Effects of Electronic Sourcing Adoption on Supply Chain Efficiency in Telecommunication Industry: A Case Study of MTN Rwanda

Before introduction of e-Sourcing, the Supply Chain was not proactive rather reactive. Several tasks in procurement were performed after a Purchase Requested for goods or services is made by the department. Also, procurement could negotiate a contract after it was already signed. This process was difficult because the supplier had zero incentive to meet any of procurement entity's demands. It is no longer this scenario where the seller controls the market. Today, technology has shifted the balance of power to buyers. By automating the procurement process and the sourcing of suppliers with company intelligence and market insights, e-Sourcing solutions are empowering businesses to take back control of supply chain. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of e-Sourcing adoption on Supply Chain Efficiency in the Rwanda Telecommunication industry; with MTN Rwanda as a case study and aimed at identifying the main adopted e-Sourcing technologies, areas of applicability of e-Sourcing and electronic auctions, and finally, the main benefits and criticalities for both buyers and sellers involved in the sourcing process. The researcher uses descriptive statistics and the population of the study consisted of 265 employees of MTN Rwanda randomly selected as a sampling technique of this research study. The study used a stratified sampling technique; the strata was derived from the various employment levels including top, middle and low-level management. The study used a sample of 20% from the population to select 53 respondents. The research based on primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through open ended and closed ended questionnaires structured to meet the objectives of the study. To collect secondary data, books, literature review, journals, business magazines, internet and other relevant materials were used. With descriptive and inferential statistics in IBM SPSS Version 24, the researcher performed data entry and analysis using mean, frequency, and standard deviation. Furthermore, Pearson Chi-Square was used to measure the effect size of e-Sourcing Adoption on Supply Chain Efficiency. The outcome of the study was that MTN Rwanda adopted e-Sourcing to manage some of its Supply Chain operations though it has not been integrated with other systems working in silos. The integration with Spend Analysis Software and ERP would perfectly automate the overall Supply Chain operations thus resulting in supply Chain efficiency.