Chapter 6 : Valuing Organizational Information

ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

•          Information is everywhere in an organization

•          Employees must be able to obtain and analyze the many different levels, formats, and granularities of organizational information to make decisions

•          Successfully collecting, compiling, sorting, and analyzing information can provide tremendous insight into how an organization is performing

•          Levels, formats, and granularities of organizational information

THE VALUE OF TRANSACTIONAL AND ANALYTICAL INFORMATION

Transactional information – encompasses all of the information contained within a single business process or unit of work, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of daily operational tasks

Analytical information – encompasses all organizational information, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of managerial analysis tasks

THE VALUE OF TIMELY INFORMATION

·         Real-time information – immediate, up-to-date information

·         Real-time system – provides real-time information in response to query requests

THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION

Business decisions are only as good as the quality of the information used to make the decisions. You never want to find yourself using technology to help you make a bad decision faster

Characteristics of High Quality Information

·         Accuracy Are all the values correct? For example, is the name spelled correctly? Is the dollar amount recorded properly?

·         Completeness Are any of the values missing? For example, is the address complete including street, city, state, and zip code?

·         Consistency Is aggregate or summary information in agreement with detailed information?

·         For example, do all total fields equal the true total of the individual fields?

·         Uniqueness Is each transaction, entity, and event represented only once in the information?

·         For example, are there any duplicate customers?

·         Timeliness Is the information current with respect to the business requirements? For example, is information updated weekly, daily, or hourly?

Example of Low quality information :

Understanding the Costs of Poor Information

The four primary sources of low quality information include:

1.       Online customers intentionally enter inaccurate information to protect their privacy

2.       Information from different systems have different entry standards and formats

3.       Call center operators enter abbreviated or erroneous information by accident or to save time

4.       Third party and external information contains inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and errors

Potential business effects resulting from low quality information include:

·         Inability to accurately track customers

·         Difficulty identifying valuable customers

·         Inability to identify selling opportunities

·         Marketing to nonexistent customers

·         Difficulty tracking revenue due to inaccurate invoices

·         Inability to build strong customer relationships

Understanding the Benefits of Good Information

•          High quality information can significantly improve the chances of making a good decision

•          Good decisions can directly impact an organization's bottom line