THE ROLE OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY ON SERVICE DELIVERY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. 1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

One of the key drivers of recent developments and has pervaded every business segment and also every home is Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (Kuppusamy and Santhapparaj, 2012). It is often claimed that ICT has become to the economy what steam and machine power were to the industrial revolution (Hoek, 2001). In the meantime, expectations about the impact of ICT on business are positive and high. According to Pokharel (2012) use of ICT is positively correlated with improved overall organizational performance. ICT consists of whole range technologies designed to access, process and transmit information: hardware, software and media for collection, storage, processing, transmission and presentation of information in the form of voice sound, data, text and images. They range from telephones, mobile phones, hardware, and software to the Internet. In regard to service delivery in business organizations, Information Communication Technology (ICT) has been employed to facilitate the service provision, even though it involves substantial portion of investment. The objective of such investments is to create business value by offering timely and reliable goods and services and for any investment to have a positive impact on business value and additional revenues need to be created or overall costs reduced. Investment in information technology can have dramatic impact on both the internal and external operations of a business organization. Improved ICT systems in an organization can enhance and strengthen organizational infrastructure and capacity by increasing service coordination, employees’ efficiency, sharing of information between departments, financial record keeping and tracking of an organization’s production. Information technology solutions can fundamentally transform business organization service delivery externally (Allison, 2010). Organizations around the world are expanding their investment in Information Communication Technology (ICT). The development of e-business practices has made it easier for organizations to share information and to encourage co-operation among stakeholders. The information revolution is the phenomenon of our times, affecting work, life and society as profoundly as the industrial revolution did in the 1800s that’s why business experts view effective exploitation of digital technology as vital to the success of the Nigerian economy. Ainabor, (2011) opined that in adopting information and communication technologies, the efficiency can take different forms. For instance, one form is to limit errors and enhance consistency of outcomes of governmental projects via automating standard tasks. Technology is enabling organizations to take advantage of new opportunities and to build new capabilities. It is highly believed that no marketing philosophy can be materialized unless it is supported by ICT to improve effectiveness and efficiency of sales force management. The emergence of ICT for service delivery according to Nwabueze and Osioko [2012] indicates that there is a strong link between information Technologies and the length of socio-economic development in a country. Therefore, ICTs are regarded as an aid to socio-economic developments. Ballard and Ramgolam, [2011] suggested that employee management of ICT-mediated information exchanges will depend on what type of availability an employee chose to offer to their colleagues. Consequently, these strategies will either allow for ICTs to interrupt employees or not and can influence the effect of ICT connectivity on employee productivity. The aim of the study is to examine the role of ICT on service delivery in Nigerian organizations.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The impact of ICT investments on service delivery and business value is an important issue for researchers, resource managers and other stakeholders. IT business value and service delivery include productivity enhancement, profitability improvement, improved work relations, competitive advantage and efficient use of resources at both intermediate level and organizational level (Prasad, 2008; Melville, 2004; and Kohli, 2003). Considering the enormous benefits that are experienced by multinational organizations on use of IT systems, the local business organizations have moved to adopt the same kind of technologies. However, they still experience some obstacles or hindrances in the effective and efficient use of the ICT resources in their operations. Technical challenges are centred on the lack of sustaining infrastructures such as erratic electricity supply, lack of encryption on short message system messages. Other identified setbacks that can have an effect on firms in the application of ICT can be grouped as psychological and behavioural. These consist of security, accessibility to computers, consumer awareness, reluctance to change, the cost of adoption, and preference for personalized services etc. The setback that faces workers is how to manage their extents of ICT connectivity to avoid disruptions in workers workflow, and ensure high performance. Increased flexibility enabled by ICTs increases productivity of employees, that flexibility facilitates long work hours and as a result, higher stress. ICT connectivity can create both positive and negative consequences, which in turn has an effect on an individual‘s work productivity. However, high level of information created by the use of ICTs can increase job burnout and stress and thus, deter individual work productivity. Moreover, while smartphone may increase task efficiency and individual work productivity, they can also place interruptions and delays in work practices, lowering individual work productivity. Arising from the above, the challenge of service delivery affects all customers who demand quality services from manufacturing firms. There is no doubt that the challenges and complexities of service delivery are widening in the Nigerian manufacturing industry. Information and communication technology as well as employees’ performance is a recent topic that requires more investigations and research, especially in developing countries.