Exploring Marketing Research William G. Zikmund,Chapter 2: Global Information Systems,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Global Information System,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Global Information System,An organized collection of computer hardware, communication equipment, software, data, and personnel designed to capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and immediately display information about worldwide business activities.,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Data versus Information,Datathe raw factsrecord measures of certain phenomena which are necessary to provide Informationfacts in a form suitable for managers to base decisions on,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Characteristics of Valuable Information,Relevance Quality Timeliness Completeness,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,A set of computer programs that store raw data and transform it into accessible information. A decision support system has two components: Database Software,Decision Support Systems,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Database,A database is a collection of raw data arranged logically and organized in a form that can be stored and processed by a computer,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Data Warehousing,Information management term The process that allows information from operational systems to be stored and organized into separate systems for simple access,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Software,Various types of programs that tell computers, printers, and other hardware what to do Software allows managers to combine and restructure databases, diagnose relationships, build analytical models, estimate variables, and otherwise analyze the various databases,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Four Major Sources of Input for a Decision Support System,Internal records Proprietary marketing research Marketing intelligence Outside vendors and external distributors,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Internal Records,Internal records that may become useful information for marketing managers. Accounting reports of sales and inventory figures, provide considerable data. Data about costs, shipments, inventory, sales, and other aspects of regular operations are routinely collected and entered into the computer.,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Marketing Intelligence,A marketing intelligence system consists of a network of sources and regular procedures by which marketing executives obtain everyday information about nonrecurring developments in the external marketing environment.,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Outside Vendors and External Distributors,Distributors of market information as their products. Many organizations specialize in the collection and publication of high-quality information. e.g., A. C. Nielsen Company provides television program ratings, audience counts.,Copyright 2000 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.,Proprietary Marketing Research,Emphasizes the companys gathering of new data. Not conducted regularly or continuously. Projects conducted to study specific company problems,