13.4 Information and Data

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Objectives: Information• Understand management information needs: the concept

of relevance and methods of interpretation.• Understand that information has many characteristics and

can be classified in many ways. • Examples include:

– Source - internal, external, primary, secondary– Nature - quantitative, qualitative, formal, informal– Level - strategic, tactical, operational– Time - historical, current, future– Frequency - real-time, hourly, daily, monthly– Use - planning, control, decision– Form - written, visual, aural, sensory– Type - disaggregated, aggregated, sampled.

Objectives: Information

• Discuss the value of information in aiding the decision making process.

• Understand the difference between internal and external information requirements.

• Describe the characteristics of good information and delivery, e.g. relevant; accurate; complete; user confidence; to right person; at right time; in right detail; via correct channel of communication; understandable.

• Describe the advantages and characteristics of good information within an applications context.

Objectives: Data

• Understand that data may require translation or transcription prior to entry into the system. This can affect the accuracy of the data.

• Discuss the impact of quantity and quality of data on the method of data capture together with the control and audit mechanisms required to manage data capture.

Objectives: Effective Presentation

• Understand the effect that the method and style of presentation has upon the message/design in relation to the intended audience.

Management Needs

• Managers need information relevant to their needs, for planning, controlling and decision making.

• The information needed by managers will come in a different form for different purposes.

• The type of information needed will depend on the level of the manager as well as the particular task to be completed.

Classification of Information

• Information is classified according to:– Source - internal, external, primary, secondary– Nature - quantitative, qualitative, formal, informal– Level - strategic, tactical, operational– Time - historical, current, future– Frequency - real-time, hourly, daily, monthly– Use - planning, control, decision– Form - written, visual, aural, sensory– Type - disaggregated, aggregated, sampled.

Source: Internal / External• A source document is the original document that

brings information in.• Internal source information; comes from within

the organisation; e.g.– Staff duty rotas, holiday dates– Profit forecasts

• External source information; comes from outside the organisation; e.g.– Marketing information results from a questionnaire– Tax changes to entitlements

• The point of view is important, a telephone bill is an internal source to the telephone company but an external source to an organisation that use the telephone.

Source: Primary / Secondary

• A primary source of information is collected directly from an information source, i.e. the company’s loyalty card.

• A secondary source of information from the loyalty card would be e.g.– The frequency of shopping– The time of the day it took place– The different types of food bought.

Nature: Quantitative / Qualitative

• Quantitative information is measured in numerical terms, e.g.– Sales total– Profit or loss totals

• Qualitative information cannot usually be measured numerically and has to be described differently, e.g.– Staff concerns over the latest sales figures– Customer satisfaction and loyalty

• A computer system is able to deal with quantitative information much better than qualitative information.

Nature: Formal / Informal

• Formal information is generated from the organisation’s own MIS in the form of reports. These reports influence the decisions made on the running of the organisation.

• Formal information may also be in the form of a memo, an agenda, minutes, or a newsletter.

• Informal information is generated from conversations, telephone calls, notes, and memo’s.

• E-mail could be considered either Formal or Informal depending upon the information it contains and the circumstances.

Level of Information

• Strategic Information: used by senior managers and the board of directors for strategic decisions, e.g. a new product, a new factory, number of staff employed.

• Tactical Information: used by middle managers and is more detailed than strategic, is used for short term planning.

• Operational Information: used by junior managers for the day to day running of the organisation. Information is detailed and precise, and in most cases routine.

Time Period

• Historical Information: kept as a reference, used in the process of planning and making comparisons, e.g. a yearly sales record is used to make a prediction for the coming year. Organisations have to keep records of past dealings for accounting and tax purposes.

• Current Information: is being received all of the time, written information is better than aural as there is a record of it.

• Future Information: is a forecast of the results of events that will occur, it is useful for planning but is the least accurate form of information.

Frequency of Supply

• Different information is reported on at different intervals, such as hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or annually.

• Company accounts may be generated either quarterly or annually.

• Salary information may be generated monthly.• Stock flow information may be generated daily or

weekly.• Many systems now operate in real time with the

data being added as soon as a transaction has taken place, such as an airline booking process. The information from these transactions is always up to date.

Use: Planning, Control, Decision

• Information is used for planning, e.g. a new product will be aimed at targeted market sectors.

• Information is used to monitor and control work that is done e.g. the sales manager may use this information to find sales staff that are under performing.

• Information is used for decision making, e.g. to decide where to market the new product, or to decide whether to change or sack staff.

Form

• Visual: Charts, graphs, images.• Written: forms, reports, tables, letters, provides

physical evidence.• Aural: by word of mouth, direct and faster.• Sensory: touch, taste, smell, in wine making,

cookery, etc.

Type

• Detailed Information: used at operational level, e.g. stock inventory.

• Aggregated Information: where detailed information is summed together e.g. all the sales from all of the departments.

• Sampled Information: where a sample only is required to represent the whole.

The Characteristics of Good Information

• Relevant for its purpose.• Accurate for its purpose.• Complete enough for its purpose.• Reliable from a source in which the user has

confidence.• Presented to the right person.• Presented in time for its purpose.• Contains the right level of detail.• Presented through the correct channel of

communication.• The meaning is clear and in an understandable

format.

• Relevance: Information relevant to the required purpose, the receiver should not have to spend time extracting what they want.

• Accurate: Information has to be accurate for decision making, it may be possible to use incomplete information if it is accurate.

• Completeness: Information for decisions should be complete or complete enough. At operational level it must be complete, a business cannot sell stock it has just run out of.

• Confidence: Information has to have the user’s confidence, if mistakes are spotted they may not be able to use the information at all.

• The Right Person: Information should only be passed to those who can use it, and not to everyone in the organisation.

• Right Time: Information that is to be discussed and decisions made needs to be available before these meetings and not after. Decisions can then be made appropriately.

• Right Detail: Information sometimes only needs to be presented in overview, other time it needs to be in detail, different levels of management need different levels of detail.

• Channel of Communication: Information should travel a well managed channel between people, includes the type of format, and internal/external.

• Understandable: Information should be presented clearly to the user, fully understandable and unambiguous.

Data Capture

• Data capture involves getting data into a form that can be processed by the computer.

• The ideal scenario would be: – Accurate, Fast, Automatic and Cheap.

• Methods include:– Keyboard, MICR, OCR, OMR, and voice

recognition.

Data Capture

• Data can be transferred from one method to another, eliminating human involvement, reduces greatly the chances of error.

• Special documents are designed to collect data in a form that is easily transferred into an input document (data capture form).

Accuracy

• Audit checking of transactions are necessary to ensure the results are correct and not interfered with.

• Audit trails can be processed as a trace of the processing of data throughout the whole automated process.

• This can prevent fraud.

Accuracy

• Verification of input data;

– Double checking, or comparing the input with the source document, or two operators inputting the same data one checked against the other.

– The source document may have been completed incorrectly!

Validation• A computerised check that data meets

certain criteria.

• Range check: pre-programmed upper and lower boundaries of acceptable data which is checked against for each entry, e.g. only dates between today and a month ahead may be allowed.

• Data Type check: pre-programmed data type to ensure the correct data type, e.g. a name is not entered into a date field.

Validation

• Existence check: pre-programmed to force acceptance of data, e.g. account number.

• Consistency check: pre-programmed so that data entered is checked against it being present, e.g. enter a stock number that already exists in a database.

Effective Presentation of Information

• Database Reports:

– Use of selective information, not complete tables.

– Logical groupings, sorted, easy to read.

– Printed as a report using standard consistent formatting.

• Different types of report are:

– Operational: daily work, weekly sales etc,

– Summary: summarised the high volume of data,

– Exception: trends, unusual figures, up to date and not waiting for the regular reports.

• Presentational Graphics:

– Text charts: brief, handouts for presentations,

– Graph charts: column, pie, for displaying numerical information,

– Slide show: series of slides, can be printed for handouts,

– Pictures: alongside slides or text to illustrate, use of photographs, clip art, company logos etc are useful.

• Doyle pages: 196-201, 203-205.

• Exercise: Activity pages: 197, 198.