Information and Data
Information
Computers as an Information Source
In the past, computers were used for applications like payroll processing or scientific uses where their ability to perform rapid and accurate calculations made them popular. Nowadays, computers are increasingly being used as an information source. In business, information provided by a computer can be used to aid decision-making.
Sources of Information
As previously discussed, there are internal and external sources of information
Levels of Information
1. Operational Information is a record of all events and transactions within an organisation. A record must be kept of all payments and orders. This includes payroll records and stock management.
2. Tactical Information is information commonly used by middle management. They need to know how fast particular products are selling, how quickly stock levels can be refreshed and at what times of the week a store is most busy.
3. Strategic Information is needed by senior management. The leaders of an organisation need to plan for the future and they need accurate information about economic and environmental factors, social trends and so on to decide what direction the business should take. Information can be used to build computer models to forecast the effects of certain changes.
Quality of Information
Brief (an "exception report" lists only items on which action is needed)
Accurate (information might come with a probability factor e.g. weather reports)
Up-to-date (crucial in certain areas e.g. airline booking system)
Timely (reports need to reach the right person at the right time)
Right Level of detail (some information is too detailed and this can lead to "information overload" but other information might not be detailed enough e.g. school league tables)
Right Format (e.g. is certain information more understandable if presented in a chart?)
Channels of Communication
A Formal Information Flow dictates the appropriate channels of communication within an organisation. For example, in a manufacturing company, a sales order may be passed from the sales department to the production department who will order the parts from the stock department who may then need to order parts from a supplier.
DTI Survey 1997 reports that, in the best organisations, communication is a two-way process. Ideas were sought from all levels in the organisation. There were regular team briefings and frequent newsletters.
Some methods of communication within an organisation are:
Team briefings
Newsletters
"Management by Walking About"
Customer Meetings
Listening to employees
Noticeboards
Performance Reviews
Formal and Informal Information
Formal information comes from the formal information flow in an organisation e.g. reports, agendas, minutes, internal publications. Formal information flows through the organisation via "channels of communication". How well (and how quickly) the information flows through the organisation depends on:
The amount of information
The number of levels it has to pass through
Whether it has to go from one department to another
Methods used to communicate (e.g. e-mail, fax, memo, verbal)
The urgency of the information
Staff competence (e.g. do staff know how to access the information)
Quality of equipment
Informal information is communicated via the "grapevine" e.g. face-to-face contact, telephone conversations or just rumours.
Methods of monitoring/improving information flow are:
Track individual documents through different stages of processing.
Interview end-users to see if they are getting the right information at the right time.
Issue questionnaires
Timing of Information
Historic - e.g. past production levels
Current - e.g. current production levels
Future - e.g. predictions of future production levels
Frequency of Information
"Real time" systems process information immediately e.g. booking a flight. Other information can be processed at regular intervals, possibly in batches.
Qualitative and Quantitative Information
Quantitative information can be measured numerically e.g. the number of ice creams sold last week or the level of someone's salary. Balance sheets and graphs can be used to depict qualitative information.
Qualitative information cannot be measured in numerical terms. It is information that may have come from value judgements.
Presenting Management Information
When managers are particularly keen to get their information across, they need to think about the appropriate means of presentation. Popular methods are:
Computer Printouts
Presentation Graphics
DTP
Videoconferencing
Intranet
Graphs and Charts
It is important to choose the right type of chart. Pie-charts, for example, are less effective if there are too many segments. Line graphs are a good way of showing trends in sales figures.
Printed Presentations
Bullet points are a good way to achieve clarity
Avoid overuse of fonts and clipart
Use graphs and charts to illustrate numeric information
Avoid ALLCAPS
Marketing Information
Information is a commodity that can be sold. Companies gather information about their customers by:
Adding details to a database whenever a customer makes a purchase or requests a catalogue
The warranty card can be used for marketing purposes
Encouraging visitors to register on a web site
Companies can buy mailing lists from related organisations (companies that are not direct competitors might share their lists)
Information Flow
From transaction processing systems (e.g. a supermarket till) data is generated that flows throughout the organisation. For example, data from a transaction can be used to manage stock levels. Data can also be processed to generate strategic/tactical information for managers. Operational managers need detailed information, middle managers need tactical information, senior managers need information that is much less detailed that enables them to make strategic decisions.
Characteristics of good information are:
Relevant
Accurate
Complete
Up-to-date
Reliable (has it come from a reliable source?)
Communicated to the right person
Timely (communicated in time for its purpose)
Understandable (e.g. could be made into a graph or table)
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Data
Remember that garbage in = garbage out.
Errors can occur at all stages of processing, especially during data entry and whenever there is human intervention.
"Transpositional" errors involve getting numbers the wrong way round e.g. keying in 58762 instead of 57862.
"Transcribing" means copying down data from a human source.
"Verification" means checking to see that something is accurate, e.g. entering a password twice and comparing the two versions to spot errors. Verification involves double-checking something.
"Data Validation" involves checks being made to prevent errors. Validation checks are usually built into the system.
Example: A web site asks you to enter your e-mail address to register. You realise that you can enter anything@anything.com and the site accepts this as a valid e-mail address simply because it contains an @ symbol. However, the site then tells you that your password has been e-mailed to you. This is a problem because you gave a false e-mail address and, therefore, you will not receive the password. This web site is performing both a validation check and then also a verification check.
Data Capture
Wherever possible, data should be captured directly in order to avoid mistakes being made in entering the data. Bar code readers and magnetic stripe readers are good examples of direct data capture methods.
Aggregated and Disaggregated Data
Disaggregated data are single pieces of data e.g.
a person's age, gender or level of education
a registration number of a single vehicle
one candidate's exam result
Aggregated data is a group of entries e.g.
The average age of employees in a store
The total number of vehicles going down a road in a week
The overall pass rate for an exam
Bar Codes
Although there is an initial investment in hardware that has to be made, bar codes have such great benefits that they are increasingly being very widely used. It is estimated that a 2% investment leads to a 6% saving in costs.
Bar code readers are very accurate. As little as one mistake per 100,000 transactions.
Information can be passed to a MIS from barcode transactions, enabling them to make judgements about the effect of repositioning items in the store, identify fast or slow selling items, historical data showing seasonal fluctuations in trade in certain items, etc.
Bar coding is used in supermarkets but increasingly it is also being used in many other areas, such as:
Warehousing (robotic cranes which stack shelves know exactly where to place goods by reading the barcode)
Transport (packages are bar coded so that the precise location of any package can be known at any time)
Manufacturing (data can be obtained on work in progress to improve production efficiency)
Marketing (bar coded multiple choice questionnaires)
Medical (bar codes are used to identify blood and other samples)
Libraries (The bar code updates the computer system which can say whether or not a book is available)
In supermarkets, bar codes pass information to a computer system. If the customer has a "loyalty card", the supermarket can make a profile of which items a shopper buys and when. In some supermarkets, there is "self-scanning". This can enable the company to know at exactly what time each item was put in the trolley. It can also detect which items were picked up and then put back.
EDI - Electronic Data Interchange
Business data e.g. orders and invoices can be sent from one firm's computer system to that of another firm. This means that data does not need to be keyed in twice. The transmission is virtually instantaneous and, therefore, the supplier's system can check for availability and respond with confirmation. When students sit exams, the results can now be sent directly to the schools rather than being posted.
Smart Cards
Cash loaded smart cards, such as Mondex, could replace cash. The card could be used as a form of ID. It could also be used to monitor where the holder goes, everything s/he buys and when. This could have privacy implications.
Keying in Data
The drawbacks of manually typing in data is that it is slow, it inevitably leads to errors and there is the risk to health of people typing at a VDU all day. Data verification systems such as batch processing can be used to improve accuracy.
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