The Advances of Information Technology to the Telecommunication Sector: The Case of Albtelecom

Telecommunications in general and mobile telecommunication especially, act as key infrastructure factor for economic development of a country. Its role has become increasingly important with the growth of electronic business. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) represents a contemporary phenomenon in the use of information technology by many telecommunication companies worldwide and also in Albania. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of privatization of the Albanian Telecom, namely ALBtelecom focusing on the added business value of the integrated enterprise system, adopted after the company was privatized. Hence, we analyze Systems, Applications and Products (SAP), which is one of the most frequently selected ERP software. SAP constitutes important topic for research, due to its great potential for strategic, managerial, financial, technical and human benefits, not to mention the associated risks. We measure the business performance of ALBtelecom in ERP environment comparing side-by-side the time before and after implementation using ratio analysis, for the period spanning from 2007 to 2012. We aim to show the importance of information got through financial statements and more deeply through financial ratios which enable shareholders and all stakeholders to better understand the company progress. The findings outline complexity, but in general they indicate significant improvement of ALBtelecom performance.