EFFECT OF CLOUD COMPUTING STRATEGIES ON BUSINESS STRATEGIC AGILITY IN COMMERCIAL BANKS IN KENYA
Bernard Kotonya - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Lawrence Odollo - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Commercial banks in Kenya, like several industries, face a dynamic market, new technologies, economic uncertainties, fierce competition and a lot of hard to please customers. Cloud computing strategies haven't been ready to provide Kenya‘s commercial banks bigger flexibility in terms of capability, lightness and prices, nevertheless most banks are still reluctant to embrace and implement cloud strategy. The overall objective of this study was to assess the effect of cloud computing strategy adoption on business strategic agility in commercial banks in Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives; to establish the effect of on-demand self-service, rapid elasticity, ubiquitous/broadband network access, resource pooling and metering use on business strategic agility in commercial banks in Kenya. This study reviewed the subsequent theories; resource-based theory, diffusion of innovation theory and institutional theory. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population for this study was population for this study was the 42 commercial banks in Kenya. The unit of analysis included the Head of Operations, IT Directors, and IT Managers. A sample size of 174 was derived from the target population of 316 with a 95% confidence level and an error of 0.05 using the stratified proportionate random sampling technique. Primary data was obtained using structured questionnaires. The drop and pick method was preferred for questionnaire administration. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 25). Data was analyzed descriptively and inferentially using frequencies, means and standard deviation, correlations and multiple regression analysis. Information was presented in the form of tables. The research established that automation of computing resources, retrieval and use cloud information resources, and access to numerous services at once affected business strategic agility to a great extent. Further, the study established that resource diversification and flexible provisioning of resources affected business strategic agility in commercial banks in Kenya to a moderate extent. The research found that broadband network access affected business strategic agility to a very great extent. The study also found that number of sessions held affected business strategic agility to a moderate extent. The study concluded that rapid elasticity had the most influence on the business strategic agility in commercial banks in Kenya, followed by on-demand self-service, then broadband network access, and metering use had the least influence on the business strategic agility in commercial banks in Kenya. The study recommended that resources are needed to support business processes and to test and develop new software. The study recommends that the usage model of pay per resource support commercial banks in Kenya to implement and test projects faster, saving money from new resources to be procured and made available. The study recommends that change in processes in commercial banks in Kenya would require IT resources to be replaced or new resources to be added. Therefore, the adoption of cloud computing easily handles these changes by allowing the commercial banks to quickly add or change IT resources easily to support their changed processes.