Presenting and exchanging information.

Presenting Information.

Some ways of presenting information are:

• through letters
• paper forms
• email notifications
• printed tickets
• screen-based (on a website)
• voice output over telephone
• or face to face
• voice output (announcements)
• visual matrix display

Examples of these are:

• Letters; electricity bills
• Paper forms; tax demands
• Emails; confirmation of an online purchase
• Tickets; for a show
• Screen-based; viewing bank statement online
• Voice output 1; enquiries into items up for sale
• Face-to-face; going into a bank to find information on a loan
• Voice output 2; train times being announced at a station
• Visual matrix display; looking at a board at the airport of all the different flight times; whether they have been delayed etc.

Exchanging Information.

A defacto standard is a typical form that information is exchanged by; e.g. Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. Many people use this type of software for word processing or making a spreadsheet, so many organisations either have this software, or software that will read this type of file. A defacto standard means that data can be exchanged easily; as you do not have to worry about converting the file into a different format.

Another standard that exists for data exchange are CSV (comma seperated values). A company may consistently store their files in a certain format, but when exchanging with another company the format has to be changed. CSV is when each item of data is seperated by a marker - usually a comma.

Some examples of data exchanged between organisations are:

• School records, files, examination results. These are exchanged when a pupil moves school.
• Medical records and medical history; sent from your GP to the hospital when you are going to have an operation.

Planning for the future.

For the future, most businesses want to keep costs down and expand their business. They also need to consider new areas of business and new ways of doing business.

An Operational Task is a process that is done every day to keep things running. For example; a receptionist at the dentists needs to book appointments, ensure they don't over run or are booked at the same time as someone else. If the receptionist didn't do this, the dentists couldn't run properly. However, things cannot continue the same way forever - organisations need to expand and improve.

The people who plan for the future are called directors, who are helped by senior managers. Planning is important, and if they get it wrong, the company can suffer - it could go bankrupt or people could lose their jobs. The planning is called strategic activity.

Management need a lower level of data than the middle managers, who will often summarise the data for the management. The management do not need to know everything that is going on, just the 'bigger picture'. They need processed data which shows trends. The origins of the data that the management recieve would be at lower levels, who have processed and summarised it for the management.

Transactional Websites

A transactional website needs certain features to make it a successful site.

* What is the purpose of the site? -selling goods or services?
* Is it good at fufilling its purpose?

I spent some time looking on the Dell website. This is a site that sells computers for personal use at home, to small businesses and also to large companies. These are only available online or over the telephone, so it is essential that the site is easy to use. I think Dell is easy to browse through, and order. You are given a lot of information about their products which can help you make up your mind about purchasing a computer or not.

* Easy to navigate around
* Not too cluttered, well organised and nice to look at- simple.
* If it is a large site, a search facility is essential
* Products easy to find

For example, ebuyer.co.uk has four possibe ways of finding a product. It may be listed on the homepage if it is on special offer. If it is not, you can either select a heading from the tabs along the top of the page or use the navigation bar down the side to find the product under more specific headings. If this isn't enough, the website also has a search tool so you can enter a keyword and find the results immediately. This is probably the quickest way of finding something if you specifically know what you want. The other headings are best used for just browsing.
http://www.fixedearth.com/ is a terribly designed website. There is no consistent font or layout, the homepage is extremely long and the navigation bar is at the bottom of this page. The text is in different fonts, colours, sizes, formats, and some of it is highlighted, which is unnecessary. There is one picture on this page, which is placed in between two large chunks of text which causes the page to be even longer.
(picture to come)


* Clear categories of what services/products are being sold
* If it isn't clear what the website is selling, then it is failing its objectives and badly designed.

On Argos' homepage there are listings of what is sold, as well as tabs across the top of main headings, similar to ebuyer.co.uk. Additionally, argos has an A-Z index. This is shown below:
[picture to be inserted]

http://www.redbloodclub.net/ is a terrible website. You cannot tell what the website is for, and the background is enough to give anybody an epileptic fit. You have to scroll sideways which is annoying, and the website seems to have absolutely no purpose.

* A disadvantage of an online shop is that you cannot look at an item the way you would a physical product. To overcome this, a website should include pictures of different angles, and use multimedia to allow you to zoom in etc.

Hottopic.com allows you to interactively look at a product. When you click on a product, a pop-up window appears. You can look at the product at all angles and zoom in wherever you want.

* The transaction itself has to be effective and safe. (A transaction is an interaction between the company and shopper.) An example of a transaction would be selecting an item to see if it is in stock; as you are interacting with the company's database, or signing up to the website so that you can place an order.
* Text boxes, drop-down menus etc to make it simple to imput data.
* The website should allow the customer to track an order, see if an item is in stock and edit your customer details.

Apple allow you to track your order. It lets you know when it is being dispatched from the building, when it should be on it's way, and allows you to get in contact if your product hasn't arrived when the website says it should have.

* Using overt methods of collecting information from the customer (where the customer knows that they are giving their information, for example imputing their home address).
* Using covert methods of collecting information e.g. IP Address (the customer is not aware this is collected).
* Using cookies which will remember how many times that person has been on the website, and will recognise a certain customer.

Looking at StatCounter.com allowed me to see the data collected from visitors on a website. They can collect information like which pages are most popular on your website. You can install an invisible counter which would track how many visitors you had without disrupting the design of your page. However, if you wish the counter to be visible, that is an option too. You can select certain viewers and 'zoom in' on them, using their IP address to see where they were looking at your website from. This is useful to see how global your company is. You can also track which pages a user was on when they closed the window - this is useful to see which pages put people off etc.

* Good advertising: So people know that it exists (banner adverts on websites, tv/radio/newspaper
* Website is not too slow - otherwise people will leave, and it is unlikely that they will return.
* The website should be kept up to date; with prices, images etc
* Should be easy to use and understand, and the visually impaired should find it easy to use.

The Dell website has a feature at the bottom of the page to change the text size. This is found increasingly on website.

This website is not easy to use or understand, and the animations and moving background are certainly not suitable not suitable for the visually impaired, it is a confusing website. http://www.dokimos.org/ajff/

* A good website should support their customers in many ways. It should have a call centre and if there are physical shops, you should be able to go there for advice and help too.
* Terms and conditions: How to return goods, how safe your bank details are with this site etc. These statements can be too long and difficult to read, but it is important that they are there.


Headings:
The purpose of the site and how successfully it meets this objective
How it is structured
The goods and/or services it offers
The product information provided
Types of transactions that can be made
The methods used to capture customer information
The techniques used to engage, retain and entice customers
The sites usability and accessibility
The customer 'experience' offered
Conditions of purchase

Bibliography:

www.dell.com

http://www.ebuyer.co.uk/

www.hottopic.com

www.apple.com

www.statcounter.com

http://www.fixedearth.com/

http://www.dokimos.org/ajff/

Types of Information Required by Businesses

Finance – Any department within a company/organisation needs budgets to prevent them from becoming bankrupt. This is because if a company spends more than they earn they get themselves into debt. It is important that every organisation, even those that are non-profitable such as schools and hospitals, keeps track of their finances.

Main Categories of Expenditure in a School:
· Staff wages
· Text books and stationary
· Equipment for technology, art, cookery etc.
· School trips
· Student Insurance
· Internet Connection
· Extra curricular activities (clubs)
· Maintenance
· School Food

Production
Many different businesses sell a product, in the process of making the product there is the production process. This is either mass production, batch production, continueoues production or one-off production. With a good IT system, the production is kept going and the supply under control if this supply was not kept under control then for example a car manufacturer may run out of components and the production line will come to a standstill, either though the workers are getting paid for this.

Batch Production- is when there is a small amount around 1000 being produced
Mass production- when there is huge amount being produced like car manufacture like Ford
One-off production- is when a product is made only once like a conecpt gadgetContinueous production- is when the production line is running 24/7 like making aluminiun cans

Activity
A Large Bakery CompanyIngrediants - what types of wheat, flour etc, how much of each ingrediants.Timing process- how much time they have to produce the bread/cakesWorkers position- like what workers do what and what status they haveCleaning materials- how much, what types are used for what machineryMachinery being used- what type produceing what cakes/breadQuantities of cakes/bread to be made


Human resoursces (HR):
Large organisations have a whole department that looks after recruiting new staff and looking after existing workers. They have to make sure that promotions are dealt with, applicants of the right qualifications and that interviews are conducted according to set rules. They need information about the applicants and about the staff who are already working at the company. IT systems are vital here.

Activity:
A PC retail outlet wants to hire some sales staff:what information will they need before they call an applicant to an interview?

CV - especially name and phone number so the applicant may be contacted.

Their communication skills because they will be sales staff and these skills are vital here. the applicant must be a confident person.

Qualifications needed for the job e.g. maths, english, etc. etc.

An idea as to whether the person may be right for the job. what extra information will they need if they appoint someone?

Criminal record check.

Previous job records.

National Insurance number

Uniform size

Data Processing

Transaction Processing: Someone wants to buy a book on amazon. (Because transaction processing is when a deal is made between a company and customer, not only when buying goods. It doesn't need real-time; if you order a book that is sold out, you'll still eventually get an order of the book, transferring money).

Real-time Processing: Someone wants to buy a ticket to V festival. (Because the database behind the website needs to be updated immediately, for example bookings, and the data has to be as accurate as possible. An issue with something like a cinema is that if more than one person buys the same ticket then it will cause hassle - the database needs to be updated asap, paypal is real-time processing).

Batch Processing: Someone wants to pay their gas bill. (Because there is no human intervention. There is no end product; just a piece of paper that gets printed off automatically and sent to the customer, teacher marking homework).

Automated Data Capture

To avoid errors it is best to minimise how much humans are involved. There are various methods for collecting data electronically. If it is collected this way, it is far more accurate - machines do not really 'make mistakes' in the same way as a human does.



These are the different types of data collection:

* Bar codes

* Magnetic strips

* Smart card chips

* Optical mark recognition

* Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR)



Different examples of these:



Bar Codes

In a warehouse things can be scanned by their barcodes to check how many came in, to keep up to date with the stock levels, to monitor this, and check whether things need to be reordered.



Magnetic Strips

Magnetic strips hold less data than a chip on a credit card, and can be more easily damaged. They are used on credit cards, train tickets and car park/plane tickets.



Smart Card Chips

These can be encrypted to a higher level than magnetic stripes, so protect data better. These are used on credit cards and have only been introduced recently. They are also used in cards used for TV digial viewing.



Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)

These can be used on multiple choice tests. A box is marked where each answer is given and a computer read this answers more quickly and accurately than a human.



Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)

This is used on cheques. This can save information such as the cheque number, bank routing number, chequing account number and in some cases the amount of the cheque.

Transactional Websites

A transactional website is a site where you can buy things from; perhaps a service (insurance) or goods (a book etc). Money is electronically transferred when something is purchased, and personal details are taken by the company from the customer.
Databases play an important role on these transactional websites, as they keep personal information about their customers; e.g. name, address etc. There may be a separate database for bank details, and another for product details. There may be a database for items in stock, and a database of past purchases.

Information needs of organisations (P115)
Schools, businesses, governments… All organisations need information to function. They used to have hard copies that were manually written by clerks. This continued until the information age.
e.g. Amazon keeps information about their customers: email addresses, addresses, stock – what they need, what are they running out of etc.
e.g. For paypal, information is vital. If they have lost your credit card details then the whole paypal system fails.
e.g. If the police lost information, they can’t do back-up checks, cannot look up evidence list etc.
e.g. Losing all of your friends numbers from your mobile phone
e.g. Hospitals might lose personal information, and gives someone medication that they are allergic to.

Difference between data, information & knowledge
Data- collection of facts which you store/process onto the computer that becomes information – e.g. typing postcode into website to find out the weather, receiving information in form of a picture of the weather forecast. Data on its own has no meaning, raw facts and figures (text or numbers).

Information- In comparison to data, information can be used and understood.

Knowledge- Make links between information e.g. traffic light is red, you stop your car.


Computers need data; they cannot process information. You can’t say “I want to find the folder called ‘Work’”. You need to input data into the search enginey thing. When we put information onto the computer we have to input data in order to put information from the outside world onto the computer; this is called data capture. E.g. voting on a reality TV program; you may have opinions on this person but you just give a vote.

People make mistakes; e.g. having the same name as a criminal may affect you in life if someone gets muddled. Validation means that databases can be formatted so that mistakes are reduced; e.g. only allowing 11 numbers in a field named Phone Numbers, so that there isn’t an extra number and no text.
PAPER FORMS
Paper forms are used to collect data from people. Tick boxes mean that data can be restricted to the absolute necessary (see above for example of voting for reality TV program). Sections on a form are called fields, they are used to restrict the data and people write what is necessary; e.g. address is encouraged to be written in full if there are separate fields for postcode etc, whereas if instructed ‘address’, a house number and road might just be given.

SCREEN FORMS
Screen form data is easier to edit, validate and delete information compared to paper forms.
Validation; makes sure information is relevant to boxes typing in to. See if information is text or number, or choose an option that’s listed. (See above)
e.g.
* No surname is longer than 15 letters
* No name has numbers in it
* A postcode must start with 2 letters
* A phone number is text only and has 11 characters
Validation saves mistakes, which saves time, which saves money. It means that their company is more efficient.

www.JoeBrowns.co.uk

WWW.JOEBROWNS.CO.UK
Then analyse it. What is good about the site? What could be improved? How does it get customers? How does it advertise? What is its target audience? How does it differ from a traditional shop? How is it the same? Does it use special offers? Does it use promotional codes? Does it also have a traditional outlet on the highstreet or is it only online? Does this make any difference? Any other interesting points about it?Once you have completed your post, go to other peoples blogs and comment on their findings. Do you agree? How does their shop differ from yours? What do you find interesting about their post?

To buy an item of clothing from Joe Browns, you use the navigation bar to select 'Clothing'. There's different categories for the attire, and they're divided into male and female sections. You select your item of clothing for the right gender, and then when you see something you like, you click on the bar that says Larger Image/More Info/Buy. You can then see a description of the product and a larger image. You can also see if your size is in stock, low in stock, sold out or whether there will be a 5 weeks wait. The item is then added to your basket.

There is not just clothing as an option to browse through but gifts/accesories too. Because this is in a different category, it is easy to search for a gift for someone. Also, if you're thinking about where to go to buy a gift, you'll remember that Joe Browns has a section dedicated for gifts. In this section, there are subsections; e.g. accesories/gifts, bags, belts, bracelets, unusual. Unusual contains items such as 'pebble survival kits', for example the heart throb kit contains rose petals, chocolate heart, candy love hearts, love note etc. These 'unusual' gifts make Joe Browns unique, and once you've visited it you'll automatically think of it again when trying to find an original present for a friend.

There is a section called bargains. In this, you can find all of the sale items. The bargains heading is written differently to the other items in the navigation bar - it is red rather than purple, slightly larger and also in italics. This is to attract customers to it.

A unique feature of this online shop compared to others is the adventure section. Here you can buy gift vouchers for activities such as bungee jumping, racing and pamper sessions at a spa. The only other shop I'm aware of that offers this, is Argos.

Unlike most shops, this also has sections that aren't related to purchasing clothes. There is a section of music where you can listen to unsigned/unknown artists, and there is a section called Things We Like - which is just what it says it is; a list of the different things the makers of the site like. This is interesting to read and a bit different to most other sites. This, along with the colour scheme, appeals to young adults and teenagers.

A disadvantage of the site is that of all online shops; you cannot try anything on. However, the pictures provided are quite clear, but this could be improved by having various pictures of the item or an interactive item that you can zoom in on and move etc. Joe Browns is not very well advertised, but as it looks attractive and offers such original gifts and unique clothing, it probably gets new customers by word of mouth. Joe Browns also has a myspace page which is used to promote the site.