ACCA PM Syllabus A. Management Information Systems and Data Analytics - Control Purposes - Notes ^{2 / 4}

Both internal and external sources of information are required by management for control purposes.

To control (comparing actual results against the plan), internal information is required. Variance reports are very useful is arriving at control action. For e.g., to identify sales variances, information can be obtained internally about the sales volumes over different time periods.

For example, information about stock (inventory) levels within the organization helps management identify ways how to increase the sales of slow moving lines of stock.

A reduction in the sales of a product will help management identify the reasons why this has occurred: has competition introduced a similar product? Has competition reduced the prices of rival products? Were there any quality issues regarding our product?

External information is useful for benchmarking (e.g. competitive benchmarking -  comparisons with competitors in the business sector).