On this day, exactly 30 years ago, the company IIB was born. It was created as a family business, and even today it is a “mildly larger” family consisting of over 50 full-time employees and partners. IIB was established with the aim of becoming a leading regional and local supplier of ERP class software and, using its knowledge, to remain a major factor in the implementation of information systems in successful companies.
Dušan Bošnjak, the founder of the company, described the creation of IIB in these words:
It was a forced situation, not some of my choices. In the West, you start a business with two million euros, and I had to start without funds, so I used one forgotten Serbian system – „moba“. Fortunately, there were people close to computer science in my surrounding – first my wife, then my brother; my son got in the job quite early, and when my brother got married, his wife joined us. Although she’s not from IT profession, she proved to be exceptional. Those were hard times when people didn’t need software, because they didn’t even have bread, but we succeeded thanks to our persistence. We believed that our time must come one day, but it did not come for twelve years. We barely made ends meet, but we still decided to make our own product, with the idea of making it an integral information system. Such a software package is today called ERP. And that is where the “family manufactory” saved us: we were not left without staff at a time when everyone else was. When the business started to grow, we expanded. Again, they were friends from studies or former jobs. Even today, a significant part of the employees are relatives, friends and acquaintances…
In the years that have passed, we have left behind hundreds of successful implementations of UPIS, the “first Serbian ERP”, and its add-ons. Although we still consider ourselves young, it is much more accurate to say that IIB is in ripe ages. But in the field of implementation business information systems you have to constantly “rejuvenate”. This refers primarily to the readiness for change, adoption and monitoring of work habits, regulations, new technologies and needs of users and the environment … “Everything flows, everything changes” and IIB is constantly part of that change, which is why company survived on the market all these years. From our experience, thirty years is the time when you know who you are and what you are, and if you work hard and believe in what you do, you will always see the light at the end of the tunnel to reach your fortieth jubilee. Cheers!
