Companies have always been very carefully managed money, raw materials, machines and human resources. Today, they recognize the growing importance of the fifth big resource: information. They have finally understood that the within the global market with increased competition, using modern methods for planning, coordination and control, a company can-not function without acknowledging information and communications technology progress.Information and communication technology, information society, e-commerce, telework

Bogdan GHILIC-MICU

Ion Gh. ROSCA

Marian STOICA

English

Research Papers in Economics

Informatica Economică, nr. 1 (41)/2007  21
Informational Trends for Organizations in Information Society 
 
Ion Gh. ROŞCA, Bogdan GHILIC-MICU, Marian STOICA 
Informatics in Economy Department, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest 
 
Companies have always been very carefully managed money, raw materials, machines and 
human resources. Today, they recognize the growing importance of the fifth big resource: in-
formation. They have finally understood that the within the global market with increased 
competition, using modern methods for planning, coordination and control, a company can-
not function without acknowledging information and communications technology progress. 
Keywords: information and communication technology, information society, e-commerce, 
telework. 
 
igh dynamics and complexity of techni-
cal, economical, informational and 
managerial evolutions are reflected by fast 
renewal of companies’ informational system. 
This brought a series of informational and 
managerial trends that become stronger every 
day (figure 1): 
1. Dematerialization of information and 
elimination of intermediaries. Traditionally, 
information was organically associated with 
the elements they were referring to: raw ma-
terials, tools, machines etc. In recent years 
we see a trend of dematerialization of infor-
mation and elimination of intermediaries. 
Dematerialization of information means 
separating a large part of them from the 
physical support and representing them by 
symbols aggregated within rigorously struc-
tured sets. They travel separately, reaching 
users independent of the respective products 
and services. Dematerialization of informa-
tion is based on a series of processes recently 
developed: 
 Modern computing technology is the sup-
port of dematerialization. It is easily under-
stood that without the high speed and capac-
ity of collecting, recording, storing, transmit-
ting and processing information, separation 
of information from the respective resources, 
products and processes would not be possible 
and also, no automation in the shape of stand 
alone software would not be possible.  
 Modern informational technologies, com-
plement of the computing technology, repre-
sents the way to exploit the functional and 
constructive advantages of computing tech-
nology. The multitude of modern informa-
tional approaches, represented by informa-
tional languages, informational applications 
and data base systems constitutes expressions 
of these technologies or combinations of 
technique and technologies that contributes 
to the dematerialization of information.  
 Codification of information inside compa-
nies means that most of the relevant informa-
tion within the company is identified by 
numbers and grouped in a semantic manner 
to ensure fast and easy accessing, processing, 
interpretation and utilization. 
 Construction of databases that reunite 
large sets of data concerning a certain do-
main or group of domains in a single system, 
easy to access and use. 
 Internet and intranet represent two of the 
best-known informational approaches that 
are at the same time sources and manifesta-
tions of information dematerialization. Inter-
net allowed companies to access a huge vol-
ume and variety of exogenous information, 
while the intranets allow access to endoge-
nous information, from within the company, 
ensuring real time collaboration within the 
company network of all its resources. 
Dematerialization of information is fre-
quently associated with elimination of inter-
mediaries, which means accessing the infor-
mation straight at its source, not mediated by 
third party persons/organizations. Elimina-
tion of intermediaries is possible due to the 
same technical and technological progress 
mentioned above. Some examples of demate-
rialization of information and elimination of 
intermediaries are electronic commerce, 
credit cards, payment of wages though  a 
H Informatica Economică, nr. 1 (41)/2007  22 
bank account, available though a debit card, 
payment though credit card, internet adds, 
virtual shops, virtual exhibitions. Dematerial-
ization of information and elimination of in-
termediaries are components of the evolution 
towards an economy based on knowledge 
and mark an increase of applicability of in-
formation and change of its status into 
knowledge.  
2.  Improvement of marketing informational 
systems and informational outsourcing. In 
modern companies marketing is the most im-
portant organizational function that links all 
other functions in order to coordinate all re-
sources and efforts towards common objec-
tives (global organizational objectives) 
through tactics and strategies based on in-
formation. Thus, the need of marketing in-
formation is more acute than ever. The need 
for marketing information on company level 
has increased due to the following market 
trends: switch from local to national and 
global marketing, switch from client needs to 
client desires, switch to a competition based 
on other criteria than price. 
 
Dematerialization of information 
and elimination of intermediaries 
Improvement of marketing 
informational systems and 
informational outsourcing
Information research
Development of telework
Crystallizing informational 
management
Creation of virtual enterprise and 
cyber-enterprise
Expansion of electronic commerce
Dematerialization of information 
and elimination of intermediaries 
Improvement of marketing 
informational systems and 
informational outsourcing
Information research
Development of telework
Crystallizing informational 
management
Creation of virtual enterprise and 
cyber-enterprise
Expansion of electronic commerce
 
Figure 1 Informational trends for organizations in information society 
 
A marketing informational system is an ag-
gregate made of specialists, equipment and 
procedures to collect, sort, analyze, evaluate 
and distribute necessary information, cor-
rectly and in time, towards the marketing de-
cision making actors. The main informational 
systems used as support for marketing deci-
sions are: 
  System of internal records, the most ele-
mentary system. It is made of reports on 
commands, sales, prices, stocks, bills, ac-
counting etc. Marketing directors may iden-
tify market opportunities and major problems 
by analyzing these reports. 
  Market surveillance system is a set of 
procedures and sources of daily information 
for the directors, concerning relevant evolu-
tions of the marketing environment and 
events. This kind of information come from 
the company sales department, partners (dis-
tributors, retailers and other intermediaries, 
clients), mystery shopping researches (fic-
tional clients present at fairs and trades, 
shops, etc.), external sources like Commerce 
Chambers, magazines and other publications.  
  Marketing research system. Marketing 
research consists of designing, collecting, 
analyzing and systematically reporting data 
and conclusions about the companies’ situa-
tion on the market. Research may be a mar-Informatica Economică, nr. 1 (41)/2007  23
ket study, a test for preferences about a prod-
uct, a forecast of sales or an efficiency study 
for a promotional campaign. A marketing re-
search involves the following five steps: n 
definition of problem and research objec-
tives, o devising the research plan, p col-
lecting information, q analyze of informa-
tion and r drawing the conclusions. 
  Marketing decision support system is de-
signed to help marketing managers make the 
best decisions. It represents an aggregate of 
data, systems, instruments and techniques 
and technology (computers and software) 
that help an organization collect and interpret 
relevant information concerning its activity 
and the environment in which it operates, all 
these being the base for marketing decision 
making.  Once the information is entered into 
the system, they will be analyzed from a sta-
tistical point of view and the optimal course 
of action will be taken. The advantage of this 
type of systems is ease of elaborating market-
ing studies, market segmentation, deciding 
on prices and budgets for publicity etc.  
3.  Information research. In a classic com-
pany, about 90% of information needed by a 
competent manager is endogenous. Modern 
companies are more like open systems, as in-
formation becomes the main organizational 
resource. Combined with the spectacular 
progress of communications and computers, 
it leads to changes in the structure of infor-
mation required by managers (figure 2). 
Therefore, the quantity and percentage of ex-
ogenous information increases continuously. 
One of the ways to answer to this trend is the 
information research, which defines the 
process of examination/investigation of the 
external environment of the organization in 
order to find information concerning events 
and trends that interfere with the company 
activities. Information research ensures col-
lecting, processing and systematical analyze 
of contextual information relevant to the 
company’s activities and performance. 
 
 
Figure 2 Information research (from www.interligare.com) 
Main function of the information research is 
to monitor evolutions of the exogenous envi-
ronment. This takes four stages: 
  Examining the environment, this aims to 
identify those contextual elements that repre-
sent changes or signal future changes with 
impact on the organization. 
  Monitoring, this means following the 
events, trends and structures identified as 
having significant impact on the organiza-
tion. 
  Forecasting the evolution of environment 
elements that are significant for the company 
in order to ensure an informational base for 
decision-making.  
  Evaluation of environment evolutions 
and their impact on the organization. 
The first two stages concentrate on collecting 
exogenous information, while the other two 
concentrate on analyze and interpretation of 
those information. The most important do-
mains that have to be researched for informa-Informatica Economică, nr. 1 (41)/2007  24 
tion are clients, competition, technologies, 
legislation and other regulations, overall 
economy state and socio-cultural environ-
ment. Both formal and informal sources of 
information must be used when researching 
these domains. 
4. Expansion of electronic commerce. With-
out doubt, electronic commerce is one of the 
most decisive mutations of the contemporary 
economy and enterprise, with multiple and 
intense economic and social consequences.  
Today, the dream of building a national or in-
ternational level enterprise is easier than ever 
since businessmen all over the world, realiz-
ing the internet potential – global coverage, 
decentralized organization by excellence, hi-
erarchical structure with high speed cores – 
call on the web to make themselves known or 
develop their activities through electronic 
commerce. Thus, electronic commerce repre-
sents an integrated concept that design a wide 
area of support services for business proc-
esses, including e-mail, electronic catalogs, 
support systems for taking orders, logistics 
and transactions, statistical reporting systems 
and management information. 
In the case of electronic commerce, applica-
tions of new information and communica-
tions technologies take over essential func-
tions of the production process, distribution 
and services of all kind. No matter what level 
of the value chain market transactions appear 
– between providers and clients or commer-
cial enterprises and final consumer – they 
may take place largely through ITC net-
works, mainly internet. There are different 
types of electronic commerce, differentiated 
by the amount of electronic support (which 
can involve certain phases of the transaction 
or all of them) and partners involved: trans-
actions between enterprises (B2B), between 
enterprises and consumers (B2C), between 
consumers (C2C) etc. 
Electronic commerce brings multiple advan-
tages for both sellers and buyers. Buyers may 
procure goods and services with lower prices 
than classic commerce, while saving time. 
Sellers gain: 
  Significant increase of communication 
speed, especially for international communi-
cations. 
  Improved efficiency: data does not have 
to be keyed in nor on buyer’s computer nei-
ther on seller’s computer, thus eliminating 
input errors, saving work force, shrinking 
production and acquisition cycles.  
  Lower costs: electronic mail saves mail 
and courier costs. 
  Improved communication with clients 
and providers: company web page is easily 
updated with latest information. 
  Alternative sale channels, like business 
via an internet site. 
Positive effects of electronic commerce on 
economic processes are widely known today: 
lower cost of transactions, better allocation of 
resources, increased scale savings, better 
competitiveness of companies thus increased 
ability of companies to create value and 
compete on global markets. 
5. Development of telework. One of the re-
cent trends on organizational level is devel-
opment of telework – performing activities 
(usually of informational nature) outside 
company premises. Technical base of tele-
work is telematics, which means conver-
gence of computers and communication 
technologies, allowing companies to perform 
some services and activities with lower costs, 
on sites outside main compound, sometimes 
at big distances. Personnel that performs this 
kind of activities are called teleworkers. 
Main advantages of teleworking are: de-
crease of company costs, better use of top 
technologies, better use of opportunities out-
side the company, securing and using exoge-
nous resources and competencies, increased 
flexibility of activities, increased diversity of 
products and services offered to the market, 
increased financial competitiveness of com-
pany etc. 
6. Crystallizing informational management. 
All trends described above reflect in the 
global organizational plan in the creation of 
the informational management, which has 
two meanings. Many specialists call informa-
tional management the type of organization 
management that has a powerful informa-
tional dimension, reflected by the attention 
given to information while conceiving and Informatica Economică, nr. 1 (41)/2007  25
executing managerial processes and relations. 
A second meaning considers and uses infor-
mation and aggregated informational proc-
esses as a separate domain, with powerful 
particularities, that has to be managed in an 
unified manner in order to efficiently use its 
possibilities. 
The two meanings complement each other. 
Creating a functional and efficient informa-
tional management within organizations is a 
laborious process, that requires high in-
volvement of managers and employees, pro-
found changes in organizational culture and a 
pragmatic approach to the implementation of 
informational management. There are several 
models of implementing informational man-
agement: 
 Technocratic-utopist, described by a clear 
technical approach of informational man-
agement, with accents on classification and 
modeling the aggregate of informational as-
sets, and wide use of emergent technologies. 
 Anarchic, defined by the absence of any 
informational policies on organizational 
level, allowing employees freedom in gain-
ing access to information and using it. 
 Feudal, centered on informational man-
agement of each organizational subdivision, 
which define their own informational needs 
and sends few information to the top level.  
 Monarchic, where information categories 
and structures are decided by top managers 
that may or may not allow access for em-
ployees after the information is collected. 
 Federal, described by basing the organiza-
tion management on negotiations and con-
sensus on the main information and informa-
ain differences 
tional situations within the organization.  
7. Creation of virtual enterprise and cyber-
enterprise. Most authors consider the virtual 
organization a company who’s employees are 
dispersed in time and space. M
from a classic company are: 
 It is a geographically dispersed company, 
which means delocalization of social rela-
tions inside the company. 
 Covers space and time differences that 
characterize work inside an organization. 
 Employees may work anywhere, anytime 
and still successfully do their job.  
 The newest ITC technologies allow for 
geographical dispersion. 
 ITC allows employees in different places 
and positions to interact and work together. 
 Electronic mailing, internet, intranet, ex-
tranet and videoconferences are the main 
technologies, widely used. 
An even more advanced use of ITC is found 
in cyber-enterprises, defined as electronic in-
ter-connection between persons or groups of 
persons. The mission of such a company re-
sides in collecting orders, choosing the coor-
dination model, organizing and managing ac-
tivities to transmit the product to the client. 
All these activities are performed in cyber-
space (the universe behind the computer 
screen) and are linked to cyber-enterprise. 
The cyber-enterprise uses a cybernetic work 
platform that favors development of elec-
tronic commerce. Usually, cyber-enterprises 
are formed by one or two persons and all ac-
tivities are immaterial (figure 3). 
 
Extranet
Intranet
Virtual Enterprise
Extranet
Intranet
Virtual Enterprise
 
Figure 3 Virtual enterprise Informatica Economică, nr. 1 (41)/2007  26 
There are two main differences  quasi-enterprise, mean- between the  cyber-enterprise is a 
virtual enterprise and cyber-enterprise: per-
manent contacts between cyber-enterprise 
and collaborators are made entirely through 
ITC but they tale place only in cyberspace or 
via e-mail. From a juridical point of view, the 
ing that it does not have its own products (it 
does not sell its own products, but offers ser-
vices that belong to other enterprises – figure 
4). 
 
 
Figure 4 Cyber enterprise (from http://www.mercator.gr) 
 
Finally, the cyber-enterprise is the ultimate 
ormational man-
  www.internetmarketinginfo.com
type of delocalized enterprise, who’s services 
are available 24/7. The enterprise breaks the 
time and space barriers to serve the planetary 
market and the spinal cord of such an enter-
prise is technology. 
Internet revolutionizes inf
agement of organizations, radically changing 
the relations between consumer, intermediary 
and producer. Internet allows producers to 
address directly to consumers, individually 
and interactively, facilitating closer relations. 
New cheap marketing techniques allow per-
sonalized communications with the clients. 
At the same time, internet allows consumers 
to play a proactive role: requesting informa-
tion, distribution of information inside virtual 
companies, price proposals. All these transfer 
a part of power from the producer to the con-
sumer, radically changing the nature of or-
ganizations’ informational systems in the in-
formational society. 
Bibliography 
 
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yberstudy.cfm  
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www.kappa.ro/Cworld www.kingston.ac.uk www.knowthis.com www.marketingterms.com www.mcti.ro/it/proiecte www.mcti.ro/it/strategie www.middleberg.com/toolsforsurfacess/c yberstudy.cfm www.umn.edu/humanarts/osce/new/buda pest toc.htm

Informational trends for organizations in information society

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