Using Information
Different Types of Information
Quantitative Data-
This type of data is information which is about quantities. This means that the information is written down in the form of numbers. Some examples of this include your shoe size or your height and the number of worker. Basically anything which is based solely on numbers is quantitative data.Qualitative Data-
This data is typically descriptive data and is harder to analyze than quantitative. This is personal, subjective and isn’t statistical. It is also often less quicker to process. Examples of this would be things like surveys or reports, these data's are mostly descriptive and so are qualitativePrimary Data-
Primary Data is information which you collect specifically for the purpose of the research project which you are doing. Collection of the data may be gathered by the following ways;
Direct Observation
Surveys
Interviews
Logs
Secondary Data-
Secondary Data is data which is collected from external sources.secondary Data is collected by somebody other than the user. Secondary Data can be collected via the following ways;
Internet
Television
Written Articles
Specific Functional Areas
The sales department in an organisation are interested in what products have been sold, who they have sold them too and also the cost at which they have been sold for. Sales Analyses are used widely within the sales department and are of great help to them. These analyses can include data on sales which are organised by things such as the following;
- Product and/or Product Group
- The store location
- The salesperson
- Customer and/or Customer Type
Administration-
Not all organisation have this department within them. If they do have this department then they may be responsible for preparing reports which apply to the entire organisation as a whole instead of just separate departments. The administration department may also be used to prepare and also to use some/many of the departmental reports.
Finance-
Finance has two departments. The finance team are split up into the two different departments, these departments are Financial Accounting and Management Accounting. The Financial Accounting Team are concerned with what money the company has, the income and the expenditure. The Management Accounting Team are concerned with how the companies money is spent.
Specific Functional Areas
Purchasing-
The department of purchases are interested mainly in how the suppliers perform. This department would analyse them by the price, by lead-time, what has fewest problems and also by the availability of the products. The best supplier for the job would have the cheapest prices, the quicker delivery and also the one who can be most relied on.
Manufacturing-
This department is used to show how efficient the business is. These will analyse how well the staff are used and also how well machinery is used. Also they will analyse how well they produce successful products, how they can minimize wastage and also how they can react to the change in demands.
Marketing-
This team is more interested in analyzing the customers and also the competitors. This team is similar to the sale team as they too are interested in sales by customer and also by the customer type. This team are intrigued by which products sell best and which ones dont do too well, which are best for the customer type, for advertising and also promotional purposes. The marketing team also do analyses on external competitors.
Personnel-
This department are in charge of analyzing information about people who the organisation may or are employing. This department are used to monitor staff turnovers, the wage each staff member gets on average and also the average amount of sick days and also the hours worked by each of the members. They do this in order to not break the labor laws and the staff agreements.