Management support to e-business initiatives: The Croatian experience

After defining e-business and explaining why an evolutionary aspect of moving to e-business is required, the dimensions of e-business is defined with respect to differences between traditional business, partial, or pure e-business. Also, a model for moving to e-business is illustrated. The e-business evolving model is divided into six stages and represents an evolutionary aspect of migrating to e-business. Finally, the results of the research study on current practices in evolving e-business in the most successful Croatian companies are given. In this research, some aspects of business process innovation and e-business usage have been investigated (general e-business issues with levels of e-business usage, key objectives of participating in e-business, alignment of business strategy with e-business initiatives, initiation of e-business projects and e-business planning issues, especially e-business funding). The questionnaire was sent to 400 CEOs or CIOs in Croatian companies selected from the Register of the ‘400 Biggest’ Croatian companies which were ranked according to their 2001 annual revenue and which were most likely to represent the structure of the Croatian economy. Although they represent less than 1% of the total number of registered companies in Croatia, the sampled companies hold 73% of the equity capital of the whole Croatian economy, they contribute with 65% in the total Croatian economy’s export balance and they employ 37% of the total number of people employed in Croatia

Management support to e-business initiatives: The Croatian experience

After defining e-business and explaining why an evolutionary aspect of moving to e-business is required, the dimensions of e-business is defined with respect to differences between traditional business, partial, or pure e-business. Also, a model for moving to e-business is illustrated. The e-business evolving model is divided into six stages and represents an evolutionary aspect of migrating to e-business. Finally, the results of the research study on current practices in evolving e-business in the most successful Croatian companies are given. In this research, some aspects of business process innovation and e-business usage have been investigated (general e-business issues with levels of e-business usage, key objectives of participating in e-business, alignment of business strategy with e-business initiatives, initiation of e-business projects and e-business planning issues, especially e-business funding). The questionnaire was sent to 400 CEOs or CIOs in Croatian companies selected from the Register of the ‘400 Biggest’ Croatian companies which were ranked according to their 2001 annual revenue and which were most likely to represent the structure of the Croatian economy. Although they represent less than 1% of the total number of registered companies in Croatia, the sampled companies hold 73% of the equity capital of the whole Croatian economy, they contribute with 65% in the total Croatian economy’s export balance and they employ 37% of the total number of people employed in Croatia

Cluster Analysis of IT Security Risks in Chosen Sectors

The problems of digitalisation and transition of companies into the digital markets has become one of the crucial issues in contemporary business. Digital transformation is changing markets and interactions. These trends impose a question on how secure is this environment and how companies are combating this issue. This new environment shows us how knowledge is dispersed across a global market and in individual, national, markets. The goal of the research is to investigate the differences between countries in Europe according to how their companies tackled the challenges of IT security. Clustering is conducted by the use of simple k-means method using the data on European countries available in Eurostat. The digital divide has been found among European countries according to their usage of investigated IT security practices. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

ERP System Implementation and Business Process Change: Case Study of a Pharmaceutical Company

The main objective of this paper is to present the impacts of information technology (IT) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in business process renovation and to discuss selected aspects of the business processes and information modelling. This study presents the results of research conducted on reengineering business processes in Croatian companies, together with the results of analysis of the status and characteristics of ERP systems in Croatian companies. The results of this study were used to form hypotheses, which were then analyzed and compared against the results of a case study conducted by the authors on business process reengineering and the implementation of the SAP software solution in PLIVA pharmaceutical industry, Incorporated (PLIVA pharmaceuticals, Inc)

Metode provedbe revizije informacijskih sustava

U današnjim tržišnim okolnostima neprijeporna je činjenica da se sve veći dio poslovanja odvija uz potporu informacijskih sustava. Obzirom na činjenicu na informacijski sustavi često menadžmentu predstavljaju tzv. \u27crnu kutiju\u27 o kojoj vrlo malo znaju, a još je teže kontroliraju i upravljaju, tema kontrole i revizije informacijskih sustava u današnje se doba nameće kao imperativ uspješnog poslovanja. Naime, svjedoci smo sve veće razine ulaganja u informacijsku tehnologiju i informacijske sustave s često vrlo neizvjesnim ishodom ili pogrešnim strategijama. Također, često smo svjedoci pogrešno postavljene ili slabo učinkovite informacijske infrastrukture koja nije prilagođena potrebama poslovanja i strateškim ciljevima, pa iziskuje dodatne nepotrebne troškove ili stvara nepremostive probleme. Stoga se dileme oko upravljanja informacijskim sustavima nikako ne mogu smatrati \u27tehničkim\u27, nego \u27poslovnim\u27 pitanjima, pri čemu koncept revizije informacijskih sustava menadžmentu predstavlja onu često nedostajuću kariku – \u27most\u27 između menadžmenta i informatike. U ovom se radu objašnjava koncept revizije informacijskih sustava, evolucija njegova razvoja (od podrške reviziji financijskih izvještaja do samostalne upravljačke i savjetodavne funkcije) i metode koje se na svjetskom razini koriste pri provedbi. Definira se i pojam korporativnog upravljanja informatikom, čije je jedno od područja upravo revizija informacijskih sustava. Prikazani su i obrađeni preliminarni rezultati istraživanja provedbe revizije informacijskih sustava u hrvatskim poduzećima i metode koje su se pri tome koristile

Effect of Management’s Competencies and Digital Skills on Digital Business Model Maturity for SMEs

The uptake of digital business models has been distinctly evident over recent years, causing profound changes across industries. Even though various scholarly papers attempt to investigate those developments, empirical studies of factors that influence digital business models’ maturity are still scarce. This research article aims to address this literature gap, achieved by empirically testing the relationship between relevant managerial factors and digital business models’ maturity. Through a multi-national study with 162 participating companies operating within the sector of yachting tourism, followed by a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the obtained primary results, it has been found that managerial competencies, including management education and their digital skills, positively affect digital business model maturity of the respective companies

QUALITY MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SERVICES: CASE STUDY OF THE APPLICATION OF ITIL METHOD

U modernom tržišnom okruženju neizbježna je intenzivna primjena informacijskih sustava koja kompanijama omogućuje operativnu efikasnost, a može biti i izvorom konkurentske prednosti. U svakom slučaju, prema informacijskim se sustavima treba odnositi kao prema bilo kojem drugom važnom poslovnom resursu, što prije svega znači da se i tim, često samo smatranim \u27tehnološkim\u27 dijelom poslovanja, treba upravljati, planirati i kontrolirati njegovu kvalitetu. Informatičke usluge predstavljaju one usluge koje nastaju kao rezultat rada informacijskih sustava i informacijske infrastrukture. U radu se opisuju obilježja informatičkih usluga i potreba za njihovim upravljanjem. Prikazana su obilježja kvalitete informatičke usluge i opisane metode za provjeru njihove razine kvalitete (CobiT, ITIL). U radu je posebno naglašena uloga upravljanja kvalitetom informacijskih sustava i potrebe njihove stalne revizije (provjere). Iako često pogrešno tumačena, revizija informacijskih sustava predstavlja analitički postupak procjene performansi informacijskih sustava i čini važnu sastavnicu njihova upravljanja. Na kraju rada prikazana je studija slučaja primjene ITIL metodologije procjene (revizije) kvalitete informatičkih usluga (sustava korisničke podrške) u jednoj velikoj javnoj organizaciji.In a modern market environment, an intensive use of information systems in companies is inevitable, since it enables them to be efficient and to have a competitive edge. Information systems should thus be treated as any other important business resource, which means that this ‘technological’ part of the business should be managed and planned, and its quality should be controlled. Information services are developed as a result of the operation of information systems and Information infrastructure. This paper describes the characteristics of information services and their management needs. Characteristics of the quality of information services are described, as well as methods for monitoring their quality level (CobiT, ITIL). The paper emphasizes the role of quality management of information systems and the need for its constant review. Although frequently misunderstood, information system audit is an analytical process of evaluating the performance of information systems and is an integral part of their management. A case study is presented of the application of ITIL method of auditing the quality of information services (customer support system) in a public organisation

Menadžment poslovnih procesa i znanja u hrvatskim poduzećima

Contemporary companies function in constantly changing and highly turbulent business environment which is the cause of a constant need for change and learning at individual, group, organizational as well as interorganizational level (61). Organizational learning is considered to be one of the most promising concepts in modern managerial literature. According to de Geus ‘ability to learn faster than your competitors might be the only sustainable competitive advantage you have’ (11). Dimovski (12) provides an overview of previous research and identifies four perspectives on organizational learning. His model manages to merge informational, interpretational, strategic and behavioral approach to organizational learning and defines it as a process of information acquisition, information interpretation and resulting behavioral and cognitive changes, which should in turn have an impact on organizational performance. In recent research, another measurement variable for organizational learning emerged – Information quality (18). Another research topic introduced in this research was determination and evaluation of the business process orientation construct. Although definitions of the business process orientation vary, we adopt the McCormack’s and Johnson’s (2001) definition of process orientation: An organization that, in all its thinking, emphasizes process as opposed to hierarchies with a special emphasis on outcomes and customer satisfaction. McCormack and Johnson (2001) conducted an empirical study to explore the relationship between BPO and enhanced business performance. The research results showed that BPO is critical in reducing conflict and encouraging greater connectedness within an organization, while improving business performance. The more business process oriented an organization, the better it performs both from an overall perspective as well as from the perspective of the employees. The BPO construct describes a four-step pathway for systematically advancing business processes along the maturity continuum (Ad Hoc, Defined, Linked, and Integrated level). Each step builds on the work of the previous steps to apply improvement strategies that are appropriate to the current maturity level. It is important to note that trying to skip maturity levels is counter-productive, since each level builds a foundation from which to achieve the subsequent level. An organization must evolve through these levels to establish a culture of process excellence. The goal of our contribution was to test differences in the way companies learn and perceive their business process orientation in Slovenia and Croatia. During September and October 2005 questionnaires were distributed to Slovenian and Croatian companies with more than 50 employees. In Slovenian case, 203 completed questionnaires were returned (which accounts for 16.5% response rate) while in Croatia 202 completed questionnaires were returned to the research group (which accounts for 11.5% response rate). Received questionnaires from both countries allow us to compare the results and to implicitly test the impact of various country-based factors on the organizational learning phenomena. Using data gathered from two independent samples (Slovenia and Croatia) analysis of variance method and t-test were used in order to get the answer to our research question relating to differences in organizational learning and business process orientation between Slovenian and Croatian companies. Results indicate that Slovenian and Croatian companies differ only in 17 out of 48 items considering organizational learning research – especially in the way they acquire information and the way they perceive behavioral and cognitive changes currently under place. Croatian companies are more outward directed when acquiring information and are witnessing more turbulent changes in their internal as well as external business environment. Nevertheless, there are much more similar traits in the way Slovenian and Croatian companies learn than there are dissimilarities. However, there are some indications that Slovenian companies already bridged the transition period, while majority of Croatian companies still has to cross that bridge. Data analysis considering second part of the research revealed some important aspects of business process orientation in Slovenia and Croatia. It showed that Slovenian companies have reached slightly higher maturity level than Croatian companies, which was not surprising considering Croatian contemporary history. Though statistically significant, the difference is not large and the general state of the BPO in both countries is promising. Still, a lot is left to change and improve in order to transform the companies into process-oriented ones. The investigation also revealed some differences between both counties. Slovenian companies give more emphasis to the quality of process data and have monitoring and control systems in place to assure it. Besides that jobs are more frequently multidimensional and not just simple tasks in Slovenia then in Croatia. This is important aspect of process orientation whereby employees need to be equipped with wide arsenal of knowledge and skills in order to participate in different areas of a process. To realize BPO projects, most companies use different business process modelling/management methods and tools, which integrate components for static and dynamic modelling, measuring and monitoring the performance of the processes, as well as enabling the transformation of business process diagrams into tailor-made applications supporting the execution of workflows. The focus of this paper is to discuss the application of business process oriented concepts in different areas, depending on different projects' objectives and goals. The paper provides the results of a search in literature as well as a summary and comparison of features concerning business process modelling and business process management tools, placing them within an empirically derived framework.menadžment poslovnih procesa, menadžment znanja

PLANIRANJE STRATEŠKOG INFORMACIJSKOG SUSTAVA: KOMPARATIVNA STUDIJA HRVATSKIH I SLOVENSKIH ORGANIZACIJA

Članak prikazuje rezultate empirijskog istraživanja planiranja strateških informacijskih sustava u praksi slovenskih i hrvatskih velikih organizacija. Izvještaj se temelji na upitniku već prije razvijenom u Singaporu. U ovoj smo studiji usporedili rezultate obiju zemalja u tranziciji. Ističe se sudjelovanje, čimbenici kritičkog uspjeha, pokretači i glavne prednosti planiranja strateškog informacijskog (IS)sustava. U usporedbi sa sličnim studijama rezultati pokazuju da samo umjereni broj slovenskih i hrvatskih organizacija koristi strateško IS planiranje. Također je interesantno da vrhovni menadžment igra ulogu vrhovnog pokretača u slovenskim organizacijama a uloga IS menadžmenta je iznenađujuće umjerena, dok je u hrvatskim organizacijama IS menadžment vodeći pokretač strateškog IS planiranja. Organizacije obiju tranzicijskih zemalja preferiraju više unutarnje nego vanjske prednosti. Gledano iz slovenske poslovne perspektive vodeće prednosti su: učinkovit menadžment IS sredstava, unaprijeđena unutarnja koordinacija i produktivnost; dok su u hrvatskoj studiji glavne prednosti: poboljšana produktivnost, unutarnja koordinacija, unaprijeđen konkurentski položaj i učinkovit menadžment IS sredstava

PRIMJENA IT STANDARDA UPRAVLJANJA I UPRAVLJANJE KONTINUITETOM POSLOVANJA U TRANZICIJSKIM EKONOMIJAMA: SLUČAJ BANKARSKOG SEKTORA U HRVATSKOJ I BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI

Over the past decade business continuity management (BCM) has been treated mainly from either technology or planning perspective. This paper goes a step further and considers BCM from the IT governance view. In addition, the standards and legislation activities that help in that sense are evaluated. Implementation of industry best practices standards and processes such as ITIL and CobiT combined with other IT-related solutions can deliver substantial risk reduction and reduce business risks and result with reduced system downtime. The cases of the implementations of main information technology (IT) standards in the banking sector of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina from those two perspectives are explored.Tijekom proteklog desetljeća upravljanje kontinuitetom poslovanja se razmatralo uglavnom iz perspektive tehnologije ili planiranja. Ovaj rad ide korak naprijed i razmatra upravljanje kontinuitetom poslovanja sa stajališta IT upravljanja. Osim toga, ocjenjuju se i standardi te legislativa usmjerena poboljšanju stanja. Primjena najboljih sektorskih standarda i procesa kao što su ITIL i CobiT u kombinaciji s drugim IT rješenjima može dovesti do znatnog smanjenja rizika te smanjiti rizik poslovanja i time rezultirati smanjenjem nedostupnosti sustava. Istražuju se slučajevi primjene glavnih standarda informacijske tehnologije u bankarskom sektoru Hrvatske i Bosne i Hercegovine sagledani iz ove dvije perpektive