Abstract: Information Communication and Technology (ICT) utilization has become a backbone of e-government implementation. Six components of information system (hardware, software, people, data, process and network) are combined to deliver information from government to their citizen as part of public services. However, there is an interoperability challenge on e-government implementation related to information system. Organizations in Kenya have automated processes and digitize services and information using various information systems e.g. IFMIS systems which acts as a financial management of government departments. These systems due to different vendors and their use of different storage types, data formats, languages and middleware platform have become diverse, thus the issue of e-government information system heterogeneity and interoperability. This has led to the need for organizations to share information and services through interoperability platforms. Currently most e-government platforms are independent thus result to lack of integration, inconsistency of meaningful data, redundancy of effort and lack of integration. The main aim of this Study was to develop an interoperability framework for e-government information system which will improve efficiency and effectiveness of government services through accurate information among various information systems while the specific objectives were to identify the factors that affected e-government information system interoperability, determine the critical factors that influenced e-government information system interoperability. The Research design used was exploratory study of both national and county governments in Kenya. It focused on the way public organizations managed identity-related data and the sharing of such data, either with other public agencies or with private organizations. The study adopted a mixed methods approach where both quantitative and qualitative data was used. Quantitative data was analyzed descriptively based on the information from the questionnaire and based on the research questions. Factor analysis was conducted on the two sets of data. The target population was users of e-government information systems in county government and government ministries in Kenya. The study sample was drawn from two county governments and two huduma centres in Kenya. Descriptive statistical analysis and principal component analysis was used. The findings of this study will be essential to both the government and county governments in improving efficiency and effectiveness of government services and also form a basis for future development of interoperability of e-government information systems. The framework was successfully accepted by the experts who were interviewed by the researcher. The framework recombines interoperability framework of e-government in guiding decision makers to better manage issues related to e-government information system interoperability.
Keywords: Information system, Heterogeneity, Interoperability, e-Government information systems, IFMIS
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DOI:
10.17148/IJARCCE.2018.71025
