Development Solutions Consultancy

For the development of an information system to be successful, it is necessary to be clear about what is needed. From the outset our aim with this project was to be able to answer some key questions which include:

• How many people are employed in the industry (by TATO members)?
• What are the education levels of people employed in the industry?
• How many tourists come to Tanzania and when?
• Where do tourists go and what do they do?
• How much in gross sales is generated?

This is a small sample of the questions we wanted to answer. For a bit more background and context, take a look at my previous post on this project.

Knowing what knowledge you want to know determines what data needs to be captured and also importantly the effort required in processing the data. The distribution of processing effort and resulting knowledge usefulness tends towards a bell curve; the more effort you put into processing the data, the more useful the information you get but up to a certain point. From this point onwards, more effort results in more knowledge but with diminishing usefulness.

Use of terms matters and the phrase 'diminishing usefulness' can be deceiving. This is not useless knowledge but rather very specific knowledge, so specific that it may not have wide usefulness. However this is context-dependent. Continue reading...

In 2012 we had the pleasure of working with the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) to develop a Tourism Information System. As an organization TATO represents the interests of tour operators in Tanzania and does this through training of its members, conducting research, and advocacy and lobbying. TATO will carry out these functions well if aided by knowledge and information that enables it to discern the industry’s economic contributions and their trend. With TATO we set out to answer some key questions that include:

• How many people are employed in the industry (by TATO members)?
• What are the education levels of people employed in the industry?
• How many tourists come to Tanzania and when?
• Where do tourists go and what do they do?
• How much in gross sales is generated?

Information systems are only a means to an end; a well designed information system can help us store and analyze data. In the process of making sense of data, information systems help us to arrive at information; information results after deductions from data.

This deduced information is still, for the most part, a means to an end. Unearthing this deducible information is often the driving motivation for developing the information system in the first place. However the true worth of this information, and the process as a whole, is only actualized when we use this information, when we turn it into knowledge to aid in decision making and planning. Continue reading...