P3 explain the issues related to the use of information

 

Legal issues

The data protection act 1998

1.      Personal Data-this data type is made up of facts and opinions about a person, this data can be a person’s name, address, date of birth, marital status and current bank balance.

2.      Data Subject- the data subject is the name for the person the data has been collected from.

3.      Data User- the data user is the person who needs to accesses the data on a person, EG doctor, police and employer.

4.       Data Controller- the data controller is the person who is in charge of the organisation that is collecting the data, one of their jobs is to apply for permission to collect, use and store the data from the subject.

5.      Data Commissioner-the Data Commissioner is responsible for enforcing the data protection act, they also give permission to the Commissioner.

 

The 8 principles

1.      Personal data should be obtained and processed fairly and lawfully.

This means that the user of the information needs to tell you if they are using information about you and they need to tell you what it’s for.

2.      Personal data can be held only for specified and lawful purposes.

The data collector needs to state why they are collecting the information when getting permission. If they use the information for other uses they are breaking the law.

3.      Personal data should be adequate, relevant and not excessive for the required purpose.

Organisations should only collect the information they need and no more, EG a school may need to know the phone number of the parent of one of the students but they do not need to know the name of the grandmother.

4.      Personal data should be accurate and kept up-to-date.

Businesses and companies need to be careful not to get the wrong information about a subject. schools do this by sending out annual form with all the information about a student this is then checked by the  parents  and made up to date.

5.      Personal data should not be kept for longer than is necessary.

Organisations need to only keep personal information for a reasonable amount of time. A school can keep all the information on a student for about 5 years to use for referencing but after that they must remove it from the system. 

6.      Data must be processed in accordance with the rights of the data subject.

If the information comes from a person, that person can make changes to the information if there are any mistakes but only to the correct information.

7.      Appropriate security measures must be taken against unauthorised access.

This means that all the information needs to be protected from hackers or people without the needed access

8.      Personal data cannot be transferred to countries outside the E.U. unless the country has similar legislation to the D.P.A.

This means that if a company needs to trade their information to a different country that country needs to use laws just like the D.P.A.

 

Freedom of information act

The F.O.I act means that the person that the information was taken from and the organisation that has the information can ask for information from any and all public authorities such as the police, the government, the NHS, a college or a school. The authority then has 20 days to give them the information. The authority can still refuse the request for the information if the authority believes it to be exempt from the act.

The computer misuse act 1990

Before 1990 there were no laws agents hacking in the UK but after that the government decided to bring in the computer misuse act which consisted of 3 main laws.

1.       Unauthorised Access to Computer Material

2.       Unauthorised Access with Intent to Commit or Facilitate a Crime

3.       Unauthorised Modification of Computer Material.

Ethical issues

When someone joins an organisation they will need to read and accept the code of practice, so they can use the computers with in the organisation.

The purpose of the code of practice is to make it more clear what the rules are when using the computer facilities  

·       Use of Emails-

In organisations it is normally prohibited to send threatening, harassing or spamming emails within the company as this can course stress to other members of staff and may result in the staff member be in fired and in extreme cases arrested. The user is also not allowed to send large amounts of emails without premonition as this could result in overloading the network. To stop this from happening the network usually has a limit on the number of emails you can sent in a set time.

·        Use of the Internet-

One of the big things laid out in the code of conduct is the use of the internet. On a company’s network some websites like pornographic, gambling and social media will be banned to prevent staff from using these sits with in work hours most of these websites will be stated in the code of practise. One way around this is to give the staff log in and passwords that record the users IP address.

 

·        Whistle Blowing-

whistle blowing is when a employee reports a second member of staff for breaking the code of conduct for the company. this can be more servicer if mistakes are made when evolving the public as this can open up path ways for hackers.

 

P5 identify the information systems used in a specified organisation

my business is Copseys shuttlecocks

The management information system is the best way my company can gain an advantage over other businesses. as it helps the company to research new trends in an effort to maximise profits and minimalize costs for Copseys shuttlecocks   .  

 

Marketing

within Copseys shuttlecocks  I was given reports at the end of each week  this information showed me all my progress during the week such as the profits/losses I had made/ lost,

 

sales performance

 It also showed me what stock was selling the best and what stuff was not from this I then made the stock that wasn’t selling well cheaper. I could also use this information to buy more stock of the inventory that was selling well to maximise profits for Copseys shuttlecocks  

 

competitors

within Copseys shuttlecocks  I can use the information system to find out what other companies were selling and how much they were charging for them I could then use this information to gain an advantage by lowering my prices to beat them and take there costumers.

 

Financial

Using the weekly report from Copseys shuttlecocks.  I can see charts witch show me my how I should be doing for the next week. I can use this information to buy more stock or get a lone or invest in advertising or totally new stock.

 

Human resources

Using the information system within Copseys shuttlecocks  I can see how my employs are doing and how motivated they are to work. After reading this I can then give them training to improve their skills such as customer service. Also if they are badly underperforming I can fire them.

P7 .use IT tools to produce Management information

P7 use IT tools to produce

Management information.

Compare 3 areas

• Fareham
• Portsmouth
• Gosport

notes-https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_pOA4qbxwHBUjNycmpWb0IyT0k/edit?usp=sharing

spread sheet for population- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_pOA4qbxwHBcHZLb2FxZVJxT0E/edit?usp=sharing

Population forecast in 2015 for Portsmouth		199093.2
Population forecast in 2015 for Fareham		116716.1
population forecast in 2015 for Gosport		199093.2

spread sheet for level 4 qualifications- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_pOA4qbxwHBRUMwMGhEWktWT1U/edit?usp=sharing

Fareham forecast for 2020	29611.52
Portsmouth forecast for 2020	57627.27
Gosport forecast for 2020	12780.61

from these results I can see that Portsmouth would be the best place to start advertising for my business as it has the larges population of all the three locations and from this population I can see that more of them have qualifications at level 4 and above which means that they will have more available money.

 

P7 part 2 IT tools to produce management information.

P7.1 IT tools to produce management information.

·         Databases- all types of information systems use databases as a key element it is one of the first parts made when creating an information system.

o   A data model is a way of laying out information, it describes all the information that is stored EG what the information means and how it all relates to the rest of the information this system can be on a computer or on paper.

o   A database this where all the information from the system is stored ever on a hard drive or on a server they usually come with an index to help speed up the proses of finding information this is very important on larger system.

o   An example of a database and data model is within a supermarket where they need to find out information about fruit; the system finds the fruit the user is looking for then tell them how much stock they have and them what the prise will be.  

o   Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems - AI or artificial intelligence is a way of making work easier by having computer do the work. These systems have a set of changeable rules that effect how the AI system works to try and simulate the same actions of expert employee .using the example from before with the fruit. The system will be monitoring the stocks of the fruit and changing the costs of the stock as it changes. such as if they have a large amount of fruit then the system will lower the prices to more people will buy them, on the other hand if the store has a low supply of fruit then the system will make the prices higher all by its self.

 

·         Predictive Modelling- this is an important part of every information system. It helps companies and organizations to predict what will happen in the future. The way the system dose this is to take old data say over the last 10 years, it looks at things such as the prices of the fruit in the store and how much it has changed by in this time. It them take this information and create a estimation of how this prices will be over the next 10 years. Most companies and   organizations use this system to predict the profits for the next years to do this the system also take other values into effect such as taking on more staff on buying more stores

 

·         Internet-one of the best ways to improve an information system is to make it accessible from the internet it can ever be accessed by all the general public such as Wikipedia or it can be closed off and only for people within the organisation. This type of system is then protected by user ID’s and passwords. some of benefits of using an online information system are that its removes  a lot of the main problems that a organizations will face when operating their own network, it also recesses work hours on development as the staff can use a lot of the pre-existing tools already on the internet. The main way organisation use the internet is with online shopping such as amazon or eBay where all the sales take place online. The information such as prices and stocks are then stored on their online databases.  

 

 

·         Data Mining Systems-this is a tool used in an information system to identify patterns with in the information such as commonly sold stock in stores or groups of customers. The tool can identify all sorts of patterns but is most valued and used to find information that is harder for the organisation to find or they haven’t found. The good example of this is with in stores where the business have  to total numbers of sales in a day and the total numbers of customers a day the problem with this is it does not tell the organisation  what the people are buying and what’s selling the most. A problem with this is that some people may only low value products with means that the average value of sales will be lower .  

 

infomation systems P4

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_pOA4qbxwHBcElwTGhrWmtxRzA/edit?usp=sharing

P6 bisness game-

first attempt
7/5/14- The first time I played the business game I tried to improve my customer service by spending most of my money on staff, as I got primary qualitative information from the costumers that people in the Shop were waiting for assistance, so I hired 2 new staff members and spent a lot of money upgrading the staff room and getting training after this the customer's service started to improve  but after I tried to give training to one of my employees.
 the game started to glitch and I could only fix this by going to the next week. I had to do this two times but after the game began to run again as a notification came up saying that my health was very low, as I had skipped two weeks of game time due to this glitch I had lost all my stock and the costumer service was very poor. I tried to by more stock and take out a loan but when I went to the next week the game ended.

 second attempt

Week 1

I lowered the prices of all my stock to try and bring people in. I did this to gain a competitive advantage over other businesses and this gave me confidence that I would make a profit.  I then got new stock from the loading van, 10 of each. Using this marketing information  I was confident that with the lower prices that the stock would go down quickly. After this I advertised my shop online, in the local newspaper and in the shop window.

Week 2

This week I improved my Human Resources department as I hired a new member of staff, a woman named Rachel, who would work for a salary of £19000. Using marketing information  I then went and made my new stock cheaper to try and encourage more customers.

 

Week 3

This week I refilled all the stock in the stock room as I had timely information that mentioned that it needed refilling  , I then took 2 online training classes in the office, one in customer service and one in advertising to improve my marketing skills, I then used human recourses to  get more staff training from the front desk as customers were complaining about service.

 

 

Week 4

When I started this week I got a weekly report allowing me to receive primary, quantitative information informing of my current cash flow. A woman from the bank told me that I was running low on cash and that my business could be closed down. Using this secondary information  I took a lone from my family and used some of my money to keep the business going. I then got more customer service training from the front desk and volunteered a bit to try and improve service. After this I went to the football game to try and improve my social. I then took some more customer service training.

Marketing

Within my small business I was given reports at the end of each week.  This information showed me all my progress during the week such as the profits/losses I had made/ lost. I can then use this information to see what I need to spend the profits on next week such a staff training or more stock to replace what was lost. 

 

Sales performance

 It showed me what stock was selling the best and what stuff was not from this I then made the stock that wasn’t selling a lot cheaper. I could also use this information to buy more stock of the inventory that was selling well to maximise profits.

 

Competitors

Within the small business I can use the information system to find out what other companies were selling and how much they were charging for them I could then use this information to gain an advantage by lowering my prices to beat them and take their customers.

 

Financial

Using the weekly report from my small business I can see charts which show me how I should be doing for the next week. I can use this information to buy more stock or get a loan or invest in advertising or totally new stock.

 

Human resources

Using the information system with in my small business I can see how my employees are doing and how motivated they are to work. After reading this I can then give them training to
 improve their skills such as customer service. Also if they are badly underperforming I can fire them.

P1 Using information.

company use information in a verity of  way to find out what people want or what not to sell

Types of data

1-primary data
primary data is a date that you have gathered yourself, this date is manly found by using surveys, for primary date you can not use any published information as that is secondary.
2-Secondary data
secondary data is a type of data that come from outside yourself or your company, its is mostly pre-published work such as reviews, large surveys, organisational records. secondary data is much quicker then primary data as you don't have to spend time looking for the information but there is a chance that you can not trust the information.
3-Qualitative Data
Qualitative data is a type of data that dose not use number, raver it is presented using a conversational or narrative form. it is used for data that can only be observed not measured. e.g. costumer satisfaction ask you can not measure how a costumer feels about your shop you have to ask them and then record there response.
4-Quantitative data
Quantitative data is a type of data that can be measured using numbers it is mostly used with distance, volume and time. A way that a small company would use this kind of data is in stock reports eg there are 25 blue shirts in stock and the price is £20 for one.

Purpose

1-Operational Support

OS make quick use of information in day to day work.
monitoring activity
company use information to monitor where the stock is going, Tesco and asdas scan all food coming and going in and out of there different building such as where the food is made where it was transported to, where it was stored, where it will go in the shop and if it has been sold or not.  
controlling activity
using the information gathered they can respond to what is selling, what is not, and where the stock was least is a shipment is late as all the food scanned is sent to a server what it can be assessed when needed 

2-DATA Analysis

when they find out what is selling and what is not they can use that information  to  identify patterns or trends with the costumers they can then have a larger stock in of the food most people buy so they can sell more, likewise is something is not selling they may move it somewhere else in the shop so more people see it. if that dose not work they may stop selling it.  

3- decision making

one of the purpose of information is called decision making, most company will do this. if a shop finds that it is not getting a lot of costumers they may use date they have collected such as there opening times or when most people get off from work, after reading this they make stay open latter so more people can come in after work. a second example of this is special events such as a local football team moving up a league this may result in more fans wanting to bye shirts or memorabilia and the shop knowing this may stock more of those things.

4-Gaining advantage

one of the main uses of information for a company is to gain a advantage over there rivals they use data about the other company such as opening hours, prices, variation of stock and costumer reviews to take the lead. is a rival company has a small stock of high quality but expansive stock the other company may use that and start to sell cheaper stock with a larger quantity. if costumers are not happy with the service from a company other company's may invest in better training so more people are happy coming into there shop    

sources of data

1-internal
internal data is data that has come from inside your company, it is manly used for information that the company has direct control over such as stock lists, population of staff and pay. internal data may take time to find as you have to spend the time of your workers to collect it all unlike external

2-external
external data is a type of data that comes from out side the company such as government research or other companies it is quicker too use external information as you do not have to spend the man hours finding it but it may not be as trust worthy if it came from out side your company  


 

P2 Characteristics of infomation for a small company.

›Valid. for a small biasness all information must be valid as they do not have the man power or the time to waste

›Reliable. just like "valid" all the information for a small company needs to be reliable as false information could ruin the company 

›Timely. for a small company it is very important to have all there information in on time  as small company's will have a much smaller budget. it very important to be able to change stock quickly to stay popular.

›Fit for purpose. for a small company need all its information to be fit for purpose as you need all of it to be small and to the point as it will take a lot man power to read a lot of information that is not to the point.

›Accessible. all information that a small company uses need to be accessible. just as most on the list the problem is lack of man power. the company dose not have the time to send works after information so it needs to be easy to find.  

›Cost effective. all information used be a small company needs to cost effective as most small company's have a very small budget.

›Sufficiently accurate. in a small company all information need to be accurate. just like "fit for purpose" small company's  will most likely not have the time to use inaccurate information as people using this info may be misled or confused by it this may result in loss of sales or work not getting in on time and as most small company's do not have a large budget they cannot alow mistakes like this.  

›Relevant.information used by small company's needs to be relevant as the company cant spend time with information that nothing to do with the services they provide 

›Understandable. with small company all information need to be Understandable as small company's may not be able to choose who works for then and some people may speak a different language and it is important the they can understand the information or they may not be able to work  

good infomation P2

All for your consideration. When collecting or presenting data to use as information there are some key points you should always understand and implement into your work.

 

·         Valid - All your information should be correct and defendable, if any of your information is incorrect you will have a hard time proving your point.

·         Reliable - Just like “valid” all your work needs to be trustworthy. To do this you may want to do some research into the source of your data or collect it yourself.

·         Timely - To make your information effective and useful you need it to be timely, your data needs to have been sourced within a reasonable time. EG information from 10 years ago may not be relevant now.

·         Fit for purpose - Just like relevant information your work needs to be suitable for your audience and the point you are trying to get across. Keep it brief and to the point, someone reading your information may get bored and lose interest if your information is long and not too the point. 

·         Accessible - To make your information Accessible you need to make it easy to find as no one will see it if they can’t find it. If you want your information to be public you can set up a blog on a popular site as many people visit them.

·         Sufficiently accurate - You need to make it accurate using solid facts not guesses as someone reading your information will find holes and it will be useless. 

·         Relevant. All your work need to Relevant to the point you are trying to make (it’s great that man-u scored two goals last week but what does that have to do with shipping in the south ) if your information has nothing to do with your point readers will be confused and your work will become useless.

·         Understandable. This last one is easy you need to make your information Understandable this means no spelling mistakes or the wrong use of grammar. Also you make want to find out who your audience will be such as what language they will be using so you can change your information to help them.

PDF for the poster on a word document-

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_pOA4qbxwHBbVY5all3WGc3d00/edit?usp=sharing