Categories of Information (Organisations)

Question 1

What is knowledge management and creation (with examples)?

Answer 1

Knowledge management and creation involves bringing together all of the information, to gain a better understanding of it. An example would include the financial department of your organisation about how customers spend money, and that information could be used by the sales department, so the information can be shared through knowledge management and creation

Question 2

What are the advantages of knowledge management and creation?

Answer 2

• Business can be more efficient, as each branch has a broader range of information available to them
• Business has more opportunities available to them to maximise or increase profits

Question 3

What are the disadvantages of knowledge management and creation?

Answer 3

• Can be a waste of time if the information being shared isn’t relevant to other parts of the business
• It can be a difficult and long process to gather all of the information

Question 4

What are MIS’ (with examples)?

Answer 4

Management information systems are systems that support the management process by presenting an overview of all the information available. An example is the use of SIMS in schools to hold all information about students, as well as registers.

Question 5

What are the advantages of MIS’?

Answer 5

• Hold all of the information in one place and keep it organised
• They provide the relevant information in the correct form to save time and allow for quicker decision making

Question 6

What are the disadvantages of MIS’?

Answer 6

• Complex system can make it hard to understand
• Leaves you open to a range of security issues such as hacking and theft, and these systems can hold sensitive information (e.g. customer information)

Question 7

What is marketing, promotion and sales (with examples)?

Answer 7

Involves the use of information collected in order to aid the process of selling. An example would be if sales figures showed that customers have high interest in cakes, then the business can target that group of customers to maximise profits.

Question 8

What are the advantages of marketing, promotion and sales?

Answer 8

• Aids the decision making process to help the business meet customer needs
• Correct promotion means the business becomes more popular, which means more customers

Question 9

What are the disadvantages of marketing, promotion and sales?

Answer 9

• Customer buying habits can change, making it more difficult for the business to meet customer needs
• The business is risking a lot of money that may not necessarily pay off for them

Question 10

What is financial analysis and modelling (with examples)?

Answer 10

Is a measurement of sales by units sold or by the revenue. An example would be using financial information to see what the most popular products are, and when they were most popular

Question 11

What are the advantages of financial analysis and modelling?

Answer 11

• Can save money that may have been invested elsewhere

- Allows for rational budgeting in order to make correct decisions

Question 12

What are the disadvantages of financial analysis and modelling?

Answer 12

• Producing an effective model can be time consuming

- Data can be sensitive as it involves the successes and failures of the business

Question 13

What is contact management (with examples)?

Answer 13

The management of contact details of anybody involved with the business by the business. For example, the use of software to book dental appointments would include customer information

Question 14

What are the advantages of contact management?

Answer 14

• Allows customers to be notified of any deals that may be available to them e.g. loyalty cards
• The business can have the information more organised

Question 15

What are the disadvantages of contact management?

Answer 15

• Person using the software needs to be very skilled for the software to work as effectively as possible

Question 16

What is decision making (with examples)?

Answer 16

Information that helps the business to make informed choices on important business decisions, for example if the marketing department’s research showed that sales figures had increased due to advertising, then the business may decide to continue advertising

Question 17

What are the advantages of decision making?

Answer 17

• All decisions are backed up by the research done e.g. sales figures, trends and patterns
• Ensures that more informed decisions are being made

Question 18

What are the disadvantages of decision making?

Answer 18

• If the information becomes outdated, then they won’t be able to reach their contacts

Question 19

What is internal and external communication (with examples)?

Answer 19

The communication with those within the business e.g. staff and outside the business e.g. customers, for example to e-mail infrastructure changes or promotions to customers or other businesses

Question 20

What are the advantages of internal and external communication?

Answer 20

• Internal communication helps everyone in the business to work more cohesively
• Sensitive information can be sent privately to customers or employees through e-mails

Question 21

What are the disadvantages of internal and external communication?

Answer 21

• Internal communication can be more biased, making the information unreliable
• If the information is leaked, harsh implications on the business

Question 22

What is big data (with examples)?

Answer 22

Data of a large volume that is flooding into the business on a day to day basis. An example is sales figures over a month, as it is a large amount of data collected over a long amount of time

Question 23

What are the advantages of big data?

Answer 23

• Correctly analysing this information allows the business to make more informed and better decisions
• Kept up to date meaning the data is constantly relevant

Question 24

What are the disadvantages of big data?

Answer 24

• The business needs to adapt to fit the constant (not periodical) flow of data into the business, which can cost money to set up a strategy that suits the flow of big data
• It requires sophisticated analysis in order to get the best results to help the business