Factors influencing the value of information in organizations

Information is data that has been processed and is meaningful to the user. It is a resource,
produced by information systems and is important to the operation and management of
organizations. It should be noted that information is neither a natural -resource, such as oil and
coal nor a resource that is acquired from the external environment or the organization such as
raw material or personnel. If it is designed suitably and properly managed, it can be the most
effective resource of the organization.
Factors influencing the value of information in organizations:
The following factors are to be considered while processing the information.
a. Completeness.
b. Accuracy.
c. Timeliness - up to date.
d. Consistency.
e. Validity - unbiased, representative, verifiable.
f. Suitability - meaningful and relevant, formatted to suit the user's needs.
g. Distinctiveness.
h. Relevance.
i. Usability.
j. Accessibility.
The Information Processing Cycle
The information processing cycle includes the following steps:
a. Acquisition
b. Input
c. Validation
d. Processing (manipulation)
e. Storage
f. Retrieval
g. Output
h. Communication
i. Disposal/Archiving.
Let us see these steps one by one here under.
a. Acquisition: It is the collection of raw data from the outside world so it can be put into
an information system.
b. Input: It is putting the acquired data into the information system.
c. Validation: It is checking the quality of the data before it is processed. Processing
invalid data gives waste information.
d. Processing (manipulation): This is a key point. At this stage data is converted into
information.
e. Storage: Unless we want to input the data every time we process it, it is useful to store
the data. We also may want to store information that we have produced so we need not
have to keep repeating work.
f. Retrieval: This involves the reverse process of storage. The stored data or processed
information is taken back for further use. It is called as retrieval.
g. Output: All the previous steps are used to produce the results. The important output
devices include the following:

• CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors and LCD displays
• Printers
• Sound cards/speakers

h. Communication: This is nothing but sending data or information to another place. This
usually involves LANs (local area networks), WANS (wide area networks - LANs
joined together), and the internet.
i. Disposal: This involves deleting data or archiving data. Issues involve the security), of
so-called "deleted" data. When data is no longer needed it can be deleted. Very sensitive
data-may needs more: when PCs delete data, they do not actually remove it from the
disk. They just mark that part of the disk as "available for saving on". Thus data can stay
on the disk and be easily restored by snoops. To really delete sensitive data it should be
wiped out. That is overwritten with trash until it is no longer readable.

Archiving means taking the data off the main storage and storing it offline usually on floppy
or CDs. If in the future the data we needed again, it is still available and it is not taking up
important hard disk space. Businesses tend to archive rather than delete data - just in case.