| dc.description.abstract | This research explored the opportunities and potential offered by open source software to commercial banks in Kenya, and the extent of adoption of open source software. This study also explored the challenges encountered in the adoption of open source software, as an alternate to the proprietary software, in computing. The study focused on all the 43 commercial banks in Kenya. The banking sector was selected largely because it has always taken a lead role in implementing strategic management practices and is reported to spend huge amounts on the same. The respondents were IT Managers in the 43 commercial banks.
The questionnaires were used to collect information from the information technology department and other employees concerned with informatiori technology adoption and implementation. The basis of using descriptive measure was to give a basis for determining the weights of the variables under the study. The findings were then . presented using tables, pie charts, and bar graphs for. easier interpretation. The analysis and data collected the following discussions, conclusions and recommendations were made.
The study revealed that the majority of respondents were males. Majority of these respondents were in their positions for about 5 years, had a degree and were of age 30 years and below which was a clear indication that they were young. On the extent of use of OSS in the commercial banks, the survey findings indicate that majority of the banks were partially using open source on their desktop computers and planned to increase the OSS share by adopting to replace some components.
The OSS applications that were mostly being used were Linux and Mozilla. The survey findings indicate that OSS in commercial banks in Kenya is widely being used and there are various challenges being faced in the adoption. These challenges include a need for an analysis of a return on investment on using OSS, high switching costs when migrating from proprietary software to OSS and uncertainty on the availability of support services. | en_US |
