The End of an Adventure

My internship at Innoverz Ltd. has officially concluded. After a long, seemingly never-ending flight, I have arrived back on Canadian Soil. I have finished up my two projects and reviewed them with my bosses at a meeting last week. I had a meeting on my "official" last day with Danny and Tanky, to explain how to utilize the accounting system and where to find specific features. This was very important as I have almost completely redesigned the system since our last meeting. Many features needed to be adjusted or completely changed to meet the requirements given to me.

Lunch with Innoverz. Ltd.

On Wednesday the whole company went for lunch at a restaurant in Science Park, as a farewell lunch. After my afternoon meeting with Danny and Tanky, we biked to Tai Po and had dinner at a local restaurant. I tried many new, interesting foods including frog and cow intestine. Surprisingly, it tasted really good! After dinner, Danny showed me around Tsim Sha Tsui. There was an amazing view from a restaurant we went to. He also showed me the Hong Kong shoreline and the Avenue of Stars, which is similar to Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

 

View of Hong Kong

 

In the morning I met Elice at the office to have a quick meeting. We essentially went over the same items that I had discussed with Danny and Tanky the day before, but I highlighted some features that would be more useful for her specifically. We intended to meet up again that evening so we could hang out outside of work before I left, but a level eight typhoon hit Hong Kong and most of the city was closed. 

Avenue of Stars - Jet Li's Star & Handprints

Earlier in the week I visited Victoria's Peak, which had an opposite view of Hong Kong than the image I posted above from Tsim Sha Tsui. It was incredibly beautiful at night to see the city lit up. Unfortunately since it is such a major tourist attraction, there were huge lineups to get to the top of the mountain and to return to the city. By the time we got to the top and looked around, most of the stores had closed for the night.

My Office

This concludes my Hong Kong adventure and my internship at Innoverz. Ltd.

 

The "SARS-Free" Beach

Throughout the week I have been working on my existing projects. The accounting system has been progressing smoothly. Although I have had a few issues finding a way to track outstanding invoices, I think I have found a solution that appears to be working so far. The system appears to meet almost every requirement asked of me at my last meeting. We will be having a meeting soon to review it and make sure it meets all of the criteria and their needs.

Shek-O Beach

PopUp Table has been doing very well so far. In the first three days, there were over 30,000 downloads. However this number is a little understated because the number was delayed by the Apple store. However, during the launch day there was a problem with the server that delayed sales. Having information like this from the product launch has been helping me in creating my presentation. It’s always good to have concrete numbers that prove you have a large interest and existing customer base. This way you can show that it’s not just in theory that your people will pay money for your product; they already have.

Shek-O Beach 

Outside of the office, last weekend we went to Shek-O Beach. It is a beach on the outskirts of Hong Kong in the country. We were told that it became popular during the SARS epidemic, there was a rumour that the beach was SARS-free and healthy. Since then, it has become a much more popular beach for locals to visit.

Night out with Danny

We also went out this weekend with some of our bosses. They hung out with us around town on Friday night. On Saturday, my boss Danny took us to a very local karaoke place. It was pretty cool to see the difference between the local hang out places and the tourist ones that I had previously seen. During the week we mostly just did some shopping in markets around the city.  

Karaoke Place

Shanghai & PopUp Table's Official Launch

Popup Table - #1!

Our new product, PopUp Table launched this week on the Apple store, as well as our website http://www.popup-table.com/html/index.php. PopUp Table is a mobile application that allows users to receive discounts of at least 35% off at hotel restaurants in Hong Kong. Yesterday, we had many different people from various Hong Kong press companies coming in to talk about the app. You can see my office in this particular interview http://hk.dv.nextmedia.com/actionnews/local/20120803/16572012/16572643, however I was having lunch so was not at my desk.

Our Hotel In Shanhai

It's really cool seeing how fast the app is growing, in real time. This is especially true with the number of fans on our Facebook page. We have also become the #1 free food and beverage app on the Apple store in just a few short days! We’ve surpassed Openrice, which is a very large, popular company for finding restaurants in Hong Kong.

Shanghai Food- AKA The Best Food Ever

Although I'm not studying marketing, it is still important, especially for accountants, to understand the other areas of the business. This internship is giving me a really good insight in to the functions of IT and marketing departments, something I am sure will be useful later in my career. It's also making me better understand which area of accounting I'd like to go into further into my career. I really enjoy assisting small businesses grow. 

"The Bund" - Shanghai

I had taken some time off at the beginning of this week to visit Shanghai. It reminded me a lot of Toronto, but had some really cool traditional areas with interesting gifts and architecture. It was especially pretty in the evening. It was similar to Hong Kong in some ways, but the language is different (Mandarin instead of Cantonese) and hardly anyone spoke English. This made getting around the city more difficult, but we managed! Our flight to Shanghai was delayed over 10 hours! We spent all day Friday at the Hong Kong airport, and didn’t arrive in Shanghai until 5am!

Cutest Fish Ever! At the Aquarium

Despite the late landing, we still had tonnes of fun; especially at the aquarium. All the fish were really cool especially the jellyfish and one fish that looked like a dragon fruit. Their aquarium had the world’s longest under-tank tunnel. 

Typhoon

This week has been fairly busy at work. I have been redesigning the accounting system to meet the specific needs provided to me last week during our meeting. I have had some challenges implementing a managerial accounting type system into the financial accounting system to track the associated costs of designers and programmers to each project and client. The obvious method would be to have a cost driver of hours worked, since this directly implements the end cost. However, something we didn’t learn in class, is that sometimes the obvious tracking method is counter-productive to the management style currently in place within the company. It isn’t always the best choice to watch your employees progress so closely as this may discourage them, or make them feel constrained, and thus, less happy with their job. It has been my task to try to find a middle ground; one that effectively tracks the cost to measure profitability and productivity, while still giving employees space and freedom within their job.

The second challenge I faced, which I still have not found a solution for, is finding a way within excel, and my current setup, to keep track of what invoices have not yet been paid, or are coming due within the next thirty days. The second requirement should be fairly simple to implement, however the first is extremely difficult. I may change the layout, or attempt some programming. I will think it over this weekend.

Today, I am flying to Shanghai to do some sightseeing. Innoverz was kind enough to give me a long weekend to explore mainland China, and gave some suggestions of attractions to see. I will post more about my trip when I return next week. Throughout the week I have explored the city, mainly the Central and Tsim Sha Tsui areas. However it has been difficult to explore the city, as it has been raining all week. Earlier this week, we experienced a level 10 typhoon, which is the highest level possible. The last one that occurred in Hong Kong was over ten years ago, they are extremely rare. After the typhoon, I noticed that a lot of damage has been done to the city, especially in the New Territories. I noticed many trees snapped in half at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park.

Tung Ping Chau

I recently had a meeting with two of my bosses, Elice and Tanky. We reviewed my progress so far on the accounting system, and discussed their needs from the system. Thus far, I had simply created a rough template based on features and figures that I thought they may need or use. They seemed pleased with the work I’ve done so far, but the system will need a lot of tailoring based on the specific needs that we discussed. This meeting gave me a lot more insight into the differences between accounting standards and proper reporting, versus the type of information businesses need to make daily decisions and how they account for this. It’s interesting how proper accounting methods differ and are similar to the methods used on a daily basis for management purposes. Even within the office, each person using the system needs it for a different purpose, and needs to have it generate different, but equally useful, information. This really highlights the differences between financial and managerial accounting, although what I have learned at in the office, both at Innoverz and at companies I have previously worked for, does differ from what I have learned at UOIT. There isn’t a large focus on smaller businesses.

View from the Pier

I also had a meeting with my other boss, Danny, to discuss my other project, the investor report. We discussed the company’s future goals, and what they were looking to obtain through the presentation.

Abandoned Building

Aside from work, I have done a bit of exploring the past week. I walked around the Monkok area and looked at the markets and went to the theatre. The new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, was amazing! It’s interesting that theatres here are all in one really tall building, with each viewing room on its own floor versus being spread out on one level. Batman was on the eighth floor!

 Temple at Tung Ping Chau

I also went hiking around Tung Ping Chau Island with two of the other students here. It was beautiful but incredibly hot outside! We also went swimming along the shoreline to cool off. Unfortunately once we dried off from swimming and were about to walk back to the ferry, it started pouring rain! We ended up soaked, in an old metal ferry in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of a thunderstorm! It was the first time I’ve ever been cold outdoors in Hong Kong. 

Ocean Where We Went Swimming

I've also been wondering if the people in charge of translating here's English is actually poor, or if they purposely make some translations funny because they know their bosses won't understand and tourists will laugh.

Garbage Can on Tung Ping Chau Island

New Projects

Most of my week has been spent working on the accounting system which I am developing, as well as aiding in any way I can to help prepare for our upcoming product launch. I have also been working on gathering some research for a similar product that we will, hopefully, also be able to launch.

 Volunteering on Canada Day

Earlier this week I met my third, and final, boss, Danny Shum. He showed me around the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park where our office is located, and showed me some of the other buildings. Near the end of the week he asked me to work on a new project, which I am very excited to be working on. I am using the knowledge I have gained in almost every subject I have taken at UOIT so far to develop a presentation for possible future angel investors, so that we can take our new product even further. Designing this presentation has been very difficult, but incredibly interesting so far. I think that, thus far, this project has required the most use of my business education. I have to review all areas of the business, as well as focus in from an accounting point of view, what would make this a viable investment? Also, how can I most effectively convey this information in a way that will not only attract an investors’ attention, but also entice them to invest.

At the Beach

My time outside of work has mostly been spent shopping in one of the never-ending number of malls in Hong Kong, as well as discovering new foods. Another student and I found a unique dessert shop near the nest. It’s interesting to see the changes Chinese restaurants make to foods from other cultures, to make it their own. I’ve seen this done many times at various restaurants where things look familiar, but are slightly adjusted to fit with the culture in Hong Kong, and the tastes they are accustomed to. 

Best Sundae Ever

Exploring Rural Hong Kong

Working at science park has been very interesting. I have been continuing developing an accounting system, as well as aiding with various new products that Innoverz is currently working on. I have run into a few small errors with my programming, as what I learned in my first year programming course, doesn't necessarily work when you use visual basic within Microsoft Office. Cell and row references vary, and can only be accessed in different ways than normal variables. From an accounting point of view, I have spent quite a bit of time this week organizing ways that I can represent the data as it is entered to produce useful information, so better, more timely, business decisions can be made. I would like to have it reflected in a useful way, that is unique to Innoverz's individual situation, and what would be most valuable to them.

My Building at Science Park

Outside of the workplace, I spent my weekend exploring the more rural side of Hong Kong. Outside of the city, is a large variety of hiking trails. Myself, along with three other UOIT students, spent Saturday doing a twelve kilometer hike through the  Tai Long Wan hiking trail. We had a blast, and encountered every possible terrain starting with mountains and valleys, leading to tropical looking beaches, as well as forests. 

Beginning of the Tail Long Wan Trail

We also got a first hand look into the more rural villages located along the path.We stopped at a local beach to go swimming and enjoy the view. The locals were incredibly nice, and the water was amazing! This hike was by far one of the best things I've done so far in Hong Kong. The contrast between the country, mountainous views and the condensed, busy city is amazing. From the top of all of the mountains we climbed, you couldn't even remotely see city life anywhere in the distance, yet we were still only about 20 minutes from the city itself.

Beach We Swam at on Our Hike

Sunday, some of us spent the day exploring Ocean Park. This was slightly less interesting than the hiking trip, but still a "must do" when in Hong Kong. The night was concluded with an amazing light show about the balance in nature, which included both water effects, fireworks, and the water actually lighting on fire!