4.1.2 The value and importance of information

1. The costs in terms of money, time and human resources to get good quality information. 4.1.2 The value and importance of information

2. Starter: Table Complete the table on the worksheet filling in the information and the use columns. (10 mins)

3. Main: Costs of Information Information costs money to produce here are some areas: • Collecting data (Data Collection) • Hardware to capture data (Data Entry) • Processing time to convert data into information (Processing and Maintenance) • Software to process data (Processing and Maintenance) • Storage space to store data/information (Processing and Maintenance) Fill in the areas of cost diagram

4. Main: Costs of Information Define these areas: Financial Costs Time costs Human Resource costs

5. Main: Costs associated with data collection Direct: Data which is collected by the organisation. • People may have to be paid to give their opinions. • It will cost to send out questionnaires. • Indirect: Data collected from a 3rd party organisation. • The third party organisation may have to be paid but some data can be collected free e.g. the electoral roll, internet and government reports. • There are still costs involved in entering the data etc these are known as the overheads.

6. Main: Costs associated with data collection What are the costs involved? Give 3 examples of each Financial Costs Time costs Human Resource costs

7. Main: Costs associated with data collection The costs of obtaining information should not outweigh the financial benefits of having the information. Financial Costs: • Paying an outside organisation to conduct market research • Costs of printing out and sending questionnaires • Costs of paying experts to conduct a survey • Costs of buying from a 3rd party Time costs • Time taken to conduct market research • Time away from other activities • Time needed to process the results and write reports Human Resource costs • Staff needed to design questionnaires • Staff need to be allocated to the project and taken away from other jobs • Staff need to be trained • Travelling expenses Management usually perform a cost/benefits analysis to make sure of this, e.g. certain information may increase the organisations profit by £200 but cost £250 to collect.

8. Main: Costs associated with data entry What are the costs involved? Give 3 examples of each Financial Costs Time costs Human Resource costs

9. Main: Costs associated with data entry Financial Costs • Staff paid overtime to enter the data of new staff employed to enter it. • Hardware devices (e.g. scanners) bought to input data collected from questionnaires • Software purchased to enable characters on forms to be read automatically using OCR. Time Costs • Time taken to enter the data into the system using a keyboard • Time taken to deal with problems with rejected forms or incomplete questionnaires. Human resource costs • Training costs on dealing with input • Costs of external staff who enter data

10. Main: Costs associated with processing and maintenance What are the costs involved? Give 3 examples of each Financial Costs Time costs Human Resource costs

11. Main: Costs associated with processing and maintenance Human Resource Costs • Staff required to oversee the batch processing performed using OMR (Optical mark recognition). • Specialist staff required to give instructions to the database to process the data. • Software pushed to the limit by users’ demands for more information. • Staff employed to analyze the information and produce meaningful reports. Time Costs • Many millions of records need to be processed to extract certain information. • Complex reports demand lots of processing time. • Distribution of reports • Backing up large amounts of data is time consuming.

12. Main: Information Costs Are the rewards information brings worth the cost? Explain

13. Activity: Exam Question - Tips Exam Tip If asked to describe two costs each for data entry, data collection and maintenance and processing think of the three categories: Financial costs Time costs Human resource costs But make sure that your answer related to data collection, entry or processing

14. Highlight and annotate the set of answers given to show where the questions are being answered Check your answers against these and mark your own. Activity: Exam Answers - Tips

15. Plenary: Connect 4 Choose 4 numbers between 1 and 18. You will be asked a question based on your number.

16. Plenary: Connect 4 One example of a financial cost One example of a human resource cost One example of a time cost What is indirect data collection What is direct data collection Name a cost associated with data entry Name a cost associated with data collection An example of why it is important to have up to date information An example of why it is important to have accurate information An example of why it is important to have complete information Why do managers need information Define information Define data Define knowledge Why is data encoded What problems are associated with encoding What do we mean by value judgements How does data turn into information turn into knowledge

17. Extension: Exam Question • Describe two of the costs in terms of money, time and human resources in obtaining good quality information. Use a suitable, different example to illustrate your answer in each case. (2x2)

18. Extension: Exam Question • (a) The performance of a company has been improved by having up-to-date, accurate and complete information. Other than by aiding the decision making process, describe, using different examples, two ways in which good quality information can add value to the company.