Information Systems’ Contribution to Firm Performance: Impacts of Information Systems Strategy and IS Maturity

The evolution of information systems (IS) into a more strategic tool in organizations from its traditional role of a business support has taken root in the last decade. For many, the level of sophistication/maturity of the enterprise-IS is key to delivering competitive advantage or efficiency gains towards firm performance. As such, the adoption and implementation of appropriate IS Strategy is imperative to setting the path for the effective utilization and management of the enterprises-IS to deliver the desired outcome. But what strategies underpin the implementation of the enterprises-IS agenda and how do these influence the level of the enterprise-IS Maturity and its contribution to overall firm performance? The study adopts a quantitative design and cross-sectional approach with survey responses from IT executives of Ghana Club 100 organizations in Accra to examine this phenomenon. Results suggest that although defined IS Strategy positively impacts enterprise-IS Maturity and leads to greater contribution of IS to firm performance, IS Innovator strategy yields greater impact than IS Conservative strategy Whereas IS Undefined strategy is detrimental to enterprises-IS Maturity. Further, the surveyed organizations exhibit “stage disparity” recording different stage scores for the enterprise-IS growth processes. It is imperative, therefore, that organizations not only develop definitive IS Strategy to guide the enterprise-IS agenda, but be consistent in their implementation towards improved firm performance and sustainability. Keywords: IS Strategy, IT Maturity, Performance, Enterprise-IS, Stage Disparit

Opening access to agricultural information in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia

Agricultural innovation systems in Africa need to have access to both local and global agricultural sciences and technical information if they are to have an impact on agriculture and food security initiatives on the continent. While access to global agricultural information resources and innovations is relatively easy, local agricultural content is generally not visible and easily accessible. Providing access these important resources, through institutional repositories of metadata records and associated full-text documents, is one pathway of ensuring that the content generated locally is easily accessible within the country, region and around the globe. This paper highlights three initiatives implemented by national research institutes in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia aimed at opening access to agricultural information and knowledge resources. It also presents the major challenges faced in the implementation of the initiatives and the key lessons learned that could be useful when implementing similar initiatives

Information and communication technologies: opportunities and challenges for national and university libraries in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa

Organizations, including governments, in the world today are taking advantage of the many opportunities provided by modern Information and communication technologies (ICTs). To libraries, ICTs present an opportunity to provide value-added information services and access to a wide variety of digital-based information resources to their clients. Further, libraries are also using modern ICTs to automate their core functions, implement efficient and effective library cooperation and resource sharing networks, implement management information systems, develop institutional repositories of digital local content, and digital libraries; and initiate ICT-based capacity building programmes for library staff and information literacy programmes for library users. However, for most libraries in sub-Saharan Africa, including the SCANUL-ECS region, use of ICTs is largely restricted to traditional library automation, i.e. replacing manual operations by computerised methods. Innovative use of information and communication technologies in libraries is not widespread and it is made difficult, if not impossible, by several challenges or constraints, including lack of funds to sustain the ICT infrastructure, inability by librarians/libraries to keep up with the pace of developments in ICTs, inadequate ICT facilities in the libraries, lack of staff with appropriate skills to manage ICTs both at the strategic and operational levels, absence of institutional policies and strategies to support and guide the use of ICTs, and lack of adequate knowledge and skills to manage digital information resources and to deal with issues relating to copyright intellectual property rights in a digital information environment

Social media and professional networking: a case of information professionals in the SCECSAL region

The purpose of the study was to establish the extent to which library and information professionals in the Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa Library and Information Associations (SCECSAL) region are using social media applications for professional networking. The findings show that although the professionals are adopting social media applications, its use is more for social networking than professional networking purposes. Among those using the applications for professional networking, Social Networking Services (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and MySpace) are their first choice applications; with Facebook being the most popular. They study also revealed that most of the professionals had taught themselves how to use social media. The major challenge faced in the use of social media was the lack of time in the effective use of the applications. The paper recommends that to enhance the use of social media for professional networking, social media must be integrated into individual networking activities and that library and information professionals and associations in the region should embrace social media applications

FAO’s Capacity-Building Initiatives in Accessing, Documenting, Communicating and Managing Agricultural Information

The new information and communication technologies (ICT) and the growing wealth of digital information have the potential to improve access to and benefits from development activities for the rural poor, as well as facilitate policy-making. In this regard, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is involved in various initiatives aimed at building human and institutional capacities in documenting and communicating agricultural information. The paper presents a brief overview of three initiatives, which together form the basis of a coordinated effort by FAO with a wide range of partners to improve access to information on agricultural science and technology. The initiatives are: Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA), and Mobilizing Agricultural Science and Technology Information. The paper also highlights some of the capacity-building activities involving the above three initiatives that have taken place in Africa

Application possibilities of agricultural information portals

D. Litt. et Phil.Today, more and more organisations are adopting the use of the Internet and webbased technologies in the management of and provision of access to information and knowledge resources and services in digital formats. However, it appears that innovative use of the web is more pronounced in corporate organisations. For example, corporate organisations are using portals or sophisticated websites to conduct electronic commerce via the web and provide access to both internal and external information resources and services, accessed via the Internet, intranets, and extranets. The view of the researcher is that innovative use of the Internet and web-based technologies, such as portals, should not be the domain of the corporate world alone. The focus of this thesis is, therefore, to establish the potential application possibilities of portals in other types of organisations, especially agricultural research organisations in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The main research problem addressed in this thesis was What is the nature and application possibility of agricultural information portals in the provision of webbased, value-added information services for researchers? To address the above research problem, literature relating to the historical development of the Internet and the World Wide Web, intranet and extranet applications in organisations, as well as portals and their applications, was reviewed. In addition, a study was made of international trends regarding the provision of access to digital agricultural information resources and services via the web, and a questionnaire survey was conducted to establish whether it was necessary to use portals to provide access to digital-based agricultural information resources and services in agricultural research organisations in the SADC region. ii Resulting from the literature reviews, the study of websites of international agricultural organisations, and the survey on the need for portals in agricultural research organisations in the SADC region, the study established that: · There are several potential applications of portals in agricultural research organisations. This led to the definition of the nature and major components of the type of portal that could serve the needs of researchers in agricultural research organisations. · There is a need for portals in agricultural research organisations in the SADC region. The current use of the web in these organisations in the region is largely limited to the development of brochureware types of websites, providing access to information contained in the organisations’ brochures. Therefore, there is need to upgrade from basic Web sites to advanced sites or portals, and the study concluded that in this regard there is a need for clear guidelines to assist agricultural research organisations to plan the deployment of their information portals. Currently, most organisations are using ad hoc approaches when developing their Web sites. The dissertation, furthermore, develops the definition of an agricultural information portal as a web-based application that is accessed via the intranet or extranet and provides a personalised and adaptive interface that enables agricultural researchers to discover, track, and interact with colleagues and other people, software applications, information resources, services and tools relevant to their research interests and work. Taking into account the major components and definition of an agricultural information portal, the study proposes guidelines for use in planning the deployment of portals in agricultural research organisations. The proposed guidelines are independent of specific portal design or development methodology, application domains, and techniques