Influence of Information Technology Systems on Performance of Courier Service Providers in Kisumu City, Kenya

Kenya Logistic performance Index ranking was 74th out of 160 countries and is among the top 10 low income performers. In addition Information transfers rate were limited to only manual processes. This is despite Government involvement in developing IT infrastructure and regulation in the Courier Service Industry. Although there has been, a tremendous growth in the sector according to statistics by the Kenya economic survey (2015. The timely and accurate information has become more critical in the Courier Service Industry. This is more so because implementing Information Technology system is an expensive undertaking. To this end the problem of this study was to examine the contribution of Information technology systems to performance of Courier service providers in Kisumu City Kenya with a view to enhancing their operation in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. The Specific objectives were to determine the influence of Transaction function system, Collaborative system, Decision Support system and to explore the relationship between Information Technology Systems on performance of Courier Service Providers in Kisumu City, Kenya. The Study was guided by Transaction cost Theory. The target population for this study was all the 20 compliant Licensed Courier service providers in Kisumu City out of which10% were delineated for pilot study. All the 18 service providers were included in the study using the census sampling method. Purposive sampling was then used to select 36 respondents of 1.Manager and 1.supervisor. Data collection was done through; semi structured questionnaires for primary Data, Validity of the instrument was determined by the supervisors as logical on the face of it. Cronbach?s Alpha statistics was used to measure the internal reliability of the Instrument at ? = 78.9%, Data analysis was done using both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics was analyzed using means, standard deviations and percentages, and presented in Tables, Inferential statistics was analyzed using Chi-square(X2) tested the association between the variables. On objective one, two and three the study found that three variables: transaction, collaborative and decision support system has statistical significant influence on performance. This implies that information technology system adoption can enhance efficiency and effectiveness of Courier Service Providers The findings revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between Information Technology systems and performance. The study concludes that the adoption and integration of Information systems functions both internally and externally, would make Courier service have competitive advantage, efficiency and effectiveness in operations. The study therefore recommends that all courier service providers embrace Information Technology systems. This study is therefore significant and offer guidelines to the sector on how to enhance performance and encourage co-operation with other logistics providers to be more competitive.