What is the difference between Information and Data?
Data - Is made up of raw facts, events and transactions but has not yet been processed in to a form that can be used for decisions
Information - Is processed data, it now has meaning to the person that receives it and can be used for decision making.
What are the Characteristics of Good Information?
Accurate - so that it can be relied upon.
Complete - should provide all information required but not be excessive.
Cost Effective - its value should exceed the cost of producing it.
Understandable - Should be clearly presented and displayed in understandable format.
Relevant - should relate to it’s purpose.
Accessible - in an appropriate way
Timely - should be provided in sufficient time for decisions to be made based upon that information.
Easy to Use - should be clear and easy to use.
What would be included when running a cost benefit analysis?
Costs
- Initial costs - inc. Design & development, purchase of new hardware, testing and implementation of new system, training costs.
- Running costs - Labour time to run system, Replacement parts & costs of IT support.
Benefits
- Enhanced efficiency and capacity
- Better quality of information
- Better access to information
- Improved sharing of information
- Better decision making
- Better customer service.
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What are the different types of systems architecture?
- Networks - LANs (local area network) usually connecting computers and peripherals within a single organisation, and WAN (Wide area network) connecting multiple LANs.
- Intranet - Internal network to share information within an organisation, usually firewall and not externally accessible.
- Extranet - Collaborative network used to link organisations e.g. Supplier totals.
- Internet - the WWW, lots of organisations and data.
What are the different types of general and application controls that may be included in a computer system?
Application Controls - Apply to individual areas of a system to ensure completeness, Validity and accuracy of transaction processing:
- Batch Totals
- Exception reporting
- Authorisation
General Controls - policies and procedures relating to many applications, support effective function of application controls and proper operation of information systems.
- Network access controls.
- Staff training
- Password protection
- Restriction of physical access.
How are performance management systems utilised at differing business levels?
Strategic Planning - Upper management, planning future course for organisation, may include long term forecasts.
Management control - Using resources effectively to achieve objectives determined from strategic planning. Budget reporting ect
Operational Control - implementation of organisations plans on a day to day basis.
What are the different levels of management and how do the types of information required by them differ?
Strategic - Long term time horizon requiring aggregate or summarised information mainly from external sources on an infrequent basis (annually/quarterly) Deals with a high level of uncertainty.
Tactical - Short to medium term time horizon, dealing with detail and summarised information from a mix of internal and external sources on a semi frequent basis (Monthly/weekly)
Operational - Immediate to very short term time horizon looking at very detailed information from internal sources, with a high level of certainty on a frequent basis (Weekly/Daily)
What information systems are implemented at the differing business levels?
Executive information system (EIS) - Strategic level.
- User friendly internal and external information
- Option to drill down to obtain information.
Decision Support system - Tactical level
- Prediction of consequences of possible scenarios
- Managers use judgement to make decisions.
Expert system - Operational level
- Specialist Knowledge, utilised by non experts for advice/assistance in decision making.
- Can be used at other levels.
Transaction Processing System - Operational level
- For recording routine business transactions.
What are the 5 defining characteristics of Big Data?
Velocity - Data is streaming at a constant and continuous rate. Servers need to cope with the flow and produce meaningful real-time analysis.
Volume - More sources of data and increase in generation of data.
Variety - Data from a wide variety of formats including Rich text, Audio GPS data ect.
Veracity - Risk of inaccuracies increases due to variety of sources.
Value - all data has to be turned in to value for business users.
What are the two key areas relating to Big Data?
Big Data Management - Storage, Admin and control of both structured and unstructured data in vast quantities.
Big Data Analysis - Scrutinising the data to provide insights and better forecasting through identification of patterns, relationships and correlations. Providing more detailed and unto date performance management.
What is Data mining and what are the different steps in the analytics process?
Data Mining - process of identifying relationships, trends and patterns in large sets of data. Involves various methods such as statistics, Machine learning and database systems.
3 types of Analytics
- Descriptive - What has happened.
- Prescriptive - what should we do
- Predictive - What will happen.
