The influence of the information technology on the small and middle enterprises management.

Popescu, Virgil ; Popescu, Luminita ; Iancu, Anica 等

1. INTRODUCTION

The rhythm of changes in the domain of information technology during the last few years was extraordinary and determined the reconsideration of the conception regarding the enterprise's place and role. The enterprise represents nowadays more than a production unit of goods and services, adapted to the market's requests, and becomes a unit that produce information and knowledge. This change brings up the necessity to create some instruments that will allow the management of the knowledge resources from within the organization, but their spreading and capitalization as well (Radu et al., 2005).

The new type of enterprise must be a sustainable firm, respectively a knowledge-based enterprise that sets for it long-term economic, social and ecological objectives and it is able to achieve them by capitalizing on strategic knowledge, generating multiple positive consequences for the enterprise, its stockholders and its environment (Albu & Chilian, 2007).

The importance of the small and middle enterprises within a country's economy must not be neglected because of the relations of complementarity they develop with the big firms. In fact, the small and middle enterprises represent the most numerous and important echelon of the enterprises, since they fulfill multiple economic, social and technical functions. Therefore:

* They generate most of the G.D. P. in each country, their value being between 55%-95%;

* They offer jobs for the large majority of the employed population; the last few years being the ones generating jobs even at the European Union's level;

* They generate a high percentage of technical innovation applicable in economy;

* They have the largest degree of dynamism in the market economy conditions;

* They make products and services at lower costs then the large enterprises;

* They have a higher flexibility and adaptability at the market's requests and changes, favored by their reduced dimensions, the rapidity of the decision taking process and the direct involvement of the owner in the current activities;

* They represent one of the principal incomes sources at the budget of the state (taxes, imposts, TVA etc.);

* They offer the possibility to an important part of the society's active human resources to achieve social and professional fulfillment;

* They represent the seeds of the future big enterprises, especially in the new domains of the economy based on complex and performing technologies and techniques;

* The knowledge revolution and the translation to the knowledge-based economy are accompanied by a growth of the S.M.E. number and their economic, scientific, technical, educational, ecological and cultural impact and performances.

2. INFORMATION

To answer the central question of how the organizations of the 3rd millennium will survive, thrive and achieve their strategic objectives, their management must be aware of the information's and information technology's role and impact on the evolution and improvement of the competition's basic rules and the identification of some new weapons in the competitive confrontation.

From the managerial perspective, the studies show significant differences between the S.M.E. and the big enterprises, in regard to the management of the firm (the decisional criteria and the decisional process, the models and methods of decision, the objectives) but also the small enterprise management (the entrepreneurial/managerial profile, the attitude towards risk, the position in the firm, the objectives, the domain and the dynamics of the managerial preoccupations, the managerial mix: science-talent-experience).

The S.M.E. management is entrepreneurial, different from the administrative management. So, while the administrative management decisions are rational and target the stability of the system and the organization, the respect for the procedures and the maintaining of the situation, the decisions by which risks are assumed are characteristic for the entrepreneurial management. These are emotional decisions and aim towards change and development. The risk is assumed rationally and its minimization can be made through: informing, the ability of analyzing the information, communication skills (Scarlat et al., 2003).

A special attention within the decisions taken and put in practice in the S.M.E. is given to decision of informatics management. The influence of the informatics system on the firm's activity can be noticed in time due to the fact contributes greatly to assuring the information for the initiation, substantiation and adopting of any organization's decisions (Grama & Fotache, 2006). The decisions of the managers are influenced positively when the information processed are adequate, reliable, and efficient and given at the right time. Basically, an enterprise's efficiency is directly depending on the way in which it is able to manage the information.

The Role of the Informational Technologies in the growth of the S.M.E. productivity is decisive.

The S.M.E. sector in Romania is circumscribed in the general tendency manifested in the European Union in regard to the use of IT. The most used IT components by the Romanian small and middle enterprises, during 2007, are the computers. The internet and the e-mail, as shown in the Table 1 (Nicolescu, 2008).

The data presented above point out the efforts the firms are making for the computerization of their activities. Many of the enterprises are equipped with computers, access the internet to gather of offer information about their products and services and use the electronic mail services.

In regard to the small percentage of 7,32% of the S.M.E. that do not use the facilities offered by the informational technology, the reasons are determined, especially when they develop their activity in rural areas, where there is no technical infrastructure to make possible the use of internet (we talk about firms active in the commercial domain).

Another cause for small firms not using the IT resources would be the existing personnel, lack of interest and motivation. The enterprise's management will have to elaborate in this direction an adequate strategy of personnel, because the lack of this strategy will determine: the employees rejecting informatics; the managers' passivity; the marginalization of the informatics department, its transforming in a distinct service within enterprise; the lack of communication between IT specialists and the users.

By analyzing the existing situation of the small and middle enterprises in Romania from the point of view of their sector of activity (Table 2), the following conclusions can be drawn:

* the S.M.E. that develop their activity in the domain of tourism benefit of the highest number of computers (92,11%), use the internet services and the e-mail in significant proportions, fact valid also in the case of the firms with others domains of activity;

* it must be noticed that the firms from the transports' domain record the highest degree of non-using of IT components;

* the constructions' sector has the largest number of firms using the services of on-line sales/acquisitions;

* the highest percentage of firms that benefit of a site is recorded for the services' domain.

3. CONCLUSION

The small and middle enterprises long-term performance depends decisively on the manner in which they capitalize their innovative, technical, technological and managerial potential.

The propelling role in the contemporary economic progress belongs to the new factors of production that include new informatics and communications' technologies, as well as modern managerial methods.

The knowledge-based economy's defining coordinate, the computerization of the economic activities has a favorable impact on the small and middle enterprises. If the costs of the informatics equipments and programs were high in the past, being inaccessible to many organizations, those can be bought nowadays by the small and middle sized organizations as well. At the same time, in the context of the computerization of the society, in general, and the economy, especially, the small and middle enterprises can connect to external sources of commercial, financial, juridical, managerial etc. information and can develop their relations with the business communities they belong.

Another positive effect of the computerization phenomenon resides in the considerable decrease of the discrepancies between the large firms the small and middle ones regarding the access to information and, respectively, the use of informatics technologies and equipments. The internet, the microprocessors, the personal computers and satellite communications make the technical systems more flexible and accentuate the substitution of work with capital, favoring the emergence and development of small and middle sized enterprises. The use of informatics technologies in these organizations leads to the amplifying of managerial decisions' degree of substantiation and their adoption in operative regime, with favorable involvements in the organization's performances plan.

4. REFERENCES

Albu, L. & Chilian, N. (2007). Posibile ajustari conceptual-metodologice in stiinta economica, in contextul extinderii SI-SC/Possible conceptual-methodological adjustments in the economic science in the context of the SI-SC extension, Available from: http://www.acad.ro/, Accessed: 2009-03-17

Grama, A. & Fotache, D. (2006). Integrarea informationala a IMM-urilor romanesti/The Romanian Small and Middle Enterprises' Informational Integration, Available from: http://anale.feaa.uaic.ro/anale/Accessed: 2009-03-17

Nicolescu, O.; Isaic Maniu, A.; Isaic Maniu, I.; Nicolescu, C. & Anghel, F. (2008). Cartea alba a IMM-urilor din Romania 2008/The The Romanian Small and Middle Enterprises' White Book 2008, editia a VI-a, Editura Olimp, ISBN 978973-1806-31-0, Bucuresti

Radu, I.; Ursacescu, M.; Vladeanu, D.; Cioc, M. & Burlacu, S., (2005). Informatica si Management. O cale spre performanta/Informatics and Management. A Road to Performance, Editura Universitara, ISBN 973-7787-59-5, Bucuresti

Scarlat, C.; Big, R. & Brustureanu, B. (2003). Elemente de managementul intreprinderilor mici si mijlocii/Elements of Small and Middle Enterprises' Management, Available from: http://ict.cdimm.org/man/romana/ Accessed: 2009-0310

Tab. 2 The use of informatics technology within the small and middle enterprises depending on the domain of activity

Tab. 1 The structure of the IT components
used in the S.M.E. in 2007

 IT components

Computers Internet e-mail Intranet
 % % % %

 82,25 72,93 61,07 21,50

 On line
 sales/
Computers Own IT is not acquisitions
 % site % used % %

 82,25 11,54 7,32 6,77

Tab. 2 The use of informatics technology within the small
and middle enterprises depending on the domain of activity

No. The informatics The Small and Middle Enterprises
 technology on Domains of Activity
 within firms
 Industry Constructions Commerce
 % % %

1 Computers 86,67 90,32 77,50
2 E-mail 72,00 80,65 55,00
3 Internet 80,89 90,32 65,63
4 Intranet 27,56 29,03 18,13
5 The Firm's 12,00 0,00 6,25
 site
6 On-line sales/ 10,22 12,90 5,00
 acquisitions
7 IT is not used 2,67 3,23 6,25

No. The informatics The Small and Middle Enterprises
 technology on Domains of Activity
 within firms
 Tourism Transports Services
 % % %

1 Computers 92,11 77,27 84,58
2 E-mail 60,53 49,20 66,59
3 Internet 78,95 60,70 80,37
4 Intranet 34,21 13,64 24,77
5 The Firm's 15,79 8,29 16,59
 site
6 On-line sales/ 0,00 5,08 7,24
 acquisitions
7 IT is not used 5,26 11,50 7,01