Will's Sportastic store report (p5 p6)

The report

Using information to work out where to start a bussiness (p7, m3)

Where to start a bussiness

operational issues (p3, m2)

Security of information: Is where information about a employee or customer is protected usually by the IT staff to prevent people who do not have access to the information being able to access the information. The IT department make sure that everyones personal information is non accessible to others who do not have access, by setting certain accounts to have access to the files that contain that information and sometimes by adding a password to the files, where the password is only known by the individual who the information is supposed to be accessible to.

As the owner of the information you are the only person who has the right to change any of the information so that it is up to date.

Backups

Back ups are where information is stored in a more reliable and less likely to lose area for example a back up server which all the information on the main server is backed up weekly, monthly, or daily- which is called the grand father, the father, and son system. If a businesses server goes down the back up server will have the most up to date information which then can be put onto the new server saving the previous information.


Health and safety

Health and Safety is where in the work place things have to particular precautions when doing taks or positioning anything in the workplace. For example when carrying heavy equipment you have to pick it up using your knees rather than you back or if your using a computer its recommend that you take breaks from using a computer to reduce damage or strain on the eyes.

Business continuance plan

Is where a plan is put into place where if the IT system is to fail or if there is any other problem such as a fire. For example if the network server was to be destroyed the IT department would back up the server regularly onto another server so if the server were to go down the IT department could easily change the server and use the back up data. In case of  a fire at a business there is usually a continuance plan to meet up outside the building a register everyone who made it there so they can determine who is still in the building or not there that day.

Costs

As of costs it quite self explanatory, the business needs to have realistic spending costs for example if the IT department were spending to much on repairing a set of computers that kept shutting down they would make it more cost effective in the long run to invest money into new ones than spending excessive amounts of money into a hard to maintain set of computers.

There are two cost variables

Additional resources

Is the cost of new equipment such as hardware , computers and software it also entails training for staff. Usually it's smart for a department to have more equipment than is needed so that it is more cost effective in the long road. Also the cost of additional resources can also be the on going costs of running teh system such as electricity bills and Internet service provider fees.

Cost of Development

Is the costs of new computer systems this can be the new servers or computers or any other changes to a computer system. This also entails the on going costs of the system.

Small Bussiness game report (P6, D2)

Small Business Game

Data Flow Charts (M1)

High Level

Low Level

Code of Practice (p3, m2)

In order for companies to get optimal working ability and prevent ethical problems in the work place the companies create a code of practice for use of a computer in the organisation.

Examples of these practices are

Email

The code of practice prohibits the use of emails that contain verbal abuse directed at a staff member, using emails to harass staff members, spamming unimportant emails to people in the business, spamming emails to people it has nothing to do with. It also allows a small amount of private emails to be sent to friends, family and love ones but prohibits constant emailing to external sources.

Use of internet

The code of practice prohibits the browsing of inappropriate or the over use of personal websites. Inappropriate entails pornography, gambling, piracy websites and illegal purchasing websites, as over use of personal websites entails over using websites like Facebook or Steam while working. However most company web servers have blocking software on it to prevent viewing of these websites.


The encouragement of whistle blowing

Whistle blowing means that if anybody is misusing their use of the computer a large portion of the time and gets spotted doing this on a regular basis, the spotter is encouraged to tell management especially if it is the the people who enforce the code of practice or doing something illegal with in the work place. an example of this is when a CIA agent in the 1980s was selling drug evidence to make a profit when one of his work colleagues found out he reported it to his boss and the agent was arrested.  

Computer Misuse Act (p3, m2)

Is the act that was created to prevent computers from being used for hacking or causing havoc with malicious intent. The act was created to protect peoples private affairs and prevent total chaos for organisations who had been targeted by hackers the act is then reinforced by the data protection act which give individuals and companies the promise of no private information leaks.

A case of this act being broken is the organisation of the New of the World who were hacking into celebrities and prominent members of societies phone lines and computers in order to steal private information for news stories. However after the scandal was found out the a large amount of members in the organisation gained a prison sentence for breaking the computer misuse act and the Freedom of information act as well as the data protection act.

The act also protect companies digital products by making it illegal for distribution of digital pirated material. However only countries that have similar acts to this can prevent internet piracy as our country can only prevent the distribution here in the UK and can only block foreign websites.

There are three principles to the computer misuse act.

Unauthorised access to computer material: This principle means that accessing a persons personal information from their computer without authorisation and then looking at their information, stealing it, or deleting it, can result in 6 months imprisonment and  a large fine.

Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate a crime: This is similar to the first principle. However, the person who does not have access to the information is looking to commit a crime, this being stealing bank account information to gain money or stealing anything else they don't have access to and using it for their personal gain. The result of doing so can lead to five years imprisonment and once again a large fine.

Unauthorised Modification of computer material: This is also similar to the first principle. However, this principle is if the unauthorised person wishes to modify files or delete them from another user or even creating a computer virus for malicious intent to steal or destroy information and same as the last principle you can receive 5 years imprisonment.

Data related to use of information (Freedom of information act) (p3, m2)

Freedom of information act

Is a law that gives the public or companies to ask information that is based  on them from public authorities such as government departments. The information that they can ask for can range from computer files, printed documents, photographs and any kind of digital recording. However if a member of the public wishes to see the information that has been collected on them they need to make a request under the data protection act if they wish to gain access to the information.

The freedom of information act also makes it mandatory for public authorities to publish what they are doing e.g. decisions, changes, and happenings. This also affect private organisation as they are obliged to give information about their company to everyone so they actually know what they are doing rather than doing something completely different  which that organisation is either not suppose to do or are doing what the comapny was not made for e.g. a shoe company that sells shampoo instead of shoes.

Data related to use of information (Data Protection act) (p3, m2)

Data protection act

The data protection act is a law that secures personal information about people who interact with a company through employment or externally. Data protection can protect personal information such as payment details, contact information and personal details such as mental state. The information is gathered by a  data controller who collects the most important data that is vital for the organisation and what the data will be used for.

There are several principles for the data protection, these are the following principles.

Used fairly and lawfully

This is where the person who has had the information collected on them has the right to know that information is being collected on them and what the information is being used as the end result.

Personal data can be held only for specified and lawful purposes

Is when the collector of the information must state what they are using the information or and actually use the information towards that reason and not any other reason not specified by the company they work for.

Personal data should be adequate, relevant and not excessive for the required purpose

This is where the collector of the information must collect relevant information about the individual they are collecting information about. An example of this where you would collect information about his contact information or name which is relevant, but you would not collect information about the individuals eye color.

Personal data should be accurate and kept up-to-date.

This is where stored information on a individual must be kept up to date so that it remains relevant and useful. An example of this is a employee could change there contact details or second name, another example could be that they live at a address that is wrong so it would have to be corrected so that the information Is accurate so it would be important to keep it up to date. 

Personal data should not be kept for longer than is necessary.

This is where information that is no longer needed should be removed as it becomes irrelevant or not useful anymore. an example of this is CVs as you are supposed to keep it for five months as it can take up storage and they already have your personal details on log which you provide from your CV.

 

Data must be processed in accordance with the rights of the data subject.

This is where the individual who has data on him/her has the right to see that data at any time so that they may take a copy, change or just view.

Appropriate security measures must be taken against unauthorized access.

This is where data on a subject are protected from people who do not have access to the data on the subject this is done by taking security procedures such as making sure that you have anti hacking procedures or taking precautions that don't let people see data about people they shouldn't know about.

Personal data cannot be transferred to countries outside the E.U. unless the country has similar legislation to the Data protection act.

Is where the company if they wish to share information with other companies outside of it's own country can only share the information with countries that have similar law to the data protection act otherwise your are sharing information with people from a coutry that do not have access to the information.

 

 

Powerpoint (p4 p5)

Power point on functions and features

Data to information transfer (P1)

Data to information

Characteristics of information for a small business (P2)

Qualitative: Is information in which it has been tested by a small business for example for a food business you would have to test,  how the food tastes and gather and doing so you would use primary information based on opinion of the consumer and then using that information gives feedback on the sold product.

Quantitative: Is information that can be measured for example in an IT business it would be how much a piece of hardware costs and how much memory it has or can process. This information is gathered using primary information by asking the public how much they would pay for a product depending on its quality.

Primary: Is information in which you have to collect by interacting with human beings or by using figures examples of gathering this information follows, using surveys, sale figures, and verbally.  This information is quite reliable as you know the main source in which you gained it from and can be considered as accurate and reliable.

Secondary: Is information that it gathered by using information that is outside of the small business. The information is gathered by using sources such as the internet or books e.g. forums, encyclopaedia websites, information websites and non-fictional books.  Secondary information is less reliable than primary information as you do not know the main source as somebody else has written the information from another source. However secondary information is less expensive than primary as the information has already been analysed, where you have to turn the primary data information into something useful.

Financial Information: Is information in which it involves the performance of profits and losses of sales for a company. This information involves the cost of products how much the staff at the business get payed and the other outgoing losses such as taxes and bills. This information is gathered by a hired accountant or financial controller and is then passed on to the owner to make the decisions on what they should do to improve income.

Personnel: Is information that is owned by the company or their employees. The information is freely available by the employee at any time if they wish to request it. This information includes how long an employee has worked weekly or yearly, this information helps with business determine if employees are under performing or over performing so that you can determine if they are deserving of a raise. It is important that this information is up to date as you can check daily to see if an employee is doing well or not so well as it is important for health and safety if you have a very unhappy employee.

Marketing information: Is information used by the businesses marketing team that help identify which product sold by the business is the most successful. The information is collected by the marketing team which then collect the information supplied from other departments. The information is obtained using primary information taking like surveys and conversation this then determines what the customer likes of dislikes about the product in order to then use the information to make the product more successful.

Purchasing information: Is information that is collected by the purchasing department, who are in charge of purchasing the resources needed to run the business. This information is gathered from the departments around the business who need specific objects to work with e.g. IT would need computers and equipment to repair equipment. This information determines the cost of resources needed by the business and the demand of them.

Sales information:  Is information that is monitored based on the product or the other services that are offered by the business. This information is then calculated by another department called financial control that then ensures that the costs of the products and services are less than the sale price. If the information for the product shows that the sale goes down the information is passed on to the marketing team who then determine a way to advertise it back to its original sale.

Manufacturing information: is information that involves the the cost of manufacturing goods within the business. The information involved in manufacturing usually involves the cost of building materials, the machinery used to create the product, and the wages of the workers. This information is important because it helps the business determine a selling price for the produced product or if they can reduce the production price of the product to save the business money.

Administration information: is information that involves communicating using external sources as well as internal administrators store information that involves employees and consumers to keep records of information.

Information Poster (P2)

Information Poster