INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this managing information module is to introduce the managing

information of a company. This topic includes an important set of concepts and
techniques that represent the major planning device for an organization. . In this
assignment I have explain the practical application and the uses of managing
information of a Business Organization

Q1.
BP Connect represents the future of fuel and convenience retailing and offers unmatched
customer service and unsurpassed quality within an attractive and innovative design. The
stores offer a bright, clean and open environment with wide aisles and a consumer friendly
layout that makes products easy to find.

Powerful, distinctive branding is the cornerstone of BP Connects high visibility in the

convenience-store industry. Wherever stores are located, BP Connect enjoys broad name
recognition as a result of familiar trademarks and distinctive marketing. By combining top
brands with BP own unique, in-demand offerings, BP Connect franchises will continue to
lead in the convenience-store industry.

Therefore, to widen the convenience store concept it is running along with the wild bean café.
Among the main objectives increasing the sales of the wild bean café is on of the main
objectives of the bp connect chain.

Taking the wholes set of sales targets in to consideration wild bean café increase it’s profit by
selling of coffee. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the wild bean café is to increase the
sales volume of the coffee through out the whole day.

To achieve this objective there are many types information that require for the management.

1. Financial Information
2. Market information
3. Personnel Information
4. Performance Information
5. Marketing and sales information.

2
Q2.
To collect information from the above areas there are many sources that the company has to
consider. Because they are the main stream that we can get the relevant information from.

Sources of information are in 2 types.

Internal sources of information

This information generated internally to control the institution (café). It is usually gathered on
a day-to-day basis from the documented data and the practices and stored to be used when
needed.

Internal sources of information that requires achieving the objectives of increasing the sales
volume of the coffee of the wild bean café.

Daily coffee sales

Coffee making procedures
Behavior of the cutover services assistants
Number of the CSA’s working at the café
Daily sales

Internal Sources of information that require achieving the objectives of increasing the sales
volume of the coffee of the wild bean café.

External sources of Information

This information is external sources that positions and organization in its market environment
relating to areas like;
1. Market analysis
2. Sociological analysis
3. Economic analysis
4. Technological analysis

3
Market Analysis

Size of the market – how is the market has been defined for the said product and the extent
of which the market is accessible and profitable to the organization

Structure of the market – degree of segmentation and the influence of the each
segmentation. The segmentation process in itself consists of segment identification, segment
characterization, segment evaluation and target segment selection. If each segment is fairly
homogeneous in its needs and attitudes, it is likely to respond similarly to a given marketing
strategy. That is, they are likely to have similar feelings and ideas about a marketing mix
comprising a given product or service, sold at a given price, and distributed and promoted in a
certain way. For example what kinds of segments do the café has for coffee sales.

Market share - is the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market
segment that is being serviced by the café. It can be expressed as a cafe's sales revenue
divided by the total sales revenue available in that market. It can also be expressed as a coffee
unit sales volume (in a market) divided by the total volume of units sold in that market.

Cultural behavior
Analysis of cultural and social factors is essential to organizational planning. Company
situated place decide this cultural behaviors.

Demographic changes - type of the customers in that area coming for the café.
For example our café sales vary on the type of ethnicity of customer also the age of the
customers and the gender of the customer. Most female customers prefer cappuccino coffee.

Consumer attitudes – attitudes of the customer are main reason for the sales volume of the
said product. If the customer is health conscious or diet conscious then they will think twice
on buying coffee regularly.

Economic factors
How an organization competes in the market place will be depend on the economic changes
of the.conuntry.For example a convenient store like bp always together with fuel and it affect

4
the sales of the coffee. If the price goes high of the fuel then the sales volume is decreasing
and it will take about a week to get the coffee sales to be settles as usual.

Q3.
Information gathering techniques

After finding the sources of information the next stage is the determination of the appropriate
information gathering techniques, including several steps:

Information gathering refers to the process of determining the characteristics of one or more
remote hosts (and/or networks). Information gathering can be used to construct a model of a
target host, and to facilitate future penetration attempts.

To achieve the objective of increasing the sales of Coffee in a BP convenience store,

following techniques can be followed.

 Interviewing the customer (regular customers, Potential customer etc.)

 Can distribute questionnaires
 Can observe the customers
 Meet with the relevant customers and the relevant sales staff

An interview is a conversation between two or more people (the interviewer and the
interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the
interviewee. It is a skill and those involved in that will have different levels of skills.

To ensure the increasing of the sales of Coffee in the store, management can handle an
interviewing session for the selected customers and gather information with regard to that.
From that management can get more knowledge of the customer’s thinking of the coffee and
why do they have coffee from the store and why do they not. With that information store
management can collect positive and negative information on that and try to get more steps to
increase the coffee sales.

Interviewing can be split to two;

5
 1. Formal – This usually involves between 2 people, which is initiated by the
interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.
2. Informal – This is more like a conversation and gather point which relevant to our
topic.

Both patterns can be used to gather information with regard to our Objective. Also store
management can distribute a questionnaire to be filling with simple and direct questions and
get good information on the coffee sales of the store. Advantage of that is that the
management can have quantitative data from that other than the qualitative data.

This is like a part of a survey. From this we can collect information with regard to following
streams;

Opinions
Attitudes
Motivations
Lifestyle
Knowledge
Facts
Behavior etc.

To use this method we can do a questionnaire according to the survey research process to use
at the store. In that we can ask closed questions such as “how often you drink a coffee?”

Also we can use open-ended questions as well. For example “why you life to drink a coffee?”
Sometimes we can use multiple-choice questions as well. We can give more likely answers
and let the customer to choose the answer.

Observation of the customers and also the sales persons is a good information gathering
technique, which can be followed by the management. Because from that management can
filter the information that they exactly needed. This will relate to the objective of the
information required directly and the measures that will be employed. For example if we wish
to observe some customer buying a coffee and refusing a coffee the observer can get to know
the specific behaviors where they carry out to full fill their needs. From that information we

6
can easily arranged the sales person the method of how approach the different types of
customers and increase the sales through the potential customers.

To be able to obtain a balanced view and draw valid conclusions the more observations that
can be made the better.

How will the observations can be recorded and analyzed

Frequency counting
Duration method
Interval method
Narrative recording

By using these methods we can collect the observed data and analyze to achieve the objective.

By collecting data from using the above mentioned methods then we have to analyze them.
Since our objective is to increase the sales of coffee in the store we have answer many
questions. Like; How many coffees that we can averagely sell per day. What are the coffee
sizes most preferred by the customer? Which customers mostly buy coffee? Between which
time periods that the customers buy coffee mostly etc.

Q4.
After collecting data according to the methods from the relevant sources it is management’s
duty to analyze them and inform them to make the decisions.

There are information analyzing methods

 Time series data
 Data characteristics

Time Series data

The main purpose of analysis by organizations should be to observe and record how
important variables, such as sales and production change a period of time, known as time

7
series data. This will aid the process of accurate forecasting method to anticipate future
investment and borrowing needs.

Following is the graphical presentation of Time series data

Monthly sales of Coffee - Year 2007 Qty

4000
3500
3000
2500
Qty

2000
1500
1000
500
0

r
ry
y

r
r
ch

ne

er
il

be
ly

t
ay

be
be

Month
us
ar

r
ua

Ju
Ap

ob
ar

Ju

em
M
nu

em
m
g
br

Au

ct
te
Ja

ov
Fe

ec
O
p

N
Se

D
Monthly sales of Coffee - Year 2007 Qty

In that there are analysisng patterns of the time series graph. When looking at those patterns
which may emerge in the time series graph we need to consious of four key features.

Seasonal variations
Cycles
Shocks
Trends
From the above graph we can see the seasonal fluctuations.

8
After the data are collected, evaluators need to see whether their expectations regarding data
characteristics and quality have been met. Choice among possible analyses should be based
partly on the nature of the data--for example, whether many observed values are small and a
few are large and whether the data are complete. If the data do not fit the assumptions of the
methods they had planned to use, the evaluators have to regroup and decide what to do with
the data they have and the different form of data analysis may be advisable, but if some
observations are untrustworthy or missing altogether, additional data collection may be
necessary.

As the evaluators proceed with data analysis, intermediate results should be monitored to
avoid pitfalls that may invalidate the conclusions. This is not just verifying the completeness
of the data and the accuracy of the calculations but maintaining the logic of the analysis. Yet
it is more, because the avoidance of pitfalls is both a science and an art. Balancing the
analytic alternatives calls for the exercise of considerable judgment. For example, when
observations take on an unusual range of values, what methods should be used to describe the
results? What if there are a few very large or small values in a set of data? Should we drop
data at the extreme high and low ends of the scale? On what grounds?

Finally, as the evaluators interpret the results and write the report, they have to close the loop
by making judgments about how well they have answered the questions, determining whether
different or supplementary analyses are warranted, and deciding the form of any
recommendations that may be suitable. They have to ask themselves questions about their
data collection and analysis: How much of the variation in the data has been accounted for? Is
the method of analysis sensitive enough to detect the effects of a program? Are the data
"strong" enough to warrant a far-reaching recommendation? These questions and many others
may occur to the evaluators and reviewers and good answers will come only if the analyst is
"close" to the data but always with an eye on the overall study questions.

Q5.
1.
Advantages of using these techniques it that they helps to ensure the relevance of the data that
it is used in the context of relevance to a particular task as what is relevant information for
one person will not necessarily are relevant to another. From an organizational perspective,
relevance refers to focusing on information that needs to be known to affect a particular
outcome. Therefore, when analyzing it is easy to see whether the gathered information are
relevant for the objectives achievement and to make decisions with regard to that. For

9
example collection of daily sales of water bottles may be not relevant to our objective of
increase the sales of coffee.

Also by using the analytical techniques it helps to see how often the data that we used are
accurate. However, when we are involved in planning and control activities that rely heavily
on quantitative information that is being used is correct, particularly when it is being used as
the basis for making decisions relating to our aims and objectives.
For example since we are measuring the coffee sales figures the analytical techniques are
useful because it need to be accurate since they are going for the auditors to look at. Also the
when we use these techniques it is easy to ensure the reliability of the data that we use. If the
information is deemed to be accurate it must, therefore, be assumed that is has come from a
dependable and trustworthy source and been collected using reliable means.

Consistency of data is ensured by the analytical techniques. Therefore, it is good to have the
analytical presentation of data because the data should be consistence for the period that we
have taken in to consideration. Therefore, the outcome of the presentation of data will be
consistence and can be easily used for the decision making.

Q5.
After analyzing data there should be a recording and storing method of them. It is an
important aspect of managing information effectively. There are number of methods which
we can use for record and store the gathered information.

Since the computers are very common today many people use computerized methods to store
and record data. But some of them are reluctant to use them because they think that there are
many uncertainties in them since they are machines.

But most of the companies are using computers. There are famous types of gathering and
recording information.
 Spreadsheets
 Data base

Spread sheets
Apart from word precession the spread sheets are probably the most commonly used pieces of
software as it is used specifically for handling numbers and graphs. It is easy to locate and

10
very easy to present since the spread sheet application (MS Excel) is having all the graphical
presentation facilities as well. Also this can be used as a foundation for the data base as well.

Data base
It is a collection of files that are interrelated by specific criteria and contain entries in list
order. It may contain information, such as quantities, Names, monthly figures as well. There
are many types of data bases.
 Hierarchical data base
 Relational data base

In comparing spread sheets and data bases there are similarities between them. Both can be
used to record and store data and also can sort and calculate information and present it in
good manner which people can easily understand.

Finally after collecting and analyzing data we have to present it with using relevant
techniques. Therefore ultimately it should be produced by us to see the information by others.

Q6.
There are many ways which we can use to disseminate data.

Orally
In written format
Electronically

Considering different types of audience we should use the effective method of

communicating with them. Since we have to give a better idea of the information which we
have gathered to achieve our objective (for example Increase of coffee sales of the BP
convenience store) we should use simple and understandable communication method to
disseminate them. Since these type of information are formal there should be disseminated in
written way also orally and as well as electronically. For long lasting purposes it is good to be
written. Because anybody can use the stored data after sometime. If we use the oral method
only we can give a better view for the customers only for a while. Like only when we meet
them. But it we have it in a written format we can explain them and keep it with them to use
after sometime as well. Also we can present it in a graphical way. Because then it is easy to
understand the information which we have gathered to achieve our objective.

11
Also it is useful to use to electronic way since the world has moved with many innovations in
recording data electronically, it is the best way to store them. Because when we store them in
that way we can either use the oral method or written method by just pressing a button.
Therefore, disseminating the information in electronically channel is the best way to proceed
with the communication for the target audience.

References
1.Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. Newbury Park, CA:
Sage.

2. Yin, R. (1989). Case Study Research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage

12