2.1 Principal Sources
2.1.1 Internal
The principal internal sources of management information from within the organisation
are:
Accounting system – provides information on costs and revenues, and can
provide sophisticated outputs such as product cost using activity-based costing.
Inventory system – contains information about movements in and out of
inventory and quantities held.
Payroll system – contains information about employee costs by department.
Purchase processing system – contains information about suppliers (invoices,
addresses, key personnel, costs and invoices received).
Sales processing system – often contains detailed information about all
customers' purchases and preferences. In retail businesses, many customers
use loyalty cards, so whenever they buy from the company, the sales system
records information about who is buying what.
Qualitative information systems (e.g. customer satisfaction) – aggregate
customer surveys or other qualitative data.
Although these systems have a primary purpose, their information could be interrogated
and used to provide other useful management information. For example, information in
the sales processing system could be used to analyse sales by customer or product for
marketing purposes.
2.1.2 External
External information is likely to be used for strategic purposes. As indicated previously,
this includes information about competitors, markets, and the economy.
Primary information is tailored information that is provided to meet an organisation's
needs, such as:
market research into new products; or
obtaining information about prices charged by competitors.
Secondary information is data produced for general use rather than specific to an
organisation’s needs. Examples include:
Government statistics;
Country reports produced by consulting firms;
Business directories of detailed information about the activities of other
organisations;
Trade magazines or other similar publications may provide useful information
about external factors affecting a business.
0
