Information System For Invoicing

Subject:

Information Systems for Managers assignment

"Failure and success of the information system for invoicing"

Created by Dejan Bogoeski

Individual assignment

Information systems for Managers

New York University in Skopje

BRIEF CONTENTS

1. Introduction.......................................................................3

2. A brief description of the mobile telecommunications industry .........................................................................................4

3. MobiMak and its Master dealers...............................................5

4. The NETFON's system for ordering, delivery and storage of MobiMak's products, and for issuing invoices...............................................5

5. The failure and the success of the information systems for

invoicing related to the practice...............................................6

6. Conclusion........................................................................10

1. Introduction

The Republic of Macedonia has been an independent country for 15 years. As many of the countries in the region of South-east Europe, Macedonia has been passing through processes of radical transformations in its economy. Perhaps the most radical were the basic changes in the proprietary structure with a primary aim to strengthen the private property, abandoning the communist model of economy, and the promotion of the market economy as a supreme principle.

This process, which was marked as "not so successful" in most of its segments, besides its generally accepted aims, has produced traumatic consequences in the social sphere as well (a 38% rate of unemployment), has slowed down the development of the economy (Macedonia reached the level of its 1990 GDP in the past year), low level of direct domestic and foreign investments in the economy, as well as losing

the pace with the development and the practical use of the technology's achievements.

This general ambient, with other negative consequences of the war conflicts that lasted from 1991 to 2001 in different parts of the former Yugoslavia, had its strongest affect on the feeling of safety and the prospective of any kinds of investments, especially in the basic sectors.

Therefore, the development of the electronic information technologies and their use as a very important factor in the growth of the companies and the economy-financial sector generally, has followed the basic characteristics of the ambient in the Republic of Macedonia mentioned above.

The state's system for fixed telephony was made private in the year of 2000. But the privatization itself did not mean development of competition, neither decreasing the prices of the telecommunication services (telephony, internet etc), rather an increase of prices for 250% in this sector by the end of 2005.

But the private and stockholder's capital, even in such circumstances, has shown its flexibility in finding optimal solutions for development, adapting its organization on the general conditions in Macedonia. They were the first to see the possibilities of the information technologies, and their use in company's growth, rationalizing the costs and accomplishing profits in their work.

And still, in order to provide those profits and to keep up with the trends on the market, companies have spent too much of their budgets on new technologies, often assuming that more technologies means more money. But is it really so? Do you really need so much IT?

The purpose of this essay is to bring up the importance that the information systems have for the business processes of a company. It shows a classical example of a failure of the system, and the reasons that led to it. On the other hand, it teaches us good lessons of how to recover from such failure.

2. A brief description of the mobile telecommunications industry

The mobile telephony in Macedonia began developing ten years ago, in 1996. The then Sector for telecommunications of Republic of Macedonia (now Agency for electronic communications) approved the beginning of the functioning of the first provider of mobile telecommunications services - MobiMak AD Skopje. Offering only few services to its customers at a high cost, and enjoying its position of a monopoly on the market, MobiMak realized great profits in the years that followed. MobiMak even strengthened its positions on the market after the merging with Macedonian Telecom, the fixed telecommunications services provider, in 2000, a company that was made private just few months earlier, as mentioned above.

However, the competition came in the year of 2003. The new provider of mobile telecommunications services, Cosmofon AD Skopje, started with an aggressive marketing campaign, putting on test the ability of MobiMak to handle with the new conditions on the market.

3. MobiMak and its Master - dealers

In order to meet its customer's needs and expectations, MobiMak has established a very efficient system of sales departments, which are divided between "Direct sales department" and "Indirect sales department". The Direct sales department consists of stores spread along the whole country, which belong to MobiMak itself.

On the other side, the Indirect sales department consists of ten "Master - dealers", among which is NETFON Ltd., that are authorized by MobiMak to sell its products, services and equipment. MobiMak allows its Master dealers to engage their own sub - Contractors. In this manner, the indirect sales network realizes 70% of the total sales of MobiMak.

4. The NETFON's information system