In: Operations Management
What is data?
Data is a set of all the relevant and irrelevant information available to a business which will help in making rational and calculated decisions in any situation. Data can be used to manage and record any internal and external activity so that it can be improved using the data. Data might be related to the customers, employees, products, competitors, potential customers, city, state, countries etc. Ultimately it can be said that data is a collection of facts which allows the computers to process it in large quantities. Data can be of various types. Examples - Personal data, Transactional Data, Web data, Sensor Data, Big data etc. Today, the markets can be occupied with the help of disruption and data is the key, processing the large amounts of data which can help in business can be considered as big data now. The modern business process is a data driven environment. Data has become important in almost every business operation now. Be it Human Resource, Marketing, Operations, Finance or anything under a business, data is the key to improve everything.
Sources of data -
Sources of Data are basically defined in two major parts -
1. Primary Sources
2. Secondary sources
Primary Sources - Primary data is the data which we gather for the end result of our research or objective. It is highly customized according to our needs to achieve the objectives.
The basic examples are Questionnaire survey or Photograph Collection.
Primary data is basically the raw information that we need to reach a conclusion.
The data is collected by processing through a number of steps such as defining research problem and Management Development Problem and Designing questionnaire.
Secondary Sources - These are defined as the external sources of the data. It is defined as the data collected from an individual or institution from the external environment of your institution. The basic sources of secondary data are newspapers, journals, surveys, balance sheets, profit and loss statements, internet, Books etc. These sources are usually used for an exploratory research of the data.