Value & Importance of Information www.ICT-Teacher.com

Understand that information is a commodity and as such, can have a monetary value, the level of which depends on its accuracy, its potential use and its particular intended use. Describe the overheads involved in ensuring that information is up-to-date and of use to an organisation/individual.

Importance of Data Information has become a valuable resource, just as much as capital infrastructure and people. Name some organisations where the collection of data is essential for their continued running? Information is collected on any amount of different items and used by managers to make strategic decisions concerning the organisation. Can you think of a situation where information was not used wisely and an organisation has suffered the consequences?

Importance of Information Information technology is fundamental to the success of any business The information that is collected and/or assembled in any business is as valuable a resource as capital or people Information may cover: Market trends Buying preferences Customer profiles It may be processed, summarised, and analysed by computers before being used by managers as the basis for decision-making As discussed earlier, information must be: Accurate Complete Up-to-date

The Value of Information How does the following information have a value: a list of current account customers whose customers have a large credit balance, a list of customers who have bought new cars from a garage over the past three months, an on-line database on CD ROM of all the post-codes in the UK, a list of credit card customers who have not kept their accounts in order (late payers etc).

Information as a Commodity Have you or your family been targeted for particular mail advertisements? Consider: making a credit card purchase, a mail order purchase, a telephone order purchase, information about you and the product you buy goes into a database. The information can be used to target you with advertisements on products that you are most likely to buy! Why may you get advertisements from many other different organisations?

Usefulness of Data Companies that sell products by mail order need to keep up-to-date lists of name and addresses of customers who may be interested in making a purchase. This data is very valuable and can be sold to other ‘like’ companies. What would make this list become of little value? What could be added to the data so that it can be kept up-to-date? Is the cost of keeping data up-to-date, accurate, and complete worthwhile to the company?

Overheads Collecting the data Data conversion / input into a database Frequency of collection / up to date Control, protection and secrecy Validation checks and manual entry Frequency of processing Output lists, use of paper and ink.