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