In this assignment I have been employed as the head of information system for (Newham sports Club). The sports club is a leisure centre located in the borough of Newham in east London. Because I am the head of information, I have been requested to prepare a report for the sports club. The topics that I am going to discuss are the benefit, and the development of the system. Validation The information has to be unbiased and demonstrable. In order to have characteristics of good information, it is imperative for data to be valid. Data has to precise and the individual who collects the data is accountable for the accuracy and the quality of data.
Example Because the sports club is an organisation that gathers member’s details, the sports club has to make sure the data which is collected is accurate and up to date. Without accurate information, the sports club will face many problems such as incorrect address of a member because he/she doesn’t live there any more or someone whose membership expired is not in the computer system. Information has to be thoroughly checked before it can be used.
Reliability Checking if the information is reliable is another aspect of good quality information. You have to be sure that the source where you’re getting the data from has all the factual up to date data. Also you have to make sure, what type of source you should use to get your information. Getting wrong information from fake sources can cause problems. Example of Newham sports club Newham has to make sure what kind of information they collecting and also are they getting the information from a valid reliable source. For example, if you have the monthly sales of three salesmen, by finding the average monthly total using a calculator and a computer calculator over a number of times we can say that the data is reliable.
Timely This is basically when the information should be available when it is needed for decision making and not sometime afterwards. In most organisations managers hold regular meetings where information is checked and shared with other managers. Example Newham sports club has can use the idea of a quarterly sales marketing. The first meeting for this year will be on 17th March 2008. At this meeting all the sales statistics and corresponding information for the months of January to February 2008 will be discussed. If the information is ready and is used at the 17th March meeting, the information will be said to have been timely.
Fit for purpose In order to establish wither information is fit for purpose, criteria needs to check first so it can be measures. The criteria will vary from situation from situation. Example Newham sports club needs to have all data fit for any decisions they have decided to make. For example if they want to make a decision on how they can increase the profit they are making from members of the sports club in a month. In order to achieve this task, they first need to use the criteria to check if the data is correct. The data can be, how much money are the members paying to use the equipments, and how many members are coming to the sports centre every month? Etc
Accessible Everyone needs to agree that it would be pointless for a functional area of an organisation to generate data and information that it would then be unwilling to share with other areas. Particularly when you consider that all parts of an organisation should ultimately be working together towards a common goal. Example Newham sports centre should be able to do mathematic calculations with tier data. And they should have a printed report, if it contains too much data then it is advisable not to type it in all again in order to perform estimate.
Cost effective The cost of collecting and making the data should be very much less than the value of the decisions made on that data. It is said that the cost to business government laws to capture data is often more than the benefit from the laws.
Example Newham Sports club should not excess money on collecting basic data. For example if they want to know how many people in the London borough of Newham are joined to sports centres, a lot of money will be spent collecting the information may be costly. So in order to spend less and effectively get good information then it is advisable they employ specialists who carry out surveys. But in order to get more good quality information, the sports club will need look through expensive solutions such as government organisations, or other businesses that deal with collecting all sorts of information.
Sufficiently accurate Information needs to be accurate enough but not necessarily completely exact. It will be up to you if you want to use the information or not. For example if a company like the sport club wanted to know the estimate on their yearly budget, accurate estimates should be used and the data does not need to be 100% accurate. Example Newham Sports club will use information which is nearly accurate. E.g. if a governmental organisation wanted to know how much they spend on refurbishing the building, the sports centre will need to give an accurate estimate on how much they spend.
Relevant The idea of relevance in information is relatively easy to understand. The data that you are capturing should be related to a specific topic and also the information is accurate. Relevant data can be a series of questionnaires answered by people or checking recent financial information. Example If the sports club wanted check the sales information for the first quarter of this year they would need to check April to June 2007 information. Looking at December 2006 would be no use because that information will be irrelevant and would be no use in finding sales information.
Having the right level of detail When gathering data, you need to ensure that you have enough information for whatever the purpose may be. For example how much money is there when keeping a note of the amount of money you are spending within a month, you will not keep a record of everything you have spent money on in a day, but you may keep a record of how much in total you have spent in a day.
Example If Newham sports club collects enough detail for the purpose that is required. You manage your household accounts. It is not likely that you will trace every postage stamp purchased or each item in your shopping basket. You are just expected to record just the totals. How the characteristics relate to each department I will be going through how each characteristic is related to the membership application, reception procedure, in the club and in the office.