Roland UDVARLAKI
Unit-3 Information Systems
P1 - What is information ie types, sources and characteristics (see below)?
Describe the different types of information
-Data is raw facts and figures. Data usually means that the information that someone may have is just
not yet in a usable format that could actually help out a company or an individual. Data is
information that is not yet have been manipulated to make it useful. These data are then translated
into useful information such as: measurements, sales, times etc.
-Information on the other hand is manipulated data that is understandable and analysable. These
information usually include things like timetables, listings, charts etc.
Qualitative
-Qualitative is data that can’t be measured but can be observed. It seeks for people’s opinions. This
information usually gives an idea to a company to find out how their customer’s feel about their
business’s operation, services and products. This method is used in all businesses that seek for any
kind of customer or employee feedback to find out about how they feel or think about certain things.
Quantitative
-Quantitative data can be measured. This technique is also used to prove things with numbers and
facts that can clearly be told from just by looking at the data. For example, women’s height can be
measured to find out various things that may relate back to height. Since height measurements
include numbers and facts that are genuine, it is counted as quantitative data. This data can be later
used to find out that women who are taller may like certain things more than the ones who are a
little shorter.
Primary information
-Primary information is something that is gathered by the business itslef. (when a company gathers
their own information) Primary data can usually be found in forms of surveys, questionnaires and
other type of forms that seeks for the customer’s response. Primary information will always come
from the business itself and not for another source that isn’t the business itself.
Secondary information
-Secondary information is something that is gathered by someone else for someone. Secondary
information could be changed at any time by anyone and could be proven wrong at times due to this
very reason. While primary means that a company gathers their own information, secondary means
that a company receives their information from third parties that usually goes through more than 1
organisations and a number of individuals who may make some changes to the data that is later on
received by the destination business.
Where is it used (functional areas)?
-Functional areas are different departments. These areas depend on each other. One area may
require another one to work well together and to finish their job.
Name: Description:
Sales The sales department usually analyses the information it receives from
sources containing the number of products sold, who they were sold to, how
much they were sold for, where they were sold etc. This department usually
stores information of products, store’s locations and sizes, people who work
Roland UDVARLAKI – Unit 3 – Assignment 1 - P1, P2, P3, M1, M2, D1 – Page 1 of 16
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at those stores and customers who shop there. All of these information are
then organised in different orders that could later be used for research
purposes and for making decisions.
Purchasing The purchasing department usually analyses their own suppliers by different
orders including prices, products, issues etc. This is important as the best
performing suppliers could receive price cuts for perming better than others
and for working efficiently by delivering products on time, being reliable have
less issues with customers etc.
Manufacturing The manufacturing department analyses how their staff members and
machines are performing on the average. This will give the company a good
idea about how fast their products are made, how well they are being made
and what and how much resource goes to waste by each item. This will help
the company find out areas on which they have to improve on in terms of
manufacturing processes and materials.
Marketing The marketing department will analyse data and categorise them for later use
for future product launches. They will have a database of customers and their
competition describing how well the competition is performing with a specific
product and whom they may be selling their products to, the company will
use the same method for their own customers too to better perform in the
future with their own products.
Finance The finance department will usually analyse the revenue, growth of the
company. They will usually set expectations and calculate how much each
sector, category, department performs and helps the company.
Personnel This department will usually analyse information about their own employees.
It will include things like; their wages, amount of days worked and taken off
for illnesses and other reasons, hours of worked daily, weekly, monthly and
yearly. This will help the company to get a good idea about their employees
as well as to comply with different regulations that are in different countries.
Administration The administration department will usually make reports that can be usable
for all of the departments, for the whole company. This department may as
well prepare reports to be used by other departments to easily organise
things and to speed up processes.
You should then explain the sources of information (eg internal, external).
Internal information
-Internal sources come from within an organisation where information can be found. Each
department inside of a business contains information that could be used to improve the business’s
performance, reliability, effectiveness etc. This information is quiet accurate and reliable therefore
businesses strictly rely them on multiple occasions.
External information
-External information comes from outside of an organisation. These external sources can be laws,
rules that companies may have to follow in order to keep their employees safe and to comply with
the law. Some external information may contain information that could be relevant to the company
such as: customer interest in different countries, categories age groups describing what they tend to
like or what their favourite hobbies, products, fashion, style may be. These information can be used
to improve efficiency of the business as well as to improve customer satisfaction as well as overall
growth of business.
Explain the different purposes of information
Roland UDVARLAKI – Unit 3 – Assignment 1 - P1, P2, P3, M1, M2, D1 – Page 2 of 16
