MISC 709 Information sources and services in business

Topic 1: Introduction

Meaning, definitions, terminology, characteristics and importance of business information

Topic 2: Business information needs and users

The Features of business information Needs

Information needs:

Competitor information

Customer information

Supplier information

Economic and political environment information

Regulation/ Standards
Topic 3: Categorization of business information resources

By financial barriers
By producer/provider status (formality)

official (by government)

non-official (by commercial provider)

By format

electronic (online and offline), print, people

By level of processing

primary sources

secondary sources

tertiary sources

Online electronic sources by type of website

General-purpose (global and local) search engines, meta-search services, catalogs, portals

Specialized search tools (for example harvesting services, Deep Web directories)

Quality-controlled subject/information gateways, vertical portals

Full-text resources archives, e-journals, digital libraries, repositories

Web 2.0 forms blogs, wikis, etc.

Databases online

Institutions and organizations Websites

Topic4: Providers of business information resources

Non-commercial

Commercial
Topic 5: Information Search Strategies
Topic 6: ICT Application In Business Information & Services

Introduction
Businesses regardless of their size and sphere of activity require information in
order to exist, to compete and to survive. In business planning and marketing, the
need for factual and uptodate information has never been greater and the
consequences of illinformed decisionmaking can be disastrous. Relevant
information must be collected, selected, organized and disseminated for the
purpose of achieving particular goals or objectives.
Definitions of Business information
Business Information is a domain of activity that:

Involves preparing/producing information sources; collecting, managing and giving

access to them; finding, evaluating and using information, etc.;
Includes products (i.e. business information resources), services, systems,
professionals, organizations, needs, users and uses, etc

Business information is a type of information:

1) Information FOR (doing) business

to make informed decisions short-term, long-term, strategic

to enhance business, products, technology with current information

2) Information ABOUT business (and economics, and related issues)

Features of good information are:
Relevant: Information should be related to what it is being used for e.g. Sales
figures information would be given to Sales staff, and not to the office cleaner, this
is because it is only relevant to Sales staff.
Accurate: Information should be completely correct it should not have any errors.
Cost effective: Information gained should be appropriate compared to the amount of
time and money it costs to collect it. The intended use of the information should be
taken into account.
Timely:
Information should be available before decisions are made. If it is not
available at the time before decisions are made then it is of very little use, however
the right information at the right time can be a very valuable resource.
Concise: The people using the information need it to be of a high quality, easy to
use and read, therefore there is no point in having information in a 20 page report if
the same message could be communicated in a one page letter

Meaningful: Information must be clear and easily understood by the people using it,
otherwise the information loses its usefulness and value
Up to date: All information used to make decisions should be fresh and not past its
sell by date. If decisions are made on out of date or old information then the
business could suffer.
Who needs business information?

In professional life

business enterprises

associations, not-for-profit organizations, NGOs

central and local governments, authorities

journalists, writers

researchers, scientists, students

advisers, brokers, lawyers

In private life: everybody

anybody who wants to set up a business

buyers

credit takers

complaining clients

investors

job seekers

tax payers

Business information needs

The Features of business information Needs
Information needs in business can have the following features: they can be simple
or complex.
Simple needs are of routine nature, based on clearly structured questions leading to
routine actions or simple decisions; they use data from a single source or a small
number of easily accessible sources; procedures to produce results are few and

mostly controlled by single own information system; results are a direct product or
simple by-product of existing information system.
Complex needs are much less of a routine nature; they are often based on vaguely
structured questions; require composite results drawn from data sources that are
numerous, incompatible, eclectic and often external.
Classification of complex needs
Urgency. One extremity is emergency situations that need quick yet well-grounded
decisions in a fast-changing environment; the other pole is non-emergency
situations e.g., acquisition, privatization, strategic foresights.
Coverage. situations with wide scope, affecting the whole organization; on the
other hand a narrow yet complicated problem area; in the latter case we deal with
reduced set of dimensions, and at the same time the need to go down into the
information silo of the narrow area.
Required precision. In some cases, a rough estimate of a situation is sufficient; in
other cases, exact or near-exact results are required. For rough estimates there are
quick fix models; for accurate calculations and estimates issues of source
information quality and reliability come up. This dimension is related to urgency in a
sense that urgent situations usually do not allow for time-consuming thorough
estimates and have to deal with quick and rough assessments.
Heterogeneity, defined by many or few information sources, procedures, or
participants.
Structuredness.
Associated risks, defined by size and probability of possible loss if incorrectly
assessed. The high-risk situations require the use of risk-estimating procedures and
evaluation of different scenarios; information triangulation and cross-checking for
reliability of multiple sources might be used for increased reliability of results

Types of Business information

COMPETITORS: The type of information needed by business enterprises for

competitors should address the following questions: What are the
competitors future plans in terms of new products, markets etc? What are
the competitors organizational structure i.e. who makes decisions in the
specific structures? What are the competitors attitudes towards sales
volume versus profit margins? This category will include information about
competing products, financial and market information or competing
enterprises, their tactics and capabilities

CUSTOMERS The first information requirement will be a detailed analysis of

existing customers and their buying habits in order to focus on particular
segments of the markets and to target future advertisements. Secondly,
information on movement and changes in population and the effects of these
on the business existence and the potential customer is needed; and thirdly
information on the cost of serving customers in terms of production, delivery
and service so as to concentrate efforts on the most profitable categories of
customers. The information for this category includes information about those
enterprise individuals which purchase the products or services. It includes
final customers and those who purchase for resale.

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT Information is needed to predict

for specific markets. This may include: Gross National Product; Interest
rates; and Exchange rates. This type of information will normally be
required to provide a scanty background for the decision at international,
national and regional and business sector level so as to answer questions
such as: Should business enterprises invest in new assets? What is the
long-term availability of raw materials? What impact will the availability
have on the product sales, prices and customers? Information about the
specific economic climate in which business enterprises do business is also of
interest; of particular importance are the cost of raw materials and prices of
current and potential products for its own and competing enterprises.
Information about the availability and costs of resources such as labour and
land is essential.

Industry Outlook Demographics of targeted consumer market Competitive

analysis: Identifying competitions strengths and weaknesses Licensing &
regulatory information for your industry Locating suppliers and buyers
Business leads: Where to find lists of potential customers/clients Avenues
for marketing products or services Sample Business plans Sample
Contracts Industry Profile, Industry Data, Statistics, Trends, Outlook
Demographic details of consumer marketplace Legal information: (i.e.
Patent and trademark process) Identifying news and trade journal articles in
your industry

Information seeking behavior f business people

Business people are:

pragmatic and practical

time-oriented,
has simple and basic information needs
is probably unaware that the public library can help him,
has limited and specialized information resources

uses a variety of external information sources.