An Investigation of the impact on electronic records management on service delivery in the department of immigration in Zambia.

Thesis of Master of Library and Information ScienceThis study sought to investigate the impact of electronic records management on service delivery in the Department of Immigration. Specifically, the study had the following five objectives to achieve at the end of the study: to establish employee’s experience with the electronic records management adopted in the department of Immigration: to determine the extent to which implementation of the ERMS had improved storage of records at the department of Immigration: to assess the extent to which ERMS had improved accessibility and retrieval of records: to investigate the impact of ERMS on service delivery at the department and lastly to identify the challenges arising from use of ERMS in the department. This study used a case study research design using a single cross-sectional mixed methods approach meaning both qualitative and quantitative data was collected for the study. Data was collected from a sample of 110 respondents drawn from target population of approximately 200 staff who interact with the electronic management system (ERMS). A structured questionnaire consisting of close-ended and open-ended questionswas administered on 100 respondents and oral interviews conducted on 10 key informants that were purposively selected for this study. Quantitative data was analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) version 26 while qualitative data was analysed using thematic techniques. The study established that automation has greatly improved the retrieval and accessibility of records as responded by 86.9% of staff surveyed. Further, automation has reduced storage costs and eliminated misfiling and loss of records, resulting improved service delivery. In. Furthermore, results from the study reveal that in terms of improving storage of records, efforts to have full storage off site back-up of records has equally been underway with SMART Zambia. This is to ensure that there is a full recovery plan in times of disasters. In addition,the findings revealed that 86.9% of the respondents were of the view that the implementation of ERMS had improved accessibility and retrieval time of records while 84.5% indicated implementation of ERMS had made it possible for same record to accessed by several users simultaneously. The findings from the fourth objective indicate 90.0% of the respondents rated the speed at which work was being done after implementation of ERMS was faster as opposed to 8.4% who felt it was slow. The major challenges from the studyas revealedby the respondents included lack of fully trained personnel, potential security breaches at , inadequate funding, weak implementation strategies, poor Internet connectivity and frequent power outages, inadequate computer facilities. Other challenges include staff resistance to change. Based on the findings and discussions, the study recommends that the Department of Immigration increases funding to purchase more computers and other related equipment; provides regular staff training based on a thorough needs assessment for all levels of staff;revision of current records management policy to incorporate electronic record management issues spelling out retrieval, accessibility;andimprove backup system to enhance safety and security of electronic records