Improve the Quality of Information
Explain how an organisation could improve the quality of its business information (D1)
MegaMedia are a company who specialises in the purchasing and selling of a variety of media devices.
Valid
Valid information should be correct and reliable. A company like MegaMedia needs to get valid information for their product description. If they get the information wrong, like the dimensions or power usage for example, the customers who are buying this product will be misled with the wrong information. For MegaMedia to improve this service, it is viable to make sure you double check the information with other sources. For example, if one source from a forum says a particular phone’s battery life last 8 hours but another source such as the official maker of the phone says it lasts up to 10 hours, then you would need to change it to the more reliable source, or if there is no clear distinction between the sources, then find more sources to get a more accurate answer.
Reliable
Reliable information should be information that you are comfortable that it is correct. MegaMedia should be using information from the official media device. If MegaMedia gets’ their information from a forum that has been posted by an unknown user, then it is not going to be as reliable as an official website. For example, a Nikon camera, you would need to go to their website (www.nikon.co.uk) to get all the specifications which means that you know that it is 100% correct.
Timely
Timely information needs to have an appropriate date for the information to be reliable. If MegaMedia needs to make a description and photo for a new upcoming phone that is going to be released the next day, MegaMedia needs to be critical in timing and get everything done before the deadline so they can start selling that phone promptly and get sales in from day 1. To help MegaMedia, they could set-up a plan so that their employees know what they are doing and work together to get the phone on their website quickly. For example, one employee gets the picture while one sets up the webpage for it etc.
Fit-For-Purpose
Information that is fit-for-purpose needs to be relevant to what you need the information for. If MegaMedia wants to do a survey about customer satisfaction and wanted to know what the customers think about their service and MegaMedia gives the survey to people that are not their customers or people that never heard of MegaMedia, then the information given is not fit for the purpose it was initially intended for. MegaMedia can improve this service by using their customers email addresses that they signed up to MegaMedia with and send the survey through their email. They can alternatively send it through post if they provided a home address.
Accessible
If information is accessible, then this means that it is stored in a way that can be easily viewed at any time. MegaMedia can make their information accessible by printing out daily sales reports for the sales team to view and to see what products are selling well and what are not. MegaMedia can also make their information accessible by making certain departments have access to the hard drive with everything on. However, MegaMedia need to be cautious on who can access their hard drive and make sure there are regular backups that no one can access.
Cost-Effective
Information that is cost-effective means that it is worth spending money for information that you know will benefit you later and gain a profit. With the same example, if MegaMedia wanted to create a survey about customer satisfaction and wanted to know what customers think of them, then they might pay another company to do the survey for them which may cost £500. Using the information that was collected by the other company, MegaMedia can improve their service based the feedback they got and as a result, gain £1000 profit during the process because they listened to what the customers want.
Sufficiently Accurate
Sufficiently accurate information helps the business make correct decisions. If MegaMedia use inaccurate information, then it could affect their company depending on the information. If MegaMedia put the wrong product description on a product, then customers are going to think differently to what the actual product looks like after they get their item delivered. MegaMedia needs to double check where they get their information from so they can be confident they the information is sufficiently accurate.
Relevant
Information is relevant if the information collected is useful to your business needs. If MegaMedia are making a product description for a new phone that is coming out, they need to look at that exact phone specification and not the wrong version of the same phone or a different phone entirely. MegaMedia can improve this by double checking and making sure that the source of the information is the same model as the phone they are releasing.
Having the Right Level of Detail
It is good to have the right level of detail for your information. The same example with product description, if MegaMedia want to make a product description for a phone, they don’t necessarily need to give all information about the phone, like what it is made of, or how they made the phone. It is unnecessary and not needed, the product description needs to be filled with the right details, like, the size of the screen, it is 1080p, what OS is provided with the phone, how many pixels in camera, front and back if available. These types of questions are useful to the customer when buying the product. MegaMedia can use their previous description to help make a template for this one; they can also listen to customer feedback on what they could add extra to improve their descriptions for all their products.
From a Source in which the User has Confidence
Gathering information from a trustworthy source is very important. If MegaMedia collect information from a blog or forum post, then MegaMedia would not be as comfortable in using this information. However, if MegaMedia collect their information from a confident source such as their main website, like Samsung, Nikon, HP, then they would be more confident in using the information.
Understandable by the User
If the information is used and the customer that is viewing the information is unsure of what is means or not understanding where the information came from or what it represents, then the information used needs to be better explained or presented in a way that makes sense to the customers that view the information such as a product description. MegaMedia can improve this by laying out a template that they can use and their employees understand how it works.