Understand how organisations use business information

Information Systems Understand how organisations use business

information

Rhiannon Jones

24/11/2011

RHIANNONJONES_U3_A1_P1_P2_M1_D1.DOCX 24 Nov. 11

1 | P a g e

TASK 2

Operational Support

Operational Support is monitoring and controlling situations that need to be altered or changed. For example at our college the security gates were not designed very well as some times during the day it would get busy and students would turn up to classes late and it was also a health and safety issue as people were getting hurt in the rush to get out and in. So to sort this situation out the college security guards were asked to monitor the situation and provide feedback so that a team of people could assess how to change it and make it better so they decided to make the exit one way and that you do not need your ID badge and could just walk straight out, but still need the ID cards to get it to keep the college a secure environment for staff and students.

An organisation can also look at the performance of different employees to determine who is the most – or least – effective. This process can help to ensure that the use of resources is cost-effective.

Analysis of Information

Analysis of information is used to identify trends and or patterns within a particular system this is also used to identify potential problem areas for example Primark used the analysis of their financial situation in each store and the Chatham store keeps over spending on wages which then comes out of their profits so if each store was to over spend on wages then they wouldn’t make much profit overall or not as much as they do now.

Decision making

Strategic decisions are made by the top bosses they are the long term decisions and aims of the company that they want to achieve over a long period of time. For example Penneys in Ireland thought should we expand abroad? And they did they went to the UK and it became known as Primark which has been a great strategic decision for the bosses of Penneys as Penneys and Primark now have expanded aboard again to Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Belgium and now have over 223 stores which has boosted the profits made by Primark and Penneys.

Strategic

Tactical

Operational

Senior Management

Middle Management

Junior Management


2 | P a g e

Tactical decisions are made by the store management who has to ensure the departments in a store are contributing towards the company aims at making profit. The decision could include issues like staffing or financing for a store. It could include changing store opening times for example Primark have the store open from 9:30 on Sundays even know customers can’t buy till 10:00 this has provided customers the chance to browse before the store officially open and customers like this. Also the store managers can also make changes to layout of the floor to see if that had an effect on amount of customers they get thought the doors.

Operational decisions are made by the supervisors they make the day to day decisions for example at Primark the supervisors give the staff their breaks and lunches they get given set time so everyone doesn’t go at once, give out over time and decide whether to call in more staff to cover shifts when people call in sick, are on holiday or as a general extra person to help on shop floor.

To gain competitive advantage

Companies use the information they receive to see how well they are doing compared to their competitors. The information they could use to see if there is a gap in the market and if they could get there product out before their competitors and for a better price to stay ahead of them. If the information showed them that they have a weakness they would need to improve this so they could keep up or ahead of the competitors. The information they receive can also help to make decisions which could create more cost effective products, increase or change their target audience, improve their products to match or outdo their rivals.


3 | P a g e

TASK 3 – PART 1


4 | P a g e

TASK 3 – PART 2

CUSTOMER

Call Centre Rep

Specific specialist advisers

Database Finance

Branch

Head Office

Administration

Team Leaders

Branch Manager

Marketing/ Promotions

Underwriters

Government

FSA

#1: Customer calls call centre at the branch #2: Customer call is then passed

onto a specialist adviser

#4&5: Customer details and policy details are put into database and passed onto finance

#3: Discussion about insurance

#6&7: Finance sends invoice and Customer sends payment back to finance

@1: Information Reports are generated from the Database for the team leaders by the admin staff

@2: Information Reports are generated for the Branch Managers by the Team Leaders

@3: Team Leaders set targets

Human Resources

1: Administration collect Legislation changes from Government and circulate the information around and give policy details to go on a national database

2: Administration collects information from the underwriters about Special Claims or enquiries and passes them onto branch managers 3: HR and finance share

information about wages for staff

4: Marketing and promotions share information forward and backwards about what promotions are good and what to try.


5 | P a g e

TASK 4

Good quality information needs to be valid, reliable, timely, fit-for-purpose, accessible, cost-effective, sufficiently accurate, relevant, having the right level of detail, from a reliable source, understandable by the user

Valid - This is important for Data research because if the data is not reliable then it could lead the research into a false result. An example the way that the data can be valid is if it is taken from a reliable source. Reliable – Reliable means to have the data research from a trustworthy source. For example if the company collects secondary data (collected by someone else) this wouldn’t be as reliable as Primary data (collected by yourself/company). Timely – Data that is collected needs to be collected and researched in the most efficient, quick and reliable way possible. It needs to be in time for It to make an impact, on the company for example if I collected data for Tesco’s Christmas season and presented it to them in the August before that Christmas this would be timely because it would make them ready for the Christmas season. Fit-for-purpose – Data that is collected needs to be relevant and there needs to be enough of it to be used to its best use. Accessible – Data needs to be useable for all. So that it needs to be available for everyone to access easily without any problems/issues. Cost-effective – Data that is collected needs to be done in the cheapest way. Sufficiently accurate – Data needs to be as close to the truth as possible if not completely true. Relevant – The data needs to be linked to the subject so if you are researching how many people have a computer and you present data on how many people have a car this would not be relevant but if you presented how many people in a certain area have a computer this would be relevant. Having the right level of detail – Data needs to not be too complicated, but there needs to be enough detail in order to get the point of the subject across to the audience. Understandable by the user. – Data needs to be used by the audience so It needs to be as clear and informative as possible. Also the researcher needs to be aware of the audience’s capability and what previous knowledge they may or may not have on the specific subject.

Documents

Understand how organisations use business information