M. Tech. Business Administration / An Enterprise Resource Planning system is complex software that ties together and automates the processes in a business. The benefits of having an Enterprise Resource Planning system included having a single database that allowed the data to be available across all business units. Small, Medium Enterprises, and Large South African companies, have introduced Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as a means of improving productivity and efficiency over the past few years. Various South African companies have experienced difficulties in the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems because they are costly in terms of finance and time. This study aims to analyse the degree to which the South African company Iliad Africa has benefited from the implementation of an ERP system.

D. Tech. Business Information Systems / Review of previous and related works highlighted significant gaps in the previous strategic information systems planning studies, and these gaps need to be addressed. Firstly, the examination of strategic information systems planning success and five contextual factors (environmental uncertainty, organisational structure, government and policies, business strategy orientation and information systems maturity) has not yet been thoroughly and empirically researched simultaneously, notably in the context of a developing country like South Africa. The investigation of the moderating role of contingency variables in the relationship between strategic information systems planning process phases and strategic information systems planning success in the context of South African medium enterprises provided an empirically informed understanding of these factors and their effect, which tend to be different from that of studies conducted in the developed countries. Secondly, literature lacks a developed and empirical validated contingency model for measuring the success of strategic information systems planning. The present study developed such model, using a Structural Equation Modelling and analysis in the context of South African medium enterprises. That is, the use of Structural Equation Modelling helped provide a validated contingency model which indicates the pertinent factors for measuring strategic information systems planning success, in the context of South African medium enterprises.

M.Comm. / The fertiliser and related activities of Sasol Fertilizers were consolidated during 2000 under the new name Sasol Agri. Sasol Fertilizers is a business unit of Sasol Agri, and is responsible for the manufacturing and marketing of quality fertiliser products for the group. Through its business units, Sasol Agri manufactures a full range of granular and liquid fertilisers, bulk-blend mixtures, ammoniated phosphates, sulphate of ammonia and nitrogenous products for the South African and export markets. This division was established in 1981 to use ammonia derived from the Sasol coal to oil refining process to produce fertiliser. Production commenced in 1983. Today Sasol Fertilizers is a dynamic producer and marketer of fertiliser products in both local and export markets. The Sasol Fertilizers factory is located in Secunda, about 150 kilometres expanded its investment in liquid fertilisers by acquiring the remaining 50% shareholding in the Delmas Fertiliser Group. This business has been identified as a growth area and additional resources have been allocated to product development and expansion in South Africa to service local demand.

Public sector decision makers are confronted by pressures to make faster and better decisions as a result of the competitive environment they operate in. However, there is a trend in the public sector, including the Department of Transport (DoT) in South Africa, to invest in management information systems (MIS) that are highly fragmented and not aiding effective and timely decision-making. As a result, the country witnessed several service delivery protests since 2008 which also affected the public transport sector, such as the widespread burning of Metrorail trains several times by angry commuters. In most instances, poor service delivery emanates from the fact that public servants do not have information at their fingertips to make decisions. This quantitative study utilised Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies 5 (COBIT 5) as a theoretical framework to investigate the integration of MIS at the DoT with a view to enhancing business intelligence for effective decision-making. Data were collected through a questionnaire directed at middle managers and senior managers that were selected through stratification of business units at the DoT, as well as analysis of documents such as system specifications and strategic plans. The study established that the DoT has several systems such as Alfresco, BAS, GIS, Logis and Persal to name a few, which serve different purposes. However, in most instances, the systems are not integrated as the current infrastructure did not support integration needs and plans to accommodate changing requirements. This is compounded by the system policy implementation constraints, as well as ageing legacy systems that are obsolete. The only component where MIS was found to be integrated, was in the financial business units (Supply Chain Management, Finance and Budgeting). Core business units use off-the-shelf systems and, in some cases, custom-made applications that do not integrate with any other system and thus hinder decision-making. In conclusion, decisions are made based on thumb-sucking, as management does not have access to comprehensive information that is stored in fragmented unintegrated systems. The study recommends that governance structures should be set up to deal with a more holistic business, information and technology architecture for the DoT that enable integration of various systems for effective decision-making. Failure to transform this pattern would lead to service delivery protests persisting. A further study on a framework to integrate MIS in the public sector is recommended. / Information Science / M. Inf.