DECISION MAKING

Information based decision making

Information based decision making

Task 1

Data

Data comprises of undefined and raw facts which may or may not have meaning. Data is unorganized facts or unfiltered information, which has to be processed to make it meaningful. Data can be input to any system and may not be in sequence. Information

Information is a processed outcome of a data. Understanding of information is easy and meaningful which can be shared with people. Information is a form of communication on which judgement and interpretation can be made. There are two types of information:

Quantitative - it is objective and contains facts and figures from analyzing numerical data. Qualitative - it is subjective and concerned with quality of things which cannot be measured numerically.

To further clarification between data and information, below are the two examples.

1) Sales of the day are collected as data in the database. When this data is collected on a daily basis and a person monitors it for a month or year and records it. In the end when all the data is to be transformed into meaningful information, conclusion can be made on patterns of the sales recorded throughout the time, which can be helpful in decision making.

2) A manager of a fast food restaurant wants to improve service over the next year. He plans a process to take customer feedback about the service. All of the completed feedback form will be recorded as data. When the manager analyzes and summarizes all the filled forms which will be helpful in decision making are information.

As a marketing manager, I will rely on MIS system to plan a marketing report. Following information will be required.

Internal information

Market intelligence

Market Research

Definition

It will identify the strength and capability of the company. It gives an analysis of position of the company to the manager. It comprises of finance, marketing, and operation data.

It is related to the overall demand and competitors prevailing in the market. This source gives important information about the changes in the market and what are the competitors doing.

It is done to know the customer wants and needs. It gives the idea for invention and innovation in the product.

Benefits

It helps in providing benefits, setting price or providing quality which distinguishes the product from that of competitor's offering. It is easily accessible and limited to organization.

It helps in defining right target market, increases sales and helps in effective marketing on the basis of marketing assumption.

It gives a clear idea of what customers require size of the market and where are our customers to plan effective marketing plan.

Drawbacks

It can be out dated and can be limited in nature

It is limited and not available in the public domain. It cannot be a reliable source.

It is expensive and time consuming, reliability of data may be doubtful. Misunderstanding of the questions can be arising if researchers are not well trained. It can also be biased.

With all of the above information, I will put information in to knowledge and make a decision by ...