DATA AND INFORMATION

Unit II
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DATA AND
INFORMATION
TYPES OF INFORMATION

• Strategic
• Tactical
• Operational
 Strategic information
 Strategic information is used at the very top level of management within an
organisation. These are chief executives or directors who have to make decisions for
the long term.
 Strategic information is broad based and will use a mixture of information gathered
from both internal and external sources.
 A supermarket building a new superstore will look at a timescale of 20 years or so,
whilst even a small business may have a five-year strategy.
 Strategic plans will have little or no detail in them and more detailed strategic plans
will be made slightly lower down the managerial ladder.
   A good strategic plan will be easier to flesh out lower down than a poor or vague
strategic plan.  Similarly, well constructed and more detailed plans will be easier to
implement than poorly constructed plans.
 Tactical information
 The next level down is the tactical level, and tactical planning and decision-making
takes place within the guidelines set by the strategic plan.
 Tactical information will be mostly internal with a few external sources being used. 
Internal information is likely to be function related: for example, how much ‘down
time’ a production line must allocate for planned maintenance.
 Tactical information is used by middle management (employees) when managing or
planning projects.
 The timescale is usually at least between 6 months and 5 years (depending on the
scale of the strategic project). 
 Tactical plans have a medium level of detail and will be very specific; they deal
with such matters as who is doing what and within what specific budgets and
timescales.
 These plans have medium scope and will address details at the operational level. 
They will generally have specific objectives and be geared towards implementation
by operational level employees.
 Operational information
 The lowest level is operational and operational planning takes place based on the
tactical plans.
 The lowest level of management or workers in an organisation implements
operational plans.  These may be section leaders or foremen in a large organisation
or workers such as shop assistants, waiting staff, and kitchen staff, etc., in smaller
businesses where there is no supervisory layer.
 The timescale is usually very short, anything from immediately, daily or at most a
week or month.
 Results of operational work will usually be passed upwards to let the tactical
planners evaluate their plans.
 SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Operational information sources
Daily maintenance execution
--- Daily planning
Accidents and incidents
--- Safety risk identification
Breakdowns and downtime
--- Equipment / resource risk identification
Tactical information sources
Weekly planning and scheduling
--- Schedule compliance
--- Backlog
--- Completed work report
stores / procurement processes
--- Stock outs
Strategic information sources
1)Overall company strategy
2)Technical staff turnover,Safety compliance,Budget attainment ,Budget variance,Operational cost per unit
3) Asset management audits
--- Assess all key performance areas
--- Assess long term trends
--- Develop policy, strategy and master plan
 ATTRIBUTES OF INFORMATION
 Timeliness: information must reach the recipients within a prescribed timeframe.For effective decision
making ,information must reach the decision –maker at the right time.i.e recipients must get information
when they need it. Delays ,of whatever nature ,destroys the value of information. Timely information can
ensure correct execution action at an early stage.
 Accuracy: This means that information is free from errors and mistakes and accurately reflects the meaning
of the information. It conveys an accurate picture to the recipient, who may require a presentation in
graphical form rather than tabular form.
 Relevance :Information is said to be relevant if it answers specifically for the recipient what, why, where,
who and why? In other words, the MIS should serve reports to managers, which are useful, and the
information helps them make decisions.f the data.It also means that information is free from bias.
 Adequacy:Adequacy means information must be sufficient in quantity. MIS must provide reports
containing information, which is required in deciding processes of decision-making.
 Completeness:The information, which is provided to a manager, must be complete and should meet all his
needs. Incomplete information may result in wrong decisions and thus may prove costly to the organization.
 Explicitness:A report is said to be of good quality if it does not require further analysis by the recipient for
decision-making. Thus the reports should be such that a manager does not waste any time on the processing
of the report, rather he should be able to extract the required information directly.
 Exception based:Top managers need only exception reports regarding the performance of the organization.
Exception reporting principle states that only those items of information, which will be of particular interest
to a manager, are reported. This approach results in saving precious time of the top management and enables
the managers to devote more time in pursuit of alternatives for the growth of the organization.
Questions:

1) Explain with example the difference between data and information.

2) Give 2 points of differences between data and information.
3) Discuss the different types of information .
4) Explain the different characteristics or attributes of information.
5) Explain the different sources of information.
6) In an organization ,what would be the source of information for
Breakdowns and downtime?
7) How is the attribute of timeliness important to an organization information?