Performance Improvement - A Driver of Enterprise Information Systems for Public Sector Transformation: Lessons for Developing Countries

Abstract

The performance of public sector institutions has been a major concern across the globe. Performance improvement has been a matter of persistent pursuit across a variety of countries, particularly in developing countries contexts. It is generally believed that the private sector usually outperforms the public sector counterpart. It can be argued that if the public sector institutions can increase their performance like the private sector counterpart, the level of social development and economic growth, particularly in developing countries, could be exponential since the public sector is the foundation upon which the private sector drives development. However, a variety of factors prevent public sector institutions from competing with their private sector counterparts. The cultures and sentiments are different in the two sectors. For example, private organisations are profit-driven and they operate in highly competitive and performance-based environments. Therefore, performance is key to their success. Meanwhile, public institutions are social and public service-driven in nature. They are owned by the government and are politically motivated. Public institutions that want to transform and achieve accelerated performance and impact will fundamentally jettison some public service culture and embrace new, dynamic, forward-looking approaches and best practices.Research findings and empirical evidence have shown that information systems are great enablers of an organisation’s increased performance and total transformation. However, the people’s roles in shaping how information systems work, deliver value and transform organisations, especially, public institutions, is fundamental. Without people’s understanding, buy-in, capability and optimal adoption and use of information systems, an organisation’s performance and transformation will remain elusive. Public institutions need to take actions that both boost performance and inspire their people. This research paper practically demonstrates how enterprise performance, transformation and information systems are related using the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) as a case. The research validates how public sector enterprise performance and its four indicators (efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and responsiveness) drive enterprise transformation and its four major enablers (leadership, strategy, management and innovation practices) and how the transformation enablers are shaping and optimising adoption and use of enterprise information systems. The whole process is like a cycle. That is, the three performance indicators are accelerated when enterprise information systems are optimally used even with limited investment and budget provision. Having optimally deployed information systems naturally enables (helps to implement) enterprise transformation effectively. It clearly shows that an optimised enterprise information system is critical to enterprise performance and transformation.