Information Systems Deployment in Libyan Oil Companies: Two Case Studies

Abstract

This article assesses information systems deployment in two oil companies in Libya and thereby helps address the general shortage of information on the implementation of information systems in Libyan companies. It explores the information systems strategies of these two companies and explores and analyses how these have been implemented in recent years. One company has pursued an in‐house/best of breed approach, whilst the other is in the process of migrating to an integrated ERP software solution. The study uses a number of analytical models developed in a western context in recent years to assess the status and nature of IS deployment, and concludes that a combination of these models is of value in an IS industry context in developing world countries.

Information Management in a Collaboratively-Developed Approach to Enterprise Resource Planning—A Higher Education Perspective

“…This provides a much wider view, as is shown in the Analysis section. Additionally, IS deployment in Libyan oil companies was assessed by using similar methods to those of [23]. All of these studies investigated IS deployment from a managerial or strategical perspective, unlike this study, whose aim was to assess universities' readiness for building their own systems and assess the appropriateness of the CD-ERP model as a solution.…”

E-business in the university sector: A case study from Libya

“…This framework has been used to assess information systems in Libyan banks (Sharkasi and Wynn, 2011), and in Libyan oil companies (Akeel, Wynn and Zhang, 2013). The Design -Actuality Gap model developed by Heeks (2002) identifies four main elements of change that are key to transitioning an organisation from local actuality -where the organisation is now -to its future state or design.…”

The Adoption of e-business Technologies and Processes in Nigerian Small Business Enterprises.

“…In the research of IS, interpretivism has been widely adopted and is a very well established philosophical viewpoint to investigate the phenomena (Walsham, 2006;Johari, 2009). This philosophical stance has been applied in several IS studies to understand the social context of an IS use and adoption by researchers such as Prananto, McKay and Marshall (2003), Avgerou (2007) and Akeel, Wynn and Zhang (2013). According to Goldkuhl (2012), an IS researcher should adopt an interpretivist stance when the research aims to understand interesting phenomena.…”

“…The training of staff is expected to be a constant activity across several stages of this framework because, for an e-business system to be effective, the people who work with the systems must understand how the systems work and feel comfortable to be able to carry out their activities using such system. In their research, Akeel, Wynn and Zhang, (2013) suggest that in order for the deployment of technology in organisations to be efficient, training of staffs using the systems should not be left out of the deployment process and plan. From the case study findings, various approaches were taken by different organisations on training staff to be comfortable with using the systems.…”

“…While the potential of e-business to transform businesses has motivated adoption in many developed countries (Daniel, Wilson and Myers, 2002;Akeel, Wynn and Zhang, 2013), existing literature on the adoption of e-business in developing countries has highlighted some challenges and adoption barriers (Erumi-Esin and Heeks, 2015). This chapter reviews e-business adoption from both a developed and developing countries' perspective and discusses important elements of adoption.…”