ICT industry in Serbia: Condition and improvement by QMS
| Date | 01 February 2010 |
| Published date | 01 February 2010 |
| Pages | 73-90 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/20425945201000006 |
| Author | Miladin Stefanovic,Milan Matijevic,Goran Devedzic |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management |
Copyright © 2010 WASD
World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2010
73
ICT IndusTry In serbIa:
CondITIon and ImprovemenT
by Qms
Miladin Stefanovic*
University of Kragujevac, Serbia
Milan Matijevic†
University of Kragujevac, Serbia
Goran Devedzic‡
University of Kragujevac, Serbia
Abstract: The paper presents current level of the Serbian Information and Com-
munication Technology (ICT) industry, global parameters of ICT in Serbia, as
well as some economic indicators. Existing problems and suggest actions necessary
for improvement of IT in the Serbian industry are also defined. One approach to
improvement of Serbian ITC industry is adopting a general framework policy for
the integration of the acquis in the field of quality, standards and technical regula-
tions, developing an updated national Quality Plan for the ICT. This paper will
also present development and implementation of Quality Management System
(QMS) in Serbian ICT sector.
Keywords: ICT industry, QMS; quality management system; global parameters;
economic indicators; SLOC; capabilities; infrastructures; standards; ISO;
developing countries.
InTroduCTIon
While the development of the ICT in
developed countries has been widely docu-
mented, its diffusion in developing nations
has generally not been well researched.
The effect of ICT on companies (in both
developed and undeveloped countries) and
successful businesses has been marked as
very important by many different studies
and reports in the past (European Union,
OECD, 2002; Northern eDimension Action
Plan (NeDAP) and European Commission,
2003; Hagel and Brown, 2001). Companies
in developing countries cannot isolate
* Corresponding author: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department for Industrial Engineering, University of
Kragujevac, Sestre Janjic 6, 34 000 Kragujevac, Serbia; e-mail: mstefanovickg@sbb.co.yu, miladin@kg.ac.yu
†
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department for Automatic Control and Applied Mechanics, University of
Kragujevac, Sestre Janjic 6, 34 000 Kragujevac, Serbia; e-mail: control@kg.ac.yu
‡
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department for Production Engineering, University of Kragujevac,
Sestre Janjic 6, 34 000 Kragujevac, Serbia; e-mail: cirpis@kg.ac.yu
74 M. Stefanovic et al.
themselves from changes occurring due to
development of ICT in developed countries.
On the contrary they need an extra effort
to improve condition in their ICT sector
and explore different approachies (Nair and
Prasad, 2002; Winley et al., 2007; Ziadi and
Kuofie, 2006). The objective of undeveloped
countries was to understand the factors that
help to accelerate, or which may retard, the
development of the ICT in countries at dif-
ferent stages of economic and social devel-
opment. Serbia is a developing country but,
nevertheless, it has experienced many unique
problems during the past decade. The major
problem has been the economic transition
very much alike to the processes that success-
fully finished in most countries of Eastern
Europe. During the last few years, Serbia has
changed its economic model and started to
improve its ICT sector. One of the major
tasks has been an evaluation of the level of
ICT industry. The first attempts were made
by the Serbian ICT Society, in November
2003 (Serbia, Department for science, tech-
nology and development, Government of
Serbia, 2002). This research mainly analyses
conditions of the ICT sector as a base for ICT
development in the Serbian industry. Since
many studies show positive and significant
impacts from ICT investments at the country
level, the Serbian government, in 2001, listed
ICT development as the national priority in
the long-term plan of development of the
Serbian Economy. Successful experiences of
less developed countries that invested in their
ICT industry, such as India (Nair and Prasad,
2002) and Costa-Rica, are a great example.
In this paper, we will present current
level of the Serbian ICT industry, global
parameters of ICT in Serbia and some eco-
nomic indicators. Then, we define existing
problems and suggest actions necessary for
improvement of IT in the Serbian indus-
try. There are many different approaches
in improving of ICT education (Lynch
and Szorenyi, 2005), financial investments
(Sihvonen, 2006), improvement of quality
(Dutta, and Sekhar, 2004). One approach
of improvement of Serbian ITC industry is
adopting a general framework policy for the
integration of the acquis in the field of stan-
dards and technical regulations. Developing
an updated national Quality Plan for the
ICT and other industries. This paper will
also present development and implementa-
tion of QMS in Serbian ICT sector.
General parameTers
of ICT In serbIa
It is very important that ICT become basic
infrastructure for many companies in Serbia.
In companies where ICT supports business
processes, design and decision support, we
notice increase of productivity and other pos-
itive economic indicators. General estima-
tions stated by Serbia, Society for Information
Technology (2003) are:
• 1,350,000 computer users and more
than 600.000 computers
4,00,000 business computers
2,00,000 home computers
• 5,00,000Internetusers:
5,000 web sites
200 web stores.
Serbia has a population of 10,655,774
people, where 67.7 computers come on each
1,000 individuals and where 50 Internet
connections come on each 1,000 individu-
als. Different research projects have (Serbia,
Society for information technology, 2003,
2004; Stefanovic´ et al., 2005) come to the
same conclusion that the Internet service mar-
ket of will be in expansion for a long time in
Serbia and Southeastern Europe. Possibilities
for sale of Internet services for the Serbian
ICT industry is presented in Table 1.
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