Chapter 6 . Valuing Organizational Information

• 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 performing.

Information levels

- Individual, department, enterprise

Information formats

- Document, presentation, spreadsheet, database

Information granularities

- Detail (fine), Summary, aggregate (coarse)

Transactional Information
- Daily transaction
- Single business operation
- To support the daily routine organizational

Analytical Information
- from data to report
- analyze the task
- help the top level to make decision or analysis

The Value of Timely Information

- 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

Characteristics of high-quality information :

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

Consistency - Is aggregate or summary information in agreement with detailed information ?
For example, do all the total fields equal the true total of the individual fields ?

Uniqueness - Is the transaction, entity, and event represented only once in the information ?
For example, are there the duplicate customers ?

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

There are an example of low quality information :

1. Missing information

2. Incomplete information

3. Probable duplicate information

4. Potential wrong information

5. Inaccurate information

6. Incomplete information

The primary sources of low quality information

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.

Effects resulting from low quality information

1. Inability to accurately track customers
2. Difficulty identifying valuable customers
3. Inability to identify selling opportunities
4. Marketing to nonexistent customers
5. Difficulty tracking revenue due to inaccurate invoices
6. Inability to build strong customer relationships

Benefits of Good Information

1. High quality information can significantly improve the chances of making a good decision.
2. Good decisions can directly impact an organization's bottom line.