Intelligent IT solutions as support for corporate decision-making in Tanzania.

Abstract

Intelligent IT solution (IITS) support is relatively new, and little is known about its benefits. A number of studies have been conducted in other countries and results have shown that IITS can support decision-makers at all levels of organizations where semistructured and unstructured problems occur. Other studies have also pointed out the key benefits derived from IITS support systems as, better quality decisions, improved managerial productivity, and support for achieving competitive advantage and business excellence. A survey involving 58 Executives (users of IITS) of whom 81.0% came from the financial industry was used to examine how corporate decision-making processes are in Tanzania supported by IITS. Results from a process-oriented evaluation indicate that executives do not believe their current systems had provided strong support in improving their decision performance. Analysis of this observation indicates that most managers use IITS as support for structured problems. From an output-oriented evaluation, benefits derived from 'Reporting DSS' were used to indicate that benefits are affected by four groups of factors: Industry, Organization, System and User attributes. What a firm can do to get the maximum benefit from using IITS is proposed and recommendations for various strategies for introducing a change into an organization are presented in this study.