Computers and Information Processing
University of Phoenix
Vivien Lewis
CIS319
September 22, 2008
The technology of the new millennium has increased the speed, efficiency and accuracy of data collection. There are various methods used for a variety of reasons and with each passing year as technology advances, so does the way in which people obtain and share information. The use of computers has also made it easier to manipulate and extract data at a faster rate.
Some examples of increased efficiency of data collection would be a telephone survey that is conducted with a voice-automated system that records the responses and enters them into a database. The information is then collected by a person or persons from the company obtaining the information and analyzed for customer satisfaction, product satisfaction or a host of many other reasons. Many organizations and offices take advantage of the touch tone method of triaging phone calls. This allows the caller to choose from a given list of choices and sends the call to the correct department to answer the questions or concerns of the caller. It is seen as impersonal but it sends the calls to the correct department faster than it would if all calls were routed through a human operator and decreases error in routing. Both of these systems allow companies, offices and organizations to handle a greater quantity of calls than could be processed 20 or 30 years ago.
Printed questionnaires such as a test or survey form can be entered into a computer using an optical data reader or a Scantron system. This device takes the printed forms that have been completed by a human by filling in the bubble that corresponds to their answer and the system interprets the responses. This makes grading tests a ...