BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT AND CULTURE;CONTEXT”

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Business Process management (BPM) is not a new management theory. According to Smith & Fingar (2007), BPM discovers what we do and then manages the lifecycle of improvement and optimization, in a way that translates directly to operation. In fact, based on mathematical foundation, the BPM breakthrough is for business people. Designed top down in accordance with a company strategy, business processes can now be unhindered by the constraints of existing IT systems.

Meanwhile , as overall culture refers to integrated patterns of human behavior that include the language, thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups.

2.0 THE ISSUES

In the beginning, BPM defined as integration of two functionalities; human facing workflow and enterprise application integration (system to system). Nowadays, BPM is essential infrastructure for process-oriented organizations , where are so many tools as part of the package such as process modeling, business rules, monitoring and analytics, simulation and optimization , and also web services integration.

Meanwhile, culture refers to the customs, practices, languages, values and world views that define social groups such as those based on nationality, ethnicity, region or common interest (2008 Social Report).) Culture was found to impact a variety of organizational processes and performance ( Lee & Yu , 2004). Therefore, companies need culture , that encourages continous process improvement. However, according to Khan (2005), cultural uniqueness does not drive specialized BPM requirements. He added, everyone throughout the world even they are in different industries want the same basic things from BPM such as flexibility, integration, security, and so on.

So, the purpose of this paper is to identified the possible relationship between BPM and culture. Where as , culture is treted as an internal variable , and is defined as the shared values and norms of the organization’s members.

3.0 BPM LITERATURE
3.1 Overview of BPM
Business process management (BPM) became an important theme in the 1990s as
Companies strived to increase their productivity, improve their relationship with customers and reduce the time to launch new products and processes. (Sentanin, Santos & Jabbour, 2008).

Business process management has received much attention in the industrial engineering and management literature, and its benefits are well known. Much less has been written in the public sector management literature, and what has been written has been very general. In fact, Jr Gulledge & Sommer (2002) mentioned that public organizations will have to change their organizational structures radically as well as their enterprise systems in order to implement business process management concepts successfully. They added
that BPM is as old as the discipline of industrial engineering. Localized implementations of process management (e.g. manufacturing processes, shipping processes, etc.) have been prevalent for years .

3.2 Definitions of BPM
The term BPM has been used more frequently in the past few years. Therefore, various definitions of BPM are presented in the literature. In fact, these definitions are not always consistent. Moreover, BPM in not a question of all or nothing. It is a continuum, which ranges from better process-related know-how of the employees to an organizational and the terms “business process” and now “business process management” (BPM) have been loosely used to identify with jus about every activity that a firm participates in” (Lee , 2005)

In 1997, Hindle defines a business process as a logical sequince of interrelated activities, characterized by a set of organizational structure specific inputs and value-added tasks that produce a set of outputs to meet corporate and customer (stakeholder) requirements.

Meanwhile, Al-Mudimigh (2007) defines a business as a set of interrelated activities which have definable inputs and, when executed, result in an output that adds value form a customer perspective. Business processes are quite simply the way work is done in any organization. They are cross-functional and go across the organizational functions, e.g. orger fulfillment which spans all organizational functions from customer order to final delivery. So, in their research, Al-Mudinigh stresses, BPM is a structured approach to understand, analyze, support, and continuouslhy improve fundamental process such as manufacturing, marketing, communications and others major elements of a company’s operations, and also stated that BPM is a wide and encompassing system that starts with top management understanding and involvement, focuses on process improvement across the supply chain, instills a structured approach to change management, and emphasizes people management and development.


A business process also as a collection of related, structured activities that produce a service or product that meet the needs of a client. These processes are critical to any organization as they generate revenue and often represent a significant proportion of costs. There fore Gartner.com defined BPM as a method of efficiently aligning an organization, flexibility and integration with technology. As organization strive for attainment of their objectives, BPM attempts to continuously improve processes – the process to define, measure and improve your processes – a ‘process optimization’ process.

However, Ovum (2000) defines BPM as a change management and system implementation methodology to aid the continuous comprehension and management of business processes that interact with people and systems, both within and across organizations. Other than that, Smith and Fingar (2007) writes “BPM not only encompasses the discovery, design and deployment of business processes processes, but also the executive, administrative and supervisory control over them to ensure that they remain compliant with business objectives for the delight of customers”.

BPM also has been define as a supporting business processes using methods, techniques, and software to design, enact, control, and analyze operational processes involving humans, organizations, applications, documents and other sources of information (Van der Aalst, 2004).

Meanwhile, one of the latest research done by McLean (2008), mentioned that business processes are a vital component of every organization. They provide essential core, support activities, and synergize the transformation of inputs to outputs. Nevertheless, like any organizational activity, they have to be regularly configured to enable the organization to respond to external forces for change and ensure it has the wherewithal to not just survive, but also remain competitive.

So, base on literature we found that these definitions have various similarities and intend to show that the objectives of BPM. However, the change towards a business processes to support company’s objectives if they are not known. The business objectives must be directly linked to business strategic planning. Processes without connection to the strategic planning have no reason to exist because they are consumers of resources which disorganise other processes. If they are successfully managed, they contribute to attaining a company’s strategy, redefining objectives and improving the management of core processes, However, this link between core processes and company’s strategy is usually hindered by various factors because BPM requires (Sentanin et al, 2008):
· Preparation and definition of actions;
· Top management support;
· Competences for changes; and
· A strategy to reduce resistance to BPM

Overall, BPM has without any doubts many facets and many definitions. Elements of BPM can range from strategic discussions including , business process outsourcing or the role of a Chief Processor to methodological and operational concepts related to analyzing , modeling, improving and automating business processes. In whatever way BPM is defined, practically every organizations is already doing BPM at some level as business processes reflect the core activities of an organization

3.3 The benefits of BPM

According to Jr Gulledge & Sommer (2002), Business process management provided competitive advantage through cycle-time reduction, and the new information technologies provided managerial control. In fact, in the public sector, the primary benefit of business process management is the “increased effectiveness and efficiency achieved from restructuring the organization along-functional processes. They also stresses that the business process provides the internal organization structure for integrating process-oriented information system, where as the integrated systems deliver competitive advantage when they are aligned with the organization’s value adding processes. They added, organizations that attempt business process management without realigning their information systems will not realize the full benefits that process management can deliver, and also, these organizations cannot quickly respond to the customer, and management does not have appropriate decision-support information, but these are only the obvious observations. Other than that, BPM also provides governance of a business process environment to improve agility and operational performance.

3.4 BPM and IT issues

The drive for BPM is coming from organizations wanting to engage in inter-enterprise business processes that are independent of the technology used to support them. Fundamental to the BPM concept is a standard business process modeling language (BPML), which is designed to enable companies to jointly develop business processes with their partners and collaborators, without the need to enforce a common technology platform, e.g. SAP. In fact, in the context of BPM, organization must tighten the specification to the extent that the process must be describable in a standardized business process language and computationally executed to provide the expected outputs in a repeatable fashion. This tighter specification of process will similarly require a tightening of the associated terms of explicit knowledge, codification and routine. An important contribution of the recent BPM initiatives is the creation of standard languages to describe a business process in computer executable form, e.g. BPML (Lee, 2005).

According to Kung & Hagen (2007), BMP includes five main IT-related components, which is :
Process modeling. Business processes are modeled according to a standard notation;e.g. event-driven process chains (EPC) or activitiy diagrams of UML. The process models are used either by the human actor who carries out the process manually or by a process engine (e.g. a workflow system).Process/workflow engine. These IT systems are used as componets of process-based applications. They guarantee that processes are performed according to their specification.
Real-time monitoring. This function addresses the fact that the state of running processes (instances) should be easily identifiable. Process performance measurement. To determine the performance of business processes via a given set of performance indicators.
Business rule management. It aim at extracting business rules from traditional software applications and to store and manage them via a separate component, called business rules engine.

Therefore, businesses need to constantly adapt their processes, yet they are often held back by static IT systems (BPMS). This report helps software vendors, service organisations and end users determine where the software and service opportunity lies in BPM. (http://www.ovum.com/go/product/flyer/BPM.htm).

In addition, Duncan et al (2007) have defined a core technology as a medium for modeling and the set of core technologies that are the building blocks for their BPMS architecture pyramid. They have used the criticality of formal transmission and processing of modeling characteristics between core technologies to suggest a theoretical basis for explaining why these core technologies are required and why they interrelate so.

Moreover, through the application of BPM and the use of process-oriented IT systems (BPM systems) quality and performance of processes has increased substantially, and the most important effects are the following (Kung & Hagen, 2007):Cycle time has been reduced. This is mainly due to the fact that waiting time has almost disappeared. As soon as a certain process step is finished the case is automatically moved forward by the BPM system. Another element that has reduced cycle time is that employees are actively notified by the system about the work that has to be done.Output per employee has increased. All process steps that can be performed by a machine (without loosing quality) are executed by the IT system. For instance, prior to automation, employees had to use long checklists for certain processes to ensure the process was carried out correctly. Today this part has been taken over by the process engine
Of work products has increased. Quality of the cases performed has improved. Five aspects may have caused this effect:
· The processes have been improved (partial re-engineering) as part of BPM.
· Today’s processes are more clearly defined than in the past.
· Process automation enforces correctness of process execution.
· The role (includes duty and responsibility) of the process participants has become clearer.
· The structure of the processes is more visible to employees.


3.5 BPM related to culture.
In short, according to Zairi (1997), the development of a culture based on BPM can be greatly assisted by using total quality principles, a systematic methodology, a problem-solving or QIP which can help with developing local solutions within functions of across functions, the use of performance measures for monitoring inputs, outputs and the control of each process, and a culture of continuous improvement based on learning from within and outside the organization.

4.0 CULTURE LITERATURE
4.1 Overview of Culture
Cultures have been meeting and mixing in Malaysia since the very beginning of its history. Culture consists of patterns of behavior acquired and transmitted within a society. Culture is learned, shared, transgenerational, an influence on perception, an adaptive.

In Malaysian organizations, it has demonstrated that Malaysian organizations culture and management styles are being characterized by national culture of Malaysia, and national culture of Malaysia has 3 principle as quidelines for ‘national cultures’. All of the element of national culture in the organiations can’t be far from these 3 principle.
In fact, according to Chew & Sharma (2005), Culture involves a set of cognitions that are shared by all or many members of a social unit; these cognitions are acquired through social learning and socialization processes, and they include values.

However, theorists and researchers have discussed four types of culture; bureaucratic culture, and market culture, and market culture. Means, culture is a community or the way in which people relate to each other (Rashid et al, 2004).

4.2 Definition of culture

A quick check of the dictionary yields no less than 12 different definitions of ‘culture,’ ranging across the arts, anthropology, biology, education, and sociology. However, in an organizational context, culture is the ‘behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular organization’. Where as culture sets the rules, manages the players, and doles out the consequiences. (Wortmann, 2008).

Culture also has been defined as a pattern of basic assumptions – invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with the problems of external adaptation and internal integration – that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems (Chew & Sharma (2005), cited in Schein).

Meanwhile Gibson, Ivanevich, Donally & Konopaske (2006) cited in Schein, defined culture as ‘a pattern of basic assumptions-invented, discovered, or developed by a given group at it learns to cope with the problem of external adaptation and internal integration-that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be thought to new members as the corret way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems’.

Scheeres & Rhodes (2006) stresses culture, it is held, isgenerated through the assumptions, beliefs and values commonly held amongst members of the organization. Therefore, it is by now generally accepted that ‘culture’ is accorded a prime position in terms of how contemporary organizations are governed.

As overall, it is difficult to capture a relatively amorphous concept like culture in definition, but several have been proposed, e.g.,
‘The collection of values, beliefs, behaviours, customs, and attitudes that distinguish a society.’
‘A learned, shared, compelling, interrelated set of orientations for members of society.’
‘Shared meanings.’

4.3 National Culture.
A national culture is a set of values, attitudes, beliefs, and norms shared by majority of inhabitants of a country (Gibson et al , 2006). These become embodied in the laws and regulations of the society, as well as in the generally accepted norms of the country’s social system. People in a society learn what to notice and what not to notice, how to behave with each other, and how to handle responsibility, success, and filure. Most people are unaware of just how their culture has influences their values, attitudes and norms.

Malaysia has 3 principles as guidelines for ‘national culture’, which is:
1. The national Culture must be based on the indigenous (Malay) culture.
2. Suitable elements from the other cultures may be accepted as part of national cultures.
3. Islam is an important component in the moulding of the National culture.

National culture also plays a dominant role in shaping organizational culture. National culture refers to the culture specific to a national group. It is shaped by a number of factors unique to a country, some of which are the history and political background, social norms and customary beliefs that are passed on from generation to generation in a particular racial or ethnic group. National culture is entrenched deeply in everyday life and is relatively resistant to change. As such, these deeply entrenched values which people hole will subconsciously affect how they structure and carry out management practices, which is what organization culture is all about (Chew, & Sharma, 2005).

4.4 Organizational Culture

There is no single definition for organizational culture. The topic has been studied from a variety of perspectives ranging from disciplines such as anthropology and sociology, to the applied disciplines of organizational behavior, management science, and organizational communication. Some of the definitions are listed below (National Defense University).

Organizational culture is what the employees perceive and how this perception creates a pattern of beliefs, values, and expectations (Gibson et al, 2006). It is also defined as a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations (Robbins & Judge, 2007).

While Rashid, Sambasivan & Rahman (2004) has viewed organizational culture as holistic, historically determined, and socially constructed. The organizational culture can encourage and discourage effectiveness, depending on the nature of the values, beliefs, and norms.

Elements of organization culture may include ‘stated and unstated values’, ‘overt and implicit expectations for member behavior’, ‘customs and rituals’, stories and myths about the history of the group’, shop talk-typical language used in and about the group’, ‘climate-the feelings evoked by the way members interact with each other, with outsider, and with their environment, including he physical space they occupy’, and ‘metaphors and symbols-may be unconscious but can be found embodied in other cultural elements’ (Morgan, 1997).

In other words, organizational culture or corporate culture has been defined as the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization.

Other than that, organizational culture is an elusive concept, which some defines as “the shared experiences, stories, beliefs, and norms (Kotler et. Al, 2006)). In the past 25 years, the concept of organizational culture has gained wide acceptance as a way to understand human systems. From an “open-system” persepective, each aspect of organizational culture can be seen as an important environmental condition affecting the system and its subsystems. The examination of organizational culture is also a valuable analytical tool in its own right.

4.5 The effect of culture

According to Williams, Rondeau & Francescutti (2007), Culture had a relatively week impact on the outcomes, where as: Human resources culture related positively to job satisfaction while bureaucratic culture related positively to patient commitment. Patient commitment, but not job satisfaction strongly and positively related to extra-role behavior.
People, as social animals, create such cultures and these cultures can have powerful effects, both positive and negative, on management decision making an d initiatives. Managers are well advised to understand their organization’s culture and take it into account in their daily activities and strategic deliberations.

Organizational culture also impacts knowledge management, organizational learning and ultimately the performance of the firm through the Collaborative culture. Therefore, culture need to be re-examined in light of its role in managing the overall organizational learning infrastructure. (Lopez, Peon & Ordas, 2004).
Mean while Scheeres & Rhodes (2006) stresses, the values were designed to influence people’s behaviour and self-concept in particular ways but the ritualized implementation through the training program did not amount to a form of hegemonic control. They also identified the values is the integrity, excellence, co-operation, reliability and responsiveness, change and respect.

Overall, cultures do change. Slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, attitudes and beliefs shift away from what were once non-negotiable certainties toward a completely new way of looking at things. In addition, Wortmann (2008) found that at a broad social level, consider how attitudes and beliefs towards slavery and civil rights have changed. These changes in attitudes and beliefs, of course, happen over time. Where as, on an economic level, look at attitudes towards globalization and shifting work around the world. On an organizational level, look at how we have changed our attitudes towards how and where the work gets done, and on an individual level, look at how we have changed the tools we use to get the job done.

5.0 INTEGRATION OF BPM AND CULTURE
Based on literature , showing that the era of BPM now, moving towards understanding an organization’s process from a business perspective , where as its focuses primarily on cross-functional process improvement. As we are speaking about cross-functional process management, though difficult a company must first start thinking the process way and unlearn some ideology around functional management. In addition, Rrobbins (2007) stated that job activities are designed around work teams, and teams members are encouraged to interact with people across functions and authority levels.
.
Meanwhile, culture literature showing that BPM success depends largely on a given organizations size, culture, political setup etc . In fact, according to Rosemann (2004) also stresses that culture as one of factors that has been use in order to measure an organisation’s BPM maturity. Where as, culture reflects the organisation’s attitude and appreciation of BPM , and the outcomes of his paper is the capability to identify alternative pathways to successful BPM.

Therefore , based on BPM maturity framework , done by Bruin (2005), this paper try to developed the framework of BPM and culture. It's shown that there are relationship between BPM and culture, where as the success of BPM depends on the culture, even though literature on BPM and culture, stresses there are many determinants of BPM success but culture is still one of the factors that has been identified by past research.

6.0 FUTURE DIRECTIONS/EMERGING ISSUES/TRENDS

In short, BPM is the set of methods and tools in place to enhance the identification, implementation, execution, and measurement of organizational practices and activities. It emerged as a combination of business improvement techniques/approaches , and process enhancing technologies.

In addition, in future BPM changes to implementation and culture , by allow users direct access to BPMS tools, reduce over-customisation, and encourage tagging and collaboration

7. CONCLUSIONS
In general, the purpose of BPM should be at least about two things ;
Transformation; in how the business operates from a functional perspective to predominately process-driven operational model
Sustainability; of the transformation in all the dimension of the business
To achieve sustained transformation through BPM, companies must ensure that they take a holistic perspective on their business; to understand the inter relationships between the various business components and strive for alignment between them. Too often, BPM is too much about the ‘p’ and the relevance (and value) to the business. A key component, is that of the people-achieving a culture of process based management is the ultimate transformation and the sustaining legacy company strive for.

In fact, BPM is now the in thing , and it also is the era which we can called as the age of “ Business Process Transformation through rationalization”. However, BPM is not an easy discipline when it comes to execution in a corporate environment. This is because one of the determinant of BPM success is culture, where as culture is paramount for the long term success and sustainability of a company’s BPM program.

In addition, the concept of cultures is particularly important when attempting to manage organization-wide change. Culture is a pattern of assumptions that are invented, discovered, or developed to learn to cope with organizational life. Therefore, to be a successful BPM, organizations should concern about culture .

INFORMATION SATISFACTION

1. INTRODUCTION

Information systems are expensive. The decision to install an information system necessitates a choice of mechanisms to determine whether an information system is needed, and once implemented, whether it is functioning properly or not. User information satisfaction (UIS) is one such evaluation mechanism. UIS is defined as the extent to which users believe the information system available to them meets their information requirements. UIS provides a meaningful "surrogate" for the critical but immeasurable result of an information system, namely, changes in organizational effectiveness (Baroudi, Ives & Olson, 1983).

According to Griffiths, Johnson & Hartley (2007), user satisfaction is multi-dimensional, subjective and elusive concepts to define, but in IS, user satisfaction generally taken to be a surrogate measure of success. According to researchers Wrigley et al. (1997), user satisfaction indicates that system’s objectives are being met, thereby allowing managers to differentiate between more or less successful systems. User satisfaction remains as an important research area in current IS research where IS researchers are continuing to examine the concept inordinately (DeLone and McLean 2003).

Previous investigations of the User Information Satisfaction construct have approached the definition of satisfaction from a narrow perspective. The focus was primarily on the attributes of the system, with scant attention paid to the attributes of the user or of the organizational context in which system usage occurs (Shirani, Aiken & Reithel,1994).

Meanwhile, User information satisfaction explains satisfaction as a consequence of the combination of user, organizational, and system characteristics. User and organizational characteristics combine to create a set of pre-implementation expectations regarding the information system. After implementation, the gap between the actual system characteristics and the expected characteristics forms the basis for confirmation/disconfirmation of the expectations. It is the type and degree of confirmation/disconfirmation that forms the basis for User Information Satisfaction.

User Information Satisfaction (UIS) has emerged as the major surrogate for the effectiveness of Management Information Systems (MIS) in organizations. Based on the literature, users consist of three categories: direct user, autonomous user, and indirect user. Direct user is someone who interfaces directly with the computer-based information systems, working with one or more systems, largely designed, implemented, and maintained by the MIS/Data Processing (DP) department or receives periodic computer reports. Autonomous user develops and uses simple systems and/or application programs he or she needs, either individually or in small groups of users. This class of users possesses some amount of computing skills and makes use of a variety of tools such as general purpose, commercial software, user-friendly operating systems, personal computers (PCs), workstations and higher level programming languages. The third category is indirect users which typically managers in the higher levels of the organizational hierarchy whose interface with the computer is mediated by staff analysts or assistants (Davis, C. J.1985)

Other than that, the term Computer user satisfaction (CUS) is abbreviated to user satisfaction. CUS (and closely related to the concepts such as System Satisfaction, User Satisfaction, Computer System Satisfaction, End User Computing Satisfaction) deals with user attitudes to computer systems in the context of their environments. So, in a broader sense, the definition can be extended to user satisfaction with any computer-based electronic appliance (Wikipedia).

In fact, end user computing satisfaction is an important theoretical construct because of its potential for helping us discover both forward and backward links in a causal chain (i.e. a network of cause and effect relationships that describe a large portion of the domain of MIS research) that are important to the MIS research community. Thus end user computing satisfaction is potentially both a dependent variable (when the domain of one’s research is upstream activities or factors that cause end user satisfaction) and an independent variable (when the domain of one’s research is downstream behaviors affected by end-user satisfaction) ( Doll & Torkazadeh,1991).

In this paper, the end user information satisfaction is examined as a dependent variable i.e. the factors that cause information satisfaction and comparison is done between past studies in the context of the Malaysian scenario and overseas.

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT

Malaysia is rapidly shifting its orientation into an information technology (IT) based environment, which emphasizes on the use of technology in providing information. The Multimedia Super Corridor (or MSC) established in 1998, manifests the Government commitment in leading the information based technology, be it in the world or in the region. It is envisaged that when IT is fully adopted by the Government, the E-Government status will be realized. As the Government moves towards an E-government, the private sector is also expected to move in tandem with the Government's aspiration.

Studies to evaluate IS success in Malaysia have been done by researchers like Hussein & Karim (2007) who have studied the impact of technological factors on information systems success in the electronic-government context and conceptual framework regarding corporate intranet effectiveness have been discussed in a study done by Masrek, Karim & Hussein, (2007) whereas researcher Foong (1999) examined the effect of end-user personal and system attributes on computer – based information systems success in Malaysian SMEs and Masrek, 2007 study measured campus portal effectiveness and the contributing factors. Hence, most studies done in Malaysia are confined in utilizing the user satisfaction scales developed in past studies to measure IS success i.e. it is studied as an independent variable (behaviors affected by end-user satisfaction).
Our review of the literature on user satisfaction shows that no study has specifically examined the factors that affect information satisfaction ( information satisfaction as a dependent variable) in the Malaysian context even though there is evidence from previous research, that user satisfaction is related to other factors such as user interface attractiveness, performance and navigational aids (Chiew & Salim; 2003) .

Furthermore, the existing user satisfaction scales in the IS field may not be appropriate for measuring information satisfaction for all the different IT applications involved in the IS field since most of the factors used to measure information satisfaction are for those in the end user computing (EUC) or transactional data processing (TDP) environment. For e.g. in a research done by Sugianto & Tojib 2006, the researchers commented that the existing user satisfaction scales in the IS field are considered inappropriate for measuring satisfaction with business-to-employee (b2e) portals for several reasons. First, embedded within the b2e portal are technologies with functionalities that are distinct from those employed within the end user computing (EUC) or transactional data processing (TDP) environment; that is, search and retrieval processes, work flow systems, on-line self-service applications, and collaboration tools. Second, it is evident from the IS literature that past studies barely touch on the patterns or processes that users employ to collaborate with each other an important function which can be facilitated by the b2e portal.

Since user satisfaction is an important component to measure IS success, further research needs to be done to validate the factors that effect information satisfaction (measure of information satisfaction) that is used based on the past literature specifically in the overall IS field in Malaysia and generally a revised model need to be developed that will encompass all the different IT applications and web – based IS.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Information is defined as data placed in a meaningful and useful context for an end user (O’Brien & Marakas, 2006). Satisfaction has been a core research topic of numerous studies from diverse theoretical perspectives. In the area of Information systems, most researchers have referred to the definition given by Bailey & Pearson (1983) who construed information satisfaction as an outcome resulting from the emotional response to the information/system attributes (Doll & Torkazadeh, 1991; Leclerq, 2007; Shaw, Delone & Niederman, 2002; Shirani, Aiken & Reitel, 1994; Wrigley et al., 1997).

User satisfaction is the sum of one’s feelings and attitudes toward a variety of factors related to the delivery of information products and services. A system without user satisfaction is less likely to be used and to produce beneficial results to a user community and the organization (Wu & Wang, 2006). The concept of user information satisfaction (UIS) has been one major subject of research for the last two decades in the field of management information satisfaction (Cho & Park, 2001). Understanding what factors impact user information satisfaction (UIS) and how they impact it, as well as developing accurate instruments to measure UIS, are goals of the body of UIS research (Shirani, Aiken & Reitel, 1994).

The information systems (IS) discipline is primarily concerned with the successful implementation of information technology (IT) in organizations. IS are an essential component of the solutions to many of the problems faced by organizations to cope with the current challenges (Bokhari, 2005). The success of information systems depends on interacting factors. The influence of theses factors varies among different organizations and even among different units within an organization.

Information satisfaction (Khosrowpour (1992) cite in Tafti) is not the only dimension of overall user satisfaction. One of the major characteristics of modern information systems is their user-interface features. This is a particularly important factor in end user computing and DSS environment. Because end users should have a high level of control in planning, development, and operations, the IS must accommodate the necessary flexibility and convenience in performing various end-user computing task.

Meanwhile Carey (1995) cite in Te’eni, Thommassin, Singh & Naganand, clarified that a user’s perception of the IS he/she is using in terms of various friendly features such as proper screen design, online assistance, error control, and flexibility may therefore have a considerable impact on the level of user satisfaction.

According to Wang, Tang & Tang (2001), the lack of consensus on a definition of satisfaction has created two serious problems for customer satisfaction research. First, developing context-specific items becomes difficult given the fact that the conceptual definition of customer satisfaction is not clear. Second, the lack of definitional and measurement standards of customer satisfaction limits theory development in this field, weakens the explanation power of any new theories, and confines the generalization of any empirical findings.

Past researches have suggested that end-user satisfaction is a critical issue in determining whether an organization’s computer based information system is successful (Montazemi, 1988). It has been reported that information systems satisfaction is composed of satisfaction with information systems’ output, satisfaction with information systems services and satisfaction with involvement in information development (Cho & Park, 2001).

Computer-based information systems are assuming increasingly important roles in day-to-day corporate management. Although they often represent a major corporate capital investment, their failure or disuse is costly not only in terms of infrastructural and operational expenditure, but more importantly in terms of lost competitive advantage. A good deal of effort has gone into defining a mechanism for measuring the "success" of an information system, with a particular emphasis on user satisfaction as a key component of success (Shirani et al., 1994).

There is a wealth of literature pertinent to user satisfaction and user satisfaction models. User Information Satisfaction (UIS) is a method for measuring user satisfaction of an information system. UIS examines the satisfaction of a whole organization. A good information system meets the requirements of a user, which reinforces the satisfaction. If the system is not good, then users will try to find an alternative way of completing their tasks without the use of the information system (Pikkarainen et al., 2006).

Bailey and Pearson (1983) defined user satisfaction as the sum of a user’s attitudes toward a variety of factors of management information systems and identified 39 factors as comprising the domain of user satisfaction ( top management involvement, organizational competition with the electronic data processing (EDP) unit, priorities determination, charge back method of payment for services, relationship with the EDP staff, communication with the EDP staff, technical competence of the EDP staff, attitude of the EDP staff, schedule of products and services, time required for new development, procession of change requests, vendor support, response/turnaround time, means of input/output with EDP center, convenience of access, accuracy, timeliness, precision, reliability, currency, completeness, format of output, language, volume of output, relevancy, error recovery, security of data, documentation, expectations, understanding of systems, perceived utility, confidence in the systems, feeling of participation, feeling of control, degree of training, job effects, organizational position of the EDP function, flexibility of systems and integration of systems). In this study it was also shown that the importance of any factor differs over the universe of computer users. The other contribution of this study is the translation of the satisfaction definition into a valid measurement instrument. The measure is based on the semantic differential of four adjective pairs which describe the factor. The relative importance of the factor is based on a separate fifth reaction. A variety of statistical tests were presented to show the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Thus, it was concluded that computer user satisfaction as defined can be measured.

In a follow-up research, Ives, Olson and Baroudi,(1983) tested the Bailey and Pearson (1983) scale for its reliability and validity. Their findings suggested retaining 33 items for evaluating user information satisfaction. Furthermore, they attempted to produce a shorter version of this scale through the application of factor analysis. The results showed that the revised model consisted of three factors: EDP staff and services, information product, and knowledge and involvement. These factors are measured by 13 items.

Baroudi & Orlikowski ( 1988) examined the psychometric properties of the short form measure of user information satisfaction (UIS) proposed by Ives, Olson & Baroudi (1983) by asking users of large mainframe/mini computer transaction processing systems in 26 New York organizations to complete the questionnaire. Responses were reliability and validity tested and 12 of 13 scales loaded on the same three factors (EDP Staff and Services, Information Product and User Knowledge and Involvement) as they had in the study done by Ives, Olson & Baroudi (1983). The score was validated against two groups of satisfied and dissatisfied users. Baroudi & Orlikowski (1988) concluded that the short form questionnaire is a reliable and valid measure of UIS.

Montazemi’s 1988 study reports an empirical investigation of some of the relationships that exist between organizational characteristics and end-user satisfaction associated with computer-based informations systems (CBIS) in small businesses. Eight hypotheses were tested using data collected in two phase study of 83 small firms. The major finding show that end-user satisfaction is correlated with the number of systems analysts present within a firm, with the degree of analysis information requirements, with the level of participation and with end users’ level of computer literacy. In addition, it was found that decentralization of the decision-making process tends to create a need for more effective CBIS. As a result end user satisfaction was found to be higher in firms that were less decentralized. Furthermore there was more correlation between the end users and data processing personnel’s satisfaction with the CBIS environment.

A study developed by Igbaria, 1989, tested a path model of attitudes toward microcomputer usage, system usage and user satisfaction among microcomputer users. Results of path analysis of survey data gathered from 187 microcomputer users provided a moderate support for the proposed model. It was shown that attitudes toward microcomputer usage will enhance both system usage and user's satisfaction with the system. Further, the results confirmed the hypothesized model that user satisfaction influences system usage and system usage also has an influence on user satisfaction.

Doll & Torkzadeh (1988) specifically designed their instrument to measure end-user computing satisfaction. They conducted personal interviews with end-users in 44 non-randomly selected firms, then administered an 18-item instrument employing what appear to be 5-point Likert-type scales. Factor analysis was done and labeled their five factors: Content, Accuracy, Format, Ease of Use and Timeliness. Compared with the Short-Form UIS, Ease of Use is a new factor.

DeLone and McLean [1992] analyzed more than 100 empirical papers containing IS effectiveness and success measures between 1981 and 1987. Of the multitude of measures they found, they identified six major factors of success – SYSTEM QUALITY and INFORMATION QUALITY singularly and jointly affect
both USE and USER SATISFACTION. Additionally, the amount of USE can affect the degree of USER SATISFACTION—positively or negatively—as well as the reverse being true. USE and USER SATISFACTION are direct antecedents of INDIVIDUAL IMPACT; and, lastly, this IMPACT on individual performance should eventually have some ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT as shown in the Figure 1 below:-

Figure 1

The D&M IS Success Model (DeLone and McLean 1992) has served as a dominant framework for studying user satisfaction. There were over 300 articles in referred journals have referred to and made use of it, since it was first introduced and published in 1992 (DeLone and McLean 2003). The D&M IS Success Model suggested that information quality and system quality are two key factors determining user satisfaction. This is consistent with the end-user computing environment, where the phenomenon is characterized by both information consumption and direct user interaction. The quality of information is typically evaluated by measuring information attributes.

Shirani et al., 1994 research paper presented a revised model of user information satisfaction. That revised model proposes that user and organizational characteristics, both separately and interactively, create user expectations. The gap between the actual characteristics of a developed system and a user's expectations regarding the characteristics of the information system then determine whether the expectations are confirmed or not. This confirmation/disconfirmation forms the final basis for user satisfaction or dissatisfaction. For the practitioner, the model provides the foundation for anticipating the likely degree of UIS prior to implementation. The identification of strongly-held expectations regarding system characteristics would be a critical step toward ensuring user satisfaction. If the characteristics of the system in development are not consistent with the user's pre-implementation expectations then disconfirmation is likely to occur. Positive disconfirmation would boost UIS when the system exceeds expectations. Negative disconfirmation would diminish UIS when the system falls short of expectations. The systems developer can take action to modify one of the three elements that ultimately lead to confirmation/disconfirmation. From the model, those elements are user, organizational, and system characteristics. User characteristics could be modified via pre-implementation training or counseling. Organizational characteristics, which are slower to change, could potentially be modified with sufficient management support. Finally, system characteristics could be modified in situations where user and/or organizational characteristics are relatively fixed (thus leading to relatively fixed expectations).

Chin & Lee, 2000 defined end-user satisfaction with an information system as the overall affective evaluation an end-user has regarding his or her experience related with the information system. The term “experience” can be made more specific to focus upon different aspects related to the information system (e.g., computing, training, etc.). The researchers commented that past studies have focused primarily on the satisfaction measurement of the computing/use aspect of a system, but it may well be satisfaction with activities other than system use (e.g., training, participation or involvement in development or selection) that may also be of value in predicting subsequent behavior (e.g., utilization) or performance.

Bhattacherjee (2001) adopted the expectation confirmation theory to examine satisfaction. Among diverse theoretical frameworks, expectation confirmation theory has been receiving a great deal of attention in recent IS research. In his study, data collected from a field survey of online banking users indicate that while post acceptance usefulness perception continues to influence users’ continuance intention, user satisfaction with prior use has a relatively stronger effect on the dependent variable. User satisfaction, in turn, is determined primarily by users’ confirmation of expectation from prior use and secondarily by perceived usefulness.

Recently, the rise of electronic commerce has further motivated IS researchers’ interest in the study of satisfaction in the online environment (Devaraj, Fan & Kohli, 2002, McKinney, Yoon & Zahedi, 2002).

In McKinney’s et al. (2002) study two perspectives from the user satisfaction literature in IS and the customer satisfaction literature in marketing were synthesized to identify nine key constructs for analyzing web-customer satisfaction. Based on IS literature, the authors argued that measuring web-customer satisfaction for information quality and system quality provides insight about a customer’s overall satisfaction with a Web site.

Organizations are investing in information technology for an ever-increasing number of end-user tasks. Extracting benefits from these investments increasingly depends on supporting effective use of information technology and satisfying information technology users. Shaw, Delone & Niederman, 2002 research explores the end-user support factors that correlate with user satisfaction. This survey of 484 end-users examines 21 potential end-user computing support factors, such as system response time and user training in terms of their perceived importance to the end-user and the performance of IS staff in supporting each. Service quality, the gap between perceived importance and performance for each support factor, is computed. The relationships between these service quality gaps and user satisfaction are tested across different user groups (faculty, non-IS staff and students). Larger service quality gaps in the following support factors were correlated with lower user satisfaction in at least one of the three user groups: IS staff response time, IS staff technical competence, software upgrades, ease of access, cost effectiveness of the system, user understanding, documentation to support training, and data security/privacy. These results are compared to the support factors identified as significant in previous empirical studies. The primary conclusions from this study are software upgrade, staff response time and documentation of training materials are support areas that are likely to influence user satisfaction and different support factors impact user satisfaction or different user groups.

Leclerq, 2007, research work concerns the perceptual evaluation of the performance of information systems (IS) and more particularly, the construct of user satisfaction. Some researchers have indeed shown that the evaluation of an IS could not happen without an analysis of the feelings and perceptions of individuals who make use of it. Consequently, the concept of satisfaction has been considered as a guarantee of the performance of an IS. Also it has become necessary to ponder the drivers of user satisfaction. The analysis of models and measurement tools for satisfaction as well as the adoption of a contingency perspective has allowed the description of principal dimensions that have a direct or less direct impact on user perceptions. The case study of a large French group, carried out through an interpretative approach conducted by way of 41 semi-structured interviews, allowed the conceptualization of the problematic of perceptual evaluation of IS in a particular field study. This study confirmed the impact of certain factors (such as perceived usefulness, participation, the quality of relations with the IS Function and its resources and also the fit of IS with user needs). On the contrary, other dimensions regarded as fundamental do not receive any consideration or see their influence nuanced in the case studied (the properties of IS, the ease of use, the quality of information). Lastly, this study has allowed for the identification of the influence of certain contingency and contextual variables on user satisfaction and, above all, for the description of the importance of interactions between the IS Function and the users.

Personalized services are increasingly popular in the Internet world. A study done by Liang, Lai & Ku (2006), identifies theories related to the use of personalized content services and their effect on user satisfaction. Three major theories have been identified—information overload, uses and gratifications, and user involvement. The information overload theory implies that user satisfaction increases when the recommended content fits user interests (i.e., the recommendation accuracy increases). The uses and gratifications theory indicates that motivations for information access affect user satisfaction. The user involvement theory implies that users prefer content recommended by a process in which they have explicit involvement. In this research, a research model was proposed to integrate these theories and two experiments were conducted to examine the theoretical relationships. The findings of the study indicate that information overload and uses and gratifications are two major theories for explaining user satisfaction with personalized services. Personalized services can reduce information overload and, hence, increase user satisfaction, but their effects may be moderated by the motivation for information access. The effect is stronger for users whose motivation is in searching for a specific target. This implies that content recommendation would be more useful for knowledge management systems, where users are often looking for specific knowledge, rather than for general purpose Web sites, whose customers often come for scanning. Explicit user involvement in the personalization process may affect a user’s perception of customization, but has no significant effect on overall satisfaction.

Although user satisfaction is widely used by researchers and practitioners to evaluate information system success, important issues related to its meaning and measurement across population subgroups have not been adequately resolved. To be most useful in decision-making, researchers Doll et al., 2004 suggested that instruments like end-user computing satisfaction (EUCS) developed by DeLone and McLean’s which are designed to evaluate system success, should be robust. That is, they should enable comparisons by providing equivalent measurement across diverse samples that represent the variety of conditions or population subgroups present in organizations. According to these researchers, constructs such as user satisfaction are the language through which theoretical ideas and research findings are communicated among researchers and practitioners. A user satisfaction instrument with broad applicability increases the extent to which the results of studies can be generalized to other subgroups. Thus, it enables researchers to interpret results as informing the full body of theory. Using a sample of 1,166 responses, the EUCS instrument is tested for measurement invariance across four dimensions—respondent positions, types of application, hardware platforms, and modes of development. While the results suggest that the meaning of user satisfaction is context sensitive and differs across population subgroups, the 12 measurement items are invariant across all four dimensions. The 12-item summed scale enables researchers or practitioners to compare EUCS scores across the instruments originally intended universe of applicability.

The reliance on user satisfaction in measuring information system success is common among MIS researchers and practitioners, and several standardized instruments have been developed and tested .In general, the development of techniques for defining and measuring user satisfaction have been ad hoc and open to question (wikipedia).

User attitude toward the management information system (MIS) is measured by user information satisfaction (UIS). Poor user evaluation of the MIS function remains a problem in many organizations. Factors that may influence UIS and their relative influence or importance are examined. Wang, Tang & Tang (2001), found that current models for measuring user information satisfaction (UIS) and end-user computing satisfaction (EUCS) are perceived as inapplicable as they are targeted primarily towards either conventional data processing or the end-user computing environment. So, in their study, they has develops a comprehensive model and instrument for measuring customer information satisfaction (CIS) especially for web sites that market digital products and services.

However, in past research indexes for consumer satisfaction and indexes for user information satisfaction (UIS) have been developed separately in the fields of marketing and management information systems (Cho & Park, 2001). Because of this lack of interaction, they proposed an instrument for measuring electronic commerce consumer satisfaction in their research.

In a study conducted by researchers Sugianto & Tojib (2006), they identified 9 factors that effect user satisfaction with b2e portal – convenience of access, ease of use, timeliness, efficiency, confidentiality, security, communication, information content and layout.

In Malaysia, the review of the literature with regards to information satisfaction shows that most of the researches are confined to research measuring the success of IS. For example in the research done by Foong (1999), the researcher studied the effect of end-user personal and system attributes on computer-based information system success in Malaysia SMEs. The CBIS success was the composite measures of the dimensions pertaining to user satisfaction, systems usage and perceived systems effectiveness. User satisfaction was represented to the extent which the CBIS satisfied the end-user’s personal requirements – the system’s speed of information retrieval, ease of user, reliability, level of internal control, flexibility and types and attributes of reports generated by the system. The study done by Hussein, Karim & Selamat, 2007 investigated the influence of technological factors on up-stream model of Delone and McLean’s IS success dimensions whereby user satisfaction was investigated as one of the IS success factors. Similarly, researcher Masrek, 2007 and Masrek, Karim & Hussein, 2007 adopted Delone and Mclean’s IS success to measure campus portal effectiveness and the contributing factors and corporate intranet effectiveness respectively.

4. FINDINGS

The factors that effect information satisfaction or alternatively the measurement of information satisfaction has had a long history within the IS discipline. A number of instruments were developed through a review of the existing UIS literature and then were tested in interviews, questionnaire surveys or a combination of these methods. Bailey and Pearson (1983) first attempted to develop a semantic differential scale to measure user satisfaction with general IS in a transactional data processing (TDP) environment. Thirty-nine items contributing to user satisfaction were identified based on a review of 22 studies of the computer/user interface. Ives, Olson & Baroudi (1983) study produced a shorter version and their model consisted of three factors: EDP staff and service, information product and knowledge and involvement. The best known measure of end-user computer satisfaction (EUCS) is the set of measure developed by Doll & Torkzadeh (1991) which is based on the five constructs of content, accuracy, format, ease of use and timeliness. The researchers measured information satisfaction to enable development of better applications.

Some researchers adopt the scales of information satisfaction depending on the purpose of their research (Igbaria, 1989; Leclerq,2007; McKinney’s et al., 2002; Montazemi, 1988; Pikkarainen et al., 2006; Wu & Wang, 2006 ) and some of them have developed their own scales to measure overall user satisfaction (Bhattacherjee, 2001; Cheung & Lee 2005; Chin & Lee, 2000; Cho & Park, 2001; Devaraj, Fan & Kohli, 2002; Liang, Lai & Ku, 2006; Shaw, Delone & Niederman, 2002) .

In Malaysia , the research has been confined adopting the existing scales of information satisfaction with regards to the Delone and Mclean’s model of IS success to measure IS success as seen in the studies done by Hussein, Karim & Selamat, 2007, Masrek, 2007 and Masrek, Karim & Hussein, 2007.

5. CONCLUSION

This paper has its limitation, since there is a wealth of literature and studies done on information satisfaction and hence because of time constraint, we may not been able to review all the research done on this area. However based on our review and analysis of the literature pertaining to information satisfaction, it is evident that user satisfaction is one of the important criterions and the most prevalent for measuring the success of information system. Most of the literature review presented scales to measure information satisfaction either in the overall IS systems, specific IT applications or web-based IS. In short, the factors that effect information satisfaction may be categorized in the following dimensions – information quality, system quality (Doll & Torkzadeh, 1988) and system design quality (Cho & Park, 2001).

Nevertheless, the review of the literature also shows further research and validation needs to be done to study the factors that effect information satisfaction and a revised model to measure information satisfaction that covers all the wide varieties of user environments in IS, specifically in Malaysia and in general respectively.

PEMATUHAN BAYARAN CUKAI PERKHIDMATAN

1. PENGENALAN
Kastam Diraja Malaysia (KDRM) merupakan sebuah agensi di bawah Kementerian Kewangan yang dipertanggungjawabkan untuk memunggut cukai Kastam, memberi fasilitasi perkastaman dan memastikan pematuhan undang-undang yang ditadbir oleh KDRM.

Misi KDRM adalah untuk memunggut cukai dan memberi fasilitasi perkastaman kepada sektor perdagangan dan perindustrian serta mempertingkatkan pematuhan perundangan demi kepentingan ekonomi, social dan keselamatan Negara. Oleh itu, memungut cukai masih lagi menjadi tugas terpenting jabatan manakala memberi fasilitasi perkastaman dan mempertingkatkan pematuhan perundangan merupakan elemen penyokong kearah memperkemas dan memperteguhkan lagi tanggungjawab jabatan sebagai pemunggut cukai (www. KDRM.gov.my, 7/1/08).

Pada masa ini cukai penggunaan adalah antara cukai yang di pungut oleh KDRM. Cukai penggunaan yang sedang dilaksanakan adalah cukai jualan dan cukai perkhidmatan (Bajet , 2005). Cukai jualan dikenakan ke atas barangan ketika diimport atau di peringkat pengilangan, manakala Cukai perkhidmatan pula dikenakan ke atas perkhidmatan tertentu termasuk profesional serta pengusaha hotel dan restoran.

Malah, menurut Ahmad (2004), cukai tak langsung juga dikenali sebagai cukai penggunaan, iaitu cukai yang di kutip melalui orang ketiga seperti cukai perkhidmatan yang dibayar kepada pemberi khidmat yang kemudiannya menyerahkannya kepada pihak yang berkuasa.

Cukai Perkhidmatan
Cukai Perkhidmatan merupakan suatu jenis cukai dalaman (internal tax) yang di kenakan di bawah peruntukan Akta Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975 dan Peraturan-peraturan Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975 (PCP) yang berkuatkuasa pada 1 Mac 1975 . Cukai Perkhidmatan dikenakan apabila perkhidmatan yang kena dibayar cukai disediakan oleh orang yang kena membayar cukai dengan kadar yang ditetapkan iaitu 5%. ’Perkhidmatan yang kena dibayar cukai’ dan ’orang yang kena membayar cukai’ adalah seperti yang disenaraikan dalam Jadual Kedua (Peraturan 3 dan 4), Peraturan-peraturan Cukai Perkhidmatan (pindaan)(No.2) 1999.

Sejak Akta Cukai Perkhidmatan mula di kuatkuasakan, pindaan-pindaan telah di buat bagi menyesuaikannya dengan perluasan skop cukai perkhidmatan dan kehendak semasa. Bagaimanapun Akta Cukai Perkhidmatan (Pindaan) 1999 yang berkuatkuasa mulai 1.1.2000, merupakan pindaan yang menyeluruh, melibatkan 36 seksyen dan 7 daripadanya seksyen baru. Penghapusan threshold bagi syarikat professional, perundingan dan pengurusan, dan penggabungan Borang Kastam , merupakan antara pindaan terbaru (Bajet 2008).

Akta Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975, Peraturan-peraturan Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975 dan Perintah Cukai Perkhidmatan (Kadar Cukai) 2000 , adalah undang-undang yang terpakai bagi maksud cukai perkhidmatan di seluruh Malaysia kecuali Langkawi, Labuan, Zon Bebas dan Kawasan Pembangunan Bersama (Joint Development area / JDA).

Bayaran Cukai Perkhidmatan (CJP 3)
Cukai Perkhidmatan kena dibayar kepada jabatan kastam dalam masa 28 hari selepas tamat “tempoh bercukai” (taxable period) yang ditetapkan , bila mana :
· mendapat bayaran daripada pelanggan dalam suatu tempoh bercukai
· pada hari yang mengikuti tempoh dua belas bulan kalendar jika tidak mendapat bayaran selepas invois dikeluarkan.

Mekanisme bayaran CP yang ada kini adalah seperti berikut:
· bayaran mestilah mengunakan borang CJP3(mengantikan borang CP 3 , kuatkuasa Januari 2008)
· bayaran dibuat secara wang tunai; kiriman wang atau kiriman pos; atau cek syarikat atau bank deraf
· penyata bayaran (borang CJP3) hendaklah dikemukakan kepada cawangan cukai perkhidmatan sama ada dengan bayaran, tanpa bayaran atau nil
· penyata bayaran (borang CJP3) hendaklah diserahkan sama ada secara sendiri, melalui pos atau kiriman cepat

Akta dan peraturan-peraturan berkaitan pematuhan bayaran Cukai Perkhidmatan meliputi Sek. 12 Akta Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975, Sek. 14 Akta Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975, Sek.16 Akta Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975, Per. 12 Peraturan-peraturan Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975 dan Per. 13(1) Peraturan-peraturan Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975 .

Aktiviti untuk meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran Cukai Perkhidmatan
Pelbagai usaha telah dijalankan untuk meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran cukai perkhidmatan, antaranya termasuklah :
i. Operasi Ops 2B ; merupakan operasi untuk menggalakkan pelanggan-pelangan ‘bayar betul’ yang telah dilaksanakan pada tahun 2003.
ii. penubuhan ‘flying-squad’ pada tahun 2005 ; yang boleh pergi dengan pantas ke restoran-restoran yang meragukan dari segi ikrar nilai jualan (Buletin Mesra Kastam, 2005)
iii. Hari Bertemu Pelanggan ,tahun 2006 ; yang membolehkan pelanggan berurusan secara terusdengan pengurusan tertinggi jabatan (Jinal , 2006)
iv. Operasi Penyata Tanpa Bayaran ,tahun 2006 ; untuk mengenalpasti pemegang lesen CP yang mengemukakan penyata bayaran secara habitual lewat, gagal, dan tanpa bayaran (KL ‘one up’, 2006)
v. Kaunter bayaran di buka di waktu rehat mulai minggu kedua ,tahun 2007
vi. Kaunter bayaran dibuka pada minggu terakhir hujung bulan tahun 2007
vii. Lampiran A tidak perlu di kemukakan pada bersama-sama penyata bayaran , kuatkuasa Januari 2008

Bagaimanapun sehingga tahun 2007, masih terdapat pelanggan yang bersikap tidak patuh pada bayaran CP. Contohnya pada tahun 2006, KDRM masih lagi berhadapan dengan retoran-restoran yang tidak membayar cukai perkhidmatan atau membayar CP dengan tidak betul (Sepakat, 2006).

Malahan Marimuthu (1999) juga turut menyatakan bahawa Pembayar cukai tidak boleh menginterpretasikan sendiri akan sesuatu urus niaga dari aspek pencukaian tanpa bantuan dari pakar pencukaian. Pembayar cukai perlu tahu beberapa pengetahuan teknikal pencukaian terhadap sesuatu urus niaga yang berpotensi dan adalah bahaya menentukan sendiri bagaimana untuk merekod atau menilai sesuatu urus niaga dari sudut pencukaian. Perunding pencukaian dapat membantu menyelesaikan sesuatu urus niaga dari sudut pencukaian kerana mereka mempunyai kepakaran teknikal pencukaian yang diperlukan untuk menyelesaikannya.

Kenyataan Masalah
Sriyono ( 2004) di dalam nota penyelidikannya mengatakan bahawa pada dasarnya masalah cukai adalah persoalan pemungutan untuk negara dan bagaimana negara memberikan kemudahan agar pemungutan cukai tersebut mudah dilaksanakan. Oleh itu, mekanisma bayaran CP yang disediakan adalah bertujuan untuk mencapai maksud memungut cukai serta memberi kemudahan kepada pelangan untuk membuat bayaran.

Bagaimanapun, tidak semua pelanggan bersikap mematuhi prosedur dan mekanisme bayaran cukai sedia ada . Pelanggan di sini di definisikan sebagai pelanggan luaran yang terdiri daripada pembayar cukai perkhidmatan (Liman ,2006) ‘Pembayar gagal membayar cukai pada kadar yang telah ditetapkan/dinyatakan’ dan ‘Pembayar lewat membayar cukai’ , adalah dianggap sebagai bukan pematuhan (aktacukai.hasilnet.org.my/WebLHDN.nsf). Ini menunjukkan mekanisme yang ada kurang berkesan dan juga dikatakan ada kaitan dgn sikap . Tanpa sikap positif, pematuhan akan menjadi sukar (Ahmad, 2002).

Malah Kementerian Pembangunana Usahawan Dan koperasi turut menyatakan bahawa Cukai Perkhidmatan dibayar kepada Jabatan Kastam apabila bayaran diterima daripada pelanggan . Oleh itu, Kegagalan pelanggan mematuhi bayaran CP dan undang-undang yang berkaitan kerana ketiadaan sikap yang positif , mengambarkan bahawa pematuhan terhadap pengutakuasaan undang-undang bayaran CP oleh pelanggan adalah lemah . Keadaan ini jika dibiarkan berterusan akan menyebabkan hasil cukai berkurangan seterusnya memberi kesan tak langsung kepada hasil cukai negara.

Ini turut dipersetujui oleh bekas Perdana Menteri Malaysia , di mana beliau menyatakan bahawa tanpa pungutan cukai yang baik adalah sukar bagi sesebuah Negara untuk membiayai pembangunannya . Menurutnya lagi , ini disebabkan cukai tidak langsung yang di pungut oleh mana-mana Kerajaan merupakan sumber pendapatan utama kepada Negara., (Mohammad, 2002).

Oleh itu , daripada sudut pengurusan kita perlu mempergiatkan lagi usaha bagi meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran cukai atau ‘tax compliance’ (Bajet , 2003) demi memastikan misi KDRM tercapai seterusnya mempastikan Kerajaan mempunyai sumber kewangan yang mencukupi untuk menampung perbelanjaan.

2. KAJIAN LITERATUR (LR)
“Ilmu pengetahuan baru dibangunkan atas ilmu pengetahuan lama” (Ayub, 1992) , adalah kenyataan untuk menerangkan apa yang dimaksudkan sebagai kajian literatur. Sekaran (2006) mendefinasikan kajian Literatur pula sebagai salah satu bahagian penting untuk seseorang penyelidik memdapatkan maklumat . Beliau turut mendefinasikan LR sebagai “ documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources of data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher”.

Kementerian Pembangunan Usahawan Dan Koperasi telah merujuk Cukai perkhidmatan sebagai suatu cukai penggunaan yang dikenakan kepada pengguna yang menggunakan perkhidmatan yang ditetapkan berkuatkuasa mengikut peruntukan Akta Cukai Perkhidmatan 1975. Malah menurut Zainuddin (1999) sebagai cukai penggunaan syarikat hanya bertindak sebagai agen bagi mengutip cukai daripada pengguna. Cukai penggunaan pada prinsipnya perlu mempunyai asas yang luas supaya hasil Kerajaan dapat berkembang selaras dengan pertumbuhan ekonomi. Ini secara tidak langsung menunjukkan betapa perlunya KDRM meningkatkan usaha supaya pelanggan bersikap patuh kepada pembayaran CP .

Dalam mengkaji gelagat pematuhan cukai , Ahmad (2002) menyatakan bahawa tanggapan boleh dibuat bahawa individu yang mempunyai sikap yang positif terhadap cukai, biasanya percaya kepada kesaksamaan sistem cukai serta keadilan dalam perlakuan pentadbir cukai dan patuh kepada undang-undang cukai. Ini bermakna tanpa pemahaman dan sikap yang positif berkaitan sistem percukaian, maka pematuhan akan menjadi sukar. Ini selari dengan pengertian sikap yang dikemukakan oleh Widiyanta (2002) yang menyatakan bahawa sikap adalah kesediaan yang diarahkan untuk menilai atau menanggapi sesuatu.

Malah Ahmad (2004) juga telah cuba menguji adakah wujud perbezaan antara gender dari segi sikap terhadap pematuhan cukai di Malaysia. Hasilnya, beliau mendapati tiada perbezaan sikap terhadap isu-isu cukai diantara wanita dan lelaki . Malah, berdasarkan kajian literaturnya , beliau turut mendapati bahawa perbezaan sikap juga merupakan satu faktor penting dalam meramalkan perlakuan salah laku cukai.

Manakala D’Ascenzo (2006), menyatakan bahawa daripada ‘model pematuhan’ kita boleh mengetahui penyebab kepada ketidakpatuhan pembayar cukai. Menurutnya lagi “ faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kelakuan pembayar cukai” dan “ sikap untuk mematuhi” adalah saling mempengaruhi dan saling berkait antara satu sama lain.

Ramasamy (2002), pula telah mengkaji faktor-faktor yang menyebabkan mengapa sebilangan peniaga-peniaga kecil (peniaga tunggal dan perkongsian) tidak membayar cukai dan hasil kajiannya mendapati bahawa tidak terdapat kesan perhubungan antara pengetahuan berkenaan cukai dengan sikap terhadap pematuhan. Sebaliknya Fallan (1999) mendapati tahap pengetahuan cukai yang berbeza mencerminkan sikap yang berbeza. Sebaliknya Ramasamy (2002) mendapati wujud perhubungan yang positif antara sikap terhadap kepatuhan orang lain dan sikap terhadap keadilan sistem percukaian dengan sikap terhadap kepatuhan sendiri. Malah beliau juga mendapati bahawa sikap kepatuhan sendiri tidak mempunyai perhubungan positif dengan niat untuk mematuhi (“there is no relationship between respondents’ tax knowledge and attitudes towards compliance. A positive relationship can only be found between attitude towards compliance of other taxpayers and attitudes towards the fairness of tax system with attitudes towards their compliance. It was also found that attitudes respondents’ compliance have no relationship towards intention to comply”).

Manakala Webly (2004) mendapati bahawa peniaga gagal mematuhi perundangan cukai dengan berbagai alasan tetapi ini tidak bermakna mereka membelakangi undang-undang. Kesukaran untuk mengisi borang cukai, Tidak memahami prosedur membayar cukai, serta kesilapan mengikrar cukai adalah antara punca peniaga ini didapati gagal membayar cukai dan mematuhi undang-undang yang berkenaan.

Kirchler (2000) pula telah mengkaji sikap majikan/peniaga terhadap cukai. Hasil soal selidik yang dijalankannya keatas 117 peniaga, mendapati bahawa peniaga mempunyai sikap atau niat yang tinggi untuk mengelak daripada membayar cukai serta mempunyai kecenderungan untuk tidak membayar cukai. Malahan mereka didapati tidak mempunyai semangat yang kuat untuk membayar cukai.

Dalam satu kajian yang dibuat oleh sekumpulan ahli sains daripada Universti Oregon pula mendapati bahawa, dengan membayar cukai dan menyumbang secara sukarela, otak manusia akan mengeluarkan satu petunjuk kepuasan. Melalui kajian ini juga, mereka mendapati bahawa system percukaian bukanlah sesuatu yang memberi kesan yang tidak elok kepada masyarakat. Oleh itu, Mohammad (2008) menyatakan jika kajian yang sama dilakukan di Malaysia ia akan menghasilkan jawapan yang sama kerana menurut pakar psikologi, manusia , walaupun pada tahap yang berbeza antara satu sama lain, sebenarnya mempunyai sikap mengutamakan kebajikan orang lain berbanding diri sendiri.

Ini secara tak langsung memberi gambaran bahawa untuk meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran cukai perkhidmatan, pelanggan CP perlu jujur dan perlu bersikap professional dalam melaksanakan kewajipan mereka sebagai pelangan CP yang perlu membayar cukai CP pada tempoh masa yang telah ditetapkan. Seandainya sikap jujur ini tidak wujud langsung dalam diri pelanggan CP ,maka implikasi buruk akan menimpa kestabilan ekonomi negara.(www.hasil.org.my/melayu/pdf) Oleh itu, ‘Ketetapan Kastam’ telah diwujudkan , yang bertujuan meningkatkan ketelusan, keyakinan dan pematuhan di kalangan pembayar cukai (laporan ekonomi 2007/2008)

Kebanyakan kajian dan analisis mendapati sikap, terutama berkaitan komitmen, disiplin dan integriti antara punca utama kegagalan penyerahan borang. Malah, menurut Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, pembayar cukai atau pelanggan didapati mengambil sikap berlengah dan tidak mempunyai rasa tanggungjawab menguruskan perkara penyerahan borang dalam tempoh masa yang ditetapkan (Berita Harian, 2005). Hakikatnya, tak dapat tidak, mereka perlu berurusan dengan jabatan sama ada berhubung lesen, pematuhan peraturan tertentu, bayaran duti atau cukai dan lain-lain (www.punb.com.my)

Bagaimanapun adalah diakui bahwa adalah sesuatu yang sukar untuk membuat penilaian terhadap pematuhan atau perubahan daripada aspek Attitude atau Sikap ke arah yang positif dalam menjiwai dan mematuhi perundangan dan peraturan. Ini kerana sikap adalah sesuatu yang berlaku dalam diri . Oleh itu, sikap yang boleh mendatangkan keburukan atau keaiban mestilah di tinggalkan atau dibuang terus dari dalam diri. (http://www.forestry.gov.my/utus2007.html).


3. PANDANGAN DAN CADANGAN ‘PENGURUSAN PEMATUHAN’
KDRM merupakan antara jabatan yang terpenting dalam jentera Kerajaan, terutamanya dari segi pungutan hasil kerana ia bertanggungjawab memungut cukai tidak langsung Kerajaan. Ini memberi makna salah satu antara peranan KDRM adalah memungut cukai dengan betul. Malah, sehingga hari ini lebih 65% kutipan hasil cukai KDRM datangnya daripada Cukai Dalaman (cukai jualan, cukai perkhidmatan dan cukai eksais) dan selebihnya daripada Kastam (Sepakat, 2006). Namun persoalannya adalah, sama ada yang telah di pungut oleh KDRM itu betul atau masih lagi ada yang tidak mematuhi perundangan dan peraturan KDRM.

Berdasarkan pemerhatian diatas serta usaha –usaha yang telah di jalankan didapati masih ada pelanggan CP yang bersikap tidak mematuhi perundangan bayaran CP . Ini dapat dilihat dengan meningkatnya pungutan hasil CP setiap kali operasi CD dijalankan atau pemeriksaan berjadual mahupun pemeriksaan akaun ditingkatkan. Oleh itu, pengurusan cukai dalaman perlu mengambil inisiatif untuk meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran CP , yang secara tidak langsung memupuk sikap positif dalam diri pelanggannya kerana KDRM juga bertindak sebagai agensi penguatkuasaan undang-undang Kastam dan pencegahan penyeludupan serta penyelewengan dari segi pengelakkan pembayaran cukai (Yakcob, 2004). Antara langkah yang boleh dilaksanakan oleh pengurusan untuk meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran cukai dalaman adalah :

i) Meluaskan penggunaan teknologi maklumat dan komunikasi (ICT)
Selaras dengan hasrat kerajaan untuk meningkatkan penggunaan ICT serta merealisasikan kerajaan elektronik (e-kerajaan,) , pihak pengurusan Cukai Dalaman (CD) juga perlu meluaskan pengunaan ICT dan menjadikannya sebagai sebagai mekanisme atau ‘tools’ utama untuk meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran CP misalnya melalui pembangunan aplikasi ‘e-Reminder’ iaitu salah satu kaedah untuk mengingatkan pelanggan (Khidmat, 2007) membuat bayaran CP . Pematuhan bayaran CP ini juga boleh ditingkatkan melalui khidmat pesanan ringkas (SMS) .

ii) Membangunkan Sistem Maklumat Pengurusan (MIS).
Selaras dengan pembangunan ICTR , pengurusan cukai dalaman amnya dan pengurusan KDRM khasnya boleh meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran cukai oleh pelanggan dengan mengadakan Sistem Maklumat Pengurusan (MIS). Ini kerana MIS akan menjana banyak maklumat dan sistem ini perlu menyediakan atau memberi maklumat yang dikehendaki dan terkini oleh pelanggan khasnyadan jabatan amnya.

iii) Melaksanakan pembangunan ePayCD
Pembangunan ePayCD harus dibangun dan dilaksanakan dengan segera, sebagaimana yang telah dirancang di dalam “Mesyuarat Panel Perundingan Kastam-Swasta” . ePayCD yang dibangunkan mestilah membolehkan pembayaran cukai dalaman termasuk cukai perkhidmatan secara mudah, selesa, selamat dan cepat . Ini akan mengurangkan bebanan pelanggan CP untuk hadir ke kaunter bayaran untuk tujuan bayaran disamping mengurangkan masa menunggu di kaunter bayaran .

iv) Menyertai e-KL
Untuk meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran CP , pengurusan CD amnya dan KDRM khasnya, boleh juga mengambil inisiatif untuk turut serta dalam e-KL. eKL merupakan satu inisiatif dibawah MSC malaysia yang menggalakkan penggunaan ICT untuk berurusan dengan pelbagai agensi kerajaan terutama di sekitar kawasan tersebut iaitu Kuala Lumpur, Selangor Dan Negeri Sembilan (eKL,2007). Ini kerana e-KL yang telah dilancarkan berdasarkan kepada prinsip ”Satu Kerajaan, Berbilang Agensi” (Hassan, 2008) dan didukung oleh konsep ”No Wrong Door Policy” menyediakan pelbagai perkhidmatan yang merangkumi antara lain:
· Perkhidmatan Online Menyeluruh (End-to-End Online Services);
· pembayaran Elektronik;
· penyerahan Elektronik; dan
· Komunikasi dan Pengaduan Elektronik
Ini akan memberi kemudahan kepada pelanggan CP untuk membuat bayaran seterusnya meningkatkan pematuhan.

v) Menyediakan Pejabat Khidmat Pelanggan
Penyediaan Pejabat Perkhidmatan Pelanggan merupakan kesinambungan kepada konsep kaunter pertanyaan yang telah diwujudkan di jabatan dan agensi kerajaan bagi kemudahan orang ramai berurusan . Pejabat Perkhidmatan Pelanggan ini menggabungkan tugas dan peranan petugas di kaunter pertanyaan, penyambut tetamu dan pegawai perhubungan awam di jabatan. Matlamat utama mewujudkannya adalah untuk memberikan kemudahan kepada pelanggan berurusan dan mendapatkan maklumat serta perkhidmatan yang cepat dari jabatan. Untuk memenuhi matlamat tersebut, pelanggan yang berhubung melalui telefon atau datang ke kaunter mendapatkan pelbagai perkhidmatan perlu dilayan dan diberi perhatian segera (Khidmat, 2007). Kemudahan ini akan memberi keselesaan kepada pelanggan disamping akan meningkatkan tahap pematuhan di kalangan pelanggan. Malah Sriyono (2004) juga menyatakan bahawa walaupun pada dasarnya masalah cukai adalah persoalan pemungutan untuk negara tetapi beliau juga menjelaskan agensi yang memungut cukai juga perlu berusaha memberikan kemudahan kepada pelanggannya .

vi) Meningkatkan tahap pengetahuan dan kesedaran pelanggan
Meskipun terdapat kajian yang menunjukkan bahawa tahap pengetahuan tidak mempengaruhi sikap pelanggan terhadap pematuhan bayaran cukai tetapi kajian juga menunjukkan bahawa sikap dikatakan dapat berubah dan berkembang hasil proses pembelajaran, sosialisasi, perkembangan maklumat dan pengaruh kebudayaan ( Widiyanta,2002). Malah, beliau turut mendapati bahawa meningkatkan pengetahuan pelanggan ini boleh dilakukan antaranya melalui media-massa (television, radio, akhbar dan majalah ) kerana ia mempunyai pengaruh yang besar terhadap pembentukan pandangan dan kepercayaan manusia. Oleh itu, melalui media massa ini, pelanggan perlu disedarkan mengenai pentingnya hasil cukai yang dibayar kepada pembangunan ekonomi dan social Negara. Tanpa kesedaran ini pelanggan tidak akan mengetahui betapa pentingnya cukai yand dibayar itu kepada sosio-ekonomi Negara.

Usaha-usaha meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran CP melalui peningkatan kesedaran dan pengetahuan ini juga boleh dilakukan melalui ceramah-ceramah dan seminar CP secara berterusan. Praktikalnya kini, ceramah mengenai bayaran CP hanya dibuat sekali sahaja iaitu diawal penyerahan lessen cukai perkhidmatan (KDRM K.L). Malahan, pengurusan tertinggi jabatan juga mestilah menentukan secara khusus pegawai yang harus memberi ceramah atau seminar , supaya pelanggan lebih menghormati perundangan dan peraturan yang ada.

Masyarakat juga mesti disemai dengan rasa bertanggungjawab atas bayaran CP ini kerana masyarakatlah penyumbang dan pembayar sebenar CP. Manakala pelanggan hanya merupakan pihak yang memunggut cukai bagi pihak pengguna kerana perkhidmatan yang diterima atau diberi. Ini juga selari dengan langkah yang telah dibuat oleh KDRM iaitu ‘mengkastamkan masyarakat dan memasyarakatkan kastam’.

vii) Penguatkuasaan undang-undang dan sokongan pihak pengurusan atasan
Untuk maksud meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran CP oleh pelanggan, undang-undang CP yang berkaitan hendaklah dikuatkuasakan sepenuhnya disamping mendapat sokongan pengurusan atasan untuk kejayaan pelaksanaan

pengutkuasaan. Pelanggan mengambil sikap ‘ambil-mudah’ kerana kurangnya penguatkuasaan undang-undang serta tiada sokongan pihak pengurusan untuk pelaksanaannya. Ini menunjukkan pematuhan bayaran CP juga harus bermula dengan pematuhan oleh KDRM sepenuhnya.

viii) Melaksanakan Cukai barangan dan Perkhidmatan (GST)
Perancangan pelaksanaan Cukai Barangan dan Perkhidmatan (GST) dalam bajet 2005 , untuk menggantikan cukai jualan dan cukai perkhidmatan yang dikenakan sekarang, juga merupakan usaha meningkatkan kadar pematuhan pembayaran cukai disamping meningkatkan hasil, kerana GST merupakan satu system yang lebih komprehensif, cekap, telus dan berkesan ( Yakcob, 2004 ; Berita Harian, 2006). Oleh itu, pengurusan CD perlu memberi sokongan sepenuhnya dalam usaha kerajaan melaksanakan GST

4. KESIMPULAN
Secara keseluruhannya, untuk meningkatkan pematuhan bayaran CP, KDRM perlu menuju kearah merealisasikan kerajaan elektronik seiring dengan perkembangan komunikasi dan teknologi (ICT) serta disokong dengan pembangunan ICTR. Aplikasi –aplikasi yang dicadang untuk dibangun dan dilaksanakan segera seperti MIS, e-reminder, ePayCD, dan sebagainya boleh di letakkan di bawah satu sistem (contohnya e-KDRM, yang mengaplikasikan perkhidmatan secara on-line menerusi

jaringan internet) yang akan membolehkan maklumat cukai perkhidmatan amnya dan cukai tak langsung khasnya, diketahui oleh pembayar cukai. Ini akan membantu meningkatkan ilmu percukaian di kalangan pembayar cukai , menambah kefahaman mereka tentang pentingnya hasil bayaran cukai tersebut kepada Negara dan mendorong kepada sikap positif dalam diri pelanggan.

The impact of customs procedures

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The paper ‘The impact of customs procedures on business to consumer e-commerce in food products ’ is done by Boyd L. S., Hobbs E. J. and Kerr A. W., from Saskatoon, Canada.

To the authors, this paper aims is to :
Showed the potential benefits of e-commerce
discusses barriers to the expansion of international e-commerce , and also
to demonstrates the need of new trade policies.

In this paper, the authors realized that trade in the 21st century will be driven by e-commerce. E-commerce or electronic commerce to the authors are define as a marketing and distribution of products via telecommunications devices (internet). However, the authors found that there are many barriers to the expansioan of international e-commerce ( included customs fees), and due to this, researcher has used the comparisons of customs fees for regular and e-commerce sized shipment of four food products from Canada to the USA as the methodology. Lastly, researcher also found the need of new trade policies.

2.0 FINDINGS
These is what the researchers has been discuss and found . It is can be separated to :
· E-commerce
· The barriers to expansion of international e-commerce
· Why we need the new trade policies

E-commerce
According to the researchers, e-commerce is changing the way business transactions occur . Due to that, researchers also found that e-commerce technologies provide the basis for allowing acces to global markets for both consumers and firms.

Other than that, by this e-commerce technologies researcher also found that by e-commerce :
· Product delivery become easy
· in term of ordering and paying for products by online is convenient
· Businesses can accessing a broader range without extra cost (reduce marketing cost)
· It create the closer supply chain relationship between producers and consumers
· Customer service will be better through the efficiency of information flow , and also
· More timely matching of product characteristics with consumer requirements.
So, due to the research appears that e-commerce could be the key to unlocking and expanding international business.
The barriers to expansion of international e-commerce
By past research, the authors has identified , generally the global percentage of businesses selling products internationally using online system are very small. This contrary to the benefits of e-commerce.

Due to that, what is impeding the development of e-commerce into international market has become a question mark to the researcher and by the research, they found that :
Different languages
Different currencies, and
Customs procedures and fees
have direct implications for international e-business marketing channel.

Different languages
Even though e-commerce has an advantage over conventional systems, but a transaction cannot occur if the language uses among customer and Web site , are not compatible. However by e-commerce , it is more easier and less costly to design a Web site to include many different language rather than to label products in several languages.

Different currencies
The researcher also found that different currencies can also present obstacles for international e-business marketing channel . Different currencies can effect the number and profitability of firm’s international orders . Researcher also identified that fees must be paid when currency is exchange; and these fees usually have a fixed cost and are reflected in the transactions charges they impose on firms.

Customs procedures and inspections fees
Based on research, researcher found that customs procedures and fees have direct implications for e-commerce. Customs procedures and inspections fees that researcher has been identified as like a:
National import regulations;
There are complex legalities affecting consumers when ordering items online from foreign companies. Meaning that, consumer are accountable and responsible in order to fulfill national import regulations of country they occupy. If not, they can incur the fines and penalties .
Approval licenses (AP);
Some items require a license before importation (called as AP) can take place. In fact, researcher also found that obtaining licenses and permit can represent a considerable transaction cost for individual consumers.


Fees or customs duties;
Lastly, researcher found that the fees that incurred in getting products across national borders is the foremost barrier to online sales into other countries. Mean while, in international trade law, since e-commerce allows consumers to order products internationally, the products must be subjected to full customs duties, and these duties are based on volume of shipping, value of shipments and some cases, special requirements. However, the current customs systems is designed to accommodate these system, where as fee calculation and inspection processes are geared toward large lots but with the emergence of e-commerce, researcher found that the customs and inspection system cannot readily accommodate small package.

Moreover, in order to showed that the lack of international sales , in many cases, was due to customs complications, researcher has make a detailed survey and has found that even though in theory, e-commerce should enable consumers to purchases a multitude of products from anywhere in the world over the internet and have them delivery directly, but the fact is , in the e-commerce case the customs and inspections fees are approximately ten times larger than the product’s value. That’s why new trade policies needed.


New Trade Policies
Based on literature review that has been done by research, they also found that there is no agreement stated that customs duties would be addressed. This lack of an aggrement is a factor preventing the expansion of e-commerce into international markets. Means that, without an agreement , customs fees remain geared towards large shipments and are based on a flat rate per shipment. It’s also means that customs procedures , while not totally ignored in trade negotiations, have received only scant attention.
Due to literature review, researcher clarified that the trade policies need to changed , because the changes would be advantageous for developed as well as developing countries. Developed countries would see further penetration of e-commerce into existing markets, bringing lower prices and more choice to consumers, as well as greater access to potentially lucrative export markets for suppliers.

3.0 CONCLUSION
As a reader , I’m agreed with the authors. I’m agreed that e-commerce could have lasting beneficial effects in terms of economic growth. In fact, to fully maximize the benefits from e-commerce, access must be available at a worldwide level, and in order to reach this level, trade policies will have to undergo revisions , even though there are most barriers to the expand of international e-commerce, and we know that the foremost barrier is the costoms and inspections fees. But with appropriate revisions to trade policies , customs fees will reflect the realities of international e-commerce.

ISIAN MINDA

AL-QURAN TERAPI PALING BERKESAN

1. Kajian Dr Ahmed El-Kadi (Panama City, Florida) mendapati mereka yang mendengar bacaan al-Quran, termasuk daripada kalangan yang bukan Islam dan bukan Arab, mengalami perubahan fisiologi positif dalam diri mereka

2. Setiap ibadah yang disyariatkan Allah kepada kita secara tak langsung dapat meningkatkan kesihatan seseorang walaupun sekadar membaca al-Quran( Dr. Danial zainal Abidin, 2007)

A LESSON FOR US!!!

" after i confessed my mistake, i had hoped Malaysians would accept my apology. Unfortunately, from the feedback i've received, i found that Malaysians could not accept it. Some Malaysians are behaving holier-than-thou"

"i think i have simplified a complex matter. By doing so (confessing), i thought people would think that i am a political leader with high moral grounds...after 61years, i have a learnt a lesson that honesty doesn't always pay"

Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek

"ERP"

What is ERP?
Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP is an industry term for integrated, multi-module application software packages that are designed to serve and support multiple business functions. An ERP system can include software for manufacturing, order entry, accounts receivable and payable, general ledger, purchasing, warehousing, transportation and human resources. Evolving out of the manufacturing industry, ERP implies the use of packaged software rather than proprietary software written by or for one customer. ERP modules may be able to interface with an organization's own software with varying degrees of effort, and, depending on the software, ERP modules may be alterable via the vendor's proprietary tools as well as proprietary or standard programming languages.

Why is it Necessary?
By becoming the integrated information solution across the entire organization, ERP systems allow companies to better understand their business. With ERP software, companies can standardize business processes and more easily enact best practices. By creating more efficient processes, companies can concentrate their efforts on serving their customers and maximizing profit.

The Future of ERP
Industry analysts expect that every major manufacturing company will buy the software, which ranges in cost -- with maintenance and training -- from hundreds of thousands of dollars for a small company to millions for a large company. AMR Research of Boston says consolidation among the major players will continue and intensify. ERP vendors are expected to put more effort into e-commerce, CRM and SCM initiatives, with leaders redirecting between 50% and 75% of their R&D budget to these projects.
According to Gartner research group, the rapid evolution of ERP has already lead to a new corporate must-have, ERP II, which is supposed to help businesses gain more competitive edge in the future. The major difference is that ERP II involves collaborative commerce, which enables business partners from multiple companies to exchange information posted on eCommerce exchanges.