Week 11 - Clear - Data Asset

What is data? What is information?
 How do you turn data into information? 

Well below is an attempt to answer these very questions as well as, provide aide as to what types of software can help you turn data into information that is useful to you! Data is/are a set of values that are either quantitative or qualitative and are only raw figures and facts. Information is what data becomes when it is put into a form that can answer questions and aide in decision making. Data is stored in a database, which is simply put one or more lists of data.  

Now you may be asking yourself..."Where does all of this data come from?" Well when we as consumers make transactions, use credit cards, store loyalty cards, use search engines or even click on links, we are generating data. So how do businesses turn this data they have gathered into information that is useful?  Well reporting tools and queries allow businesses to select, sort, calculate, compare, etc., so that their data is turned into useful information for their business. Canned reports, ad hoc reporting tools, dashboards and online analytical processing (OLAP) are all ways in which businesses transform data into information. Canned reports provide summaries (i.e., monthly, annual) of information in a predetermined format.  Ad hoc reporting tools allow users to generate their own reports.  They are allowed to select their own criteria, fields, ranges and parameters to generate the specific information in which they are interested. Dashboards are more of an at a glance with graphs that display critical information. OLAP uses relational databases to calculate and summarize data and then stores this data in a data cube. 

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So now that we know the difference between data and information and we also know how data is turned into useful information as you need is the right team with the business intelligence and the proper reporting tools to help the business use this information to reach new goals!!!