ICT As a Strategy For Competitive Positioning in The Construction Industry in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

ICT provides opportunities for firms of all sizes to innovate, increase efficiency and gain access to new market at home and abroad. Governments should foster appropriate business environment for the ICT uptake and target programs to overcome market failures. The purpose of the study was to ascertain the role of ICT as a strategy for enhancing competitive positioning in the construction industry Nairobi County Kenya. Its objectives were to identify the types of ICT strategies used in the construction industry in Kenya, highlight challenges that hindered firms from gaining full benefits of ICT strategy in the construction industry and examine the effects of ICT investment towards firms’ competitive positioning in the construction industry in Kenya. The study used descriptive research design and its population was 540 construction firms in Nairobi County. The study used stratified sampling technique to select a sample size of 54 respondents. The study found that the critical success factors (CSF) for the successful implementation and management of information systems were continuous training on ICT at 29 (55%) and support from software vendors at 29 (55%). Under competitive positioning based on ICT strategies, 41 (77%) of the respondents stated that to a very large extent, ICT had enhanced the company revenue, 40 (75%) stated that ICT had enhanced delivery speed to a very large extent. It was concluded that there was an ICT strategic plan, ICT department and an ICT road map in the construction firms studied. However, the ICT guide, manual and strategy were not being implemented. That the main barriers that faced the successful implementation of ICT were issues related to network and communication infrastructure, inefficient use of construction model software and processes that were not defined successfully. The study recommended that all firms should ensure they develop an ICT strategic plan or road map to guide them in ICT strategy execution and incorporate a mix of ICT strategies to enhance competitive position. Firms should ensure that ICT trainings are incorporated into the main business of the company to empowerment of staff.