ICT as a Commodity AS Module Heathcote Ch. 9

Importance of Information  Information technology is fundamental to the success of any business  The information that is collected and/or assembled in any business is as valuable a resource as capital or people  Information may cover: Market trends Buying preferences Customer profiles  It may be processed, summarised, and analysed by computers before being used by managers as the basis for decision-making  As discussed earlier, information must be: Accurate Complete Up-to-date

Collecting and analysing data  Data may be collected for a specific purpose (direct)  Or it may be collected for one use and then used for another (indirect) Store loyalty cards Information gained can influence shop layout It may determine the type of vouchers that you receive  Junk mail Information derived from credit card sales used for marketing purposes  Every time you use a credit card or answer a survey a further profile is being created of you and stored on computer

Coding value judgements  If you have ever filled in a questionnaire on which you were asked to tick a box rating something from ‘Poor’ to ‘Excellent’ you will know how difficult this is.  Try the handout example in Heathcote

The benefits of ICT  Speed of processing  Vast storage capacity  Ability to search and combine data in many different ways  Instant response  Accurate results  Communication  Improved company image

Limitations of ICT  New systems nearly always have some drawbacks. These could include: Job losses among employees New or redesigned accommodation may be needed for the setup Faults in the software may mean the new system does not work as planned Inadequate hardware may lead to bottlenecks in the flow of data around an organisation Hard to extract information in the right form Output only as good as input (GIGO – Garbage In Garbage Out) **important jargon