{"id":308,"date":"2018-12-27T19:24:02","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T00:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pressbooks.library.upei.ca\/smallbusinessmanagement\/chapter\/chapter-15-managing-information-and-technology-exploring-business\/"},"modified":"2020-01-06T09:58:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T14:58:37","slug":"chapter-15-managing-information-and-technology-exploring-business","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.upei.ca\/smallbusinessmanagement\/chapter\/chapter-15-managing-information-and-technology-exploring-business\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 15: Managing Information and Technology","rendered":"Chapter 15: Managing Information and Technology"},"content":{"raw":"
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Data versus Information<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n
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  1. Distinguish between data and information.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Define information system (IS) and identify the tasks of the information systems manager.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    By the time the company took the plunge and committed $100 million to marketing-related information technology (IT), Caesars had been collecting and storing data about customers for almost a decade. \u201cWhile the company thought it important to collect customer information,\u201d recalls a senior marketing executive, \u201cthe problem was we had millions of customers to collect information on, but we had no systematic way of turning it into a marketing decision. We didn\u2019t know what to do with it.\u201d In other words, Caesars was collecting a lot of data<\/em> but not necessarily any information<\/em>. So what\u2019s the difference?<\/p>\r\n

    As an example, suppose that you want to know how you\u2019re doing in a particular course. So far, you\u2019ve taken two 20-question multiple-choice tests. On the first, you got questions 8, 11, and 14 wrong; on the second, you did worse, missing items 7, 15, 16, and 19. The items that you got wrong are merely [pb_glossary id=\"1461\"]data<\/strong>[\/pb_glossary]\u2014unprocessed facts. What\u2019s important is your total score. You scored 85 on the first exam and 80 on the second. These two numbers constitute [pb_glossary id=\"1462\"]information<\/strong>[\/pb_glossary]\u2014data that have been processed, or turned into some useful form. Knowing the questions that you missed simply supplied you with some data for calculating your scores.<\/p>\r\n

    Now let\u2019s fast-forward to the end of the semester. At this point, in addition to taking the two tests, you\u2019ve written two papers and taken a final. You got a 90 and 95 on the papers and a 90 on the final. You now have more processed data, but you still want to organize them into more useful information. What you want to know is your average grade for the semester. To get the information you want, you need yet more data\u2014namely, the weight assigned to each graded item. Fortunately, you\u2019ve known from day one that each test counts 20 percent, each paper 10 percent, and the final exam 40 percent. A little math reveals an average grade of 87.<\/p>\r\n

    Though this is the information you\u2019re interested in, it may be mere data to your instructor, who may want different information: an instructor who intends to scale grades, for example, will want to know the average grade for the entire class. You\u2019re hoping that the class average is low enough to push your average of 87 up from a B+ to an A\u2013 (or maybe even an A\u2014it doesn\u2019t hurt to hope for the best). The moral of the story is that what constitutes information<\/em> at one stage can easily become data<\/em> at another: or, one person\u2019s information can be another person\u2019s data.<\/p>\r\n

    As a rule, you want information; data are good only for generating the information. So, how do you convert data into information that\u2019s useful in helping you make decisions and solve problems? That\u2019s the question we\u2019ll explore in the next section.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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    Information Systems<\/h2>\r\n

    To gather and process data into information and distribute it to people who need it, organizations develop an [pb_glossary id=\"1463\"]information system (IS)[\/pb_glossary]\u2014the combination of technologies, procedures, and people who collect and distribute the information needed to make decisions and coordinate and control company-wide activities. In most large organizations, the IS is operated by a senior management team that includes a chief information officer (CIO) who oversees information and telecommunications systems. There may also be a chief technology officer who reports to the CIO and oversees IT planning and implementation. As for information managers, their tasks include the following:<\/p>\r\n\r\n