Information System In Pakistan

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BS (Accounting & Finance) (2006-2010) Bahau-din-Zikariya University Multan, Pakistan

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1

_________ AIS & ERP usage in Industry

Chapter 2

_________ AIS software comparison Table

Chapter 3

_________ How AIS, ERP is perceived in each Industry

Chapter 4

_________ AIS & ERP development and scope in Pakistan

Chapter 5

_________ SAP & ORACLE in Pakistan

Chapter 6

_________ ERP Career options and Certification guide

Accounting Information System and ERP Usage in Industry Accounting information systems are useful for companies and businesses wanting to make the accounting process easier by utilizing a computer program or other system that will perform payroll and other functions. These systems, commonly including accounting software, make it easier to compile financial data for use in taxes, payroll, and other bookkeeping requirements. Recording is the first step in these systems that are used by companies including pertinent data such as expenses and profits that are very important to keep on file. After the recording phase, the information will be processed for use. When processed, it is filed in the areas where it is most important. These systems have various groupings or categories to maintain files until they need to be used in the future for whatever reasons. The final step that is part of most software programs is the communication phase. This is the process of actually utilizing the records that have been recorded and processed. The use of these systems is a very big part of businesses and corporations. Using resources available through accounting information systems allows major corporations and small businesses to record transactions and other financial information for use in the future. These tools can make the process much smoother, save money for the business, and save a great deal of time. With accounting software, computerized documents will make it easy to file and send documents to the IRS or other interested individuals. Money will be saved by not having to utilize the services of an accountant or CPA. This will also save time because expenses, payroll, and other financial matters can be completed by the owner at the business, with no need to take paperwork or other materials to an accountant for tax and payroll purposes. Taking advantage of this type of system can provide many great benefits to a large or small business. Accounting is a very important part of running and maintaining a business and the success of a company will often heavily rely on the practices and procedures that are used in the bookkeeping efforts of the company. ERP systems are large-scale information systems that impact an organization's AIS. These systems permeate all aspects of the organization and require technologies such as client/server and relational databases. Other system types that currently impact AISs are supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM). Traditional AISs recorded financial information and produced financial statements on a periodic basis according to GAAP pronouncements. Modern ERP systems provide a broader view of organizational information, enabling the use of advanced accounting techniques, such as activity-based costing (ABC) and improved managerial reporting using a variety of analytical techniques.

Comparison of Accounting software:

Package

License

Windows

Mac OS Linux X

Market focus

Type

?

Software as a Service

Yes

Yes

Yes

Low to MidMarket

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions

Proprietary

Yes

Yes

Yes

Mid Market

Quicken

Proprietary

Yes

Yes

No

Sage

Proprietary

Yes

No

No

Sage Line 50

Proprietary

Yes

No

No

Sage PFW ERP

Proprietary

Yes

No

No

SAP Business One

Proprietary

Yes

No

No

SAP ERP

Proprietary

Yes

Yes

Yes

Simply Accounting

Proprietary

Yes

No

Yes

Tally

Proprietary

Yes

No

No

24SevenOffice

Structure

Web based

Business management, Stand alone Payroll ? Stand alone

Personal Accounting CRM, payroll Firms Lowmarket (for ? SME) MidERP, Process market Manufacturing Small & Midsize ERP, eEnterprises Commerce (SME) ERP, CRM, SCM, SRM, PLM, GTS, eMidsize to commerce, Business High-end Intelligence, Mobile Business Business Accounting, Low-end Retail, Inventory Control Midpayroll market

Stand alone Stand alone Stand alone

Stand alone

Stand alone and Web based

Stand alone

Stand alone

How is AIS received in each industry? ERP calls for different operations and applications in different industries. Each industry has their own drawbacks and plus points in dealing with the enterprise applications. A comparative study will help in analyzing them precisely. Some of the well known beneficiaries include the following sectors:

MANUFACTURING ERP has helped to increase the efficiency and quality of the manufacturing process. The manufacturing process experienced slumps quiet often because of improper communication, miscommunication, wrong communication and even lack of communication. ERP provided solutions to those troubles by coordinating the actions of supply chains, ware house and logistics. It also helped greatly in functions like tracking down the status of the product. Formerly customers were made to run from pillar to post to enquire the status of product or for enquiring a technical problem. The customer service representative would not be in a position to directly reply to these queries. On the contrary he would ask the person from the concerned department. The person would check the details and get back to him be it the status of a product or technical issue. This seemed to be time-consuming and meaningless. The longer the chains of communication greater are the chances of mistakes. CSC erp finance is software meant for accounting purposes.

SOFTWARE The manufacturing sector has been rated as the largest beneficiary. This sector can be rated as the one who uses ERP easily because it is a product from their species. This does not undermine ERP'S use in Software sector because it becomes easy to manage projects with acute deadlines. ERP industry paper will also reveal that it is easy to train and make people work in this sector than anywhere else.

INSURANCE Enterprise Resource planning has played a vital role in this business by covering three vital areas. Firstly it has provided a common platform for insurers and his agents. This has helped in easing the transactions and keeping an eye on the performance of the agent. This has addressed the difficulties of both the agents and insurers and thus facilitated coordination in the better interests of the business.

Secondly it has helped in curbing procedural delays and inefficiencies for which the sector is famous for. This statement can turn out to be truer if the sector is owned and controlled by the government either fully or partially. Of course bureaucracy and redtapism are inborn features in a state's set up but their presence in an insurance industry can do more harm because it calls for dispensing immediate information during lawsuits and pending claims. IBM erp Insurance is a famous player in this sector.

HEALTHCARE The sharing of databases among hospitals seemed to be a great advantage for doctors and patients. This even makes one to exaggerate that a person need not maintain a collection of his medical problems provided that his/her choice of hospital/hospitals has a database of patient records(or commonly shares them by any other means).Even though it is not practical to follow those practices ERP has been a lifesaving measure to patients who are admitted in a hospital in an emergency condition irrespective of the fact that the doctor in charge is aware of his medical history as ERP provides everything. ERP industry analysis here will reveal that confidentiality is affected but the life of a person is to be given the utmost priority.

HOSPITALITY ERP has helped a lot in bringing down the operational costs and coordinating the acts of individual departments. Hotels are well known for the segregation of functions. One can find many small departments like house keeping beverage supply room service etc. Even though these segregations sound small they have a large impact on the organizational structure. ERP offers a common medium to coordinate their actions. The entire action can be controlled in the reception desk. ERP industry paper points the exact benefit as per ERP industry analysis. Besides this textile erp insurance is equally famous.

Accounting Information System Development & Scope in Pakistan In the early nineties the emergence and revolution in the field of information technology caused development in many field and subjects. The field of accountancy also too had too influenced by the "Information Technology Revolution". At that time the term computer science used for I.T. The first invention, of I.T that brings revolutionary change in the accounts and finance, was MS Excel. The thousands of accountants warmly welcomed the I.T but also they were too hesitated. At that time many organizations started using MS Excel for the purpose of cash book and other subsidiary accounting records. Latter on the excel had been started to use for the purpose of maintaining ledgers or even for keeping full accounting record including Profit & Loss A/c. The feature of creating links among different sheet was the most significant feature of Excel. By using this feature the accountants were able to create links between ledgers, trial balance, profit & loss A/c and balance sheet. By passing a single entry in ledger the effect of the transaction could be transferred to the final destination i.e final accounts.

At the end of nineties the software developing started at mass level. The Government of Pakistan also fully support the I.T. Being first step the government established the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). The ministry of information technology also takes very bold decisions for the development of I.T. Many financial benefit were also give to the I.T firms it included long tax holiday to software houses, Sales Tax exemptions on hardware and computer equipments. The high rate of depreciation on computer software's and hardware is also settled to provide further benefit to I.T sector (Know the depreciation rate is 30% p.a). Due to all above mentioned steps of government and favorable socio-economic environment the I.T sector witnessed huge development. At the end of 20the century the development of software's for various fields started. Since then thousand of software's has been developed by the I.T industry of Pakistan. Many multinational I.T companies have also established their offices and made investment of millions of dollars in the field of I.T.

Know a days many accounting software's are available for accountants. The most well known accounting software's are Peachtree, Quick Books, Sage, Sun Accounts, Oracle Financials, SAP etc. Many local made accounting software's are also available i.e SIDAT HAIDER FINANCIALS etc. Some Pakistani firms has also designed the software’s that can be configured with other accounting software's. These software's are normally related to payroll, inventory and production. The need for a complete system or software for financial executives is visible. The CFo, Director Accounts, Director Finance or Chief Accountant of all the business are assumed to capable of taking many immediate decisions relating both accounts & finance and production, inventory, costing etc. These decisions required the information of other departments of a business also. For instance a CFO of a company wants to prepare budget for purchase for whole financial year. Then he has to need the information of total quantities of inventories purchased during financial year beginning and ending inventory balances. The need of integrated accounting software gave birth to the idea of Accounting Information System. Accounting Information Systems provide efficient delivery of information needed to perform necessary accounting work and to assist in delivery of accurate and informative data to users, especially those who are not familiar with the accounting and financial reporting areas itself. The accountant of tomorrow will be significantly different from the accountant of the past. Educational institutions must recognize the areas of change and prepare their accounting students for a changing professional environment. Major catalysts for this dramatic change are found in recent advancements in computer technology and the advent of e-business. The emergence of the e-business model and the integrative discipline of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planner) systems have accelerated the change. The accountant of tomorrow will need the traditional technical and communication skills as well as significantly enhanced technology skills. The accountant`s role has been expanding within organizations and they are becoming part of the management and decision-making team, rather than just providers of financial information. Corporate accountants must shift priorities from analyzing past events to acting as strategic partners, advisers and information providers. Already, accounting and finance professionals are mining data, turning information into knowledge and communicating what they learn to all levels of the organization.

In a recent survey, CFOs indicated that, in addition to traditional financial expertise, the one area that is most critical to the future success of accounting professionals is technology expertise. In public accounting, future growth is primarily related to technology and e-business. Outstanding opportunities exist in consulting and in the corporate environment for individuals with both an accounting and information systems background. Even in the audit area, new techniques and approaches are used to audit e-business clients and ERP systems. Internal control assessment now requires new innovative methods. Staff accountants routinely link to centralized client databases via laptops. The Electronic Business Technology (EBT) model is significantly changing both the way business is done and the accounting and auditing of those businesses.

SAP and ORACLE in PAKISTAN Industry SAP seems to making a push further into Pakistan. It is looking for people to hire, and for business partners (resellers and system integrators). Pakistan, India, China and the ME region are a hot market for ERPs, and possibly the last “real, large” market for enterprise ERP systems. SAP currently is installed at over 20 of the largest companies in Pakistan, with the customer list including the likes of PSO, Indus Motors, KESC, etc

Oracle

isn’t sitting on the sidelines either; they have closed quite a few projects through

several system integrators in the country in the last 8 months. With their acquisition of iFLEX, a core banking suite they are also now wading into the banking sector in Pakistan, much to the annoyance of IBM + Misys. All this while Microsoft’s Dynamics (Their ERP suite: GP, Solomon, etc) initiatives look as cold as an uncooked kettle of fish, as usual. I guess the regular licensing and ISV sales are more than making up for it, as usual

Siemens has been doing numerous SAP implementations in Pakistan over the years. The very first implementation at Packages Ltd. was started back in 2003. In the intervening 5 years, even though other services firms have been deploying SAP solutions also, Siemens has gone to the very top of the list in terms of number of successfully deployed SAP installations in Pakistan. It was no surprise, then, to learn about their newest win at Aisha Steel. Siemens will be implementing financial, supply chain and project management modules for Aisha. There was no word on when the deployment is expected to be complete, but these projects normally end up taking a while so we would imagine the Siemens team will be staying busy for the next year or so. No deal-size details were disclosed, but SAP implementations 5 years ago were running in the $3M range, inclusive of professional services and training. We would expect that this implementation would be in the $5M range. It’s not just SAP that’s rocking the house as far as the local market goes.

Oracle is making

waves too. Two significant deals were closed by Oracle recently, Wi-tribe, the third largest WiMAX service provider in Pakistan, and International Industries, a conglomerate. Previously, Oracle’s Peoplesoft solution has been adopted by several educational institutions in the country, including Dow University in Karachi. It’s pretty obvious that local ERP installs are an increasingly booming business in Pakistan.

Wi-tribe Pakistan Ltd, a new entrant in the Pakistani communications industry with a major focus on providing WiMax solutions, has chosen Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management and key components of the Oracle Communications Service Fulfilment Suite, including Oracle Communications Network Mediation, Oracle Communications Service Activation and Oracle Communications Order and Service Management, to better manage its business from the onset of launching new WiMax services. “Oracle has been a significant provider of business support systems (BSS) and operational support systems (OSS) to the communications industry, and it will help wi-tribe meet its aggressive business goals with Oracle Communications applications. We are committed to helping wi-tribe Pakistan Ltd become an innovative service provider leveraging the Oracle Communications applications suite to deliver a robust, profitable and world-class services offering,” said Raghav Sahgal, vice president, Asia Pacific & Japan, Oracle Communications.

Conclusion The ERP market in Pakistan is definitely promising. But, Pakistan has got a long way to go when it comes to Improving ERP in terms of technology, scope and applicability in terms of opportunities and venues, penetration in terms of sectors like education, employment and the state run offices. Some bigger companies still hesitate to invest in ERP due to the exorbitant costs. It is indeed encouraging to find that a vast majority of them have realized its benefits and have determined to go for it. However some of them are keeping quiet due to the risks involved besides the unforeseen expenses and losses.

AIS or ERP Professional\Consultant as a career To pursue a career in as AIS or ERP software professional, one must have basic know how of accounting and financials that the business deals with. Individuals with degrees like MBA, M.com, Masters in accounting and Finance or those have professional degrees like acca, ca e.t.c are more likely to have a successful career in this field. I.T and computer professionals with basic knowledge of accountancy and finance can also found success with little struggle. Since there are variety of software’s available in market, therefore target job market also varies. One can have expertise in dealing with simple accounting software like QuickBooks and Peachtree accounting and can also be a SAP or ORACLE certified professional. Accounting Software like Peachtree accounting and QuickBooks are used on low range business like shopping stores, medicine halls etc where as ERP packages like SAP, Oracle are used in large level companies which may be dealing in manufacturing, trade etc. There are plenty of institutes and training centers out there in market locally as well as online which teach software like Peachtree accounting and QuickBooks. In Multan, these software’s are taught in institutions like SKANS, ICAP, Rise. Apart from these software’s locally build software for simple accounting dealings are also available, which are easy to understand and are build according to needs of Pakistani business environment.

Training and certification centers of Oracle and SAP ERP are scare. In Pakistan, Only Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad are only places where one can learn about SAP ERP. SAP learning courses are offered by two organizations in Pakistan, One is Siemens Pakistan, which is pioneer of introducing ERP in Pakistan. They have centers in Karachi and Lahore. Apart from Siemens ABACUS CERTIFIED TRAINING CENTER is also operating in Lahore as authorized Partner of SAP to teach different SAP courses.

SAP, the worlds leading software providers, has planned to establish 50 E-academies across Pakistan with special focus on small towns to train youth particularly in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. "Two such academies are already functioning in Lahore and Karachi where SAP Pakistan offices are imparting training to a selective bunch of young persons on experimental basis.

Following very encouraging response, we have planned to extend this facility across the country. For this purpose SAP would be inviting expression of interests from different colleges and academies interested to impart this training which is a mixture of distance and on-site learning," said Sajjad Syed, Managing Director SAP Pakistan while talking to Business Recorder here on Thursday. He said that young people trained by these E-academies would be placed on jobs in their Singapore and Dubai offices. He said that there was a demand of 11,000 SAP experts every year only in the Asia-Pacific region. He said India was already facing SAP experts shortage, Chinese could not fill this gap due to not being well versed in English and as such there was a great scope for Pakistanis to capture this field. He said that experts could be sent for SAP applications abroad on remuneration as higher as US 1000-1500 dollars per day. Sajjad Syed stated that there would be an entry test to these applications and students having degrees of computer sciences, B Com., MBA or other disciplines could be trained in SAP applications. He also said that IBA Karachi had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with their organisation to include SAP courses in its curriculum for MBA students. He said at present faculty of these E-academies were being trained in their software. He said the students having SAP training, would have a chance of getting job with 20 percent more salary. Talking about their organisation, he averred that SAP was a forty year old German company having more than 83,000 customers from over 120 countries, having SAP applications from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize companies to suite offerings for global organisations. In Pakistan, SAP has offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. It has approximately 70 customers, including public and private sectors departments. He said that SAP was committed for the development of Pakistani software industry and IT sectors, with particular focus on consultancy, education, public sector and other industry verticals. He said that they see a good market for their applications in Pakistan as they had signed some 21 new customers last year. Regarding impact of financial crunch on SAP and other IT industry, he said that although global financial crunch had left negative impact on IT sector but it was not that serious in SAP.

There are 3 SAP certificates accepted around the globe; •

SAP Certified Master

•

SAP Certified Professional

•

SAP Certified Assistant

Courses offered here in Pakistan are •

SAP Financials

•

SAP Human Resources

•

Solution Manager

•

SAP Financial Accounting

•

SAP Sale and Distribution

Duration for these courses ranges from 20-35 days where as Leering Fee is 300,000 – 500,000.

Techno Ed is only Organization which teaches Oracle Business suit here in Pakistan, They offer courses like, •

Oracle 9i Database

•

Oracle Database 10g DBA

•

11i E-biz Solutions

•

Oracle Financials General Ledger

They have their centers in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Career for Professionals in AIS and ERP is bright as it ever evolving and progressing Job. With every passing day, more and more companies are realizing worth of having ERP system. Good Pay Packages are offered to ERP experienced professionals with in Pakistan (50k – 200k PKR) and abroad (400k-700k PKR).

*For Further SAP certification info visit the Siemens Pakistan website.