Using Information
By James Hubbard
P1,P2
Functional areas
Information in a company is very important. It is how the company operates and helps to run the business smoothly and as efficiently as possible. Bellow are the areas in which this information is used and how it is used.
Marketing:
Marketing in a business is very important as proper marketing will make your business grow and will make your company more known. They gather the information and with the information that they get they analyse it to look at their customers and who they are competing against. They will then use the information to target the people who will want to use their product the most and who they will make the most profit from.
Purchasing:
Purchasing in a business is very important too as it will help you make more profit and will help your company stay profitable. They gather information about the manufactures that sell them products and they look at the price and reliability of the source to see what manufacture gives the business the best quality.
Manufacturing:
Manufacturing in a business is very important as it will help to see how efficient your company is and how efficient your company runs. Manufacturing gathers data on how well your staff works and how much work they get done in a certain amount of time. This makes it so you can see how well they are manufacturing a product.
Finance:
Finance in a business is important as it will help to keep your business alive and will help you profit. Finance gathers information from looking at how much money the business gains and how much it uses. With this information they can work out how much money the business spends on certain parts and will be able to see if they can improve on their profits from this information.
Administration:
Administration in a business is important as it helps to run all of the other areas of the business. Administration gathers information about all of the other areas and creates a report for each area and for the whole company to see how the company is running and how the business is doing.
Personnel:
Personnel in a business is important as it helps to see what the staff do when they get to work such as when they arrive and their wages. Personnel gathers information from staff to see if they are within the legal laws and agreements made by the staff such as how many sick days they have and their wages.
Sales:
Sales in a business is also important as it helps to see what they have sold and how many of them they have sold. Sales gather information about what items they have sold, how many they have sold, how much and who to. They then use this information to see who they should keep selling to and to make sure that if a certain item has sold a lot then they can stock up on that product.
Information
Different Type of information
There are different types of information that can be used. Bellow are the different types of information.
Primary data
Primary data is data that you collect and data that you gather yourself. Primary is much more reliable as you know where the information has come from and you know who you have collected the information from. You get this information from sources such as surveys and interviews.
Secondary data
Secondary data is data that you source from somewhere or someone else. Secondary data is much less reliable than primary as you haven't got the information yourself so you can not be sure if the information is correct. You get this information from sources such as the internet or television.
Qualitative data
Qualitative data is data that is descriptive and is much harder to analyze than quantitative data as you will need to read all of the data instead of just being able to put it into a graph to be able to read it easy. Qualitative is also very in depth as you have to see how people think and feel.
Quantitative data
Quantitative data is data about quantities. Quantitative data is data that you can measure in numbers and do not need a lot of description about the answers as they are in a number form. You can put quantitative data into a graph to show your results and this way will be much easier to read.
Characteristics of good information
Valid
Valid data is good information as it will give you the correct information and will make it so the information that you are going to use will be true and accurate. Another reason is that good information is it will be unbiased meaning that no influence will have went into it. An example of this could be how many of a product you will need to send to someone.
Reliable
Reliability is a good characteristic as you will be able to trust the information that is given. If data is from a reliable source then you know that the information that you get will be true. You also have to look at the other information that you get to make sure that it fits in with the information that you get. An example of this is having data from a company that you have used for a long amount of time.
Timely
Timely is a good characteristic to have as you will be able to have the information that you need as soon as you need it. This is useful as if you get the information after you need it then it will be a waste and it will be no help. An example of this is information for a meeting with all of the directors of the company, you will need the information there and not after.
Fit for purpose
Fit for purpose is a good characteristic as you will be able to have information given to you that is used for the task that you want it for. It will be useful as you would only want information that you need and not information that doesn't have anything to do with what you want it for. An example of this is having information about the business when in a meeting about the business. It wouldn't be fit for purpose if you had information about a car for personal use.
Accessible
Accessibility is a good characteristic as you want to be able to have your data on hand in case you need the data. You will need to be able to use the data as quickly as possible too to make it more efficient. An example of this is if you are in a meeting, you want to be able to have the data that you need straight away so you can tell someone the data.
Cost effective
Cost effective is a good characteristic to have too as you want to be able to get information as cheap as you can in order to make it more profitable to use the data. This is needed as it will make your business grow much faster. An example of this is that you want to be able to gather information about a client and the cheaper that is then the more money you can make from the outcome.
Accurate
Accurate data is a good characteristic to have as it allows you to have data that can be used for important decisions and be able to have accurate data to tell clients. It will be useful as if you gave the wrong information then the client may not to make a deal with you. An example of this is if you are setting up a deal with a client and you tell them inaccurate data then they may not want to complete the deal.
Relevant
Relevant data is a good characteristic to have as you want to have relevant data to use or to talk about as if you had the wrong data then you wouldn't be able to talk about it. An example of this is if you were in a meeting and you had completely the wrong data then you wouldn't have any information to talk about.
Right level of detail
Having the right level of detail is a good characteristic to have as you want to have the right amount of detail to talk about as if you didn't then the person that you are talking to may not be happy with the data that you are providing. An example of this could be giving information in a meeting and not giving enough detail.
Reliable source
Having a reliable source is a good characteristic to have as you want to have data that is reliable and accurate. This is important to make sure that the data that you are giving is going to be true and not false. An example of this is having someone that is reliable and gives good information.
Understandable by the user
Having the user being able to understand the data is also a good characteristic to have as if the user does not understand the data that they are given then they won't be able to work with it or be able to present it. An example of this is giving someone information that they will be able to understand such as easy to work with data or having more complicated data for the more experienced user.