Factors that influence the acceptance of the revenue management system at the eThekwini municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

Traditional business processing models have been transformed by the intervention of technology. Technology has generally improved levels of productivity, efficiency, and accuracy when it comes to the processing of data. These attributes of the technological era have prompted many organisations to make a substantial investment in technological systems with the expectation of making achieving a competitive advantage and an elevated level of maturity of technology usage. This trend has been followed in the domain of public sector governance with many South African municipalities opting to follow the business model of using technological systems to replace manual systems and to redesign process models so that there is a strong alignment with the technology. However, the expectation of success due to technological intervention does not always guarantee a successful outcome. This has been prompted in response to anecdotal evidence that attests to a failed information system used by the eThekwini Municipality in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The main purpose of the system is to collect revenue from the citizens of the municipality based on services that are delivered at the municipality. The empirical phase of the study focused on the use of the Revenue Management System (RMS) at the eThekwini Municipality, South Africa. The study is aimed at evaluating the user acceptance of the RMS by employees of the eThekwini Municipality. The objective of the study is to ascertain the influence that technology acceptance factors play on the end users’ intention to accept the RMS at the eThekwini Municipality. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model was used to underpin a quantitative empirical phase. The main output from the study is the analysis of a set of technology acceptance factors that influence the usage of the system. Primary data was collected using questionnaire from 180 employees, and only 105 responses of which only 102 were useful. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the primary data collected. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to address the research objectives. The research findings of this study have revealed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions are the factors that significantly influence employees’ behavioural intention to accept and use RMS at the municipality. With the research findings and the recommendations presented, the management should ensure that the RMS at the municipality is improved, this will contribute to the optimum usage of the system thereby improving staff morale and contribute towards better service delivery to the citizens of the eThekwini Municipality.