Methods of collecting Secondary data

Methods of collecting Secondary data

Secondary data is not specially collected for a purpose but it is already available and used for a specified purpose.

Advantages of Secondary Data

Time Saved

The first important advantage is time saved. The data collection is not an easy task and require a lot of time and planning. Therefore by applying secondary data a lot of time can be saved and this time can be utilized in more detail analyses of data and research work.

Cost Saved

The other advantage that data collection require a lot of work force especially when a large amount of data is to be collected . The work force is not only cost for data collection but it also involves like printing material for data collection and travel and accommodation cost.

Disadvantages of Secondary Data

Relevance 

The data is being used may not be relevant for your work if it is not collected for the same nature of work or research. 

Time Factor

Sometime the recent data is not available and using an old data for decision making process is not a rational approach. for example if the data available for number of people die from different disease for last decade has of no use of planning a health sector for this decade. you need last two or three years data for disease and sometime last year disease data.

Not Required

The secondary data has not been compiled as per your requirement therefore it may be a time consuming job to get the relevant data out of secondary  data.

Copy right Issues

The many organization does not allow the data for any other purpose and using the data may create legal consequences . The data is published by organization for general public knowledge and can not be used in specialized research or for commercial interest.



The main types of secondary data

1. Internally generated secondary data
2. Externally available Secondary Data

The internally generated data may include the following

• Inventory
• Product schedule
• Sales related information
• Marketing research data
• Management accounts
• Internal audit report
• Financial statements
• Organization policies

The sources of external Data

• New paper
• Professional magazines
• Research paper on internet
• Public libraries
• Government Publication
• State bank Publication