3,3 INFORMATION QUALITY

Quality of information refers to its fitness for use, or its reliability. Some of the attributes of

information, which influence the quality of information are discussed as follows.

Timeliness
Timeliness means that information must reach the recipients within the prescribed timeframe. For
effective decision-making, intormation must reach the decision-maker at the right time, 1.e. recipients
must get information when they need it. Delays, of whatever nature, destroy the value of
intormation
Timely information can ensure correct executive action at an early stage. The expected losses could
be eliminated/minimised and gains maximised by proper management of operations. The report
which is required by an executive on the sixth of every month, if presented later, is considered of
doubtful value and decisions taken on its basis would not be as effective as might have been
otherwise. B.K. Chatterjee (1974)has gone one step further and said that information delayed is

information denied. Similarly, many short-term business opportunities may be lost. For
example, a
discount on bulk purchases offered by a supplier may be lost because of late
reports. The
characteristic of timeliness, to be effective, should also include
In other words, timely information does not mean intime
up-to-date, i.e. current information.
information only rather it means timely
as well as up-to-date information.
 Information and System Concepts 57

Accuracy

Accuracy IS key-attribute of management information. As per John G. Burch and Gary

another
Grudnitski (1986), accuracy means more than just one plus one equals two. It means that intormation
is free trom mistakes and errors, is clear and accurately reflects the meaning of data on which it 1s
based. It conveys an accurate picture to the recipient, who may require a presentation in graphical
H.C. Advani
rather than tabular form. Accuracy also means that the information is free from bias. to
(1975), has
advocated the importance of accuracy by stating that wrong information given
management would result in wrong decisions. However, at the same time, he has cautioned that
accuracy should be within limits or as desired and should not be achieved by sacrificing promptitude.
As managers decisions are based on the information supplied in MIS reports, all managers need
accurate intormation. If MIS supplies accurate information, the confidence
of the managers will be
strengthened and as a result, system implementation will be a success.

Relevance
is said to be relevant
Relevance is yet another key-attribute of management information: Information words,
and why? In other
if it answers specifically for the recipient what, why, where, when, who them make
the MIS should serve reports to managers which are useful and the information helps
decisions.
is not necessarily relevant for another.
However, what is relevant information for one recipient
for example, will vary among the
The relevance of information from a specific customer order, customer orders
for processing
employees of the company. The individuals most directly responsible information to perform their
will regard the detailed contents of a specific order
as necessary

likely be interested only in orders pertaining

to
will
respective jobs. Individual sales persons
most
commission
of all the orders received in a given
their customers and perhaps, in the aggregate relevant only
interested in all customer orders but finds the data
period. The sales manager may be Accountants view
reterence to quotas, forecasts or budgets.
when it is reported or presented in
billable shipments,
customer orders as data until
such time as they represent, or are processed into,
revenues and so forth. Personnel
in employee relations, research, and
accounts receivables, monthly
customer orders as relevant to performing
their jobs.
engineering routinely do not regard

Adequacy
1.e. MIS must provide reports containing
information must be sutfticient in quantity,
Adequacy means of decision-making. The report should not
information which is required in the deciding processes
for that matter, more than adequate intormation, which may create a difficult
give inadequate or
of information leads to a crisis, information
situation for the decision-maker. Whereas inadequacy
is a vital attribute of information which underscores
overload results in chaos. Therefore, adequacy
event or situation which the report
that a should cover all related aspects about a particular
report
is reporting.

Completeness
be complete and should meet all his needs.
must
The information which is provided to a manager
and thus may prove costly to the organisation.
Incomplete information may result in wrong decisions
M.L.S-6
 58 Management Information Systems
In extraordinary situations, where providing complete information is not feasible for ona
reason
the other, the manager must be informed of this fact, so that due care in this regard be
may tak

Explicitness
A report is said to be of good quality if it does not require further analysis by the recipientf
decision-making. On the other hand, a poor quality report requires further analysis or procesin
of itscontents. Therefore, explicitness is a prominent attribute of management information Sing
procured
through the MIS of an organisation; Thus, the reports should be such that a manager does not
waste any time on the processing of the report, rather he should be able to extract the
reguired
intormation directly.

Exception-based
Today, more and more organisations are being run on the
principle of management by exception.
Top managers need only exception reports regarding the pertormance of the organisation.
reporting principle states that only those items of information which will be of particularException
interest
to a manager are
reported. Usually, these items indicate that normal operations have gone awry.
This approach results in saving precious time of the
top management and enables the managers to
devote more time in pursuit of alternatives for the
growth of the organisation. If reports do not
follow the exception reporting
principle, these will provide even those details which are not required
by managers and thus a lot of their time would be wasted
in sifting useful intormation, and asa
result, they will not be able to spend much time on other important
activities of the
Quality, however, is not an absolute concept, rather it is defined within a context.organisation.
Roman R.
Andrus has suggested a utility approach to determine the
discusses four types of utilities of intormation, which
quality information. In this regard, he
of
may facilitate or retard its use.
(i) Form utility: In order to be of greater value, the form of information
the requirements of the user.
should closely match
(ii) Time utility: Information, if available when
needed, has a value.
(iii) Place utility: The value of information will be more if it cangreater
be accessed or delivered easily,
(iv) Possession utility: The person who had the information
its dissemination to others in the influences its value by controlling
organisation.
/h4.2 MIs Functions
Q, ot Srhe dvo
MIS is set up by an organisation with theprime objective to obtain management information to be
used by in decision-making. Thus, MIS must perform the following functions in order
its
its
managers
to meet objectives.

(7) Data Capturing

MIS captures data from various internal and external sources of an organisation. Data capturing
 Management Informafion Systems: A Framework 17

may be manual or through computer terminals. End users typically, record data about transactions
on some physical medium, such as a paper form, or enter it directly into a computer system.

(i) Processing of Data

The captured data is processed to convert it into the required management information. Processing
of data is done by such activities as calculating, comparing, sorting, classifying and summarising
These activities organise, analyse and manipulate data using various statistical, mathematical,
operations research and/or other business models.

(Gii) Storage of Information

MIS stores processed or unprocessed data for future use. If any information is not immediately
required, 1t is saved as an organisational record. In this activity, data and information are retained
in an organised manner for later use. Stored data is commonly organised into fields, records, files
and databases, all of which will be discussed in detail in later chapters.

(iv) Retrieval of Information

MIS retrieves information from its stores as and when required by various users. As per the
requirements of management users, the retrieved information is either disseminated as such or it is
processed again to meet the exact MI demands.

v) Dissemination of Information
Information, which is a finished product of MIS, is disseminated to the users in the organisation. I
could be periodic, through reports or online through computer terminals. Figure 1.11 depicts various
functions performed by MIS.

Source Source User

User

Data
Source Capture Processing Dissemination User

User
Source Source

Retrieval

Storage of
Data

Fig. 1.11 Functions of MIS