ORGANISING DATA
DATA AS ORGANISATIONAL RESOURCE
Before the computer came
into existence, there were many limitations associated with the physical
handling of documents and human processing. Computers came into existence to
speed up the data processing. Computers helped to manage data.
We are living in the age
of information processing. The ability to acquire accurate and timely data,
managing data efficiently, is all through which an organization succeed.
The development in
hardware has catalysed rapid development in software and now we are having more
sophisticated software to handle data as it was earlier.
The term data and
information are often taken as to mean the same thing. Data are the details
about factories, outlets, staff, competitors, customers and suppliers. Data is also
kept for monitoring the activities and processes in business. Once businesses collect
these details, information comes into picture. Information is the
collection of meaningful facts that are derived from the data. Information is
significant and relevant to the user unlike data, which has no meaning alone.
Information leads to decision and thus an appropriate action. In fact,
information consists of only the data that is useful, meaningful and needed.
You come across many information systems in your daily life like banking
information system, ticketing and reservations systems etc. Now what you get
out of these information systems is pure information and these systems work out
this information on the basis of data. In other words, data is raw and
information is refined. The exact form of the refinement depends on the type of
application one is dealing with.
