- Title
- Critical Success Factors for Enhanced Information Systems Capabilities in Water Billing Processes: A Case Study of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality
- Creator
- Naki, Avuyile
- Subject
- Information networks -- Security measures Computer security
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MCom (Information Systems)
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/13793
- Identifier
- vital:39712
- Description
- Water is a nation's most precious resource as humans depend upon it for their lives and livelihoods. Water resources, therefore, require efficient and strategic management by those entities tasked with such a responsibility. Municipalities manage the water distribution to local citizens, but experience challenges due to the numerous tasks involved in water management. A major challenge that municipalities face is inefficiencies in water management business processes due to immature information system capabilities. Many studies focus on the infrastructure-related challenges such as ageing pipes, but little emphasis is placed on the information system-based challenges in water management and their relationship to the local water consumer. Therefore, the focus of this research investigation was on the water billing process activities and the information systems involved in these activities. The study collected primary data by conducting a focus group comprising seven respondents working in water billing-related processes and then conducted semi-structured interviews with two managers at the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM). The Nvivo software tool was used to organise the collected data. Finally, the collected data was analysed using the principles of thematic analysis. Firstly, the primary evidence indicates that the water billing information systems that are used at BCMM are unintegrated. Secondly, that there are numerous manual processes in the water billing-related processes, which lead to mistakes in the capturing of consumer data. Thirdly, the analysis confirms that BCMM is faced with water management challenges. Fourthly, the analysis revealed that there is inadequate communication between various water billing information systems that are used, which results in delays in data capturing, errors and outdated information. The findings conclude that BCMM has immature water billing information system capabilities and that there are problems related to water processes. The research investigation derived several critical success factors (CSFs) for BCMM to action to ensure that their water billing information systems are enhanced. The CSFs were reviewed by the two managers used for the study in order to ascertain their relevance to the context and were considered relevant by the managers. Therefore, the recommendation is that BCMM, and other municipalities with similar contexts, should action the proposed CSFs to enhance their water billing-related information systems capabilities.
- Format
- 199 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Management and Commerce
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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UFH Department of Information Systems
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | NAKI A 201221094 MCOM.pdf | 6 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |