Managing information involves manipulating data at different stages. These different stages are subject to a variety of options, at this point managers have to decide as to what is the best solution to be used. There are different ways for inputting data as there are different ways to present the results of these findings. Processing this data requires certain hardware capabilities; two of which we will discuss are storage and speed. Depending on the type of task to be performed and the amount of data to be processed, we could determine what type of equipment will be best suited to achieve our goals.
When accuracy of data is important, input methods should be considered carefully. We have different methods for different tasks such as collecting information from printed questionnaires where the result could be entered manually into a database with a keyboard or where the pages could be scanned to gather specific information, such is the case of multiple choice questionnaires.
English: 8-inch, 5,25-inch, and 3,5-inch floppy di...
English: 2.88 MB floppy disk drive
English: 1.2 MB floppy disk driveIn choosing between the two, the method to be used would depend on the type of characters or information to be stored and analyzed. Results from telephone surveys could be entered with a keyboard as well, or depending on the type of information to be collected, voice recognition system could be used especially if the information required includes general statements. Pointing and Touch Input devices could also be used for this purpose. More sophisticated systems are a good choice for long documents once they are properly trained they allow for more flexibility and variety of input . For checks, scanners with optical character recognition can be used and for retail tag handling, the data can be conveniently collected with bar code scanners.
Convenience and detail of presentation should be considered when thinking about an output method. An important factor...