EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 NATIONAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICY IN THAILAND: A COMPARISON AMONG ORGANIZATIONAL SECTORS Graham Winley Assumption University Thailand gkwinley@s-t.au.ac.th Chanissara Arjpru University of Technology Sydney, Australia sara@it.uts.edu.au Jittima Wongwuttiwat Assumption University, Thailand jittima@s-t.au.ac.th ABSTRACT This study was motivated by the challenges confronting the developing Southeast Asian nation of Thailand in realizing national policy objectives aimed at creating a knowledgebased society. The study determines and compares the development plans of 72 medium to large sized organizations representing 7 organizational sectors in terms of the relative and changing importance assigned to a range of technologies, professional activities, and IT knowledge/skills and assesses the alignment of these development plans with national policy objectives. Keywords: ICTs, Knowledge-based Society, National Policies, Organizational Sectors, Professional Activities and Skills 1. INTRODUCTION Since 1992 the importance of information and communication technology (IT/ICT) in the development of the Thai economy and society has been promoted by government ministries/agencies and national committees. In 1992 the National Information Technology Committee (NITC) was formed and in 2002 the Ministry of ICT was established as the champion for ICT matters in Thailand with the primary task of converting policies into actions and practices. In 2003 NITC was restructured to become the National Committee on Information Technology and Communications (NCICT) including representation of the newly formed Ministry of ICT and continuing responsibility for drafting national policies. Over the years government agencies such as the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) and Software Park have been established in order to facilitate policy implementation and various subcommittees of NITC/NCITC have worked on aspects such as: drafting electronic transaction and computer crime laws; digital divide issues; utilization of ICT in the public sector; human resource development; and Internet policy. The first national IT policy (IT-2000) covered the period 1996–2000 and focused on 3 agendas: investment in information infrastructure; investment in people to build a literate populace and an adequate technology human resource base; and investment in good governance to ensure that IT will result in a decrease in social and economic gaps. The national IT policy framework IT-2010 covering the period 2001-2010 extends the focus of IT-2000 to include not only the required foundations but 5 application domains (flagships) in which IT should be utilized: e-government; e-commerce; e-industry; e-education; and esociety. The ultimate vision of IT-2010, which incorporates elements of the 9th National The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 2 Economic and Social Development Plan, is not on the technology itself but the utilization of IT that would lead to sustainable development of a knowledge-based economy and society. In conjunction with IT-2010 the National ICT Master Plan (2001-2006) identifies the visions, missions, objectives, strategies, plans, targets and timeframe for the first 5 years of IT-2010. This Master Plan identifies 7 strategic agenda to: elevate the Thai ICT industry to become a regional leader; utilize ICT to enhance the quality of Thai society; reform and enhance ICT research and development (R&D); develop human resources; enhance entrepreneurial leadership; promote the use of ICT in small and medium enterprises (SMEs); and utilize ICT for the purpose of public administration and services. A full description of the development and content of this series of policy statements is given by Intarakumnerd and Panthawi (2003). Against this background of national policies and frameworks this study has 2 objectives: (i) to determine and compare the development plans of medium to large sized organizations representing different organizational sectors in terms of the relative and changing importance the sectors assign to technologies, professional activities, and IT knowledge/skills; and (ii) to assess the alignment of these development plans in the sectors with national policy objectives. No previous study of this type in Thailand was found and since the national ICT policies in Thailand were not formulated on the basis of organizational sectors this study provides a different perspective on the alignment of development plans within sectors and the national policies. The findings and methodology are expected to be of interest to those interested in national ICT policy formulation and implementation in developing countries, and academics, practitioners, policy makers, and commercial organizations interested in ICT developments and opportunities in Thailand as seen from the perspectives of different organizational sectors. 2. NATIONAL POLICIES AND RELATED LITERATURE Summaries of national policies are presented together with the results of an evaluation of IT2000. This is followed by a review of published research over the period 2003-2007 on aspects of ICT development in Thailand and includes a SWOT analysis of ICT in Thailand, comparisons with other Asian countries, and ICT indicators used to monitor development. 2.1 National Policies Summaries of the policies IT-2000, IT-2010, and the National ICT Master Plan (2001-2006) are presented in Table 1. They are based on the detailed presentations by Intarakumnerd and Panthawi (2003). Keywords from these policy documents are identified in order to highlight aspects of the objectives and to assist with developing the study questionnaire and assessing the alignment of each sector’s development plans with national policy objectives. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 3 IT-2000 (1996-2000) Agenda 1: Invest in equitable nationwide information infrastructure to empower human ability and enhance life quality and decrease social and economic gaps. Agenda 2: Build a literate populace and an adequate technology human resource base. Agenda 3: Invest for good governance. IT 2010 (2001- 2010) E-government: The utilization of IT within the public sector. Develop good governance that will strengthen the overall competitiveness of the country for a better quality of life for all. E-commerce: Strengthen the competitiveness of Thai industries by means of e-commerce for exports, trade, provision of services, and domestic consumption. E-industry: Promote IT within the private sector to become a knowledge based industry. E-education: Strengthen people capital at all levels to enable a knowledge-based society. E-society: Use IT for quality-of-life improvement, knowledge-based society development, and digital divide reduction. ICT Master Plan (2002-2006) Strategies: ICT industry to become a regional leader. Utilize ICT to enhance quality of Thai lives and society. Reform ICT R&D. Develop human resources, entrepreneurial and leadership strengths to improve national competitiveness. Promote ICT in SMEs and utilize ICT for public administration and services. Keywords Information Infrastructure: Telecommunications facilities and technologies; networks; hardware; systems software; interactive multimedia; manufacturing technologies; developing and maintaining databases; software applications for back office computerization, accounting, human resource management, e-mail, information searching, online interactive public/private services, e-commerce; local development of PC’s, software, network computing and Web services. Organizational Development and ICT Management Issues: IT planning, policy, R&D, technology diffusion and transfer, knowledge-based industry, affordable access for all; integration of IT for all functions (administration, production, logistics, marketing), ICT for supply chain management; standards for development, innovative application development and outsourcing of development and services; increased numbers of knowledge-workers, human resource development of IT professionals and an ICTliterate workforce, Organizational Sectors: Government and private sector administration, manufacturing, finance, trade, transportation, manufacturing and production, logistics; increased use of ICT in SMEs. National Concerns: Knowledge-based society; national and international knowledge; digital divide reduction Table 1: Summary of Policy Objectives Intarakumnerd and Panthawi (2003) report the results of an evaluation of IT-2000 by NITC (2002) which indicated progress with the development of: information infrastructure with a large increase in telephone penetration and the establishment of the Telephone Organization of Thailand providing optic fibre cable and microwave communication services; regulatory infrastructure including the National Telecommunications and Broadcasting Commissions to allocate and regulate radio frequency; legal Acts for electronic transactions, universal access, computer crime, data protection, and data privacy; the provision of computers for schools; and networks for schools (SchoolNet) and universities (ThaiSarn). Chief Information Officers had been appointed in Government organizations and IT utilization in the public sector had improved for internal use and public online services. Secure network services for government organizations were available through GINet, the Software Park agency was established to support the Thai software industry, and an Electronic Commerce Resource Center was to be launched in 2003. However, IT manpower demand was still not satisfied and the National Interactive Multimedia Institute had not been The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 4 established although several entities were implementing multimedia for learning and CAI projects. 2.2 Related Literature Although there has not been any formal evaluation of progress on IT-2010 or the National ICT Master Plan there is evidence in the literature published since 2003 of positive developments and research aimed at clarifying and understanding ongoing problems. NECTEC et al. (2003) published Series 1 of the Thailand ICT Indicators. The second in the series appeared in 2005 (NECTEC, 2006) and incorporated: the results of IT surveys of households and businesses introduced in 2004 by the National Statistics Office as well as initiatives by NECTEC including: an annual survey of the profiles of Internet users; a readiness survey of government web-based services; and a web statistics service (Truehits, http://truehits.net) which in cooperation with web site owners monitors Internet user behavior. The 2005 series includes statistics related to: broadcasting; computer usage; telecommunications; Internet; e-commerce; the ICT market and industry; ICT in Government; ICT human resources; and R&D activities. The 2005 indicators show progress in most aspects of national concern but despite government intervention the infrastructurerelated statistics indicate that the digital divide persists and that fundamental components of ICT development and knowledge creation (R&D and human resource development) require extensive investment. A comprehensive review of published research related to ICT issues in the context of Thailand since 2003 is summarized in Table 2. Research Focus Internet Applications and E-learning: Slow adoption of e-commerce among SMEs Barriers to corporate Internet banking E-commerce in the retail industry Registration of e-commerce operators Issues of support for e-commerce infrastructure Corporate perspectives on Internet banking E-learning technologies and practice Quality assessment of e-learning websites Adoption strategies for Internet banking E-commerce models for virtual enterprises Making websites trustworthy Web-based services in Internet banking Assessing satisfaction with e-learning Issues in e-learning ICT Management and Organizational Issues: Building IT infrastructure Implementation of ERP systems R&D using knowledge management Professional IT activities, skills, and knowledge Developing IT human resources Implementing IT - a management perspective Improving the quality of software development Managing IT infrastructure Software transfer from Europe to Thailand Banking support for technology-based business Information quality techniques for production The technology/business interface Authors Lertwongsatien and Wongpinunwatana (2003) Rotchanakitmnuai and Speece (2003) EIU ViewsWire (2003b) EIU ViewsWire (2003c) Gray and Sanzogni (2004) Rotchanakitmnuai and Speece (2004) Suanpang and Santijanyaporn (2005) Pruengkarn et al. (2005) Jaruwachirathanakul and Fink (2005) Wattanasupachoke and Tanlamai (2005) Rattanawicha and Esichaikul (2005) Rotchanakitmnuai and Speece (2005) Siritongthaworn and Krairit (2006) Pagram and Pagram (2006) Pimchangthong et al. (2003) Kanthawongs and Nah (2004) Numprasertchai and Igel (2004) Wongwuttiwat et al. (2004) Hawley and Paek (2005) Suratida and Settapong (2005) Phongpaibul and Boehm (2005) Chanopas et al. (2006) Lusk et al. (2006) Wonglimpiyarat (2006) Kengpol (2006) The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 Innovative technological capabilities in firms Cultural barriers and knowledge management Industry Specific Studies: Technology in the automotive industry IT outsourcing in the banking industry IT and the public hospital system Integration of IT in the assurance industry Technology and innovation in food production Technological in the electronics industry Predicting business failure in the IT industry Technology for service quality in hospitals ICT adoption in the hotel industry Technology in the automotive industry Start-up companies in the software industry IT outsourcing in the finance industry IT in the construction industry Group decision support for logistics firms Data and content management in banking Supply chain in the automotive industry Simulation technologies in manufacturing Technology transfer in the packaging industry Software development practices Government and Digital Divide: Potential of satellite and broadband services The digital divide and the “People’s PC” Buddhist view of the digital divide Rural poverty and Internet use Legal/infrastructure issues for e-governance University-industry in regional Thailand Government management of R&D ICT Policy Issues: ICT labour market, education, and manpower ICT and economic development since 1950 The dissemination of national ICT policies A SWOT analysis of ICT in Thailand 5 Wonglimpiyarat and Yuberk (2006) Berger and Diez (2006) Kaweevisultrakul and Chan (2007) Laosirihongthong et al.(2003) Bangkok Post (2003) Watcharasriroj and Tang (2004) Larpsiri and Speece (2004) Siriwongwilaichat and Winger (2004) Rasiah (2004) Puagwatana and Guanawardana (2005) Sivabrovomvatana et al. (2005) Sahadev and Islam (2005) Laosirihongthong and Dangayach (2005) Ruokolainen (2005) Paisittanand and Olson (2006) Teerajetgul and Charoenngam (2006) Kengpol and Tuominen (2006) Barnes (2006) Boon-itt and Paul (2006) Kumar and Phrommathed (2006) Whangthomkum et al. (2006) Sison et al. (2006) Crispin (2003) Buckman (2003) Kitiyadisai (2003) EIU ViewsWire (2003a) Basu (2004) Schiller (2006) Wonglimpiyarat (2007) Makishima and Suksiriserekul (2003) Frankema and Lindblad (2006) Meso et al. (2006) Wiggins et al. (2006) Table 2: Literature Related to National Policies: 2003-2007 From Table 2 it is seen that there has been a stream of studies concerning: internet applications (e-commerce, legal infrastructure, e-learning, websites, and internet banking); ICT management and organizational issues (R&D and infrastructure development and management, outsourcing, innovation, quality assurance, and cultural effects); the digital divide; software development; and ICT issues in different types of organizations (government, banking, assurance, manufacturing, construction, logistics firms, the retail industry, hotels, public and private hospitals, the electronics and IT industries, software firms, food production, packaging, education, SMEs, and the automotive industry). Wiggins et al. (2006) provide analyses of ICT in Thailand based on a SWOT analysis (Table 3(a)) and a comparison with other Asian countries based on characteristics of ICT development (Table 3(b)). The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 6 Strengths 1. Regional hub for several industries 2. Reasonable internal infrastructure 3. Relatively inexpensive to conduct business and a pro-business environment 4. Primary and secondary education system Weaknesses 1. Lack of: Recognition as an ICT nation; regional IT firm or brand; ICT-research facilities; technology investment capital and startup culture; project completion, accountability; certainty in the political environment; clear ICT vision from Government and support for IT sector; focus in ICT sector and too many IT industry organizations; and adherence to international best practices and standards 2. Expensive international Internet gateways 3. Limited scale of the workforce Opportunities 1. Aggregate ICT talent from Indochina; leverage talent of visitors; and attract global talent to Thailand 2. Partner with firms from India and China and compete with Malaysia for regional hosting 3. Develop national R&D plan for ICT 4. Deregulate telecommunications 5. Leverage benefits from Government projects and mega projects 6. Development of animation and mobile applications and call center facilities Threats 1. Autocracy 2. Corruption 3. Time taken to resolve international Internet Gateway issues 4. Shortage of ICT trained talent 5. Plans but not enough actions 6. Deficiency in technical competency in government Table 3(a): SWOT Analysis of ICT in Thailand Characteristic English Language Education System Labor Pool Labor Cost Infrastructure Government Support Political Stability Data/Internet Security Country India Philippines China Malaysia Thailand Vietnam Excellent Excellent Fair Very Good Poor Poor Excellent Good Very Good Good Good Fair Excellent Good Excellent Fair Fair Poor Very Good Very Good Very Good Fair Good Excellent Fair Fair Very Good Very Good Very Good Fair Excellent Excellent Excellent Very Good Poor Poor Good Fair Good Good Fair Good Good Fair Poor Fair Poor Poor Table 3(b): ICT Development Characteristics Comparing the information in Tables 3(a) and 3(b) it is seen that Thailand’s strengths related to internal ICT infrastructure, business costs, and the education system compare favorably with the other Asian countries. However, weaknesses related to: political stability; government vision and support for the ICT sector; the limited scale of the workforce; English language standards in the workforce; and Internet gateway issues place Thailand in a relatively poor position compared to most of the other Asian countries. Table 4(a) shows predictions of expenditure on enterprise IT in Thailand over the period 2005-2009 (Wiggins et al., 2006).and Table 4(b) compares expected growth rates in this expenditure among Asia Pacific countries over the period 2003-2009 (Wiggins et al., 2006). The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 7 Note: CAGR is the percentage average growth rate for the components Table 4(a): Expenditure (USD millions) on Enterprise IT Country AGR (%) India Indonesia Thailand Malaysia China 33 16.1 8.3 7.3 South Korea 6.7 Singapore Taiwan 6 2.2 Hong Kong 0.26 Table 4(b): Average Annual Growth Rates (AGR) in Expenditure on Enterprise IT From Table 4(a) it is seen that the largest expenditure in any year is on telecommunications followed by hardware, with much smaller expenditures on IT services and software. Among the subcomponents most of the annual expenditure is on telecommunications services and equipment followed by hardware for client computing while expenditures on other subcomponents are much less. Predicted growth rates in expenditure on software and IT services are much higher than the growth rates for telecommunications and hardware. Among the subcomponents the highest growth rate is for infrastructure software and professional IT services followed by application software and product support which have higher growth rates than any of the other subcomponents. From Table 4(b) it is seen that based on expected growth rates in expenditure Thailand is predicted to be in a favorable position compared to these other Asia Pacific countries. However, in 2003 with the exception of Indonesia (USD 3,500 million) other countries spent between 1.1 and 11.1 times as much as Thailand (USD 4,500 million). By 2009 Thailand’s expenditure (USD 6,753) is expected to be the lowest among all of these countries which will be spending between USD 6,876 million (Malaysia) and USD 75,000 million (China). The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 3. 8 METHODOLOGY Information about development plans in the sectors was obtained in 2006 using a questionnaire completed by senior IT professionals from medium to large sized organizations representing the 7 sectors: Government (G); Banking/Finance (B/F); Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Wholesale/Retail (W/R); Health (H); Tourism/Transport (T/T); and Manufacturing/Engineering (M/E). These categories are used by the Ministry of Commerce to classify registered organizations and the Ministry of Industry defines medium to large sized organizations as those with more than 50 employees and total fixed assets, excluding land values, in excess of 50 million baht (USD 1.4 million). The questionnaire was structured into 4 sections as summarized in Table 5. 1. Characteristics of the Organizations: Scope of operation (international/national; number of locations in Thailand); IT staffing profiles (number of IT staff classified by position description); IT budgets; IT sourcing strategies. 2. Technologies: 82 items in 11 categories: Systems Architecture; Telecommunications and Networks; Languages; Knowledge-based Technology; Systems/Software Development Tools; Databases; Data Storage; Open Systems; User Interfaces; Information Systems/Applications; Computer-aided Manufacturing. 3. Professional Activities: 21 items in 6 categories: Support; Systems/Software Development; Training/Education; Integration; Management/Planning. 4. IT Knowledge/Skills: 36 items in 4 categories: Technical Specialist; Technology Management; Business Functional; Interpersonal and Management Skills. Table 5: Structure of the Questionnaire In sections 2, 3, and 4 of the questionnaire respondents were asked to rate the importance of each item at present and over the next 5 years. These lists of items were compiled and categorized after reviewing the keywords identified in the national policies (see Table 1) and items used in previous studies (Athey and Plotnicki, 1998; Cappel, 2002; Gorgone et al., 2002; Lee et al., 1995; Lee et al., 2001; Lau et al., 1998a, 1998b, 1999a, 1999b; Schwarzkopf et al., 2004; Winley et al., 1999; Wongwuttiwat et al., 2004). The lists also included items obtained by surveying each day over the period January-March, 2006 the requirements specified in advertisements for IT professionals in the print and electronic media in Thailand (Bangkok Post; The Nation; Software Park). A pilot study was conducted using 2 medium to large sized organizations selected at random from each of the sectors. Respondents were asked to identify any aspects of the questionnaire that were not clear and any changes that should be made to the listed items. As a result some minor changes were made to some of the items in section 1 but there were no changes suggested for items in sections 2, 3, and 4 which are displayed in Appendix Tables A1, A2, and A3 together with acronyms and abbreviations which are used throughout this article. Using the Thailand IT Directory (2002) a random sample of 25 organizations was selected from each of the sectors. These samples represented at least 10 percent of the medium to large sized organizations listed for each sector. The questionnaire was distributed to these 175 organizations and following a considerable effort 72 usable responses, with 9-12 in each of the sectors, were obtained and analyzed. This represents a response rate of at least 36 percent in each sector and an overall response rate of 41 percent. It is noted that uncertainty about the future was identified as the main reason why many organizations were reluctant to respond to the questionnaire. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 4. 9 DEVELOPMENT PLANS IN THE SECTORS Based on the questionnaire responses the characteristics of the organizations in each sector are presented followed by the similarities and differences among the sectors related to their ratings of the technologies, professional activities, and knowledge/ skills items. 4.1 Characteristics of Organizations Table 6 summarizes the characteristics of the organizations in each sector. Characteristic G 10 Number of organizations 0 Percentage international 100 Percentage national Percentage at more than 1 location in 60 Thailand Average number IT staff 41 Future IT Budgets: 0 Percentage expecting decreases 50 Percentage expecting increases (28) (Av. Percent increase expected) 10 Percentage expecting no change 40 Percentage uncertain about future Sourcing Strategies At Present: 10 Percentage totally in-house 10 Percentage totally outsourced 80 Percentage mixed In the Future: 0 Percentage totally in-house 0 Percentage totally outsourced 30 Percentage mixed 70 Percentage uncertain B/F 10 30 70 100 ICT 12 33 67 58 Sectors W/R 12 83 17 83 T/T 9 11 89 67 H 9 22 78 78 M/E 10 60 40 80 All Sectors Combined 72 36 64 75 165 220 68 28 19 56 90 0 70 (20) 0 30 0 42 (20) 33 25 0 83 (20) 0 17 0 67 (38) 11 22 0 22 (25) 0 78 0 70 (21) 20 10 0 58 (22) 11 31 10 0 80 8 17 75 8 0 92 11 22 67 0 22 78 20 20 60 10 14 76 10 10 60 20 0 16 67 17 0 0 75 25 0 22 22 56 0 22 67 11 10 20 60 10 2 13 56 29 Table 6: Characteristics of the Sectors From Table 6 it is seen that except for W/R and M/E most of the organizations in each sector operate only in Thailand and most operate at more than 1 location. Organizations in ICT and B/F employ relatively large numbers of IT professionals while those in H and T/T employ much smaller numbers. In most of the organizations IT professionals work in centralized IT departments servicing the needs of a large number of end-users at different locations. Although the government provides support for a few organizations in B/F, ICT, T/T, and H most of the organizations in those sectors are privately owned and operate in competitive commercial environments. None of the organizations expects a decrease in IT budget and most of the organizations are expecting increases. Although only a minority of organizations in ICT expects an increase 75 percent predict a stable or increasing budget. H is quite different with only 22 percent of organizations predicting an increase, none expecting a stable budget, and the remaining 78 percent are uncertain about future budgets. The expected increase is highest for T/T while in other sectors it is much closer to the overall average increase of 22 percent. Thirty one percent of all the organizations express uncertainty about future budgets and this varies from 10 percent in M/E through to 78 percent in H. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 10 At present the majority of organizations in all sectors prefer a mixed (selective) sourcing approach to either total outsourcing or no outsourcing and in the future mixed sourcing continues to be a dominate approach with only a few organizations in B/F and M/E continuing to favor no outsourcing. At present and in the future total outsourcing is used by only a small number of organizations in any of the sectors. There is decreasing interest in total outsourcing in G and increasing interest in B/F. However, there is a considerable amount of uncertainty about future sourcing strategies in all of the sectors particularly in G and T/T. The majority of respondents in each sector indicated that they were uncertain as to future employment levels of IT staff. Consequently, it was not possible to produce present or future distributions of IT positions for each sector. Tentative conclusions based on only 30 usable responses indicate an increasing demand for network, database, web design, systems analysis, and security specialists with a decreasing demand for operators, programmers, and data entry personnel. Demands for end-user support personnel and web masters are likely to continue at current levels and despite changes the highest demands continue to be for systems analysts, end-user support personnel, and programmers. 4.2 Similarities and Differences among the Sectors For the technologies, professional activities, and knowledge/skills items respondents rated the importance of each item at present and in the future on a 5 point scale (1-unimportant, 5-very important). For each sector the mean rating and standard deviation were computed for each item and the means were used to rank the items as shown in Appendix Tables A1, A2, and A3 where a rank of 1 indicates that the item is the most important. The means and standard deviations are not shown but all of the standard deviations were less than 1 which indicates that in each sector the respondents rated each item consistently. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (W) was used to compare the sectors based on their present rankings and this was repeated for their future rankings. For each sector a comparison was made between their present and future rankings using Spearman rank order correlation coefficients (Siegal, 1998). The results are shown in Tables 7(a) and 7(b), respectively. Items Technologies Professional Activities IT Knowledge and Skills * W is significant at a 0.01 level Present Rankings (W) 0.784 * 0.510 * 0.640 * Future Rankings (W) 0.784 * 0.601 * 0.662 * Table 7(a): A Comparison of the Rankings by Sectors at Present and in the Future Items G Technologies 0.902 * Professional Activities 0.826 * IT Knowledge and Skills 0.818 * * significant at a 0.01 level B/F 0.848 * 0.823 * 0.678 * ICT 0.884 * 0.792 * 0.897 * W/R 0.848 * 0.759 * 0.878 * T/T 0.689 * 0.821 * 0.800 * H 0.788 * 0.644 * 0.694 * M/E 0.736 * 0.680 * 0.788 * Table 7(b): A Comparison of Present and Future Rankings for Each Sector From Table 7(a) it is seen that there is statistically significant agreement among the 7 sectors with regard to their rankings of the 3 sets of items at present, and the same is true for the future. From Table 7(b) it is seen that for each set of items and for each sector there is significant agreement between the present and future rankings. In order to identify similarities and differences among the sectors items are defined as highly (lowly) ranked if they are among the top (bottom) 35 percent and all others are The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 11 considered to be moderately ranked. Also, an item is considered to have changed its relative importance significantly if its rank position has changed by at least 18 percent of the available positions on the list and these are labeled with I (increase) or D (decrease) throughout Appendix Tables A1, A2, and A3. Using these definitions Appendix Tables A4(a), A5(a), and A6(a) show the items which continue to be ranked in the same manner by most of the sectors (i.e. by 4 or more of the 7 sectors) and Tables A4(b), A5(b), and A6(b) show items where the ranking by most of the sectors has changed from the present to the future as well as items where there is no agreement among most of the sectors at present and/or in the future. Appendix Table A7 shows items which were ranked in a particular manner by only 1 of the sectors and these items indicate distinctive features of each sector. The discussion of similarities and differences among the sectors integrates the results of the analyses presented in all of the Appendix tables and is organized into subsections: (i) application portfolios (ii) databases; data modeling, management, and storage (iii) networks and telecommunications (iv) systems architectures and user-interfaces (v) applications/systems development and integration (vi) support, training, and education. 4.2.1 Application Portfolios A range of applications continue to be very important for most of the sectors: TPS; MIS; EIS; ERP; WWW sites and applications; and electronic commerce. Only G continues to have little interest in ERP systems and although T/T has ranked DSS and EIS lowly at present they are important for that sector in the future. However, the need for in-house expertise related to these applications continues to be ranked lowly by all of the sectors and this suggests that outsourcing will continue to be used for development and support. In M/E the importance of WWW sites decreases significantly but for WWW applications it increases significantly. These changes highlight a trend among other sectors where WWW development efforts change from establishing informational sites to utilizing those sites for interactive applications. In particular, electronic commerce technologies continue to be very important for most of the sectors. At present there is a low demand for inhouse expertise in web development among all the sectors except for G where it is very important. However, for most of the sectors the need to have this expertise in-house increases and the current practice of outsourcing aspects of WWW site/application development may decline as in-house expertise increases. Expert and AI systems and a range of computer-aided manufacturing applications and protocols continue to be of little interest to most of the sectors although there is slightly increased interest in AI systems in B/F and expert systems in ICT, T/T, and M/E. In all of the sectors there is an ongoing low demand for in-house expertise related to expert/AI systems. In particular, the lack of interest in computer-aided manufacturing applications and protocols in M/E confirms that the low level of interest reported by Kini (2002) is continuing. At present data mining applications are at least moderately important for most of the sectors but of little interest in T/T and H. In the future they have significantly increased importance in these sectors and are ranked highly by most of the sectors. At present the sectors have different views about CRM systems and there is little interest in B/F, T/T, and M/E. However, in the future all of the sectors, except G, have significantly increased interest in CRM systems and they are very important. In G these systems continue to be only moderately important. At present only H and M/E have little interest in multimedia applications but they have significantly increased importance for these sectors. In the future they are at least moderately important for all of the sectors. Interest in these applications is growing as The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 12 organizations expand the collection, integration, and analysis of a wider variety of data types and broadband services expand beyond the limits of the densely populated Bangkok region. 4.2.2 Databases; Data Modeling, Management, and Storage Relational databases continue to be the very important for all sectors. For most of the sectors there is an ongoing high demand for in-house expertise in developing relational databases. Although this demand decreases significantly in W/R, H, and M/E it is still at least moderately important for them in the future. There is a growing interest in object-relational and object-oriented databases especially in B/F, W/R, H, and M/E and in the future they are moderately important for most of the sectors. Also, there is a growing interest in multidimensional databases especially in B/F, W/R, T/T, and M/E and in the future only G has little interest in them. Hierarchical and network databases continue to be ranked lowly by most of the sectors. Distributed databases are moderately important for most of the sectors at present but they are of little interest to most of them in the future. At present data warehouses are at least moderately important in all of the sectors except for T/T. In the future all of the sectors consider these to be very important and this reflects an increasing interest in EIS and data mining. These trends reflect current commitments and intentions to move to database technologies which support applications using sophisticated data analysis techniques developed by object oriented methods. At present developing databases is a very important activity in G, ICT, and T/T but much less important for all of the other sectors. In the future this activity is less important for ICT and T/T and most of the sectors rank it lowly. Only G continues to see this as a very important activity. Data modeling is moderately important for most of the sectors at present and very important for all of them in the future. Implementing data management procedures and inhouse expertise to perform this activity are ranked lowly by most of the sectors at present but become much more important in the future. The integration of data types continues to be of little interest to most of the sectors except for an increased interest in ICT and H which is in line with their increased interest in multimedia applications. Among the data storage technologies there is a continuing commitment to current investments in magnetic, disk based, and CD-ROM data storage. Optical and erasable CD data storage continue to be less important but there is increased interest in erasable CD. 4.2.3 Networks and Telecommunications For most of the sectors LANs (cable), intranets, WANs, extranets, and related technologies including fibre optics, remote access protocols, and gateways continue to be very important. The integration of networks continues to be a very important activity in most of the sectors. In-house expertise to develop and manage networks continues to be in high demand in most of the sectors. The same is true for in-house expertise in telecommunications although in the future in W/R and H this demand will be satisfied mainly through outsourcing. TCP/IP protocols continue to be highly ranked by all the sectors. At present the OSI framework is very important for only G, T/T, and M/E but in the future it is at most only moderately important in any sector. All of the sectors continue to have little interest in SNA/DEC Net architectures. The data communications standard ISDN continues to be moderately important for most of the sectors but it in the future ICT, W/R, and M/E have little interest in ISDN. At present only M/E regards ADSL lines as very important and only B/F has an increased interest in them. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 13 LANs (radio) are of little interest to any of the sectors at present but most of the sectors indicate significantly increased importance for these networks. Only G, B/F, and W/R continue to have little interest in them and M/E considers them to be very important in the future. Although LANs (cable) continue to be very important their importance is significantly decreased by most of the sectors and in each case there is a significantly increased emphasis on LANs (radio). At present virtual private networks are at least moderately important in all of the sectors and in the future they are very important for most of the sectors. The increased use of public networks to connect organizational LANs at different sites offers an interesting alternative to a traditional WAN. There continues to be little interest among the sectors in cellular, microwave, broadcasting technologies, and satellite communications. For most of the sectors the importance of groupware technologies decreases from moderate to low but the reverse applies to voicemail communication. In particular, B/F, ICT, and W/R show significantly increased interest in voicemail and in the future only G, T/T, and M/E continue to have little interest. 4.2.4 Systems Architectures and User-interfaces All of the sectors consider microcomputer operating systems to be very important at present and although their importance decreases in W/R, T/T, and H they are still at least moderately important for all of the sectors in the future. All of the sectors have an ongoing low demand for in-house expertise related to microcomputer operating systems which reflects the reduced cost, ready availability, and increased reliability of these operating systems and does not mean that microcomputer operating systems will be used less. Mainframe operating systems continue to be ranked lowly by all of the sectors except for a moderate ranking at present by B/F. In all of the sectors the ranking of minicomputer operating systems changes from moderate to low. There is an ongoing low demand in all of the sectors for in-house expertise related to both of these types of operating systems. At present mobile computing operating systems are ranked lowly by all of the sectors except for a moderate ranking by M/E. In the future there are mixed views among the sectors but they all express an increased interest in these operating systems and in most cases the increases are significant. In most of the sectors RISC microprocessors are moderately important at present but of little interest in the future. The exception is G which sees them as very important at present and still moderately important in the future. In most of the sectors parallel architectures are of little interest at present but become moderately important in the future and B/F and T/T have a significantly increased interest in these architectures. Open systems architectures continue to be at least moderately important for all of the sectors. Most of the sectors consider UNIX to be very important at present and at least moderately important in the future. Client-server architectures continue to be very important for most of the sectors despite decreased interest in ICT, W/R, and T/T. Cooperative/distributed processing technologies continue to be at least moderately important for most of the sectors. There continues to be a low demand in most of the sectors for inhouse expertise related to these technologies which suggests that outsourcing will continue to be used for their support. GUI and keyboard interfaces continue to be very important for all of the sectors. Scanning technologies continue to be at least moderately important for most of the sectors and there continues to be little interest in video interfaces except in M/E and T/T. There is The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 14 little interest in speech recognition in any of the sectors except for M/E where it has significantly increased importance and it is very important in the future. 4.2.5 Applications/Systems Development and Integration Except in G, in-house development continues to be of little and decreasing interest in most of the sectors. At present G has little interest in this activity but in the future its importance is increased significantly. Also, for most of the sectors there are patterns among the rankings of knowledge and skills items which support this ongoing lack of interest in in-house development. For example, in most of the sectors there continues to be a low demand for inhouse expertise related to: development tools such as 4GLs, CASE, and knowledge based tools; and the development of applications such as DSS, EIS, CRM and expert/AI systems. Consequently, applications/systems development using external sources continues to be a very important. Most of the sectors continue to place a low level of importance on purchasing ready to use or almost ready to use applications/systems. For example, in most of the sectors there is a low emphasis on evaluating and selecting ready to use software packages and the tailoring of purchased application software. The only exceptions are G, B/F and W/R where there continues to be more interest in purchasing and tailoring applications/systems. Outsourcing is an increasingly important strategy for all of the sectors and it has implications for the in-house activities and expertise of IT professionals. In most of the sectors important in-house activities and expertise needed to support outsourcing focus increasingly on managing, planning, and analysis to ensure that transaction costs are controlled and that the activities performed by the external provider result in appropriate solutions. For most of the sectors these very important activities include managing and planning: corporate strategic IT architectures and applications; the feasibility and approval process for new IT; and development and implementation. Very important analysis activities involve analyzing business problems and computer based business processes. There is an ongoing high demand for in-house expertise to support these activities including the ability to: use project management to manage the systems life cycle; learn new technologies and understand trends; focus on IT as a means to achieve an outcome; plan, accomplish projects; work cooperatively and communicate with others in various team environments; and maintain productive relationships with users and external providers. Also, for most of the sectors there is an increasing need for internal IT staff to interpret problems and design solutions, learn about business functions, and understand business environments. Many of these requirements which are important in relation to outsourcing are also important for activities that will continue to be done in-house. For most of the sectors the integration of existing and new applications/systems continues to be a very important in-house activity. The only exception is T/T which continues to assign little importance to integration and the associated skills. Perhaps, in this sector outsourcing will be used to achieve integration and it is noted that T/T has only a low to moderate interest in ERP systems. In most of the sectors at present the use of systems development methodologies is moderately important but in the future it is very important. Structured approaches are very important at present but less so in the future as the use of object oriented methods increases. There continues to be little interest in formal specification methods in most of the sectors. The demand for in-house programming expertise continues to be high and object oriented languages continue to be the most important followed by access and procedure oriented languages. In all of the sectors functional, logic based, rule based, and assembly languages The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 15 are not important at present or in the future and there are ongoing low demands for in-house expertise related to assembly languages and 3 GLs. The following languages were identified in decreasing order of importance: Java, Visual Basic, .NET, C, HTML, C++, and XML which reflects the ongoing interest in WWW sites and the growing importance of WWW applications. 4.2.6 Support, Training, and Education Supporting secure access to information for users continues to be a very important activity. Although it is ranked lowly in G at present its importance is increased significantly and it becomes moderately important in the future. At present supporting the portfolio of applications is a very important activity in most of the sectors but in the future it is very important in only T/T and M/E. For most of the sectors the support of systems and applications that are developed by external providers will also be outsourced. For most of the sectors supporting hardware is a very important activity at present but of little importance in the future and T/T appears to be the only sector that will not use external sources to support hardware. Supporting user-developed systems continues to be ranked lowly by all of the sectors except for ICT which regards this activity as moderately important. This reflects the difficulties in supporting user-developed systems and confirms a problem associated with end-user computing. However, user support for enterprise applications and systems is a different matter and it continues to be very important for all of the sectors. Training/educating end-users continues to be a very important activity for most of the sectors. The exceptions are M/E which continues to rank this activity lowly and B/F which ranks it lowly in the future. At present there are mixed views among the sectors about the importance of training/educating IT professionals but in the future it is a very important activity in all of the sectors except for ICT where it is ranked lowly. At present the sectors express different views about the role of their IT staff in providing education/training for end-users and other IT staff but in the future most of the sectors do not see this as an important activity for their IT staff. The exceptions are T/T and H where teaching others will continue to be a very important activity for their IT staff. Otherwise, most organizations will rely increasingly on external providers for the education/training of end-users and their IT staff. 5. THE ALIGNMENT OF SECTOR PLANS AND NATIONAL POLICY OBJECTIVES Overall the development plans for the next 5 years in most of the sectors are aligned with most of the national policy objectives (see Table 1) and in terms of the keywords in Table 1 there is evidence that: • In most of the sectors there will be significant investment in infrastructure driven by the expansion of application portfolios to include applications to support: operations; supply chain, human resource, and client and customer management; data mining and analysis for strategic decision making; multimedia; and interactive Internet-based systems. Technologies supporting these portfolios will include: local and wide area networks; databases; data warehouses; data modeling; and communications facilities. • In relation to organizational and ICT management issues most of the sectors plan to: selectively outsource hardware support and applications and systems development and support; integrate networks, applications and systems; emphasize methodologies for systems development and project management; extend interactive access for users; The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 16 manage customer and client information to provide improved services; train and educate end-users and IT staff, and broaden the knowledge and understanding of business functions among IT professionals. Collectively these planned developments should result in increased affordable use of ICT-based services across a broader cross-section of the population and the geographical region and this should help to raise the level of ICT-literacy and have a positive effect in reducing aspects of the digital divide. However, despite these areas where there is alignment of development plans with national policy objectives there are issues of concern: • In all of the sectors there are high levels of related uncertainties about future IT budgets, outsourcing strategies, and levels of employment for IT professionals. These uncertainties do not align well with policy objectives to improve: IT planning and policy formulation; technology diffusion and transfer; outsourcing; the number of IT professionals; and ICT-literacy levels in the workforce. • There are aspects of the development plans in particular sectors which appear to be at odds with policy objectives or the functions of the organizations in those sectors: o Government places less emphasis than expected on the integration of applications and systems and the use of ERP systems. CRM systems are not emphasized and there is little interest in multidimensional databases and the implementation of data management procedures. In-house development is emphasized when selective outsourcing is a policy objective for government organizations. Uncertainty about future IT budgets is high and uncertainty about sourcing strategies is the highest among any of the sectors. o Manufacturing/Engineering organizations place a low priority on computeraided manufacturing systems and protocols and this is not compatible with the key objectives for e-industry. o Manufacturing/Engineering and Banking/Finance organizations express little concern for the education/training of end-users and ICT organizations place low emphasis on educating/training their own IT professionals. In addition, in all of the sectors, apart from Tourism/Transport and Health, IT staffs are not actively involved in the education/training of end-users. o In the Tourism/Transport sector there is a low priority given to managing and planning for systems development and implementation, and systems integration. Uncertainty about future sourcing strategies is high compared to most of the other sectors. These characteristics are surprising since at present compared to the other sectors organizations in this sector have underdeveloped application portfolios and plans to expand those portfolios over the next 5 years. o Wholesale/Retail organizations place a low priority on Web development and this is not compatible with national policy objectives emphasizing Internet-based applications and especially e-commerce. o Health sector organizations place a low emphasis on object-relational databases and CD-ROM storage and these technologies would seem to be highly relevant to their activities. Compared to other sectors organizations in this sector express the highest level of uncertainty about future IT budgets. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 6. 17 CONCLUSIONS This study examined and compared development plans for the next 5 years among medium to large sized organizations representing 7 organizational sectors. These development plans were compared with the objectives of Thailand’s national ICT policies. It was found that there is significant agreement among the plans for each sector and the many similarities and few differences are identified. Also, it was found that overall these plans are aligned reasonably well with national policy objects and areas of concern relating to particular sectors are identified. However, for these plans to materialize there are issues affecting all of the sectors that need to be addressed. There is a need for further development, using international best practices, in the provision and regulation of nation wide communications infrastructure and international Internet gateways. This requires action by government and its agencies and is essential if the benefits from increased interests among all of the sectors in telecommunications, networks, and Internet-based applications and services are to be realized. There is a need to reduce related uncertainties about IT budgets, levels of employment of IT professionals, and IT sourcing strategies. This is particularly important among government organizations which are large consumers of IT products and services and financial planning problems at government level have a strong influence on financial planning in other sectors. Also, among all of the sectors uncertainty about IT sourcing strategies is related to a lack of experience with outsourcing, an underdeveloped body of technology law, and the few experienced outsourcing providers in the market. Many of these issues need to be addressed at a national level. Government and its agencies together with industry and business associations can play an important impartial role in facilitating better informed and productive relationships between organizations and outsourcing providers. A serious problem concerns the training/education of IT professionals and end-users. At a national level the curricula in IT and related areas at universities and other educational institutions need to be examined thoroughly. The main issues concern the number of qualified graduates entering the IT profession and the quality and relevance of their knowledge and skills in relation to workplace requirements. Furthermore, any government incentives to encourage organizations to invest in the education and training of end-users and IT professionals should apply only to programs that will lead to ICT innovations. Importing IT expertise requires government action and needs to be considered carefully. It may be a short to medium term partial solution but efforts need to be intensified in order to ensure that educational institutions and organizations in Thailand play a significant role in meeting the future demands and directions set in national policies. The present study has attempted to assess the alignment of development plans at the level of organizational sectors with much broader level national policy objectives. Although this approach has been useful it would be instructive to validate the conclusions by returning to these organizations and assessing their responses to the conclusions as well as seeking their direct views as to how they are attempting to react to the specific aspects of national policies. In addition, there is a need for further study to examine carefully the potential gaps that appear to exist between the present and future needs of these sectors, the national objectives, and the knowledge and skills taught in the nation’s education institutions. 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APPENDIX Technologies Cooperative/distributed processing Mobile computing operating systems (OS) Microcomputer OS Minicomputer OS Mainframe OS Parallel architecture Reduced instruction set computer (RISC) A client-server environment Open systems architectures G B/F ICT W/R F P F P F Systems Architecture P F P 26 25 41.5 53.5 46 55 41 I 79 53.5 I 57 1.5 59 70.5 42 46.5 D 48.5 37 I 69 72 49.5 8.5 23.5 30.5 18.5 29 D 18.5 39.5 71.5 D 34.5 53.5 D 33.5 60.5 58 67 79 D 41.5 73.5 D 61 80.5 82 82 50 I 64.5 49.5 41.5 49.5 48.5 52.5 D 28 43 55.5 62.5 D 49 68.5 D 33.5 59.5 6 17.5 31 42.5 D9 29 14 11 23.5 32.5 24 24.5 D 18.5 43.5 I 41 23 T/T P H F P 31.5 36.5 24.5 I 74 56 I 79 F M/E P F 36.5 56.5 52 44 42 28.5 D 4 21 D 12 31 60.5 73 D 41.5 67.5 67 77 73 80 I 75 58.5 69 72 5 6 D 49 75 82 81.5 71.5 79.5 54.5 66 51 54 D 49 64 D7 36.5 7 20 6.5 8.5 D 14 36.5 D 31.5 50 I 58 36.5 Telecommunications and Networks Local area network (LANs ) (radio) LANs (cable) Fibre optic Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) Integrated services digital network (ISDN) Remote access protocols 75 68 73.5 1.5 4.5 8.5 11 D 48 40 31.5 Cellular technology 68 Gateways 17.5 Network management 17.5 Wide are network (WAN) 24 Intranets 8 Extranets 12 73.5 I 69.5 52 I 72.5 54.5 I 60.5 30.5 I 72 42.5 I 61.5 17 2 6 9.5 9.5 D 12 37 29 34 D1 D 31 29 54.5 12.5 D 1.5 8.5 1.5 22.5 1 D2 6.5 21.5 17 65.5 I 68 45.5 54.5 46.5 61.5 52.5 50.5 46.5 41.5 42.5 D 27 46 42 26.5 32.5 64.5 71 42.5 46.5 D 30.5 52 D 37 70 30.5 53.5 23 3 3 20.5 16.5 20 47.5 15.5 2.5 4 9 33.5 22 41 29 4 9 7 29 D 29 I 76 20.5 12 I 29 9 22.5 46 59 30 1.5 14 4.5 12 28 41.5 58.5 I 69.5 17.5 16.5 3.5 4 36 1 3.5 14 23 14 D 33.5 59.5 13 58 15 15 5.5 18.5 I 51 1 7 23 15.5 46.5 70.5 19.5 D 18.5 10.5 12.5 10.5 10.5 19.5 10.5 32 39.5 12.5 68 34 8.5 4 2 40.5 The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org 16.5 5 71 64 D 16.5 34.5 6 2 D 13 31 11 12.5 24.5 26 EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 Virtual private networks Satellite communications Microwave Broadcasting Voicemail Groupware Access oriented Object oriented Procedure oriented Assembly Logic based Functional Rule based Rule based tools/systems Hybrid tools/systems Frame/object based tools/systems 23 26 15.5 I 35.5 10.5 21.5 29 37 40 73 75.5 77 79 58.5 69.5 75 I 62.5 50 38.5 69.5 78 75.5 46.5 64 73 77 74 31 62 61.5 76 76 80.5 33 59 75 64 70 33 D 26 17.5 22 77 59 D 36.5 40 45.5 3.5 34.5 81.5 63.5 57 50 65 D 35.5 26 29 43.5 D 31.5 81 67 63 D 52 35 D 31.5 43.5 44.5 59 65 60.5 54.5 45 45.5 72.5 79 72.5 81 57 17.5 34.5 26 18.5 19.5 I 44 79.5 78 75 67.5 81.5 77 76.5 77.5 70 50 39 70 42.5 I 69.5 45 I 67.5 38.5 64.5 62.5 72.5 Languages D 12 29 61 66 61.5 26.5 23 52 29 33.5 D 21.5 36.5 41.5 37 38.5 71 79.5 82 82 81 47 53.5 64.5 68.5 58 47 53.5 39 49.5 23 50.5 62.5 52 49.5 38.5 Knowledge-based Technology 55.5 60.5 I 58.5 41 64.5 D 49 68 54.5 43 72.5 45 57.5 43 34 64.5 59.5 59.5 D 46 70.5 66 72.5 82 77 70.5 70.5 76 50.5 53.5 36 48 61 D 36 64 26.5 56 80 67 56 64 D 48.5 65 21.5 22.5 40 50 74.5 79 48.5 45.5 D 19.5 51 52.5 45.5 54.5 42 I 63.5 40.5 I 61.5 46 65 53.5 62 57.5 49 43 59.5 I 54.5 39 I 48.5 Systems/Software Development Tools Fourth generation 51.5 54.5 I 64.5 49.5 D 44.5 60.5 44 35 languages (4GLs) Computer aided software 62.5 62 66 57.5 75 73.5 58 67 engineering (CASE) Formal specification 62.5 65.5 32 38.5 58.5 58 44 49.5 Systems development 35 25 8.5 11 24 23 38.5 39.5 methodology/software Project management I 51.5 31 8.5 7 12 11.5 23 26 methodology/ software Databases Relational 3 3.5 3 3 1 4 5.5 10.5 Hierarchical 68 74 D 38.5 60.5 56 58 76 77 Network 56 45.5 55.5 70 30 41 72.5 74 Object-oriented 31.5 17.5 I 60 34.5 39 34 I 51 23 Object-relational 36.5 22 I 62.5 45.5 24 24.5 I 47 31 Distributed 45 38.5 73.5 70 67.5 71 58 59.5 Multidimensional 65 63.5 I 50.5 26 33.5 37 I 26 7 Data Modeling 40 38.5 I 44 18.5 9 7 I 33.5 15.5 Data warehousing I 38 17.5 I 29 13.5 I 33.5 11.5 12 3.5 Data Storage Magnetic storage D 45 60.5 D 29 48 D 52 71 28.5 29 Disk based database 33.5 34.5 7 13.5 D 33.5 54 D 15 35 Compact disk memory 22 31 29 28 D 24 44 D 28.5 43.5 (CD-ROM) Optical storage 45 50 55.5 59 61 62.5 44 39.5 Erasable CD I 51.5 31 I 72 65.5 64.5 49.5 54 49.5 Open Systems Electronic commerce I 22 7 16.5 5 I 39 19.5 I 23 3.5 Open systems D 15 31 D 55.5 73.5 47.5 58 36 39.5 interconnection (OSI) Systems network 78 78 D 47 77 76 78 77.5 75.5 architectures (SNA/DEC Net) UNIX 17.5 25 37 40.5 6 14.5 23 26 Transmission control 11 5 1 2.5 1.5 2.5 10.5 protocol/Internet protocol 4.5 (TCP/IP) User Interfaces Keyboard D 13 38.5 D 21.5 45.5 D 28.5 54 5.5 19.5 Scanning 33.5 45.5 34.5 36.5 44.5 56 23 35 Graphical user interface 10.5 17.5 14 23 6 11.5 2.5 10.5 (GUI) D 40 59 14 8.5 49 36.5 79 81.5 D 49 75 D 40 66 65.5 78 18 I 71.5 56 39.5 43.5 24.5 39 D 18.5 54 72.5 45.5 48 49 54 D 35.5 58.5 54.5 66 65.5 68 I 42.5 23.5 38 40 28.5 26 I 49 26 69 39 I 27.5 10.5 24.5 7 60.5 48 39.5 39.5 48 I 57 25.5 I 54.5 17 72 61 36.5 43.5 50 36.5 26.5 15 D 15.5 30.5 D 21 50 21 4 48.5 D 43.5 I 57 63.5 52.5 60 I 45.5 I 32.5 18 D8 5 D2 59.5 69 59.5 61.5 40.5 54.5 54 I 61.5 54 37 48 9 26 33 14.5 12 14.5 34.5 D 12 D 16 21.5 75 64 49 40 33 8.5 33 11 46 62 17 D 32.5 61 64 33 48 70 49 33 46 21.5 26.5 I 28.5 3 9 4.5 D 24 46.5 D 57 70 18.5 33 81 67.5 79.5 60.5 25.5 21 69 78 60 70 74.5 D 27.5 61 D 28.5 2 2 56 4 5 D 5 30.5 18.5 19 4 27 12.5 16 12.5 9 7.5 21 The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org D 16 50.5 D 43.5 67 2 3 D 4 21.5 I 33 1.5 25 14 EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 Speech recognition Video Transaction processing system (TPS) Management information systems (MIS) Decision support systems (DSS) Executive information system (EIS) Data mining Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Customer relationship management (CRM) Expert systems (ES) Artificial intelligence (AI) systems A WWW site WWW applications Multimedia applications Computer aided design/ manufacturing (CAD/CAM) Control system Manufacturing automation protocol/ Technical office protocol (MAP/TOP) Computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) 24 68 51.5 71.5 54.5 75.5 73.5 73 64 54 49.5 55.5 45.5 67.5 66 54 67 Information Systems/Applications 80 79 I 78 44.5 40.5 67.5 20 27 10 16.5 12 16.5 9.5 19.5 15.5 17 15 17 16 26 9 6 11 6 14 11.5 5.5 15.5 15.5 2 19.5 9.5 29 17 29.5 17.5 25 13.5 24 16.5 28.5 29 I 60.5 21 I 36 20 I 43.5 21.5 I 29.5 13 19 13.5 15.5 7 18.5 I 30.5 7.5 22.5 21.5 I 51.5 31 61 70 34.5 26 24 29 9.5 3.5 45 50 I 60 34.5 I 24 4 I 38.5 3.5 65 54.5 77 65.5 I 72 54 51 56 70.5 68 I 81 65.5 74 66 75 69.5 82 7 10.5 51.5 17.5 1 38.5 19 18.5 17 19.5 9.5 3.5 19 8 6 1.5 9.5 3.5 52 40.5 28.5 19.5 44 35 Computer-aided Manufacturing 3 9 23 75 76 82 78 79 76.5 64.5 72 75 68 60 65.5 71 73.5 64.5 72 80 80 67 76 81 80.5 79.5 79.5 76.5 82 81.5 79 81.5 80 79 79.5 79.5 81 15.5 I 60.5 I 41.5 20.5 I 33.5 14.5 I 28.5 10.5 6 63 I 61.5 26 75.5 I 25 8.5 I 67 26.5 I 60 20 49 40 10 11 D 25 40 I 36 9.5 I 71.5 50.5 I 78.5 30.5 I 64 14 I 78.5 46.5 75 65 67.5 I 71.5 54 80 75.5 7 36 5 I 43.5 23.5 I 57 76.5 26 26 33 80.5 70 D 20.5 40 I 33 14 I 56.5 33 75 67.5 70 54.5 59 D 35.5 52 54.5 57.5 67.5 59 75 82 82 76 75 81 81 78 76 72 Table A1: Present (P) and Future (F) Rankings of Technologies Professional Activities Support the existing applications Support hardware Support information access and security Support end-users Support user-developed systems G B/F ICT P F P F P 15 15 D2 10 12.5 D 4.5 13 16.5 18 I 14 9.5 4 I6 1 20 21 W/R F Support T/T H M/E P F P F P F P F 16 D 11 21 5.5 5 D 2.5 10.5 4 4.5 18 20 D7 15.5 D4 8 D1 14 D2 11.5 3.5 3.5 4.5 3.5 2 1 1.5 4.5 2 6.5 4.5 10.5 7.5 5.5 6 7 8.5 2 3.5 6.5 7.5 D1 11.5 19.5 21 10.5 13.5 18 19 19 20.5 19 19 20 19.5 Systems/Software Development Develop applications in-house Analyze business problems and create IT solution Purchase and tailor application software Develop databases Evaluate and select software packages I 17 12 D 10.5 20 D 15.5 21 18 19 19 20.5 D 17 21 18 21 I 8.5 4.5 4 3.5 1 1.5 1.5 1 I 11 3.5 2.5 1 9.5 11.5 D 4.5 9.5 16.5 16 19.5 19 7 8.5 D9 16.5 16 18 D 13.5 19.5 2 4.5 16.5 16 D 7.5 16 I 20 15.5 D 5.5 12 20 20 13.5 16.5 D 13 18 7 9 15.5 16 15.5 15.5 19 16.5 13 16.5 13.5 11.5 Training/Education Train and educate IT professionals Train and educate end-users I 11 7 14 12 21 18 1.5 4.5 I 13 8 I 14.5 7.5 9.5 8 1 3 10.5 14 12.5 10 3.5 4.5 3 1.5 6.5 4.5 16 14.5 Management/Planning The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 Manage/plan development and implementation Manage/plan the feasibility/approval process for new IT Manage/plan corporate strategic IT architecture/applications 25 3 2 4 3.5 5.5 7.5 I 11 4.5 15 15 D 4.5 10.5 6.5 8 11 14 7 3.5 15.5 13.5 11 12 I 11 6 D 10 15 I 13.5 4.5 16 16.5 7 3.5 I 10.5 4.5 13 12 7.5 10.5 I 18 12 18 14.5 Implementation Implement new and changed computer based business process Implement data management procedures Implement system evaluation processes 7 9.5 10.5 7.5 7.5 10 I 18 8.5 11 8 I 10 6 I 9.5 2 18.5 16.5 I 16.5 12 3.5 3 14 12 15 13 10 9 D4 8 18.5 19 19.5 16 I 15.5 7.5 15.5 15.5 17 18 14.5 13 18 16.5 Integration Integrate existing and new applications Integrate networks Integrate data types 8.5 6 1 3.5 2 1.5 7 4.5 15 14 I8 3 I 9.5 4.5 11 9.5 13 12 9 10 7 8.5 7.5 10.5 I 12 4.5 4 1 21 20 21 19 I 19.5 12 21 19 21 19 I 21 16.5 21 18 Table A2: Present (P) and Future (F) Rankings of Professional Activities IT Knowledge/Skills G B/F ICT W/R T/T H M/E F P F P F P F P F P F P F Technical Specialist 36 36 36 36 36 36 36 35 35 36 36 36 36 35.5 27.5 31 D 3 31 35 35 32.5 34 31 33 33 34 34 34 I 30 20.5 31 30 30.5 33 27 26.5 D 19.5 27.5 23 27 D 11.5 31 D 10 20.5 29 25.5 32 30 29 30.5 28 29 25.5 29 31 29 1.5 1 I 26.5 5.5 I 28 20.5 29 22.5 I 23 1.5 I 30 18 I 27.5 18.5 10 10.5 11.5 15 11 12.5 4.5 6.5 D 12 25 D 1.5 16 20 23 17.5 20.5 17 15 D 15.5 24 4.5 6.5 D 12 19.5 D 14 21 23.5 23 10 10.5 11.5 5.5 11 12.5 4.5 6.5 19.5 16 8.5 5.5 D 9 18.5 D 17.5 24.5 32 28 29 28 29 26.5 25 19.5 28.5 25.5 29.5 28 D 7 16 I 30 12 22.5 24 23 22.5 I 19.5 11.5 25.5 20 I 23.5 14.5 4.5 3.5 I 17 8 2 3.5 D 11.5 22.5 3.5 4 D 1.5 22 D 3 10 3 6 3 2 24.5 20.5 25 25 2 3 20 24 2 2 1.5 3.5 3 2 17 20.5 11.5 18 1 1.5 7 8.5 1 2 35 35 33 34 33.5 34 35 36 31 35 35 35 35 35.5 34 34 28 32 26.5 30 32.5 33 31 33 31 33 29.5 32 4.5 10.5 D 6 18.5 24.5 27 25 29 D 5 16 D 5.5 23 D 5.5 14.5 31 27 26.5 22.5 26.5 24 31 30.5 34 27.5 32 30 27.5 23 33 32 35 33 33.5 32 34 32 36 33 34 32 I 32 23 32 33 17 21 30.5 30 I 20.5 1 33 31 25.5 31 33 33 Technology Management I 12.5 2 7.5 5.5 18.5 12.5 11.5 6.5 7.5 8 11 8.5 5.5 2 P Assembly language Third generation languages (3GL) Fourth generation languages (4GL) Structured programming/CASE methods Web development System analysis structured analysis Systems life cycle management Systems integration Distributed processing Data management Relational databases Telecommunications Networks OS-mainframes OS-minis OS-micros Decision support systems Expert/AI systems A specific programming language Ability to learn new technologies Ability to focus on IT as a means to achieve an outcome Understand technological trends 12.5 6 15 3 5.5 18.5 15.5 4.5 5 7.5 2 I 22.5 15.5 16.5 Business Functional Knowledge of business functions 24 29 I 25 17 I 15.5 3.5 11.5 Ability to learn about business functions D 8 17 I 21 12 6 3.5 11.5 Interpret problems and design IT solutions 14.5 10.5 11.5 9.5 6 3.5 16.5 Understand business environments 14.5 13.5 17 12 11 12.5 D 4.5 Interpersonal and Management Skills Work cooperatively in 1-on-1/teams I 21.5 7.5 23.5 28 3.5 8 16.5 Deal with ambiguity 29 28 34 35 20.5 17.5 20.5 Maintain productive client relationships 20 13.5 17 15 3.5 8 20.5 Accomplish assignments 23 23 D 17 24 13.5 8 4.5 Teach others 25.5 26 23.5 28 20.5 26 20.5 Plan, organize and lead projects I 25.5 18 3 9.5 8.5 8 4.5 6.5 7.5 8 8.5 10.5 I 11.5 4.5 18 9.5 8 14 13.5 27 22.5 13.5 22 22.5 13.5 16.5 22.5 13.5 16.5 22.5 5.5 11 16 I 25.5 17.5 13 I 15 I 14 1 8 17.5 13 I 20 18 26 26 I 11 18 29 30 D 19 18 14.5 16 D 5.5 6.5 6 11.5 4 22.5 I 12 5 3 6.5 9.5 16 I 16 The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org 13 4.5 12 8 12 12 4 I 20 8 28 25.5 30 16 15 16.5 7 5.5 8 2.5 D 20 27 2.5 10 6 EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 26 Develop/deliver effective presentations Write/deliver effective presentations Be self-directed and proactive Be aware of organizational culture and policies I 27.5 20.5 D 9 18.5 1 1 I 16.5 6.5 I 19.5 11.5 I 21.5 5.5 15 16.5 I 21.5 7.5 D 11.5 20 13.5 17.5 11.5 6.5 I 14.5 6 25.5 19 20 23 D 17.5 24.5 17 22.5 8.5 8 4.5 6.5 I 24 16 I 21.5 10.5 D 15 23 D 17.5 30 22 25.5 D 6 20.5 25 28 D 3.5 11.5 28.5 25.5 D 15 23 Table A3: Present (P) and Future (F) Rankings of IT Knowledge/Skills High: Microcomputer OS; a client-server environment; LANs (cable); fibre optic; remote access protocols; gateways; network management; WAN; intranets; extranets; object oriented languages; project management methodology/software; relational databases; electronic commerce; TCP/IP; GUI interfaces; TPS, MIS, DSS, EIS, ERP, a WWW site, and WWW applications. Moderate: Cooperative/distributed processing; ISDN; procedure oriented, and rule based languages; 4GLs; object-oriented databases. Low: Mainframe OS; cellular technology; satellite communications; microwave; broadcasting; assembly languages; hybrid tools/systems; CASE; formal specification; hierarchical, and network databases; SNA/DEC Net; speech recognition, and video interfaces; expert systems, artificial intelligence systems, CAD/CAM; control system, MAP/TOP, and CIM applications. Table A4 (a): Technologies: No change in Importance for Most of the Sectors Present Ranking Future Ranking High Moderate Low See Table A4 (a) Open systems architectures; disk based database, and CD-ROM data storage No items High Virtual private networks; systems development Moderate methodology/software; data modeling; data mining Low No items No Data warehousing; agreement CRM among most sectors Minicomputer OS; RISC; groupware; logic based, and functional languages; distributed databases See Table A4 (a) Mobile computing OS; parallel architecture; voicemail; rule based, tools/systems; optical, and See Table A4 (a) erasable CD data storage ADSL; object-relational Access oriented databases; OSI; multimedia languages applications No agreement among most sectors Magnetic data storage; UNIX; keyboard interfaces Frame/object based tools/systems; scanning interfaces LANs (radio) Multidimensional databases Table A4 (b): Technologies: Changes in Importance for Most of the Sectors High: Support information access and security; support end-users; analyze business problems and create IT solutions; train and educate end-users; manage/plan development /implementation; integrate existing and new applications. Low: Support user-developed systems; develop applications in-house; purchase and tailor application software; develop databases; evaluate and select software packages; implement system evaluation processes; integrate data types. Table A5 (a): Professional Activities: No change in Importance for Most of the Sectors Future Ranking Present Ranking High High See Table A5 (a) Implement new/changed Moderate Integrate networks Low Support hardware No agreement among most sectors Support the existing portfolio of applications Manage/plan the feasibility and The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 Moderate Low 27 computer based business processes No items No items No items approval process for new IT Implement data management procedures No agreement Train and educate IT among most professionals sectors No items See Table A5(a) No items Manage/plan corporate strategic No items IT architecture and applications Table A5 (b): Professional Activities: Changes in Importance for Most of the Sectors High: Systems integration; relational databases; telecommunications; networks; ability to learn new technologies; ability to focus on IT as a means to achieve an outcome; understand technological trends; accomplish assignments; plan, organize and lead projects. Moderate: Systems life cycle management; maintain productive client relationship. Low: Assembly language; third generation languages; fourth generation languages; structured programming/CASE methods; distributed processing; OS- mainframe; OS-minis; decision support systems; expert/AI systems; a specific programming language; deal with ambiguity. Table A6 (a): IT Knowledge/Skills: No Change in Importance for Most of the Sectors Future Ranking Present Ranking High Moderate Low High See Table A6 (a) No items No items See Table A6 (a) No items Moderate Ability to learn about business functions; interpret problems and design IT solutions; understand business environments; develop/ deliver effective presentations Low No items No agreement Work cooperatively in 1-onamong most 1/teams sectors Web development; data management No items No agreement among most sectors Systems analysis /structured analysis; OS-micros Be self-directed and proactive Knowledge of business functions Teach others; aware of Write/deliver organizational culture effective and policies presentations See Table A6 (a) Table A6 (b): IT Knowledge/Skills: Changes in Importance for Most of the Sectors Present Future Technologies Highly Ranked Highly Ranked G: Cooperative/distributed processing. B/F: Access G: RISC. B/F: ISDN. ICT: Object-relational oriented languages; disk based database storage. databases; CRM. W/R: Data mining. T/T: Erasable CD. M/E: ADSL; video interfaces. H: Frame/object based tools/systems. M/E: Mobile computing OS; LANs (radio); erasable CD; speech Moderately Ranked B/F: Mainframe OS; a client-server environment; recognition; video. ERP. ICT: Cellular technology; broadcasting; Moderately Ranked G: RISC; access oriented languages; project management electronic commerce. W/R: Expert systems. methodology/software. B/F: UNIX. ICT: Broadcasting; T/T: Satellite communications; control system. fibre optic. W/R: Speech recognition. T/T: Expert systems. H: CD -ROM; EIS; a WWW site. M/E: Mobile computing OS. H: Logic based languages; CASE. M/E: Virtual private networks; a WWW site. Lowly Ranked B/F: 4GLs. ICT: ISDN. T/T: Data warehousing; DSS; Lowly Ranked The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org EJISDC (2007) 31, 7, 1-28 EIS. M/E: Cooperative /distributed processing; open systems architectures; rule based languages. 28 G: Multidimensional databases; ERP. ICT: Keyboard; scanning. W/R: Fibre optic. T/T: Procedure oriented languages. H: Object-relational databases; CD-ROM. Professional Activities Highly Ranked Highly Ranked G: Develop databases ICT: Implement system evaluation B/F: Evaluate and select software packages; processes. W/R: Purchase and tailor application software. manage/plan the feasibility process for new IT. T/T: Support hardware. Moderately Ranked B/F: Support end-users; develop applications in-house. Moderately Ranked G: Develop applications in-house; purchase and tailor ICT: Support user-developed systems. W/R: application software; support information access and Manage/plan development/implementation. H: security. B/F: Train and educate IT professionals. ICT: Implement data management procedures. M/E: Train and educate end-users; integrate data types. T/T: Integrate existing and new business applications. Develop databases. H: Implement system evaluation Lowly Ranked processes; manage /plan development/ implementation. G: Support the existing portfolio of applications; support information access and security. W/R: M/E: Support end -users; analyze business problems and Implement new/changed computer based business create IT solutions. processes. T/T: Manage/plan development/ Lowly Ranked implementation; integrate existing and new business G: Implement data management procedures. ICT: Train applications. and educate IT professionals. T/T: Manage/plan development/implementation; integrate existing and new M/E: Train and educate end-users. business applications. IT Knowledge and Skills Highly Ranked Highly Ranked G: Structured programming/CASE methods; Web G: OS-micros. W/R: Systems life cycle management; a development; data management. B/F: Third generation specific programming language. T/T: Be aware of languages. M/E: Fourth generation languages. organizational culture and policies. Moderately Ranked Moderately Ranked G: Distributed processing. B/F: Relational databases; G: Fourth generation languages; structured programming accomplish assignments. /CASE methods. B/F: A specific programming language. ICT: Networks; ability to learn new technologies; ICT: Be aware of organizational culture and policies; ability to focus on IT as a means to achieve an telecommunications. outcome; knowledge of business functions. T/T: W/R: Relational databases; work cooperatively in 1-onFourth generation languages; systems integration. H: 1/team environments. Telecommunications; Plan, organize and lead projects. T/T: Distributed processing; interpret problems and design M/E: Systems analysis/structured analysis. IT solutions; understand business environments; be selfdirected and proactive. Lowly Ranked G: Accomplish assignments; Plan, organize and lead Lowly Ranked projects; develop/deliver effective presentations. T/T: G: Knowledge of business functions. Be self-directed and proactive. H: Write/deliver W/R: Web development. effective presentations. M/E: Write/deliver effective presentations. M/E: Systems life cycle management. Table A7: Items Ranked in a Particular Manner by only One of the Sectors The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries http://www.ejisdc.org