Unit 3: P1, P2, P3, P4 & P5

P1 - Explain how organisations use information

Qualitative

Data used to describe certain information by giving your own opinion and is data that can be observers but cannot be measured. For example colour, texture, smell, taste and appearance of a painting.

Quantitative

Is information that can be measured and is also factual information. It is also a reliable source of information as the information will be factual data. For example a painting measurement will be quantitative information as it is exampling the painting in a factual way by giving you the information of the size of it.

Primary

It is information that you collect yourself and not get it from another source. You collect this information by means of surveys or observation. It is also data that previously has not been gathered. For example a manufacture may create survey to find out what their customer think about them. This is primary information as this information has been collected by the manufacture itself.

Secondary

Secondary is information that you have received from someone else who have received the information from someone else. This information could be changed by the time you receive the information, as the information could be altered by each person. For example information on a newspaper can be altered as the information the journalist receive could be changed.

Source Information

Internal Information

It is information that is collected within the business. The department within the business will produce information, to help the business to improve what they are failing. This is a reliable source of information as it is information that is produced by the business itself.

External Information

It is information that they receive externally. This external information could help the organisation to improve their business. They can receive the information from trade groups, government, surveys etc. Some external information could be unreliable for example the government, may provide you with

Reliability of data source

There are many different sources of information that you can receive, there are good and bad sources of information. It is very important that you understand the sources of information you receive and how reliable it can be. For example if you read an article from a website that isn’t popular, this information could be altered by the write.

What type of internal and external information do organisations have? 

The internal information an organisation will collect are that how many sales they are making within a day and how many more products they will need to buy to restocks their stores. For example the employees at an Apple store will gather information about how many Apple products and components they have in their store, where they will then use this information to order more to the store. The external information the organisation could collect from people outside the organisation could be about how much sales the area makes on during lunch time. For example takeaways will use this information to check if have enough food to serve their customers at bus times.  

Purpose of Information

·         Operational support is when a business monitors activities within the business to make decisions to help them run their business smoothly. Keeping track of all the products they have and what they need to restock so they don’t run out. For example if a football match is the shops will make sure they have enough drinks to supply their customers.

·         Analysis data is used to identify trends and monitor the business. This shows the weekly sales and costs report of the business. This will help the business identify if their profit is increasing or decreasing. For example a restaurant will use analysis data to compare the profits with other restaurant. Which they can then use to improve their restaurant.

·         Decision making is when the management needs to make a decision to help them improve the business or making a decision to help solve problems. Decision making will allow the business making. For example a the management at a food chain may want to reduce their costs so the management may decide to close the business down earlier

·         Gaining advantage is when the organisation takes advantage of problems that have occurred. 

Organisation can also use this to identify patterns or trends; they will use this information to make it a benefit. For example if

Business Functional Areas

Sales

The sales department are interested in what products they are selling, how many they are selling and who they are selling the items to. The sales department will also be able to identify how much stock is left.  For example the sales department in a clothing store will be able to identify how much stock they have and how much they will need to bring in. They can then inform the management that they need to restock their stock.

Purchasing

The department are only interested on how their suppliers perform. The department will analyse the manufacturer by the price, by fewest problems and by product availability. The departments main job is to find the best supplier with a cheapest price, deliver quickly and reliable. For example schools and colleges will have purchasing department which will look for equipment that is reliable and cheap.

Manufacturing

The manufacturing department are focused in showing how efficient their business is. They evaluate how well their staff, machinery, how well they produce their products and how they minimise wastage. They do this to show the public that they are reliable and environmentally friendly, so that they can attract customers.

Marketing

The marketing department are only focused on the customer and their competitors. They are interested on the sales they make, the sales the competitors and the types of customer.

Finance  

The finance department is often split. Financial accounting deals with organisations income and expenditure. Management accounting is focused on how the organisation spends its money. For example a restaurants financial accounting will deal with how much income the business has made and how much they have spent.

Personnel

This department evaluates information about the employees within the organisation. They do this to see how the employee has progressed. This consists on the average staff wages, the average days the employee has taken off and the hours the employee has worked in order to meet the terms.

Administration

The administration department will deal with reports for the organisation. They will also analysis reports from other departments to help them improve. For example one of the departments may need more equipment so they will send a report on what they need.

Information Flow

Internal information flows:

Downwards

Within an organisation the information is passed on from a senior management to the employees, such as making changes to the organisation. For example if there is a faulty machine the management will inform the employees about this so that they do not injure themselves.

Upwards

The information is passed on to the senior management. This information is passed from a lower level employee, this is to inform their senior management on their progress or any problems that the management that need to be informed. For example if the employee is on medication they will inform the management that they are on medication, were the employee will tell them not to work with machinery.

Across

Different parts of the organisation pass information between them, so they could improve or help each other to achieve their goals. For example if the organisation is spending too much the finance department will inform them to cut down on costs as they are going over their budget.

External information flow

The information of organisation is passed on out of an organisation. Information about the organisation will be passed on to their customers. This information may be sent to individual customers such as a bank statement or to a group of customers, such as council report on its performance. The company’s annual report will be sent to all the customers. This information also sent to suppliers.

P2 - Discuss the characteristics of good information

Valid

Organisations need valid information to help them to keep track of their stocks. This information must be accurate so that the organisation can restock the correct amount. For example Apple will distribute their products to different apple stores, for them to send the correct amount they will need to receive the correct information from the Apple stores.

·         Fundamental characteristic

·         Must be completely accurate

·         Responsibility of information gatherer

Reliable

The information from two websites can be helpful and reliable however it can also be unreliable as information on website such as Wikipedia can be altered by the user. To find reliable information you should check in more than one place to see if the information match each other.

·         Authentic source i.e. website

·         Forums/Wikipedia – The information from the two website can be helpful and reliable; however it can also be unreliable as the information on the websites could be altered. The website allows

·         Generated from different sources to achieve same result

Understandable by the user

The information provides is understandable for the users, such as graphs which the users will be able to understand. for example users who deal with graphs will understand information better than if the information was written. The information must relate to the user so that they can understand the information better.

·         Appropriate titles, legends, graphs, user can relate to information

·         User can related to information

Timely

Available information when it is needed to help with decision making and available for references. This information is prepared and ready at all times for your use.

·         Prepared and ready

·         Available for reference

Fit-for-purpose

The information the management receives is related to what the management has asked for.

·         Needs to be measured against criterion

·         Appropriate values identified

Accessible

The employee of an organisation must be able to read and calculate data that they receive. For example on a printed report it may contain a lot of data you must be able to read the data without having to key it all in order to perform the calculation. It is also data that is available for other departments in the organisation

·         Universal approach

·         Available to other departments

Cost-effective

The amount it costs of capturing and producing data. Researching for a reliable external source and employing external source to generate information. For example manufactures will look around to find a reliable source which could provide them cost efficient and reliable components to use on their systems.

·         Employing external source to generate information – Getting

·         Conduct first hand research using reliable source

Sufficiently accurate

Accurate information is needed, if you are calculating costs or profit. You will have to know how much profit you have available and how much it costs the organisation to run per month. Using this information you could know the expected monthly total running then organisation and the profit the organisation is making. This information doesn’t need to be accurate as the data could be rounded up.

Relevant

Information must be relevant to the appropriate subject, the questions must be appropriate to the subject you are questioning on. There is no point in capturing information that is not relevant as this information will have nothing to do with the subject engaged in. for example if Apple management ask mobile phone stores on the sales they have made on their product and the mobile phone store gives them another manufactures sales, this will mean nothing to Apple as they wanted information about their product sales.

·         Appropriate for the subject – asking the appropriate questions for a the appropriate subject

·         Not to be overwhelmed with irrelevant information

Having the right level of detail

Capture enough detail for the purpose that is required, this information needs to be accurate so that they have the correct information to provide. For example the department within the organisation must provide their management with the right level of information to improve the information.

·         5.183333cm as oppose to 5.81cm

·         £1.21 as oppose to £1.20

·         The information needs to be accurate so that they have the correct information to provide.

From a sources in which the user has confidence

To receive information the user will need to know how believable the source of information is. For example you are likely to believe a story that has been reported on the news, then reading the store on a website. So the source in which you find the information must be believable to make interested in the topic. Information on Wikipedia are mainly factual however the website allows users to edit the information.   

·         Reputable source

·         Microsoft or Wikipedia

P3 – Explain the issues related to the use of information

Legal Issues

Data protection act 1998 is a law that has been created to make sure that personal details i.e. the wages they earn are handled properly and safely. The person who’s information that have been handled, have the right to know what information of theirs has been held. For example accountants within a bank must not share details about their customer’s to others within or outside of their organisation. The person who is handling personal information must register with the DPA and obey the eight principles.

Freedom of information Act 2000 allows organisation access to official information. They have the right to ask for information from any public authority such as NHS, schools, colleges, the local government etc. the public authority then must provide them with the information within a number of days. For example if an employee within an organisation has health issues, the organisation must contact the NHS to ask for information about the employee. If the information is against the act the public authorities have the chose to refuse to provide them with the information they have asked for.

Computer Misuse Act 1990 is an act that is designed to frame rules and control over computer crime and internet fraud. Using others ID and passwords to access ones computer is against the computer misuse act 1990, unauthorised access to commit a serious crime and unauthorised modification of a computer content are also against the misuse act, as the person who’s account has been misuse, they are not aware of this. For example using others log in to access their account and installing virus to the computer, will destroy their files on the computer.

Ethical Issues

Use of email harassing emails are usually banned, including spamming or sending large quantity of emails are banned from an organisation, however limited use of email for private purpose are sometimes allowed.

Use of internet website that are inappropriate such as gambling website are usually banned within an organisation. They are banned either by the code of practice or by a filtering software. For example organisations such as schools and colleges will have a software filter to ban their students in going on untrusted website this is to limit the viruses accessing the computer systems. There are limited internet uses for personal purpose. Organisations that provide their own web server have often strict rules to what can be posted on the server.

Whistle blowing protect their users who grab their management’s attention to other users misusing their system. The IT administrators that run the servers will be the first to detect misuse on their system.

Operational Issues

Security of information users of the computer system will depend on their ICT department to keep its information secure. This is safe from unauthorised and unexpected access. The management of the organisation is responsible to pick who can look at and update information. For example the management of a school will only allow the technicians to update the systems.

Backups will benefit the users in case of physical or software problems. The backups can include a full system or particular information back up. For example if the hard drive fails on a computer system the users will not have lost all of their documents as they can restore the back up to the system and gain all of the documents back. The IT department should perform recover and restore frequently. This is so when installing new software or upgrading software, during it other programs or files are not damaged if so they could perform a restore of the system.

Health and Safety there are rules within an organisation that apply to the position of screens and monitors this is to reduce eye strain or damage to the eyes. Chairs, table, keyboard and mice should also be positioned right. For example in an office users on the computer should have lumber support, to prevent lower back problems.

P4 – Describe the features and functions of information systems

What data would you need to store, how is it input into the system and how would you make sure in was entered correctly?

The data imputed to the system must be correct to in order for the output information to be correct. The information the business will require the customer to fill in are things addresses and credit card details. This information allows the business to receive the payment for the purchase and is able to send the item to the address. Business can validate the information by providing the customer with the correct field of information. For example the date of birth must be in the correct format in order to validate the information.

What people are involved in feeding and updating the system, and what do they do?

Business could train their employee to be able to hand data to be able to understand the data they receive. Employees who handle capturing and exploiting data must be motivated as they can benefit the organisation.

What sort of hardware and software is used in a small business? How does this hardware and software process the data? What typical information is produced as output from the system and how is it presented?

Business need to have the correct hardware and software to be able to processor. The software must be compatible with the hardware so that the employee can see the information. The Hardware a business will need are things like routers, servers etc. The computer system must have firewall on in order to protect the systems information from hackers. The software business will need are things like excel, outlook, word etc.

What IT and digital technology is available to help people communicate?

Information that are shared through the internet have a very high risk in getting hacked, stolen or intercepted, the information must be encrypted before they are sent through the internet to prevent the data being hacked. It is very important that the data is secure so that people information is not hacked. If the data has been hacked business could lose a lot of customers. Card readers, chip and pin and also credit card details must be secure during transferring data information.

How do organisations use feedback to make sure that the output meets the needs of the users?

The feedback a business receives can help them improve and make changes to their business. They can also view if their customers are receiving the best performance from their employees. Using feedback business can see what age groups they are supplying to. Using customer’s data of birth the business can offer those deals on their birthday. For example ODEAN cinema offers their customers with free snacks and drink on their birthday.

What is the difference between open and closed systems?

A closed system is information that the business can view and receive information from their departments; no external sources have any influences on the businesses. They mainly use graphic format and is often aimed at the management of the business.  An open system is when a business can report on and it’s format in which the information is output. Open systems are aimed more at analysts of the business. The employee mostly uses the graphical and textual formats to read the data.

What are the stages involved in the transformation of data into information and what happens at each one?

There are number of stages where a business takes to which the data is transformed into information, so that the data can be read by the user. The employee receives the data from where it was created and is then checked a validated to make sure when the data is transformed it is accurate.  The business employees store the data for a long term on to their servers. The data is then processed and manipulated. Once the data has been processed it is then ready for the output information. The information is then transferred from the storage to the computer. This information is then presented on a screen or monitor, and the information will be written the way the user wants to view it. For example the users can choose to view the information on a graph or text. Management of an organisation will prefer to view the information in a graph as it gives a better view on the profit, sales and cost.

As they grow, would it be sensible to install a Management Information System (MIS)? What are the features, benefits and effectiveness criteria involved?

Management information system (MIS) is support system which input request and responses are pre-set. This is used in business where the management ask the same questions regularly. The benefit of MIS is that the system is easy to use by the senior management. The system answers are replied back very quickly and are replied both in tables and graphs. They can also be provided into spreadsheet to provide the management with information. MIS needs to be accurate as the information MIS provide must be accurate as other source of information, sustainable the information must be reliable and available when the management needs the information and consistent to provide the information to the senior management, MIS needs to flow these points to be effective.

P5 – Identify the information systems used in a specified organisation

Hardware

The servers that run the Opello website are Dell PowerEdge servers. Every year Opello servers receive more than a million page requests in 4 different languages and 5 different currencies. The data from the server is transferred into the organisation microsystem which involves over 100 computers to read the data being passed through the server.

Software

Opello brought in a new MRP system to the organisation. The new MRP system is capable in doing a number of things such as bar code scanning, product scheduling and product tracking. The new system benefits the organisation as they can track products going out.

Marketing System

Opello’s marketing system focus on external reports from Dunn and Bradstreet this is to find changes in the buying patterns and the UK spending trends, which they then create a monthly report to inform the other departments of any changes that have been made in the last month.  This system is used to predict any marketing change. 
     

Data

The data Opello receive are data such as records of their costs to run the departments within the business, departments such as sales and marketing. The data Opello receive can help them set a budget each year by the finance department as they can use the previous year’s data to help them set a budget for the coming year. For example the marketing department of offer data such as changes of sales. Opello can benefit off the data they receive from each department, by saving costs. 

Telecommunication

Opello do not have any shops or wholesales outlets. They deal with their customers directly from their website. As they are dealing with their customers through the internet Opello must understand their customer needs and provide the most effective computing solution to meet the needs. On the Opello website they will provide the customers with feedback option which they can use to help them see what the customers are looking for. The Opello MIS system deal with day to day communication where it is linked to Microsoft Outlook for instant messaging to their customers. 
   

People

The staffs within Opello are flexible and regularly trained to keep their skill in line with the business.  Opello’s success have come from flexible staff, as it allows the business to bring in part time staff to the business at times of high selling periods such as Christmas. The central administration is operated by the processing manger and four technicians to be able to run the system. 

Input

The input data that Opello receive are data such as customer orders, which is then transferred on to the management information system where it is then processed to information. A build list is automatically created and the items are immediately available to the purchasing and manufacturing departments.  

Processing

Opello process their data by using a mining technique to recognise the patterns the way the customer’s order, the types of products they purchase and also their sales patterns. The data is processed to information so that their marketing department or sales department are able to read the information, to make predictions.

Output

The output information could be presented in text or graph depending on the person who is receiving the information. The marketing department will expect their information to be outputted as a graph. The information is easier for them to understand and make predictions.

Feedback

Millions of customers every day leave Opello feedback in ways they could improve. This feedback helps the organisation in continually making improvements in to the items manufacture and also the services the organisation offer to the customers.

Storage

Opello store their data on their servers as their business is an online service. They store their data on the servers because it is the faster way to store and access data as the technicians do not have to transfer all the data from the servers to an external hard drive.

Retrieval

If Opello know when and what is going to be sold, its purchasing team can work with its Chinese and Malaysian suppliers to ensure that the basic components are available just when needed. This reduces the amount of stock that has to be held in the company and so reduces the finance tied up in stock.

Presentation                                                    

The presentation of the data will depend on the person who is reading the information. Opello could provide the information in text or graphs depending on where the information is being sent to. The marketing and sales department will want the information to be provided in a graph as it is easier to understand if the sales are going up or down, how many of each items are being sold.

"note you may be asked to expand on some of the points, so try to add more to the assignment. Also remember not to copy word for word, as their are now software to check for plagiarism, when marking the assignment, try to complete the assignment your own way." [I am not encouraging you to copy this piece is here for educational purposes]