Valid:
Information that has not been tampered with, transformed or has any unbiased connotation so there is neither an argument for or against the data as it doesn't warrant one. An example of this would be where businesses look at sales or profit, there is no reason for them to tamper or be bias because it doesn't effect the outcome of the results at all as they have already happened. They could tamper the data to say they have achieved more sales but the reality is they haven't and they cannot fix that by upping the number of sales on a spreadsheet. Keeping the information valid is aided by only allowing authorised users on to the information system because they are less likely to tamper with the information.
Reliability and Source Confidence:
Information that is from a reliable source, e.g the government or an independent watchdog. A business will need to make a decision as to whether they can trust the data source they are using as it could effect how the business performs. A business could receive secondary data about the interests of their target market which is completely wrong and would then mean they might create a product that is wrong or unsuitable for their market. Primary information should be more trustworthy than secondary information because the business can trust that their marketing department will get them legitimate results. Secondary information is always a risk as it's not 100% suited to a certain business so sometimes should not be trusted. Again the way to improve the quality of this information would be to use information supplied by an official source like the government or a certified business.
Timely:
Information that is given within a certain deadline to allow a business to keep up to date with change in trends or their target market. A business might ask an employee in marketing to take a survey of their target market by the end of the week as they want to start working with R&D to create a product at the beginning of next week. This would be the supply of timely data and if not completed on time, this could have a detrimental effect on the competitive advantage that business could of had by producing the product before other businesses in their market. Ways to improve the quality/timeliness of information would be to offer a bonus to staff for meeting set deadlines.
Fit For Purpose:
There would be no reason to collect all of this valid, reliable and timely data if it means nothing for the business that wants to use it to aid them. Not collecting this purposeful data could effect expenditure as business could order to much raw material and significantly increase their wastage cost. The way to improve the quality of information is making sure the information is fit for purpose and the employee(s) that are given this task are briefed on what information to collect before given the means to.
Accessible:
In a business, there must be a collective software used as crossed wires when files are not in the right format can affect the timescale of a project or the ability for a department to meet deadlines set by managers. Good and common examples of this would be the formats for the different writing software on Microsoft and Mac OSX, on Microsoft machines you can typically see users write with Word that comes with Microsoft Office, where as Mac users tend to use OpenOffice as it is free and does a similar job to word. The only problem with this is that these two programs use different file formats, .doc and .odt, whilst they can both be opened on the opposing formats, information can be lost in transformation. Images made on photoshop are saved as a .psd file which can cause problems when sent to systems without photoshop installed, this can be avoided by saving the image as a .JPEG before sending. Improving the accessibility to information within a business is fairly easy as all the business really has to do it make sure all software is compatible and suggest that colleagues have a system they can take home with them that has the same software installed.
Cost Effective:
Information can be costly when collecting through different sources that charge for their services. A good way to avoid this is to collect the information yourself, but should of course be weighed up against the cost of buying the information outright. If a business was to collect primary data, there could be a fairly hefty cost attached as is costs to pay workers and for the supplies to record the data. Sometimes, if the man hours add up to become more than the fee of the secondary information it would be more cost effect to purchase the information as a whole. Keeping information cost effective is easier done if the business has control over the costs, i.e. collecting primary data but a stratified sample rather than the whole population to save money.
Accurate and Relevant:
The information bought or collected needs to be relevant to the intentions of a business. This is easier to control with primary data because it is collected by the business that intends to use it to aid performance. It is harder for a business to shop round for the most accurate data as ultimately it will never be exactly accurate with what they want. Relevant data means that the data actually contains data your business can make use of. Again secondary data is never going to be 100% relevant to a business, where as primary information is easier to set parameters for. Managers are mostly responsible for the accuracy and relevance of data because they give the employees criteria for data collection and it is easy to set these parameters and thats how you ensure/improve the quality of information.
Detail and Understanding:
If paying for information you would expect the detail to be in depth and the correct use of grammar to be demonstrated. Obviously detail is within the businesses control if they collect the data themselves as they can choose what lengths they are prepared to go to have detailed information. This detail means nothing if the information is impossible to understand, businesses need to make sure correct language is used to avoid putting up barriers to effective communication. Again, improving or ensuring the quality of data and information is easier to do if you have full control over its collection and this is only done with primary data.
Monday 1 June 2015
M2
Security Information:
An obvious issue relating to the use of information in an organisation would be the security risks to a business if anyone accessed the information system that wasn't permitted or authorised to. IT departments within a business will maintain the security of the information used in their organisation by allowing certain employees to allow the system, usually via a user name combined with a password. The public sector and banks are the two main types of business that need to keep very tight security on customers as they have private records/money on an information system. The unauthorised access onto these systems would be detrimental to the customers using them and would give these business an awful reputation, possibly ending their tenure in the public sector/financial sector.
Backups:
Backing up data is vitally important as technology can fail from time to time, but the biggest risk is having no alternative when it does. This is easily done though, by saving documents on different servers/physical memory technology. This means that information is even protected from natural accidents/disasters such as floods, storms or fires, the later being more likely with a server. Backing up data is just storing it in a different way which makes it easier to recover. A business is likely to have multiple backups as not having one could have a detrimental effect of the life of the business should their technology fail. Again the major giants in any country, the public sector and the banks would undoubtedly have multiple back ups of every single customers information so if one variable fails the information is still obtained, with similar consequences if not.
Health and Safety:
Making sure employees have the chance to be as healthy as possible at work should be somewhere near the top of a business priorities as the employees of a business are their most valuable asset. Work stations are an easy way to optimise the health and well being of an employee, this can be done by making sure the workers take regular breaks from looking at the screen and have a walk around to get the blood flowing to the bottom on their body, this will also loosen up muscles used to position themselves for a period of time. Buying specialist ergonomic equipment like keyboards, mice and desks can make the difference and avoid the workers getting repetitive strain injuries.Businesses have a responsibility to make sure employees are kept in good health, not only for the businesses benefit but because laws are in place to employees are safe when using an information system.
Organisational Policies
These are put in place to assure the business that the information supplied to employees is used correctly as information can get into the wrong hands as these policies should outline who is authorised to see the information and who is not. Information falling into the wrong hands could end up with competitors or customers who do not like being talked about as money or numbers, who might then revolt and not use you business. Information should be kept secure at all times and only those authorised should have access. Businesses can employ schemes that have access control so only people at a certain stage in the hierarchy of a business can have access to classified files. Professionals that have left a pubic sector or bank business usually sign a secrecy agreement to classify information in order for the above to never happen once they've left. Probably the most famous example of this would be the Edward Snowden vs US Government when he released the possibly the most classified details ever.
Business Contingency Plan:
This relates heavily to backing up information as the business needs to have a plan be when something goes wrong with technology. These systems are integral to modern day businesses so can't really be avoided, which can be a problem when they fail, which is why they must have a contingency plan for employees to work from when the system fails. This plan usually has the restart of the system at the top of it's priorities so everything can resume to normal as fast as possible. Businesses in the public sector simply cannot afford to have a long down time as so many are so reliant on them, this is the same case with banks as it will stop everyone that is using that bank from being able to buy or receive money which, depending on size, could have an effect on the economy.
Costs:
In terms of information systems and the departments responsible there are only really two main costs; buying equipment then getting the department up and running and the on going cost of maintenance. Buying all the machines that make up a network of information systems can be very costly, dependant on the size of the business, and has a cost attached of setting them up incognito and training staff to use them. Costs don't stop there, as it costs to hire staff to maintain the system and also can cost a monthly fee to have certain software. Large public sector businesses have a enormous amount of machines collectively and keeping these running costs millions of pounds a year.
Increasing Sophistication of Systems:
Business aim to have a low labour turnover which is why increasing the sophistication of an information system can be avoided by some businesses. Vast amounts of money is spent on training employees and this can be wasted if new, more hard to learn, systems are introduced by management. Employees will either have to learn to use the new technology or leave the business all together thus increasing labour turnover.
An obvious issue relating to the use of information in an organisation would be the security risks to a business if anyone accessed the information system that wasn't permitted or authorised to. IT departments within a business will maintain the security of the information used in their organisation by allowing certain employees to allow the system, usually via a user name combined with a password. The public sector and banks are the two main types of business that need to keep very tight security on customers as they have private records/money on an information system. The unauthorised access onto these systems would be detrimental to the customers using them and would give these business an awful reputation, possibly ending their tenure in the public sector/financial sector.
Backups:
Backing up data is vitally important as technology can fail from time to time, but the biggest risk is having no alternative when it does. This is easily done though, by saving documents on different servers/physical memory technology. This means that information is even protected from natural accidents/disasters such as floods, storms or fires, the later being more likely with a server. Backing up data is just storing it in a different way which makes it easier to recover. A business is likely to have multiple backups as not having one could have a detrimental effect of the life of the business should their technology fail. Again the major giants in any country, the public sector and the banks would undoubtedly have multiple back ups of every single customers information so if one variable fails the information is still obtained, with similar consequences if not.
Health and Safety:
Making sure employees have the chance to be as healthy as possible at work should be somewhere near the top of a business priorities as the employees of a business are their most valuable asset. Work stations are an easy way to optimise the health and well being of an employee, this can be done by making sure the workers take regular breaks from looking at the screen and have a walk around to get the blood flowing to the bottom on their body, this will also loosen up muscles used to position themselves for a period of time. Buying specialist ergonomic equipment like keyboards, mice and desks can make the difference and avoid the workers getting repetitive strain injuries.Businesses have a responsibility to make sure employees are kept in good health, not only for the businesses benefit but because laws are in place to employees are safe when using an information system.
Organisational Policies
These are put in place to assure the business that the information supplied to employees is used correctly as information can get into the wrong hands as these policies should outline who is authorised to see the information and who is not. Information falling into the wrong hands could end up with competitors or customers who do not like being talked about as money or numbers, who might then revolt and not use you business. Information should be kept secure at all times and only those authorised should have access. Businesses can employ schemes that have access control so only people at a certain stage in the hierarchy of a business can have access to classified files. Professionals that have left a pubic sector or bank business usually sign a secrecy agreement to classify information in order for the above to never happen once they've left. Probably the most famous example of this would be the Edward Snowden vs US Government when he released the possibly the most classified details ever.
Business Contingency Plan:
This relates heavily to backing up information as the business needs to have a plan be when something goes wrong with technology. These systems are integral to modern day businesses so can't really be avoided, which can be a problem when they fail, which is why they must have a contingency plan for employees to work from when the system fails. This plan usually has the restart of the system at the top of it's priorities so everything can resume to normal as fast as possible. Businesses in the public sector simply cannot afford to have a long down time as so many are so reliant on them, this is the same case with banks as it will stop everyone that is using that bank from being able to buy or receive money which, depending on size, could have an effect on the economy.
Costs:
In terms of information systems and the departments responsible there are only really two main costs; buying equipment then getting the department up and running and the on going cost of maintenance. Buying all the machines that make up a network of information systems can be very costly, dependant on the size of the business, and has a cost attached of setting them up incognito and training staff to use them. Costs don't stop there, as it costs to hire staff to maintain the system and also can cost a monthly fee to have certain software. Large public sector businesses have a enormous amount of machines collectively and keeping these running costs millions of pounds a year.
Increasing Sophistication of Systems:
Business aim to have a low labour turnover which is why increasing the sophistication of an information system can be avoided by some businesses. Vast amounts of money is spent on training employees and this can be wasted if new, more hard to learn, systems are introduced by management. Employees will either have to learn to use the new technology or leave the business all together thus increasing labour turnover.
P6
Gathering Information:
Define the requirement:
To know exactly what information is needed, researchers are going to need a requirement report that lays out the criteria on information needed. A business would more than likely use an information system to gauge what data (inputs) are needed to make the system process into information.Without setting these requirements businesses will see a drop in efficiency because employees that are gathering the information are more likely to miss deadlines after coming up short with data and re-collecting. The opposite to this, but a problem none the less, would be that the employees collecting data can collect data that is already to detailed, almost as detailed as information which the system will not register as an input but that will most likely have cost more to collect.
Currency:
Not a form of money but how up to date and relevant data that has been collected is. Clearly data that has been collected a long time ago will not be as useful to a business than data collected recently. Business normally collect data in regards to it's target market to see what consumer trends are and to try to tap into these with their product. Obviously consumer trends change drastically at lightning speed, in terms of business, and old out of date data would not give a true representation of what consumers are buying, leading the business to believe that trends are still relevant when, in fact, they are not.
Relevance:
Closely related to currency, relevant data must relate to the operations of a business so they can then supply to the correct market. For example, if a business was collecting information about their new clothing range you would expect data to relate to clothes or fashion, irrelevant data would be to ask the public was their favourite food is because, clearly, that does not relate to their product at all and is completely useless to the business. The consequences of collecting irrelevant data would include incurring cost of collecting this data in the first place, missing the opportunity to release a innovative product before competitors which will subsequently see the business lose market share and revenue.
Identifying Alternatives:
Primary data is preferable to a business because it will, presumably, be relevant and up to date. There is a negative factor to using this method though, as it can cost a vast amount to collect this data first hand and there may be an alternative produced by a separate entity that is still relevant and up to date. This alternative will still be costly but it's likely to be a lower cost. Alternatives may seem relevant but they will never really be suited exactly to one business and others in the same market are probably going to use the same separate entity to provide data to them. Businesses can gain competitive advantage by using their own data if it is more current and relevant.
Establish Sources of Information:
Once the business checked with the system for the input requirements needed, it must identify where it intends to receive it's data from, the source of information. This source needs to allow for detailed and accurate data which also meets the businesses marketing expenditure budget and time scale for the project. If these criteria aren't met a business can lose money, not only to the expenditure of the project but the vast timescale can impact on the soonest possible starting time of the next project, this is called the critical path.
Other Factors to be Considered:
Again, timeliness is a major factor which needs to be thought out as well as the consequences considered. Not only can every extra day on a project cost money, but if the data is collected within a 4 week period on and off, you are using non current data which won't represent the target market, assuming you used the information from the first week. Health of employees can deteriorate whilst out collecting this data and you would need to have a back up plan is employees go off work with illness.
Select Information:
Not everyone questioned will have given a legitimate answer as they might have filled it out in a rush or genuinely don't care for sharing their information. This affects data collection methods such as multiple choice questionnaires because they could tick any box. To rectify this, business will have to select the information, not necessarily the information that makes them look favourable but the information which seems trustworthy.
Define the requirement:
To know exactly what information is needed, researchers are going to need a requirement report that lays out the criteria on information needed. A business would more than likely use an information system to gauge what data (inputs) are needed to make the system process into information.Without setting these requirements businesses will see a drop in efficiency because employees that are gathering the information are more likely to miss deadlines after coming up short with data and re-collecting. The opposite to this, but a problem none the less, would be that the employees collecting data can collect data that is already to detailed, almost as detailed as information which the system will not register as an input but that will most likely have cost more to collect.
Currency:
Not a form of money but how up to date and relevant data that has been collected is. Clearly data that has been collected a long time ago will not be as useful to a business than data collected recently. Business normally collect data in regards to it's target market to see what consumer trends are and to try to tap into these with their product. Obviously consumer trends change drastically at lightning speed, in terms of business, and old out of date data would not give a true representation of what consumers are buying, leading the business to believe that trends are still relevant when, in fact, they are not.
Relevance:
Closely related to currency, relevant data must relate to the operations of a business so they can then supply to the correct market. For example, if a business was collecting information about their new clothing range you would expect data to relate to clothes or fashion, irrelevant data would be to ask the public was their favourite food is because, clearly, that does not relate to their product at all and is completely useless to the business. The consequences of collecting irrelevant data would include incurring cost of collecting this data in the first place, missing the opportunity to release a innovative product before competitors which will subsequently see the business lose market share and revenue.
Identifying Alternatives:
Primary data is preferable to a business because it will, presumably, be relevant and up to date. There is a negative factor to using this method though, as it can cost a vast amount to collect this data first hand and there may be an alternative produced by a separate entity that is still relevant and up to date. This alternative will still be costly but it's likely to be a lower cost. Alternatives may seem relevant but they will never really be suited exactly to one business and others in the same market are probably going to use the same separate entity to provide data to them. Businesses can gain competitive advantage by using their own data if it is more current and relevant.
Establish Sources of Information:
Once the business checked with the system for the input requirements needed, it must identify where it intends to receive it's data from, the source of information. This source needs to allow for detailed and accurate data which also meets the businesses marketing expenditure budget and time scale for the project. If these criteria aren't met a business can lose money, not only to the expenditure of the project but the vast timescale can impact on the soonest possible starting time of the next project, this is called the critical path.
Other Factors to be Considered:
Again, timeliness is a major factor which needs to be thought out as well as the consequences considered. Not only can every extra day on a project cost money, but if the data is collected within a 4 week period on and off, you are using non current data which won't represent the target market, assuming you used the information from the first week. Health of employees can deteriorate whilst out collecting this data and you would need to have a back up plan is employees go off work with illness.
Select Information:
Not everyone questioned will have given a legitimate answer as they might have filled it out in a rush or genuinely don't care for sharing their information. This affects data collection methods such as multiple choice questionnaires because they could tick any box. To rectify this, business will have to select the information, not necessarily the information that makes them look favourable but the information which seems trustworthy.
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