Manufacturing information and database systems adoption and usage trends in Zimbabwe’s industries

Abstract

 
In the modern day’s global environment, data and information has become a central productive and strategic asset, and the  success of the organization depends on its ability to gather, produce, maintain and disseminate this information for its benefit and  those in its value chain. The article details the results from a study concerning different types of software packages used by  Zimbabwe’s manufacturing and engineering firms. The participants were categorized into six industries as, Academic, Power  Generation, Manufacturing Chemicals, Manufacturing Engineering, Mining and Transportation. The study revealed that 97% of  the companies under investigation had a software package installed for their operations. The “big five” software packages in use in Zimbabwe are SYSPRO, SAGE, SAP, ELLIPSE, Navision and SCADA DELTA V. In the manufacturing sector SYSPRO has  the largest market share of 86%. ELLIPSE is largely used in the mining sectors. Companies spend approximately $20 000 as  initial investment on the software and nearly $2 000 annually on license fees. More than 50% of the software users are satisfied with the performance of their software packages.