chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 – VALUING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

·        Organizational information

ü Employees must be able to obtain and analyze to many different levels, formats and granularities of organizational information to make decision

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

·        The value of timely information

ü Timeliness is an aspect of information that depends on the situation : 

-         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

ü Business decisions are only as good as the quality of the information used to make the decisions

ü You never want to find yourself using technology to help you make a bad decision faster

ü Characteristic of high-quality information include :

-         Accuracy

-         Completeness

-         Consistency

-         Uniqueness

-         Timeliness

·        Understanding the cost of poor information

ü The four primary sources of low quality information include :

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

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

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

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

ü 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 relationship

·        Understanding the benefits of good information

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

ü Good decision can directly impact an organization’s bottom line