Good Information (P2)

Characteristics of Good Information: 

Valid

For information to be good it must first be valid, if this is not the case the information will be rendered useless die to the fact it is incorrect. If incorrect information is used it could cause a chain reaction of bad decisions made by the company, in many ways information that is not valid can be worse than no information at all.  

Reliable

For information to be good it must be reliable. If information is not reliable it may have similar consequences as information that is not invalid, such as people may make an incorrect decision based on the unreliable information. Unreliable information could also cause an business to lose a large amount of money in the sort and long term.

Timely: 

Information must be timely due to that fact that it may only be relevant for a brief period of time before it become invalid information. Once the information has become invalid it is rendered useless and has therefor been a waste of time and money for the business.

Fit-for-purpose 

Information being fit for purpose is vital. If information is not fit for purpose it is completely useless. An example of information not being fit for purpose would be if a customer satisfaction questionnaire was taken, and only one questionnaire was completed. This wouldn't be fit for purpose because the amount of data collect isn't large enough.

Accessible

Good information must be easily accessible, if the information is not accessible to the people who require the information, it is completely useless and will have no positive effect. This is way it is crucial for the information to be accessible.

Cost effective

Information must be cost effective for a business, if this is not the case it is a complete waste of time and resource of the business. For the information to be cost effective it must be relevant for the objective the business is attempting to achieve. One the information is collected it must also be used in the correct way to be cost effective. 

Sufficiently Accurate:

Good information must be accurate, although this can be difficulty due to the subjective nature of some data collected. but if data is not accurate it can result in the business making poor decisions and causing a loss in profit.

Relevant:

Good information must be relevant, if the information is not relevant is is useless and will have no positive impact on the business at all. it will also be a complete drain on the business resources

Correct Level of Detail:

Good information must have the correct level of detail, this means the information be comprehensive enough too be useful but not so much that the important information is hard to locate.

Trustworthy Source:

Good information must come from a trust worthy source for in to be reliable and valid. This is particularly important in high tech areas such as aerodynamics.

Understandable:

If the information is not understandable due to something such as a language barrier, it causes the information to be useless and therefor and complete waste of time and resources.

If information doesn't contain all of the mentioned characteristics it generally considered useless for a businesses point of view, due to the negative impact it will more than likely cause. It is vital for a business to obtain good information from customers to improve their service and in turn their profit margin, and without this goal to constantly improve the quality of service and products, the business could lose money from rivals with this goal.

An example of good information would be a survey conducted on the customers of the store asking them if they enjoyed their product. to ensure this was good information the conductor of the survey would need to ensure that the information is all of the characteristics above. If the conductor of the survey is asking customers about the wrong product and form a different store the information would be useless.