CHAPTER 6: VALUING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

6.1) ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION..

Ø  Organizational information comes at different levels and in different formats and “granularities”..

Ø  Information granularities refers to the extent of detail within the information (fine and detailed or coarse and abstract)..

Ø  Successfully collecting, compiling, sorting and finally analyzing information from multiple levels, in varied formats, exhibiting different granularity can provide tremendous insight into how an organization is performing..

Ø  After understanding the different levels, formats and granularities of information, it is important to look at a few additional characteristics that helps determine the value of information..

Figure 6.1: Levels, formats and granularities of organizational information

6.2) THE VALUE OF TRANSACTIONAL AND ANALYTICAL INFORMATION..

Ø  Transactional information encompasses all of the information contain within a single business process or unit of work, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of daily operational tasks..

Ø  Analytical information encompasses all organizational information, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of managerial analysis tasks..

Ø  It is also includes transactional information along with other information such as market and industry information..

Figure 6.2: Transactional versus analytical information

6.3) THE VALUE OF TIMELY INFORMATION..

Ø  Real-time information means immediate, up-to-date information..

Ø  This system provide real-time information in response to query request..

6.4) THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION..

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

Ø  The five characteristics common to high-quality information:

Accuracy	Are all the values correct? For example, is the name spelled correctly? Is the dollar amount recorded properly?
Completeness	Are any of the values missing? For example, is the address complete including street, city, state and zip code?
Consistency	Is aggregate or summary information in agreement with detailed information? For example, do all total fields equal the true total of the individual fields?
Uniqueness	Is each transaction, entity and event represented only once in the information? For example, are there any duplicate customers?
Timeliness	Is the information current with respect to the business requirements? For example, is information updated weekly, daily or hourly?