THE EXPIRING SOFTWARE LICENSE

On September 30, Jimmy Manopo, manager of the Information Systems Department the Mulia Industries (MI) was in panic mode. MI was a medium size manufacturer of portable shelters, tents, and awnings. Jimmy was panicking because the company's CRITIX SOFTWARE has just died. Because of the oversight, in Invoice had not been paid, and the MI's license to use the software had expired.

Jimmy knew that something had to be done very quickly. Many of the company's Information Systems users, who were situated in their different locations, relied heavily on the Citrix Software. All of MI's application ran under Citrix. The Citrix software gave all employees access to the MI application they needed no matter where they were as long as they had access to the Internet. The Citrix license renewal would cost $ 3.600 but going through the purchasing department to get a requisition issued would take several days. The users could not be without the Citrix capability for that long.

Then Jimmy thought about using his purchasing card. The card, which worked like a credit card, was intended for small purchases, not including travel, hotels, or food. MI's issued the card to some of its key personnel to avoid the costs of processing the paper work required for many small, incidental purchases. The company only had to make one single payment to the credit card company, and the credit card company did all the processing.

The maximums placed on Jimmy's card were $ 2,000 for any single purchase, and $ 5.000 per month. Jimmy knew that these limits were strictly enforced. Personnel in the Accounting Department scanned the bills monthly looking for violations. But Jimmy through that he could get Citrix to split the bill in two, and then the Accounting Department personnel would not raise any objections.

With no other apparent options at hand, Jimmy decided to try to use his card to renew the license. The Citrix salesman agreed to charge the card in two transactions of $ 1.800 each. The license was renewed quickly and few of MI's Citrix users were rver aware that there had been a problem.

Questions:

1. Explain what Jimmy has to do with this case with create the right ethical (10%)

2. And do you think Jimmy's action relation with utilitarianism (10%)

3. What your opinion this case relation Ethical issues vs legal issues (10%)

4. Why Ethics is important to understand for managers involved with Management Control Systems? (10%)