Comment faciliter l’intégration des TIC dans les PME ? Telle est la question que se pose le Gouvernement Colombien depuis la fin des années 1990. Sept ans après la définition de la stratégie régionale eLAC2007, et douze ans après la signature de la Déclaration de Florianópolis, nous ouvrons un espace de réflexion sur la portée des actions développées par le Gouvernement Colombien dans le but de promouvoir les TIC dans les micros, petites et moyennes entreprises, durant la période 2000-2010.L’étude des diverses sources d’information disponibles dans ce domaine, ainsi que la réalisation de plusieurs entretiens et l’application d’un instrument d’enquête, nous ont permis de définir le contexte et la problématique globale de l’intégration des TIC dans les PME à partir de trois perspectives telles que : l’orientation des Politiques Publiques TIC, l’application des programmes, et la portée de la stratégie du Gouvernement.Ce projet de recherche nous a également permis d’identifier les principaux obstacles à la participation des PME dans la Société de l’Information, et de générer une série de conclusions et de recommandations susceptibles de contribuer à l’amélioration de l’action du Gouvernement, lui donnant une chance supplémentaire d’atteindre les objectifs qui ont été fixés dans le Plan National de Développement. / How to facilitate the integration’s of the ICT in the SME? This is the question asked by the Colombian’s Government since the end of the nineties.Seven years after defining the regional strategy eLAC 2007 and twelve years after the signature of the Florianopolis’ Declaration, we open a new way of thinking about the impact of the actions developed by the Colombian’s Government in order to promote the ICT in the micros, smalls and mediums companies between 2000 and 2010.The study of various sources available in this area, together with the achievement of several interviews and the application of a survey instrument, allowed us to define the context and the global issue of the ICT integration in the SME from three points of view such as: the orientation of the Public Policies ICT, the programs’ application, and the scope of the Governments’ strategy.This research’s program helped us to identify the major obstacles in the participation of the SME in the Information Society, and to generate a series of conclusions and recommendations which can contribute to improve the Government’s action. This will give it one more chance to reach the objectives fixed by the National Development Plan.

The accelerating growth of e-business and technologies has raised the interest in transforming traditional business models or developing new ones. Most of the e-business model research has been devoted to giving taxonomies of e-business models. Though defining e-business model and decomposing it into atomic elements traditionally has been a task for researchers, the concepts surrounding them have been subject to debate lately. While there is an extensive research conducted towards identifying and analyzing key components in e-business models, limited research has been noted in identifying component values or factors and the interconnections between components. In this thesis we review the e-business models literature using literature study in order to give an overview of e-business model definitions, identify the component values and interconnections between components and finally a framework provided that shows all these components, values and interconnections.

Målet med studien är att undersöka vilka konsekvenser tillväxt har på små- och mellanstora fö- retags ICT-system samt hur de bör gå till väga för att hantera de problem som uppstår. Genom en fallstudie har det framkommit att snabbt växande organisationer prioriterar vinstgi- vande processer. Allt för ofta bortprioriteras ICT-systemen och till följd av detta blir ett ineffek- tivt arbetssätt en stor kostnad. Denna fältstudie bevisar vår tes om prioritetshandlingar och ineffektivitet samt leder till en stra- tegisk plan för hur en organisation ska sammanlänka sitt aktivitetssystem med deras ICT-system med hjälp av gemensam inriktning för ICT- samt affärsstrategier.

Purpose: The aim of the study was establish if increased information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure investment at the macro level improves the micro level ICT Maturity level within small and medium enterprises (SME’s in Africa. The research further established if urban SME’s benefit more than rural SME’s in terms of ICT maturity level if there has been increased ICT infrastructure investment. Methods: The study makes use of factor analysis to compose a composite index that measures the ICT maturity levels within SME’s in Africa. Further to this it uses that composite index to do statistical tests on the means of samples to answer hypothesis based on the research questions posed. Results: The study finds that there is a significant difference in the ICT maturity level of small and medium businesses in African countries where there has been and increased level of ICT infrastructure investment. Furthermore the study finds that in those African countries where there has been increased ICT infrastructure investment urban SME’s have higher ICT maturity level than rural SME’s. Conclusion: This study has important implications for governmental as well as private sector policy relating to ICT infrastructure investment. The study further also empirically could guide ICT investment towards rural SME’s as a means of improving economic benefit from ICT. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / pagibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

This study investigates ICT in Saudi HE as represented by the researcher’s own institution: King Saud University (KSU). Using a naturalistic approach in pursuing the inquiry and making use of mixed methods, the research questions were investigated using surveys and in-depth interviews. A convenient sample of the University’s stakeholders; namely the senior managers, the academic staff and the students were investigated and asked to explain the process of ICT adoption and deployment on the management level; their use and adoption of ICT in their personal and professional activities and elaborate on the ICT adoption process at KSU and compare it to that of other universities. They also related these experiences to the University’s plans and efforts in this regard. The findings indicated a boom in ICT adoption over the course of the recent years. However, this process did not follow a clear strategic plan. Rather, it was based on an administrative decision by the recently appointed KSU management. The rector’s positive attitude and belief in ICT played a role in this process. The study showed that KSU administration values ICT and views it as a means for the University to achieve its aims. The results also showed the increasing use of ICT among the three groups in the study both on personal and professional levels. While these professional purposes may differ between the three groups in this research, results indicate that there is an increasing implementation of ICT in the daily work of all the groups, both in and out of KSU. These uses are also supported by the positive attitudes all the stakeholders hold towards ICT, as the study indicated. The study also revealed the aspiration of both KSU and Higher Education System in the country in general, and the role that ICT is perceived to play in helping them to achieve these aspirations. Results indicated that the current state of ICT in Saudi HE is increasing when compared to that of other universities and countries, especially in terms of hardware implementation. Although it was not possible to achieve specific comparisons between Saudi universities due to lack of data and access, many different comparison points were pointed and elaborated on both nationally and internationally. Finally, the study revealed many ICT enablers in the Saudi HE system, such as the generous financial support provided by the government, the positive attitudes, and the changing role of the university, as well as the technical, administrative and sociocultural barriers facing more ICT integration in Saudi HE, and how KSU dealt with these opportunities and threats. Based on the results, implications for future research were elicited and recommendations for better practice were provided. The urgent need for a clear ICT strategic plan for KSU as well as the other Saudi universities seems inevitable. A need for clear benchmarks within this plan is an important indicator of the need for the institution to evaluate the process. Of importance concern is the fact that these plans need to include all the stakeholders in the planning phase so as to properly conduct the assessment, implementation and evaluation successfully.

Magister Scientiae (Physiotherapy) - MSc(Physio) / The use of information and communication technology to support physiotherapy students in South Africa Over the past few decades, there has been a global shift toward the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in healthcare, which has been shown to enhance the support provided to healthcare professionals, as well as to improve service delivery, patient care and student education. This study aims to investigate the use of ICT at South African universities to provide support to physiotherapy students and what the experiences and perceptions of those students are on the use of ICT as a means of receiving support. The study design was a cross-sectional, descriptive survey using a self-administered questionnaire. The survey population included all of the undergraduate physiotherapy students (n=1105) from six of the eight universities offering the physiotherapy degree in South Africa. The sample size consisted of the 529 students from the survey population who had completed and returned questionnaires, indicating a response rate of 47.8%. The results of the study showed that the use of ICT varied according to racial demographics, as well as the university attended and that there was a preference among students (94.7%) for face-to-face contact as the method by which support was accessed. Furthermore, confidence in the use of ICT for research and in promoting academic development was low (42.9% and 39.1% respectively), which raises concerns with the shift in healthcare toward evidence-based practices. In conclusion, there is a concern that with the move toward community based service delivery in South Africa, certain groups of physiotherapy students may not be well placed to make use of ICT services as a means of accessing support.

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / The development of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) in recent decades represents a material foundation for a networked society and the emergence of new economies (Knowledge Society) and is now directly affecting individuals and whole societies. ICT is now an indisputable component of addressing the major issues of equity, sustainability and global competitiveness. Being still in its early developmental phase in many developing countries (such as South Africa), Knowledge Society requires profoundly new ways of thinking, working and living, which includes building of new capacities for the entire nation. These capacities are inter alia inevitably associated with the use of ICT and are often referred to as e-skills. These skills broadly described as the ability to develop and use ICT to adequately participate in an environment increasingly dominated by access to electronically enabled information and a well-developed ability to synthesise this into effective and relevant knowledge. In order to address a considerable deficiency in e-skills (estimated shortage of 70000 e-skilled people), the South African government through the Department of Communication has established the e-Skills Institute (e-SI) with the mandate to concentrate on the development of adequate skills to allow its citizens to improve their capacities to use all forms of ICT at work, in their education, in their personal lives and in their governance. In this regard, the e-SI is also responsible for creating appropriate policies which should be linked to other relevant national (e.g. Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), 2009 – 2014) and international (e.g. UN Millennium Development Goals - MDGs) developmental strategies. However, while participating in the development of the current national e-skills policy (the National e-Skills Plan of Action – NeSPA1), the author realised that there were not readily available guidelines or frameworks that could advise policy development in this area. It seems that much space in the policy development is left to the policy-makers own values, experience, expertise, judgement, the influence of lobbyists and pressure groups, pragmatism, or based on the resources available, than on evidence. Thus, this study set the following objectives:  To understand the theoretical and contextual background of policy-making;  To explore existing policy-making frameworks that might be relevant to e-skills policy-making;  To identify and classify e-skills related elements obtained from pertinent literature;  To verify these policy-making elements by interviewing experienced policy-makers in the fields of ICT and e-skills;  To suggest a framework for e-skills policy-making in the South African developmental context; and  To explain the use of the elements within the proposed e-skills policy-making framework. These objectives were achieved by reviewing the pertinent literature, which led to the construction of the conceptual model for e-skills policy-making in South Africa. This model consists of eight elements: (i) Context-related awareness, (ii) Collaborative e-skills ecology, (iii) Excellence education for all, (iv) Futures of ICT capabilities and knowledge infrastructure, (v) Research and development, (vi) Cost and affordability, (vii) E-inclusion and (viii) Monitoring and evaluation. This model was subsequently empirically tested using the Interpretive hermeneutic research approach by interviewing a number of policy-makers in the fields of e-skills or broader field of ICT policy-making. The empirical findings confirmed validity of the above e-skills policy-making elements but also elicited two new elements: (ix) Integration and systemic approach and (x) Aggregation. Consequently, these elements were assembled together into a framework for e-skills policy-making in South Africa. In order to make the proposed e-skills policy-making framework operational, the next step of this study was to relate this framework to the policy-making processes. This was done by positioning elements of e-skills policy-making framework within the EU "Policy making 3.0" process model. The main contribution of this study is seen in the fact that it brings a novel e-skills policy-making framework particularly design for the South African context but keeping in mind that it can possibly be used in other similar developing countries. Theoretically, this study has added to the academic understanding of significance of certain concepts for e-skills policy-making derived from the pertinent literature but also those identified empirically by this research. Now this study can be used for a practical implementation and also as a base for further academic research. This study also has some limitations mainly seen through a fairly small research sample caused by absence or unavailability of experienced policy-makers. However, it is believed that this limitation did not limit validity of results and the practical and academic contribution of this study.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers define ICT and i which ways they implement ICT in their teaching. A further purpose is to investigate which factors that affect the possibility to implement ICT in the classroom. To be able to investigate these subjets I prepared following questions:   In which ways does the teachers implement ICT while they are teaching swedish?   How does the teachers define the term ICT?   Which factors affect the possibility to impement ICT in the classrom while teaching swedish?   The theoretical framework of the study is based on different ways on implement ICT in the classroom and a definition of the the term ICT. A further theoretical view is presented as framefactors that has an impact on possibilitys of teaching. The study is based on a qualitative method witch both interviews and observations. The study shows a variation of results. Accordnig to the informants the meaning of ICT is everytime you use technology while they are teaching. The study also shows that teachers implement ICT in various ways. They use an interactive whritingboard or projector as a complement during presentations, they use ipads as a whriting device. They also use ICT in other ways such as doing different quizzes using a program called kahoot and as a helping device in the pupils reading process. The study also shows that there is many different factors that affect the possibility to implement ICT in the classroom. Time and the variations of rescources are both factors that has an impact on the uce of ICT in the classroom. Another factor that affected the use is school culture and the ICT konowledge of the individual teacher.

Les TIC évoluent, vite et profondément. Autrement dit, l'évolution des TIC est susceptible d'avoir un effet encore plus profond qu'aujourd'hui sur la structuration des territoires, les modes de vie et les formes de socialisation, la localisation et l'organisation des activités, les conditions de compétitivité des territoires, etc. S'intéresser aux TIC dans la prospective territoriale ne signifie donc pas de céder à un quelconque déterminisme technologique, mais enrichir la liste des variables et paramètres qui influent sur l'avenir des territoires – voire même, identifier de nouveaux domaines de R&D pertinents à soutenir.L’objectif de notre thèse est d’analysé le rôle qui peut jouer l’Université Numérique dans la structuration de territoire donnée, ainsi qu’une mise en ouvre possible pour la Tunisie. / ICT evolve quickly and deeply. In other words, the development of ICT is likely to have a more profound effect on today's territorial structure, lifestyles and forms of socialization, location and organization, conditions competitiveness of territories, etc. Interest in ICT in regional foresight does not mean giving in to any technological determinism, but add to the list of variables and parameters that affect the future of the territories - even, identify new areas of relevant R & D support.The aim of this thesis is to analyze the role that can play the Digital University in structuring given territory, as well as implementing best to Tunisia.

The content of the thesis is a complex overview of development of ICT used in accounting since its beginning to the present. The thesis is devided into four chapters: General accounting forms and techniques and their development, Impacts of ICT on accounting, Modern approaches of accounting and Possible ways of further development.