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A2 level Information Communication Technology - Unit 4

Information

Overview

Computers are increasingly being used as an information source. In business, information provided by a computer is retrieved to aid the task in hand and can be used to aid decision-making.

The type of information depends on the level of the individual needing that information. If you remember there are 3 levels of information:

1. Operational Information is a record of all the transactions within an organisation. A record must be kept of all invoices from suppliers, payments and orders. Customer details, invoices and payments must be recorded. This includes payroll records and stock management.

2. Tactical Information is information commonly used by middle management. They need to know how fast particular products are selling, how quickly stock levels can be refreshed and at what periods they have most sales.

3. Strategic Information is needed by senior management. The leaders of an organisation need to plan for the future and they need accurate information about economic and environmental factors, social trends, legislation and so on to decide what direction the business should take. Information can be used to build computer models to forecast the effects of certain changes.

Quality of Information

To be useful information must have the following characteristics:

• Brief (an "exception report" that lists only items on which action is needed)
• Accurate (information might come with a probability factor e.g. weather reports)
• Up-to-date (crucial in certain areas e.g. airline booking system)
• Timely (reports need to reach the right person at the right time)
• Right Level of detail (some information is too detailed and this can lead to "information overload" but other information might not be detailed enough e.g. school league tables)
• Appropriate Format (e.g. is certain information more understandable if presented in a chart?)

Classification of Information

Information can be classified as follows:

• Source (internal, external, primary, secondary)
• Nature (Quantitive which can be measured numerically such as how many students are on this course and Qualitative which cannot be measured numerically
• Level (Strategic, Tactical, Operational)
• Time (historic, current or future)
• Frequency (how often the information is required such as 'real-time' daily, monthly, annually)
• Use (for planning, decision making)
• Form (written, visual, audio)
• Type (detailed, summary, aggregated, sampled)

Presenting Management Information

When managers are particularly keen to get their information across, they need to think about the appropriate means of presentation. Popular methods are:

• Computer Printouts
• Presentation Graphics
• DTP
• Videoconferencing
• Intranet
• Graphs and Charts
• It is important to choose the right type of chart. Pie-harts, for example, are less effective if there are too many segments. Line graphs are a good way of showing trends in sales figures.
• Printed Presentations
• Bullet points are a good way to achieve clarity
• Use graphs and charts to illustrate numeric information

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