LO3

3.1

Data on its own is meaningless but with context give it meaning for example 7 and 11 is meaningless but 7+11 is useful

3.2

Communication- a simple email home while on holiday, saying how has your day gone, includes information.

Education and training-this generates lots of information like a school report. This can be paper based but can also be stored online in an intranet  

Entertainment-there are some superb films, but some are terrible. Websites such as IMDB and rotten tomatoes provide a synopsis of each film they list, as well as overall scores based on the views of people who have seen it. These can be used to plan which films to watch.

Planning-many people use shared electronic diaries to help plan their lives. In a work context, these enable colleagues to arrange meeting when they are available

Financial- Banks and other organisations are able to provide us all with a lot of other organisations are able to money have in. Not only simply tell us how much we they can our accounts, so that we can plan expenditure but also group our expenditure so that we can see the sort of goods and services we are buying. This can be a very useful way of managing our budget.

Research- Information can be stored and, if searchable, used again. Other people’s experiences of holiday locations, disasters when cooking or advice on why your car may not be working are all available through research and can be extremely useful.

Location dependent- One benefit of storing information in a searchable format is that parameters, such as location, can be applied. This could be as simple as searching online for 'Chiropractors near here, which would bring up a list of local practitioners. This does not mean that chiropractors do not exist anywhere else, but merely limits those that you are shown so that you do not have to sift through everyone on the data store.

Benefits and limitations- most information is presented for a clear and beneficial purpose. This benefit may only be felt when the information is accessed and used. 

3.3

Knowledge management and creation- As organisations grow; they need to employ staff to carry out specific tasks, which includes access to and use of information. Knowledge management is the process of bringing together all of the information held by an organisation to gain a better insight. For example, one branch of the organisation may be based in a key market and hold specific information that could be used by other branches. If this information is not shared, mistakes could be made or opportunities missed. By managing the information so that it is available to all, it is hoped that such mistakes may be avoided and opportunities exploited.

Management information systems (MIS) - A management information system is designed to provide key information needed to aid the management process in making strategic decisions. These systems therefore present an overview of information, rather than every detail. The clarity that can be achieved by presenting key information that has been gathered by analysing many sources, leads to decisions that are based on the big picture rather than focusing on small items of information. An example would be the level of sickness over the previous 30 days that might be held in the individual personnel record of each member of staff. The nature of the illness, or the names of each individual involved, may become important at some stage, but an initial decision about the need to use agency staff, for example, can be based simply on the overall figures

Marketing, promotion and sales- Organisations use information as part of the process of selling. For example, sales figures may identify an increase in sales of a product in a specific region. This could be exploited via the use of targeted marketing, so that sales in this region could grow even further. Information gathered from customer loyalty cards can provide information about purchasing patterns of key groups, such as those aged under 26. The use of these customer loyalty cards can also be linked to shops in which they were used and so organisations can also analyse by geographical areas. Such information is clearly valuable in planning marketing campaigns, for example.

Financial analysis and modelling- Sales can be measured by units sold or by the revenue raised. A measurement based on the value of sales is termed financial analysis and can be used to show information such as the top selling brands or periods during the year when sales are high. This information can be used to create models of expected customer behaviour. For example, if sales figures for a region show that 10 million tins of beans were sold, if the population of the region grew by 25%, modelling would suggest that sales of beans would also grow by 25%. However, if other factors were important such as that people may buy fewer beans and switch their demand to more expensive products as their income grew, this could also be included in the model.

Contact management- This is the management of all contact between a business and other people. As an example, software could be used to hold bookings for a children's entertainer. The information held would be the actual date and time of the booking, as well as other information, such as the name of the client and their telephone number.

Decision making- Information is researched so that a decision may be made; sales figures are gathered so that future plans may be generated and contacts are managed so that the correct equipment is available for a specific event. Decision making is therefore the fundamental rationale for information use. These decisions could range from whether or not to turn the sprinklers on to water the grass at the Head 0ffice to whether or not to start selling in Bulgaria. Each decision will be based on separate sets of information.

Internal and external communication- In some cases, the information presented is the same. So, for example, Christmas opening hours could be shared with colleagues (internal communication) and customers (external communication]. However, other information, such as the location of a secret testing station, may only be intended for internal communications, while information about the launch of a new product may be intended for customers.

Big data-big data is large volume of data both structured and unstructured that inundates a business on a day-to-day basis. Big data can for insights that lead to better decisions and strategic business moves.

Benefits and limitations-Effective management and use of information can be key to the success of a business. Contact management can ensure that an organisation keeps its appointments and provides the service that has been booked. Sales data can be used to plan future campaigns and to identify specific markets into which the organisation should move, while a well-organised MIS can present management with clear and concise information allowing decisions to be made based on an analysis of all of the information available. The limitations of these information systems come from the choice of information that is taken into account when they are created, the quality of the analysis that is applied and the extent to which the information is presented at the time it is required. If either of the first two factors are not met, the information presented will be incorrect, while if the information is not available when it is needed, the decisions made will be based largely on guess work

3.4

1.       Identify the need- this is where the objectives of any data analysis program will be set.

2.       Define scope- this stage defines the restrictions on the project.

3.       Identify potential sources - The planners of a project should be able to identify a wide range of sources and ensure that the information is suitable, provides enough information to cover objectives and is unbiased.

4.       Source and select information- this is the stage where information is gathered and the best is selected.

5.       Select the most appropriate tools-this is where the company choses the way the data will be presented.

6.       Process and analyse data-this is the stage at which data that has been collected is entered into software and analysed.

7.       Record and store information-this is the stage which the report is written.

8.       Share result –the final stage at which the results are published so that stakeholders may inspect them.

3.5

Data tables

·         A well-structured database uses separate data would have one table of information. For example, a database of patients that just held information about patients, and a separate table that held information about doctors, while a third would hold a table of which patients have seen which doctors and on which date.

·         A data table can show patterns in information. For example, Figure 2.4 shows the results of a query linking appointments for one day at a doctor's surgery and the reason for the appointment.

·         A number of different patterns can be observed. First, most of the patients have booked their appointment in advance. Second, the majority of patients have reported flu' as their reason for the visit.

Visualisation of data

·         This is a tool used to help people understand the significance of the data by putting it into a visual context, Patterns, trends and correlations are much to recognise when visualisation is used.

·         Trend and pattern identification

·         This is similar to the visualisation of data where you would use a comparison line graph to analysis sales over a month period for, say, the last five years.

Data cleaning                           

·         An important part of data management is making sure that the held is relevant and up-to-date. Data cleaning is the process of removing or improving out-of-date data. For example, if you deliver milk and someone has not ordered from you for the past two years, they may not do so in the future so you could remove their details from the database.

·         Similarly, a periodic check to ensure that the correct address is held for each customer is also good practice. In some cases, the same customer could be recorded with two separate addresses, so contacting the customer on both should identify which to delete.

Geographic information system/location mapping

·         The ability to track the geographical location of staff or items that are being shipped around the world can be a real benefit for organisations. Staff can be tracked so that delivery times can be confirmed with customers, while individual items can be tracked so that they may be found if lost. Customers can track the path of a courier in real time and thus know when they may expect a delivery and so plan their day.

3.6

An open system can interact with other exchange information even have different platforms. A closed system cannot. One of the disadvantages of having an open system is that it is a wonderful playground for hackers. A closed system is more secure.