P7, m3 management information

click here to see all the tools I used to produce management information
click here to see how I collected my information
click here to see all the data I have collected.

features and functions of information p4, p5

click here to see my presentation on the features and functions of information

data flow diagrams M1

high data flow diagram

click here to see an example of a high data flow diagram

a high data flow diagram gives a basic idea on the flow of data. in the example of a data flow diagram I have given, I have used three external sources of data. the ones I have used in my data flow diagram are customer and manufacturers. an external source is when information comes from a source that is outside of your business. an example of an external source is when a customer buys a product. this is external because the customer is giving you information and they are not a part of your business. the internal sources I have used in my data flow diagram are shop, manager and accounts. an internal source of data is data that has come from a source inside your business. an example of this is the shop buying stock. this is internal because the data is coming from the shop which is an internal source.
in the center of the data flow diagram you must include the process. this is the main part of a data flow diagram as it shows people what is happening to the data. in the center of my data flow diagram I have used the process 'purchasing stock'.

what is happening in my high data flow diagram?

1. first the customer buys a product. this data goes through the process purchasing stock.

2. next the order details will come to the shop. this will include information such as how much the customer has purchased and how much money the customer has spent. this will then allow them to make a stock check and see how much stock they will need to purchase 

3.next the customer will receive the product they have brought

4. after that the shop will place an order for new stock to replace all the stock that has either gone past its sell by date or has been sold

5. payment details will then go to the accounts so they know how much money they are spending on the new stock.

6. money will then come out of the accounts and will be given to the manufacturers of the stock.

7. order details will then go to the manufactures so they know how much new stock they need to supply to the shop.

8 finally the shop will receive the new stock to the cycle can continue again.

low level data flow diagram 

click here to see an example of a low data flow diagram

a low level data flow diagram is similar to a high level accept it goes into more detail about what is happening in between the flow of the information.

what is happening in my low level data flow diagram?

1. first the customer buys a product similar to the high level data flow diagram.

2. the shop then calculates the payment so that the correct amount of money is charged for the product.

3. next the order details will come to the shop.

4. next the shop will create a report on all the stock sold and all the money made. this report will be surmised and sent to the manager so they can make important business decisions on how much stock needs to be purchased and what stock should be purchased (if a specific piece of stock is not selling well then they will not continue to replace that stock).

5. the shop will then order new stock. 

the payment details will be sent to accounts. they will then check how much money is being spent on the new stock

6 money will then come out of accounts and will be given to the manufacturers of the products.

7. order details will then be given to the manufacturers so they know how much stock they need to produce.

8. the shop will then receive the new stock details along with the stock details. 

data protection act p3, m2

click here to see my website design with information about the issues related to use of information

click here to see the operational issues

features and functions of information p4, p5

here is a link to my presentation on features and functions of information

using information p1, D1

types of information

qualitative information 

this is a non numeric type of information that is based on the quality of something. for example if you were testing a new drink, you would say that drink was either nice or not nice. this type of information is dependent on your opinion. this type of information might be used by a restaurant if they wanted to know what meals were more popular. because the customers all have different opinions on the food the information is not fact. to improve the quality of qualitative information a small business may consider to include a short list of answers that people will have to choose from when answering a questionnaire. this will prevent people for giving joke answers and would make the information given more accurate.

quantitative information

this is information that can be proven and is factual information. for example when testing new drinks you may need to know the amount of ingredients that have been used to make that drink. this information is numeric information (number based). this information is used as it is more factual and harder to argue against.

an example of quantitive information is if a business wanted to work out the amount of stock that has been sold in a day. some businesses use an automated system to calculate this information. as a result of using an automated system, they can produce more accurate and useful information and gain an advantage over other businesses. 

primary

this is information that you have collected. an example of this is a survey. this is primary information because you are the source of the information. because you are the source of the information, you know where the information came from, meaning the information is more likely to be reliable and accurate.

sometimes collecting information from primary source will improve the quality of information. this is because if the information is primary, you have collected the information and therefore it will be more reliable. it also takes less time to collect primary information which may give you an advantage over other videos which are using secondary information. 

secondary information

this is information that has been collected by a secondary source. an example of this would be information collected from another company. if you use secondary information, it is more likely that the information is unreliable compared to primary information.

sometimes second information will improve the quality of information. this is because secondary information will usually be more professional and may give you better results when using the information to make important business decisions.

purposes of information

operational support

this is one of the ways in which companies monitor information. an example of this is a company monitoring the Footfall of there company. This would allow a company to know how many customers they get each day. it would also show them what times they had more customers. being able to monitor this information is important as it can tell them how much staff they would need and would tell them what times they would need more staff.

some companies use automated systems to measure the footfall of a company. this can increase the quality of the information as it makes it more accurate and requires less work to produce the information. this will also allow you to make business decisions quicker.

analysis

this is a way in which companies identify specific trends that could increase sales. for example every year at Christmas, companies release more stock that relates to Christmas because it becomes more popular at that time of the year. another example of analysis is finding out that your company is more popular at Christmas. Because of this the company will need to increase the amount of stock to prevent items from becoming sold out.

 

decision making

it is important that a company makes the correct decisions. without correct decision making, a small company could lose money. an example of decision making is increasing the amount of staff when there are more customers. 

gaining commercial advantage 

this is a way of getting an advantage over other companies in you area. for example, a company could increase the amount of time they are open therefore. this would mean that late night shoppers would go to your shop because it is open for longer. 

good information in a small business