4. INPUT
Input is the data that you collect.
This data can be anything but it will not mean anything to
anybody until it is processed.
If processed in different ways it will mean different things to
different people.
For example: Sales figures
For the management to monitor how the business is performing
For the salary department for calculating bonuses
For the warehouse department for reordering purposes
5. STORAGE
Storage of information has to be secure.
If it is personal information then it falls under the data
protection act.
The information has to be kept safe but also has to be accessible
whenever the organization needs it so easy access is essential.
6. PROCESSING
This is the stage that changes ‘data’ into ‘information’
Some of the processes that can be carried out are:
Comparing
Calculating
Summarizing
Monitoring
Identify trends
7. OUTPUT
Output is what is provided after the data has been processed.
It can be a wide variety of different results such as:
Finance information
Stock information
Marketing information
8. FEEDBACK
Feedback into the system will often be used to help improve things
in the future.
For example:
Sales data for a stock control system. This could note which
products have increasing sales and reorder these products from
suppliers in order to reduce the likelihood of being out of stock.
A similar example is management looking at the sales reports to
see which products are selling well and which are not. To
maximise profit, they might choose to increase the price of the
products that are selling well and reduce the price or offer a
promotion on those that are not selling well.
