to analyse these variables.

There are external forces which also have influence on the activities of the business and management has no control over these forces but however they must respond to these forces positively. To analyse these forces the writer shall look at them using the SWOT analysis matrix and this looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and strengths of old mutual/ CABS.

STRENGTHS

Experienced and qualified staff.

CABS promotes the learning and personal development of its employees and this gives it advantage over other banks, thus it is a learning organisation.

The personnel are highly skilled and they always push beyond boundaries. The success of any business is mostly determined by the employees and with the handwork and the competence which CABS employees have it makes CABS the best.

Uses internationally recognised systems which is heavily consulted by the teminos HQ in India.

Financial stability- old mutual is one of the financially stable companies in zim, & during mid-2015 when the labour laws took the nation by storm, old mutual employees were calm.

Conveniences to clients CABS branches are located all over the country in rural and urban areas so that every client can access the services from anywhere. These branches are located for the convenience of the people. This gives CABS have a large market share in the country because it has established its branches in every area of the country. CABS have many agents all over the country to provide financial services to its clients. With the operations department were I was working we provided a 24/7 support to clients in need.

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WEAKNESSES

Some decisions at CABS need the involvement of the top management when the lower level managers can decide and implement. In the absence of the top management it means that some decisions will not be implemented and continuity will be difficult.

The new system used at CABS called the Temenos 24 has many challenges and the vendors of the system are based in India it takes time for any issue to be resolved because of where they are located.

OPPORTUNITIES

In 2014 there was a survey for 12 banks in the country and CABS was recognized as the best bank in the country. It was found to be the best in terms of growth, market share, profitability as well as the quality of management accounts. This gives CABS the opportunity over other banks in the country to expand even its customer base because of this. Clients are always looking for the best and by being the best bank it means that CABS will attract more customers.

THREATS

Businesses operate in a dynamic environment which is competitive. CABS has many competitors for example

Standard Chartered bank and Stanbic that means that in terms of market share there is a great deal of competition and for CABS to survive it will have to put in place many strategies. Technological competition is another threat in the industry as a result there is needs to improve in order to be competitive.

Log Book

The writer used a daily log book to capture all issues dealt with by the department concerning users. This aided in compiling the report by providing information on duties performed and identifying areas with recurring problems.

The book was also used as a tool for assessing the system’s performance, hence, identifying the need for improvement and for corrective action to take place where necessary. Appendix 2 shows how the data was entered in the log book.

The Internet

Internet researching is a major component of study in modern day education. This tool provided the writer with various information including report writing skills and guidelines as well as information on how to improve performance as an intern and other issues relating to the success of an internship period. Websites such as the Microsoft Office official website and academic forums played a major role in the completion of this report.

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Meetings

The writer took part in the departmental meetings which were mainly aimed at measuring performance, checking on progress, strategizing and coming up with improvement projects. As a means of communication, meetings acted as a platform for the writer to collect necessary data for the report.

Using the methods stated above the writer got a clearer picture of the data he collected which really helped in the formation of the report.

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CHAPTER 4

Presentation of industrial experiences

This section gives a detail of the duties performed by the writer during the industrial attachment period, and justify whether there was any clear cut differences from the theory taught at the university and the one experienced at the work place.

During the first early days as an employee at old mutual we were taught how to answer the phone as per departmental/company standards. As the first line of support we were required to use the right tone on the phone to fellow clients & workmates , and also know all other extensions which the call would need to be transferred too. linking it with the theory taught at school the communication module were there were aspects on how to communicate with other workmates & clients it was quite helpful , and with time was able used to answering & helping one on the phone without any sign of nervousness.

After a few days of being taught the basic stuff we were then put into shifts, thus day / night shift.

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Day shift responsibilities

Sending of daily emails

Electronic mail was a huge part in the day to day operations of the company, we were taught how to fully utilise our outbox & be able to provide assistance to one via the email, & every morning(during the day shift) I would send specific emails to schools which used CABS as their account giving them the previous day account statements & entries . this use of emails is however is of basic knowledge & didn’t require special stuff from school.

RTGS (REAL TIME GROSS SETTLEMENT)

On every normal working day we were required to send an RTGS @ 9, 11 & 1300 hrs ,as the operations team with the right access rights we were the ones responsible to extract this document from the serve then ping the document transferring it to an excel format then send it to the respective recipients . With the stuff taught at school I wasn’t aware of how you extract a certain document from a live server.

Password Resets

On A day to day basis we would receive password reset requests from our Teminos 24 users(banking software), which would require us to give them a new password for their user profiles but would prompt the user to immediately change it ,this password should be a 8+ word which includes upper case, lower case , digits & special characters.

Profile changes

As the operations team we were the ones with the rights to change a user’s profile, for example from bank teller to branch manager each T24 user would have a specific interface they require hence an ordinary teller can’t have the managers interface. The changing of one’s profile was a two way process were one would input & one would authorise.

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Monitoring of services

this was whereby we would monitor, start or stop the services which are currently running monitoring whether there is any need of increasing agents to one particular job so that is executes fast. The normal number of services to be running during the day was 42, anything higher than that wouldn’t be normal & would raise eyebrows when noticed.

Partial & full balance refresh

This was the process of executing a service which enabled to update current bank balances to the exact amount in the account, for example when one uses an Point of Sale terminal to make a transaction to an external account, such record would need to be updated immediately to avoid any fraud chances.

Generator & fire test

This was done on every Wednesday in a bid to know whether we are prepared when there is a power cut & when a fire breaks out. During the generator test we would check the diesel, oil & water levels & the battery terminals & take write down the stats & inform the next coming shift.

During the fire test we would check the barometer for the pressure levels & whether the alarms are ringing.

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Night shift tasks

-Preparing of end of day reports- this was whereby we would extract end of day statements on the company’s major accounts eg Old mutual money market account, & send to the respective recipients who would work on them the next day, failure to prepare & send these statements would mean one would not have work to do that day.

- Reconciliation & merchant files- this was the process of executing a service which would take note of the bank to bank transactions which occurred during the day & making sure the right bank charges were charged. Then send the report to the respected accountants.

- Pre-COB back up- COB (Close of business), executing full system back up before starting the close of business program. Pre COB backup would run for about 1hr- 2hrs

-COB & MONITOR it- this was the major part of night shift, this COB procedure required careful monitoring it, if it might hang on one job the whole system would not function, failure to execute this program would mean the whole entire CABS wouldn’t work the following day. This program executed for 2 and a half hours to 3 hours. End of month COB would run for 6-9 hours.

Card generation- this was the process of creating & and documenting all the new accounts which had been created during the day nation-wide. This procedure also required that we execute an integrity check program to avoid data redundancy.

-placing a hold on an card- often we would get calls at any time of the day from clients who would have lost their cards or might have been stolen. After the right confirmation procedure we would then place a hold onto the card that it gets rejected at any point of sale.

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Month end reports- every month end each one of the team members was tasked with documenting a report based on a particular field, mine was profile changes & new users, the number of requests sent in during the month & use it to find out whether there was any large increase and why, then send the reports to the team leader.

-Post COB back up- this was of disk to tape type of backup executed for around 2 -3 hours

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-post cob files eg finance reports- this was the process of extracting the reports the COB would have produced & send them or save them in a public shared folder.

-Start of day services- this was whereby we would initialise the services which are needed during the course of the day.

-Check 1st street data centre- this was a routine check-up done at the other data centre were would check whether everything is in order & no other abnormalities.

The major highlight of working at the Data centre , has to be when the company bought 4 new world class servers, the changeover process from the old servers to the new ones was really hectic & fascinating, that’s something I got to get a clearer experience fulfilling the notes we learnt at school. The changeover process took about 3 and a half months .

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Help desk duties

All 4 attaches we were rotated & given a chance to work at the head office, THE HELP DESK, for two months.

At the help desk required normal easy basic IT stuff of helping other employees facing challenges which disrupts them from working normally. These items include-

-creation of new users into domain based on particular instructions regarding whether they are permanent/temporary &contract staff ,Extended user access rights as per contract extension details. Creation of new user mail box accounts for new employees & configuring them. Creation new Ms Lync accounts which enables employees to communicate when emails are down.

- Configured my own telephone handset which I will be working with, which consisted of putting it into the company network & enabling it show my personal contact name to others.

- Granted a few users internet access rights thus adding them into the browsers group.

-Unlocked accounts which had been locked out of the system.

- Reset domain passwords.

- Closed requests which had already been done but not changed status.

- installing& Upgraded software crucial to the day to day activities of an employee adobe flash reader for one user.

-Helped users on how to log on a request on helpdesk so that we can assist them on record. Making follow ups on users I had helped earlier whether they are still facing the same problems.

-created the monthly helpdesk stats for the previous month.

-Installed i-tunes for one user so as to help him sync the pics with his ipad for marketing purposes. Installed new available windows updates for a machines which had been long overdue for updates. Installed printer drivers on users machines who weren’t able to connect to the printer.

-Configured new machines to be used by a new employees

-Configured a few I-pads& mobile devices for employees wanting to receive their emails on those devices & also that they may be able to access the company's Wi-Fi

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-Taught how to access the email server of the whole company in instances of reports that one is not seeing the email which was sent to them.

The major highlight of me working at the helpdesk has to be the meetings we had with the Old Mutual’s head of IT for Africa Idesoh Johnson, and other heads of IT in the group accompanied with the Old mutual HR staff from South Africa . Felt very much involved in the company’s proceedings.

Organizations are breed increasingly in today’s multipart society, accordingly; managing is essential as a crucial activity in every organization. Management is not a closed activity it concerns the economic, political, social, legal and ethical aspects through systematic approaches and functions such as planning, organizing, directing and controlling (Lorenzana, 1993). Many theories and contributions were presented to clarify the features and characteristics of management with a robust relationship with implementation in the real world.

Shifting from personal management to scientific management by Taylor was a significant movement towards modern management; Taylor stated some aspects for his theory, to accomplish the best result by scientifically choosing and preparing the workers under the perspective of “science of work”. Furthermore, he believed that efficient training should be provided to workers by practicing than discrimination in the giving tasks.

This theory contributed strongly in the practice of the industrial fields such as scientific engineering in Britain like British Bedaux consultancy and Hans Renold Ltd (Smith &Boyns, 2005) as well as progress in human relation. The administrative theory by Fayol mainly focuses on the management level; he divided management into five roles which are frequently practiced in today’s management, planning by putting the future steps in terms of achieving the required goals, organising the resources, command, coordinate the processes in the organisation and control by comply with the organisation rules. Besides, Fayol added some principles to support the above roles like Specialization/division of labour, authority with responsibility, discipline and more. All these principles are integrated to enhance the administrative role in achieving the organisation’s goals. Fayol’s theory gets unequivocal impact on the British management that appears in the developing of the organizational structures pursuing Fayol’s steps in some of British companies.

Contingency theories confront the “one best way” approach in Fayol’s theory by stating there is no best way to manage or organize a firm, it differs from environment to another; with other words management styles in a firm could be not suitable for another. “Every organization is unique in size, products or services, people, leadership and culture” (Lynch, 2006).This approach yielded approval and interest especially after adding the concept of discrimination of sub-unites of the firm. However, ignoring effectiveness in the cooperation between the environmental characteristics and firm characteristics could mislead to bad selection to the style.

Education, therefore, needs to overhaul not only its content and delivery modes, but also the way it is used to promote the knowledge management process in organisations. Cox and King (2006) concluded that now-a-days, preparing students for future careers has become a priority. A university education is regarded as developing more generic cognitive capabilities, usually assessed by evidence of critical thinking in individual written work (Holian, 2004).

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Majumder (2008) stressed that education looks at the general development of students to give them a wide range of opportunities and choices to prepare them for employment, while industry looks for technicians and employees with specific skills who will fit directly into the system. Cox and King (2006) articulated that different stakeholders value employability differently.

To employers, employability skills reflect the abilities of recent graduates to perform immediately without further training. Bennett (2002), however, argued that this is not the case anymore and employers are more responsive to changing market needs and seek to employ “a flexible and adaptable workforce” and have to provide further training to fresh graduates.

Gill and Lashine (2003) assert that there have been calls for a more market oriented focus in education, a better balance between theory and practice (Conger and Xin, 2000), new models of curricula and propositions for a “new paradigm” of education that is “transformational and emancipatory”, and encourages critical reflection rather than being linear and prescriptive (Dehler et al., 2001).

Industrial training exposes students to real work environment and helps them to apply theory to practice. During industrial training, the writer showed high level of performance achievement in his ability to carry out instructions, ability to function as a team player and ability to apply knowledge gained from the university among others. After training, exposure, and developing skills already had the writer managed to further strengthen work related techniques. Through researching new ideas and areas, writing reports, and spending time on to mastering the organisation’s techniques to more work related situations and further studying, the writer managed to improve significantly on the challenges he faced and was part of the organisation through and through.

In an nut shell the stuff I got to experience in a working environment and compared to what we learnt at school is a 60/40 scenario. Got to learn a lot of things in an working environment that wouldn’t have been experienced if our program didn’t have an internship year, therefore the attachment period is very crucial.

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CHAPTER 5

RECOMANDATIONS to the IT DEPT

Intensive Bureaucracy

At each level at OLDMUTUAL/CABS there is effective communication, the goals and plans are communicated to every employee through E-mails, meetings, phone & even modern day social media, which are conducted at departmental and organizational levels. Whenever goals are set the managers in different departments communicate them to other employees and they work together to ensure that these are achieved, The shift leaders whenever they observe that an employee is under performing they take corrective actions in order to improve performance. Conflict management at CABS is properly handled with highest levels of professionalism. Any changes in the way things are done are communicated in time so that the employees will adapt to change better.

In contrast the decision making is too bureaucratic and this is risky in some scenarios. Bureaucracy sometimes hinders continuity because in the absence of top management it means that some decisions will not be implemented.

Shift Changes

Rotation also is key to the smoothness of operations success and continuity of the operations department. however the writer ended up changing shifts twice instead of four times during the year ,the department should ensure the shift changes are done quarterly as stated & not be complacent with the issue ensure that there is continuity.

Security measures

as new employees we were given access tags to use, these access tags however when lost it would take days to be given another one, which ended up delaying our activities to daily routines, & with the biometric system the process

was rather long for one to be created a profile .

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RECOMANDATIONS TO THE UNIVERSITY

Multiple incidents occurred in which the student was asked what exactly the university does to support students on attachment apart from visitations to perform assessment. The student had no response to this question. It would be of gain both to the university and to organizations if Catholic University (CUZ) could engage companies more interactively. There is need for the university to have good relations with the companies where the students will be attached. This helps the university supervisors and the supervisors at the work place to have interactions and work together to improve the performance of the students

Online Registration

The writer feels that the university must allow students on attachment to register online rather than coming from they will be attached to join long queues so as to register at school. It is inconvenient for the working class students

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CONCLUSION

Industrial attachment was very effective to the student as it went a long way to open up the real world and uniting it with the theory that he had acquired during the first two years at college. Putting most of the theory into practice and coming to terms with reality was a real challenge that facilitated the student’s mental growth and also the organization has exposed the student to various areas that he was not familiar with and he is more confident, independent and able to adapt to different working environments. The writer can safely conclude that the industrial attachment has left him with knowledge that he will treasure forever not only in the field of IT but in other aspects which are social, financial and practical. Students are of benefit to many organizations and can make a difference if given the opportunity & expertise I got from the organisation.

Below are some of the social pictures taken during the course of the year

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REFERENCES

1) Research Methodologies by Kidder and Fine, 1987

2) Computer networks systems approach by Larry L. Peterson & Bruce S.David

3) Swift and Kent, 1999; Hymon-Parker, 1998),

4) Shein, Edgar (1992).Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View. San Francisco, CA:

Jossey-Bass. p. 9.

5) Deal T. E. and Kennedy, A. A. (1982, 2000)Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate

Life, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1982; reissue Perseus Books, 2000

6) Ravasi, D., Schultz, M. (2006), "Responding to organizational identity threats: exploring the role of

organizational culture", Academy of Management Journal, Vol.49, No.3, pp. 433–458.

7) Kotter, John and Heskett, James L. (1992)Corporate Culture and Performance, Free Press; ISBN 0-

02-918467-3

8) Polley A. McClure (1997) the crisis in Information Technology Support: Has Our Current Model

Reached Its Limit?

9) Kandandambi Anesu’ attachment report of 2014

WEBSITES :www.oldmutual.co.zw

:www.cabs.co.zw

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