ROLE OF ERP IN MANAGEMENT OF HIGHER

EDUCATION FINANCING

Ljerka Luić

b4b, Vukovarska 271, Zagreb, Croatia

Damir Kalpić

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Unska 3, Zagreb, Croatia

Keywords: Higher education financing, ERP, Integration, Management.

Abstract: Despite all the talk about new economy, higher education institutions still live by the old rules. Budgets are

lean, yet agile enough to reflect changing requirements. With these realities, higher education institutions

need proven solutions, the kind that only an ERP solution that integrates all financial processes: funds,

financial accounting and managerial accounting can offer. The Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of

the Republic of Croatia was implementing an integrated financial information system of 6 universities based

on lump-sum principles and supported by SAP ERP solution. Some experiences regarding this project are

presented in the paper.

1 INTRODUCTION

The time we live in, the 21

century that we have

just entered, is marked by permanent arrival of new

information technologies and trends that assume

global knowledge. Information society that we are

all witnessing is imbued with new relationships

between higher education and society as a whole.

Analysts of these relationships increasingly

emphasize the need for development of a theory of

'academic capitalism' (Slaughter, Rhoades, 2004) by

which they explain the process of integration of

university system/colleges and the new economy.

The theory that originated within the American

university system believes that universities and other

institutions of higher education should not be turned

into corporations or reorganized by external factors

but it envisages groups of internal factors such as

faculties, students, administration and academics as

resources an individual country has, and these

resources need to create a new framework of

knowledge that would integrate higher education

institutions with the new economy.

The role of internal factors is directed towards

using resources given by the state to create

prerequisites that would draw corporations to

university sector and higher education institutions,

thus building a new network which would enable

interaction of private and public sectors. This

network would also enable expansion of managerial

capacities to the sphere of monitoring the flow of

external resources and to the sphere of investments

drawn for development of infrastructure with one

purpose – to support the trends of the new economy,

invest into marketing of higher education, in its

products and different services needed by students.

This approach has a large impact on all universities,

its faculties and all its other component parts

because it envisages a reconstruction of universities’

operation by lowering the costs of classes.

The 'academic capitalism' theory goes even

further from treating a student as a customer to

treating him or her as promoter, i.e. subject of

university marketing. More and more we witness

students rationalizing their choice of university and

studies, thinking about investments they have to

make, and the return on the invested time and

money. On the other hand, they rationalize the

economic elements: business opportunities after

degree, communication and media. Studying at a

university does not only stand for getting a classical

education any more but it also increasingly starts to

resemble becoming a part of an image the university

339

Lui

c L. and Kalpi

c D. (2008).

ROLE OF ERP IN MANAGEMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCING.

In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Software and Data Technologies, pages 339-347

DOI: 10.5220/0001881603390347

 SciTePress

of choice generally has in the market, together with

its name and brand. Students thus gain the name and

the brand of their university upon gaining a degree

from it.

When they finish their studies, universities

present their students as their products, their

contribution to the new economy and at the same

time they start treating them as alumni, i.e. potential

donors.

It is necessary to point out that academic identity as

market value of a student is not a constant,

unchangeable value. It is a value that changes with

the change of market status of university of choice

or other higher education institution (Newman,

Couturier, Scurry, 2004).

2 NEW THEORIES ON

MANAGING HIGHER

EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Universities, their component parts, higher education

as a whole, have a special obligation to rational and

efficient spending of their resources no matter if the

resources come from state budget or their own

incomes. To enable management of universities and

colleges to lower costs and increase efficiency of

budget spending, it is necessary to create the system

in which cost bearers (carriers) will be identified, the

system of profit centres, and enable permanent

tracking and analysis of costs, i.e.: of all

expenditures on one side and all types of income on

the other. (Brumec, et al, 2000)

2.1 Market Dimension of Higher

Education Institutions

To enable universities and other higher education

institutions to be successful in market competition,

they need to be aware of bringing information and

their management up front as their management

strategic commitment. That commitment brings the

prestige and thus draws more and more of the

quality students, as well as sponsors, and thus

directly draws more financial resources.

Having in mind the global economy and its features,

we can expect a further expansion of market

influence on higher education, its work and

development. This also indicates a need for

managing the risks such flows bring. To enable

managing structures of universities and higher

education institutions to efficiently manage risks,

they need to institute a business-information system

for risk management. (Bok, 2005)

The relationship between higher education

system and the market is visible from: competition

between universities in the first place, focus on

generating prestige for themselves, and putting their

campuses in the function of achievement of this

goal. As prices of studying are rising higher and

higher, the universities and colleges are starting to

differ more and more in their offer of packages for

different financial supports. In this way individual

institutions of higher education become more or less

attractive, that is, reachable to potential students.

Except financial support, universities/colleges differ

in other elements of student care – duration of study,

help with employment of students, help with

continuing education, caring for and following

students after their degree. It is necessary that the

market accepts better this diversification of offer

when it comes to institutions and their programs, i.e.

higher degree of specialization of a university.

2.2 Autonomous vs. Nonautonomous

Higher Education Institutions

The relationship between higher education

institutions and market becomes a relationship of

greater concern to society and, thus, to the line

ministry as the representative body of the state. This

care is, in the first place, visible in consolidation of

higher education and it can be continued in two

directions: intensifying the diversity of offer, or

intensifying the homogenization. To ensure market

survival of certain universities/colleges, especially

those specialized in less attractive curricula, the line

ministries in some countries intensify mergers with

the universities/colleges which are in a better market

position, all with a single goal – for the less

attractive ones to survive. Here we need to stress

that merging of universities/colleges and their large-

scale consolidation can influence a reduced choice in

studies which is the reason why countries are very

careful when approaching this issue.

Within the academic community around the

world there are different opinions on strategic

development and the concept of operation, as well as

management of higher education in conditions of

contemporary economic flows. Researches that have

been conducted prove the university/college

management resistance to privatization of these

institutions or some of their parts, their redesign, a

resistance to outsourcing, branding and establishing

a system of tracking and risk management.

ICSOFT 2008 - International Conference on Software and Data Technologies

340

In countries that are only entering the sphere of

'academic capitalism', a rising trend of striving for

independence from state and government is visible

by large. In this process new challenges are poised

in front of university management, or college

management, especially public, i.e. state-owned

universities. Autonomy of university becomes the

basic question in talks and negotiations between

academic society and state (Marcella, Knox, 2004).

Two models are distinguishable in this field – one is

the American model where autonomy is very high

and the state invests in higher education by giving

financial aids to students and giving help in many

other ways. The other is the European model, in

which the tradition is that universities are financed

from state budget. The degree of university

autonomy from the state can be measured from the

method of their financing and is influencing the

work and operations of university (Galliers, Leidner,

2003).

3 HIGHER EDUCATION

INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR

INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information systems have become the backbone of

each complex organization in economic as well as

public sector. Thus, they have become also the

backbone of higher education. Implementation of a

new information system, especially a new integrated

business-information system (IBIS) is a complex

undertaking that oftentimes does not bring the

expected results. Mistakes, if made in the beginning

phase of implementation, are the most costly and

most difficult to correct. Therefore, the development

of a new IBIS must be connected to a mission, a

vision and a strategic plan of business development,

business processes need to be reengineered,

potentials of using the modern ICT technologies

anticipated, and method of their application

optimized for use in higher education institutions.

The Bologna process initiated the problem

sphere of optimizing utilization of resources

available: budget, own income, personnel, space,

equipment, and division of funds using 'lump-sum'

principles of financing. Based on the above

mentioned, it is important to anticipate the fact that

development and management of a complex system

such as a unified information system of all

universities of a country presupposes an integral

information strategy as the point connecting

academic strategy, information system strategy, and

business strategy.

3.1 Integrated Business-Information

Systems

Besides the traditional method of solving academic

questions, in order to be as competitive as possible,

the management of higher education institutions

needs to be increasingly oriented to management of

financial and human resources. Application of new

business strategies demands high quality and timely

information on competition, potential markets,

potential financing sources, technology, economic

and political flows.

A business-information system of higher education

has certain special characteristics not present in

other business systems. They do not only provide

information needed to run a university but

information are provided here which help managing

other members/institutions of academic society. Due

to a high degree of autonomy of individual

components, they need to be flexible enough and

due to a big scope of users they need to be usable,

reliable, efficient, sustainable and secure, together

with being user-friendly. Unfortunately, most

existing university business-information systems do

not satisfy these pre-conditions well enough. The

most common deficiencies are insufficient coverage

of information needs of a university and lack of

connection between certain business components, or

parts (Luić, Schwarz, Uzelac, 2007).

Business-information system of universities is a

very complex and specific system. Thus, larger

demands for information are to be expected when

compared to other organizations, arriving from its

management, administrative personnel, professors

and students. Of great impact and importance here is

the high level of independence certain departments

and persons within university have when compared

to regular companies. Regular and often changes in

Rector’s office (elections of new Rector, Deputy

Rector, and dean) also imply different approaches to

IS.

3.2 Technical Aspect of

Implementation of Integrated

Information System

Setting up an adequate ICT architecture needs to be

observed as a cyclical process, main initiator of

which is the business architecture, characterized by

organizational plans, visions, targets and tasks,

problems and information for their support. User

ROLE OF ERP IN MANAGEMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCING

341

Figure 1: Example of ICT architecture

must have a role in business architecture as well,

because only after setting up the ICT and business

architecture, a higher education institution can fulfil

its long-term targets and needs. Technical

complexity of ICT architecture is visible in its

simplified version in Figure 1. (Turban, McLean,

Wetherbe, 2004).

Before setting up ICT architecture, it is necessary to

define the following architectures:

• Business architecture: plans, visions, targets,

tasks;

• Information architecture: information needs and

ways of satisfying the needs;

• Data architecture: needs, sources, quality, security,

scalability, storage, updating, data maintenance;

• Application architecture: integration, security,

scalability, possible vendors;

• Technical architecture: hardware, software,

networks, vendors, protocol standards;

• Organizational architecture: needs for human

resources and outsourcing.

After designing the ICT architecture, the next

step in construction of an integrated business-

information system is consideration of needs of

individual business, functional areas and their need

for an ICT. Priorities oftentimes need to be adjusted

to priorities of individual business functions which is

of crucial influence to dynamics and duration of the

project.

4 ERP-ENTERPRISE RESOURCE

PLANNING

ERP is one of the most successful tools for resource

management of a certain organization. It is also an

integral software solution with ‘client-server’

architecture and software architecture enabling

business process management in real time. The main

goal and task of ERP is integration of all

departments and functions inside an organization

with the help of integrated computer system that

covers all needs of that organization. ERP systems

represent integral support to business processes of

organization thus creating prerequisites for

integration of all business processes of an

organization into an information system.

Conceptually designed and constructed by the

end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s,

their orientation is to production and planning of

material movement through productive cycles.

Nowadays, it can be firmly stated that an ERP

represents the backbone of a company. No matter

what possible difficulties arise when implementing

and ERP, the implementation itself becomes a

necessity in contemporary organizations. Upon

implementing an ERP system, transactional

information systems rise from business and

bureaucratic operations to networks of service

delivery. Parallel to this, integration of different

applications later saves time and minimises

possibility of errors.

When we first start implementing an ERP

system, we are dealing with many disconnected

systems. We have a set of isolated applications to

ICSOFT 2008 - International Conference on Software and Data Technologies

342

which business events are written and these

applications are not technologically connected.

Gradually, individual modules of an ERP system are

implemented and the system becomes partially

functional.

Still, the consolidation on the level of

organization is still not achieved. Further

development brings us to the phase of complete

functioning in individual business units which is

well manifested in large and spatially dispersed

organizations. Finally, in the last phase an ERP

system becomes completely connected and fully

functional (Ward, Peppard, 2002).

The largest and most frequently used ERP

systems worldwide are SAP, Baan, PeopleSoft,

Oracle, SCALA – software solutions for resource

planning of an organization. These are integrated

sets of solutions which cover implementation into

almost all business segments and hyphenate

structural functionality (based on best business

practices) and reliability of the system.

Experiences from using and ERP system give

proofs of positive effects on efficiency, positive

influence on relationships as well as customer

satisfaction – external customer satisfaction when

dealing with this company. The implementation of

ERP solution to institutions of higher education

needs to be observed in the same context.

4.1 Specific Demands of Academic

Community

Has it ever been more challenging for universities,

colleges, and research institutions to succeed in their

core missions? Reduced funding from traditional

sources has trimmed revenues, and competition for

private funding – including grants, endowments, and

alumni donations – is growing. Burgeoning student

populations are creating physical space and service

challenges. Government regulations pressure

institutions to operate with a high degree of

transparency, which intensifies the need to report,

document, and track financial, demographic, and

educational information. Demographic and

regulatory reporting requirements are prompting

additional spending on human resources

management systems. Demand for corporate

outreach and continuing education programs is

increasing.

Competition has intensified for the best students,

faculty, and academic and research professionals. To

address these myriad challenges, higher education

and research institutions need to leverage IT that

aligns with business requirements and supports

change. Organizations need to operate more

efficiently and integrate processes, from business

services to academic affairs and student care, while

collaborating externally with government agencies,

service providers, and other constituents. Yet many

organizations still use fragmented, non-integrated

business systems. Inefficient, outdated, and

expensive to maintain, these systems foster decision

making that is tactical and reactive at best.

ERP solutions for Higher Education is a portfolio

of highly scalable solutions specifically designed to

meet the unique needs of public and private

universities, multicampus institutions, research

agencies and medical colleges. It supports all

organizational processes, including campus

management for student and academic services,

grants management, Student Lifecycle Management,

financials, operations, human capital management,

procurement, analytics, research, and asset

management. With these solutions, it is possible to

sustain the continuing cycle of innovation and

standardization in a single technology environment.

One of the possible ERP solutions is powered by the

SAP NetWeaver® platform, which allows creation

of applications on top of existing infrastructure and

fully leveraging current IT investments – for long-

term adaptability, reduced costs, and flexible

response to changing strategies.

4.2 Functionalities for Financial

Management of Higher Education

For the purposes of this research it is necessary to

mention some ERP solutions used in Higher

Education institutions:

Grants and Funds Management – Solution which

helps organizations compete for and manage a

variety of department and sponsored grant programs,

endowments, and research awards across their life

cycles – including proposal development and

submission, budgeting, award, spending and payroll,

reporting, renewal, closeout, evaluation, and

analysis. It provides principal investigators, fund

administrators with timely and accurate information

on financial activities, accountants, and research and

transactions, ensuring that sponsored programs are

conducted according to a sponsor’s requirements. In

this way, improved effectiveness of grant

administration from pre-award to post-award, across

multiple fiscal years, with enhanced accuracy of

spending tracking is reached. Unified sponsored-

program life cycle regulations and guidelines are

made, such as the ones for enhanced funding streams

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343

Figure 2: Key Business Processes for Higher Education and Research Mapped to SAP® Solutions. (www.sap.com, 2008.)

while supporting academic research missions.

Competitiveness in pursuing grant funds is

enhanced.

Manual processes and workload in planning,

managing, and reporting grants are reduced.

Financial Management, Budgeting, and Planning

– With this solution higher education institutions in

Croatia create proactive financial planning, real-time

budget visibility, and consolidated financial

reporting. It streamlines cash flow activities and

optimizes financial transactions through enhanced

visibility of financial processes, including treasury

management, billing, dispute resolution, collections,

receivables, and payables – in a single, consistent,

reconcilable, and auditable solution. Efficiency of

budgeting is improved, as well as of planning

processes, via cross-organizational financial control

and visibility. Centralized financial and management

reporting is achieved. Increased visibility of working

capital, streamlined cash flow activities, reduced

billing and payment costs, optimized financial

transactions, and simplified financial consolidations

across the organization. (Schwarz, Tipurić, Luić,

2007.)

Business Process Integration – is very important,

because without it, it would be impossible to achieve

efficiency of workflow processes through integrated

systems. Final results are improved information and

process integration of third-party applications and

systems, increased collaboration through data shared

across departments, organizations, suppliers,

partners, and other stakeholders, reduced need for

custom integration. Increased savings through

reduced integration and maintenance, enhanced

employee efficiency via single entry point and single

sign-on functions are features this solution provides.

Human Capital Management (HCM) – For

processes such as recruitment, administration,

payroll, time management, and legal reporting, final

score are reduced costs. It is also important to

mention: maximized impact of training with reduced

training costs, accelerated time for productive

employees, reduced employee turnover, enhanced

support for unique payroll requirements such as

deferred pay and unions.

Public and

Private

Stakeholders

Students and

Alumni

Strategic Planning Academic Portfolio Operational Planning Teaching and Study

Student Billing and

Financial Aid

Enter

rise Mana

ement & Su

ort

Institutional Develo

ment

Market Research and Anal

sis

Institutional Advancement

Donor and Alumni Mana

ement

Partnershi

Institutional Communications

Academic Profile

Strate

ic Plannin

and Execution

Student Life C

cle Mana

ement

Student Records

Student Financials

Recruitment & Admission

Academic Advisin

Financial Aid

cademic Services

Academic Structure and Class Schedulin

Content Develo

ment and Mana

ement

Learnin

Academic Services

Student Services

On Cam

us Services

Student Communications and Service Market

lace

Librar

and Media Mana

ement

Student Housin

IT Services

Enter

rise Mana

ement & Su

ort

nal

tics

Financials

Human Ca

ital Mana

ement

Cor

orate Services

erations Su

ort

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344

5 EXPERIENCES FROM

CROATIA

With a joint effort of the Ministry of Science,

Education and Sports (MSES), representatives of all

universities in Croatia (Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Rijeka,

Zadar, Dubrovnik) and b4b company, the main goal

of the project of implementation of an I

ntegrated

inancial Information System of 6 Universities

(IFIS-U6) based on lump-sum principles and

supported by SAP application solution, has been

achieved.

The project has been financed with MSES

resources but for the benefit of universities, and this

is the reason why the project had to meet the needs

and interests of both parties. The main motive of

MSES has been to integrate the financial system

which would ensure transparency of budget

spending of the assigned financial resources. On the

other hand, universities’ motive has been directed

toward independence regarding the purpose of

spending the budget resources and toward a

stronger, more efficient management of the

universities. In line with the motives and interests,

project business goals have been defined and they

had to ensure the following: independent spending

of assigned budget resources by universities,

development and integration of financial processes

of university and their integration with financial

processes of MSES, unification of the processes,

creating an IT basis for high-quality decision-

making and high-quality university management

with the help of scalable application solution which

shall meet highest standards of reporting.

IFIS-U6 project started in January 2006 and was

completed in October of that same year, and since

then, users and management of all six Croatian

universities have been using SAP transactions and

reporting and analytical system in their work.

5.1 Project Goals

Single project goals were directed towards:

• Permanent tracking of budget funds by individual

university

• University’s independent management of assigned

budget funds

• University business process improvement and

integration

• Uniform approach to necessary data and

information

• Integration of university business processes with

the business processes of MSES

• Solution scalability (ability for growth and further

development)

• Achievement of highest business standards (data

transparency and credibility).

Project being finished, it has helped in achieving

transparency of management of assigned funds in

terms of giving information on its purpose and

spending, at the same time university retained its

autonomy. Universities Rector’s office became

responsible for its regular operations while the

Ministry of Science, Education and Sports took over

the function of monitoring university’s operations.

(MSES, 2006)

5.2 Project Results and its Effect on the

Institutions

IFIS-U6 system has achieved vertical integration

upon which IFIS system of each university is

integrated with the Ministry of Science, Education

and Sports information system, and via this system,

with State Treasury information system. The vertical

integration includes business processes of budget

execution, as well as financial accounting. The result

of the above mentioned integration enables

processes to be carried out in real time, by principle

of event occurrence (on transaction level it implies

posting of documents at one place only and their

automatic transfer to connected systems) which

contributes to data authenticity. This also creates a

prerequisite for a stronger internal control. The

process consists of budget fund provision which

enables procurement of financial funds to

universities on time, which also implies more

orderly obligation fulfilment. The universities can

also decide on obligation fulfilment method on their

own: from a unique state treasury account (with the

Ministry of Science, Education and Sports as a

mediator) or directly, by university order.

As the most important project results, the

following ones should be singled out:

y Setting up a vertical integration of university

financial system with MSES information system,

and via MSES with the central state treasury

system, y setting up an independent financial

information system at university level as a

prerequisite for future establishment of university's

autonomy,

y enabling document entering at one place and their

automatic transfer to all connected systems,

ROLE OF ERP IN MANAGEMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCING

345

Figure 3: Integrated system of budget money management (IFIS-U6, 2006).

y running of processes in real time by event

occurrence principle which results in availability of

relevant information to all system users.

5.3 Project Application to Other

Institutions

Based on experience and knowledge acquired in the

project of concern, it can be said that IFIS system is

also applicable to faculties, new universities and

institutions, not only at administrative level but it

could be used by students through Campus

Management module after it has been upgraded.

Thus, the whole project could be expanded to the

sphere of a higher quality of education and to

stimulus for scientific and research work

5.4 Open Problems and Long Term

Goals

An integrated information system of higher

education is a prerequisite for a serious reform of the

financing scheme in this sector in Croatia. Currently

the university staff salaries are regulated on the state

level and depend only upon the formal status of a

person. There is practically no correlation neither

with the quality nor quantity of the work performed.

The formal status is achieved mostly due to the

count of published papers, for some fields especially

if referenced in Current Contents. In applied fields,

a valuable scientific article can be best produced as a

side effect of some real-world project. Such papers

should probably be more appreciated than the purely

speculative ones? There is no difference in

educators’ salary between professions in high

market demand and those that are maintained only

due to preserve some tradition. The alleged

university autonomy is seriously challenged as long

as the Ministry decides regarding new employments.

There are no serious criteria in the newly established

lump sum financing how to distribute the funds

among single faculties. Faculties in most of Croatia

are rather independent, spatially dispersed

institutions varying heavily in their quality,

relevance, size and local regulations. Nowadays, an

incremental budgeting is performed, based on

historical rights and it is hardly correlating with any

rational indicator. As long as the full information is

not available, the majority in university decision

boards preserves the current status as more

favourable for them, while the most advanced

constituents have to pay the price. Here may lay the

most serious risk for further advancement of

computerisation in higher education financing.

6 CONCLUSIONS

Reduced funding from traditional sources has

trimmed revenues, and competition for private

funding – including grants, endowments, and alumni

donations – is growing. Burgeoning student

populations are creating physical space and service

challenges. Government regulations pressure

institutions to operate with a high degree of

transparency, which intensifies the need to report,

document, and track financial, demographic, and

educational information. Demographic and

regulatory reporting requirements are prompting

additional spending on human resources

management systems. Demand for corporate

outreach and continuing education programs is

increasing. Competition has intensified for the best

students, faculty, and academic and research

professionals.

MZOŠ

fakultet

State Treasury

MSES

Ministry ...

University of

Zagreb

University of

Rijeka

University of

Osijek

University of

Split

University of

Zadar

University of

Dubrovnik

Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

MZOŠ

fakultet

State Treasury

MSES

Ministry ...

University of

Zagreb

University of

Rijeka

University of

Osijek

University of

Split

University of

Zadar

University of

Dubrovnik

State Treasury

MSES

Ministry ...

University of

Zagreb

University of

Rijeka

University of

Osijek

University of

Split

University of

Zadar

University of

Dubrovnik

Level 1

Level 3

Level 2

ICSOFT 2008 - International Conference on Software and Data Technologies

346

To address these myriad challenges, higher

education and research institutions need to leverage

IT that aligns with business requirements and

supports change. Organizations need to operate more

efficiently and integrate processes, from business

services to academic affairs and student care, while

collaborating externally with government agencies,

service providers, and other constituents. Yet many

organizations still use fragmented, non-integrated

business systems. Inefficient, outdated, and

expensive to maintain, these systems foster decision

making that is tactical and reactive at best.

Development, design and application of an

integrated business information system are very

complex processes. That is why planning and project

management of implementation of an integrated

information system should be carried out on the

level of state and business system. Strategic

planning of IBIS is a starting point in this process,

and putting information in the middle of a

corporative success, be it in private or public sectors,

is the way in which information is used in the

organization as a crucial factor of their

competitiveness, efficiency and finally, their

profitability. The importance of this research is first

of all concerned with acquiring new knowledge that

can indirectly influence qualitative changes in

strategic planning processes, and its social

significance lies in improving the knowledge and

spreading its application into business practice.

From all the mentioned, scientific and social

justification of this research can be derived from the

fact that this research is an initial and starting

research for a more detailed dealing with

interdisciplinary issues of strategic planning of an

integrated business information system.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Publication of this paper was supported by grant

#036-0361983-3137 by the Croatian Ministry of

Science, Education and Sports, to which the authors

of this article are grateful for the support.

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