GianniElkinsbLOG

1. Why do you believe data can be inaccurate?

Primarily, data can be inaccurate due to human entry and error, as well as improper data flow. Data files entered by an employee and then sent to a department for analysis has the potential of a few mistakes along the way. The data could have been incorrectly entered. Data from the wrong date, a missed comma in a numerical value, or even a simple mistype could all be reasons for errors in data analysis and entry. Another factor of inaccuracy in data could be miscommunication of data, which disrupts data flow. When separate departments in a company work in an isolated manner, maintaining and communicating only data related to their department, a necessary flow of data is disrupted, as data should flow from departments in a cycle to allow for communication of key information that affects each stage of the supply chain. Sales data should be translated to manufacturing in order to prepare for inventory management and production expectations. Manufacturing and inventory must be simultaneously exchanged to sales in order to determine selling quantity and pricing. Data flow like mentioned is essential in fixing inaccuracy. 

2. What can a business do to ensure data is correct?

A business must start by providing a basic data entry and analysis training to their employees to ensure the company is educated on the essential functions in working with data. From here, a company should take advantage of the tools available on data entry softwares. An example of this could be the use of “Data Validation” in Microsoft Excel. This is a tool that allows the creator of a spreadsheet to set rules and limits to the data that can be entered in a particular cell. A company can allocate the creation of a sales template to its higher level data analytics team, which would contain labels on what data to enter, and data validation rules that specify what data can be entered. The use of systematic validation and processes employ technology to ensure correct data entry. Management information systems, as discussed in the textbook, have the ability to move information through several processes of a company in order to efficiently create one process for the customer. A customer’s purchase and ordering of a product is a very easy process, but for a company, that order will go through several stages of their operations before reaching the customer. MIS allows this process to be done with accurate data collected automatically through information technology. A company must put focus into hiring and training a high level IT department in order to ensure the process is not only seamless for the customer, but accurate for the company. 

3. Explain how bad data will impact information, business intelligence, and knowledge. 

The core drivers of the Information age are data, information, business intelligence, and knowledge. If this process begins with bad data, errors in each area will occur. To start, information is simply data that is converted into relevant context. A piece of data that represents the sales of an item during a single month would be data converted into information. The data being the number in a spreadsheet, and the information being what that number represents. If the data is bad and the entry is incorrect, the information converted is now useless and misleading. The false information is now impacting business intelligence, which prepares a strategy for the information collected based upon various market conditions and trends. Although a proper strategy could be formulated, the information in which the strategy is developed for was created using bad data. False information is now prepped with a focused strategy. Knowledge is now impacted, as a company will proceed to adjust pricing or inventory accordingly, even though the strategy is being run on false information. The focus of the project as a whole is completely misguided, and money and production time is wasted on a strategy that was never relevant to profit due to initial data collection error. 

4. Have you ever made a decision based on bad data? If so, be sure to share it with your peers and explain how you could have verified the data quality.

I have made a decision based on bad data. At a previous sales job, I entered an order for a store, in which one item was submitted inaccurately. The item was a yogurt product for a grocery store. I submitted the order based on a list sent by the store manager. The order was placed and received by the store, and when they claimed that the wrong quantity was delivered, we later confirmed that the blame was on the incorrect data entry that was written on the list that was sent to me by the store manager. The only way I really could have verified the data quality is by confirming with the store manager that the quantity he had written down was correct, but that wouldn’t be something I’d normally do, as then I would have to do that for every item he wanted to order. It would be more practical for the store to confirm the order list is accurate through multiple employee verification. 

5. Argue for or against the following statement: “It is better to make a business decision with bad data than with no data.”

I would argue against this statement. If the data is bad, that means it is false and has no relevance to what is actually happening. If a decision is made with bad data, a decision has been made that does not correlate with accurate market conditions. If a decision is made with no data, at least common sense and general knowledge can be a factor to a potentially, somewhat accurate business decision. It’s not much better than using bad data, but at least it’s not a sure way into an inaccurate decision.