Ex. II. Read the text and check your answers

Source Data Automation

Data capture and entry has traditionally been the bottleneck of data-processing operations. Although data can be processed electronically at extremely high speeds, significantly more time is required to originate, capture, collect, verify, and code data for entry into the computer.

Originate The occurrence of a business transaction (taking a customer‘s order, receiving a supplier‘s invoice, removing a case of product from inventory) results in the origination of data that are input to the information system.

Capture It is necessary to obtain basic transaction data in some manner so that it may be input to the information system. It is also desirable to capture data at its source, where it is recorded accurately, in a timely fashion, and with minimal manual effect. An example of such source data is the Universal Product Code (UPC).

Collect It may be necessary to combine data from several different sources to have all the facts needed.

Verify Data must be edited for validity and completeness upon input to the system to detect any problems with the data. Quantity and cost data must be numeric, names must be alphabetic, otherwise the data is not valid.

Code Before inputting, data may need to be converted into machine-readable form. The customer order taken over the phone must be converted into a series of codes that can be understood by the order-entry system – customer account number, part account number, part number, method of payment code, and so on.

Often, different people and equipment are used for each step in this process. This increases the chances of making an error, introduces processing delays as data passes from one step to the next, and makes it difficult to correct errors.

With source data automation, data are collected about an event, in computer-readable form, when and where the event takes place. In many cases, the source data automation method involves immediate edit of input by a computer and thus immediate detection and correction of errors before they go any further. By eliminating many of the manual steps normally used to capture and enter data, source data automation improves the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of the entire data-processing operation.

Source data automation is often done through the capture of data as a by-product of some other operation usually not thought of as being part of the data-entry operation. A good example of this is the capture of data by an electronic cash register upon the sale of merchandise.

Frequently the electronic cash register is connected to a computer that has access to files of data containing product description, price, and other information. The Universal Product Code (UPC) is imprinted on each item sold, which identifies type of product, the manufacturer, and the product item or part number. A light-wand reader or a reader embedded in the checkout counter is used to pick up the UPC and relay information to the computer. The computer retrieves the item description and price, which are relayed back to the cash register. Simultaneously, sales data are collected and stored on the files of the computer. These data are used to update cash receipts and inventory data files. In this manner sales data are collected in a timely and accurate manner in a form directly usable by the computer. No additional manual effort is required.

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Ex. III. Answer the following questions:

1. Give examples of source data.

2. Which activities require more time: data processing or data capture, collection, verification, and coding?

3. What does the source data automation method involve?

4. How does it improve the efficiency of data processing?

5. How can sales data be collected in a timely and accurate manner?