10.2 Value and Importance of Information - Revision

Information is useful. It can help to:

• reduce costs
• reduce losses
• help make good business decisions
• help develop new products

Information is considered good quality if:

• it is up to date
• accurate
• relevant for a particular use

An insurance company will ask for motoring convictions from the last 5 years. Any longer and it would be unfair to judge the person applying for the insurance. Your driving style would have changed over 5 years.

At the end of the day a bank processes a list of credit card transactions. It is no good if the credit card numbers are in any way inaccurate. The wrong person will get charged for the transaction.

The safety officer of a nuclear power station needs to know accurate and up-to-date core readings to monitor the danger of the station blowing up. He is not in the slightest bit interested in the shopping bill for the station canteen albeit an accurate and up-to-date list.

Information as a commodity

"James Bond looked down at the small microfilm. 'Was this worth the death of 006?' He knew the answer. The death of one man, for the whereabouts of Oosama Ben Lardin. Without it, thousands would die."

It is obvious now that good quality information can be valuable. But there is a trade off between the value of the information vs how much it costs to collect.

• Cost of getting the information vs The value of the information once collected

There are certain factors that determine the cost of information:

• How the data is collected?
• How the data is inputted?
• How often the data needs to be collected?
• How good are the data validation methods upon entry?
• How long does it take to process the data?
• How is the information reported?

Click HERE for some summary notes

Remember:

Any data collected about an identifiable person, by a Data Controller must be done so and used in accordance with the 8 Principles of the Data Protection Act.