Business information systems overview and applications

Business Information Systems

Accuracy of data input is important. What method of data input would be best for each of the following situations and explain why:

Printed questionnaires - There are several alternatives for entering the data collected on questionnaires. When a small volume of questionnaires are involved, typically the data is input manually, keyed into either spreadsheets or databases for further analysis. When researchers assume there will be a large number of questionnaires returned, the questionnaires are coded to allow for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanning and data capture at high speeds. These two approaches, depending on the volume of questionnaires received, would deliver the highest level of accuracy.

Telephone survey - the interviewer completing the survey will achieve the highest level of accuracy by directly entering respondents' results into a database, spreadsheet, or survey program as they are completing the interview. This approach to capturing survey data is the most accurate as it also gives the interviewer an opportunity to clarify their entries based on the survey responses.

Bank checks - the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) standard is used on all printed checks to make them accurately read at relatively high scanning speeds, as check clearinghouses and banks rely on this technology to scan and record literally millions of checks a day.

Retail tags - the most accurate approach to capturing pricing and product information from retail is the use of bar coding technologies, including the 3 of 9 Interleaved Standard. Wal-Mart is actively pursuing a pilot of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) where the tags on products are ready through radio frequencies, making it possible to move products through a warehouse more efficiently.

The most accurate approach today is to use the barcode standard for reading pricing and product information; in the future RFID will increasingly become a market standard (Romanow, 2004).

Long documents - Apart from having an electronic version of the document for translation into whatever format is needed, the best approach to get the highest level of accuracy from inputting a large document is to scan it. Many of the OCR scanners available today can be configured to interpret a variety of fonts and formats of documents, making this approach to best one to ensure a high level of accuracy in the original data.

Convenience and quality of output are important. Explain what method of output would be best for each of the following situations and explain why:

Hand held computer - the best output from a quality standpoint would be highly graphical and easily read at a variety of angles, and easily navigable either by a build-in pointing device or mouse through the document or charts. From a convenience aspect, as the hand held computers typically have smaller screens, shorter text messages would be the most convenient to read and interpret.

Color photograph - There are a variety of output devices that can produce acceptable quality color photographs. At the low end of the market there are color inkjet printers that rely on special papers and inks to product high quality photographic prints. At the higher end of the price continuum there are color laser printers and color thermal transfer printers capable of very high printing resolutions. From a convenience perspective, inkjet printers would be the best approach to getting a color photograph printed, as these printers produce high quality text and are relatively low in cost. When quality is the critical concern then a dye sublimation or thermal transfer printer would be the best solution.

Resume - the most convenient output of a resume would be a monochrome inkjet printer capable of producing text quickly and with a good font selection. For the highest quality however there are laser printers capable of producing printed documents at 1,200 dip or higher resolutions, which would make the resume look very professional and high quality in appearance.

Memorandum - as the majority of memorandums are used within companies for sharing information, inkjet printers are the most convenient due to the low cost of these types of printers, and the relative ease of hooking them up to a wide variety of PCs and laptops. For the highest quality printing possible, laser printers are the best approach as they can produce very high resolution documents.