Electronic Document Management System in Electronic Government Environment
Abstract
One of the seven strategic thrusts in Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030 focuses on digital execution. It initiates Digital Government based on five principles: open government, data-centric government, innovative government, excellent service delivery and digital governance in Sarawak. This study is designed to examine the effectiveness of the implementation of Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) adopting the IS Effectiveness Model from DeLone and McLean. Questionnaires were collected through web-survey and were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) using the partial least squares (PLS) path modelling method. Objective: to examine the effectiveness of the document management systems used in Sarawak Government; to assess the performance of electronic document management system functionalities; to assess the influence of the functionalities’ performance on the effectiveness of the electronic document management systems. Results: Based on the analysis, eight hypotheses were supported. The study's main contribution is the creation of research instruments that can be tested in other research settings. Conclusion: This study provided valuable information for the government in implementing Electronic Document Management System, which will lead to the development of digital government in the near future. It is hoped that the EDMS will allow the Sarawak government to become more responsive to the needs of its citizens and realise its vision of efficiently and effectively delivering good services from the government to the people of Sarawak.
Keywords: Electronic document, electronic document management system, electronic records, records
Introduction
The term "electronic document management system" (EDMS) describes computerised systems that aid in managing electronic documents throughout their lifecycles, from initial creation to final destruction. In the era of electronic government, nearly every government in the world requires an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) to control the growing volume of documents. Effective EDMS should not only control documents but also provide access throughout the government civil service and even to clients or citizens in the environment of electronic government.
Thus, many countries have begun using e-government because it has been recognized as an effective tool for fostering economic growth. In general, the effectiveness of EDMS depends on the performance of electronic document management system functionalities: Automated Information Capture, Federated Search and Retrieval, Collaboration Tools, Hierarchical File Indexing and Classification, Storage and Archival Method, Automated Workflow, Security and Audit Trail, and Support Administer compliance. Nevertheless, the concept of electronic government and its implementation is mature nowadays. This would bring new insight into the framework for assessing EDMS effectiveness.
Objectives of the Study
In electronic government, administrative directives, transactions of daily incoming and outgoing documents, and information are distributed via an electronic document management system. Due to this fact, it is important to examine the effectiveness of the document management systems used in government.
The functionalities of EDMS are closely related to the usage of the system by the government civil service. Thus, it is significant to assess the performance of electronic document management system functionalities.
The electronic government capable of utilising and optimising EDMS can assess its usage level, determine whether or not users are pleased with it, and determine whether or not there is room for improvement in its functionalities. As the use of electronic government becomes mandatory in all governments worldwide, organisations must ensure that the adoption of EDMS within the civil service yields positive results. Hence, it is crucial to assess the influence of the functionalities' performance on the effectiveness of the electronic document management systems.
Information System Success
This study adopted the (Delone & McLean, 2003) due to its capability to evaluate the information system (EDMS) functionalities that may affect the system's effectiveness. (DeLone & McLean, 1992; Delone & McLean, 2003) comprehensively reviewed and organised past research on IS effectiveness. (Cho, 2008) defines the success of an information system as measured by the level of user satisfaction and the effect that the system has on both individuals and the organisation. However, the success of the system depends on the enthusiasm and proficiency with which its users adopt the EDMS; in the case of this study, it is crucial to assess the functionalities and the effectiveness of EDMS used in the environment of electronic government.
Information Quality
Information quality indicates that the system can provide users with information that is useful, up-to-date, precise, and pertinent to their needs so that they can make sound decisions. In this research, information quality is the crucial factor that defines the success of an information system. In this context, information quality helps reduce the likelihood of mistakes being made during a transaction, generating reliable and valuable data for making decisions in an electronic government environment.
Systems quality
De Lone and Mc Lean's model of IS success places a high value on system quality (SQ), which they define as "the degree to which the technical efficiencies of the system meet user needs in terms of usability, response time, reliability, security, and flexibility". The quality of the EDMS processing system is evaluated here in terms of its own performance measures, such as throughput and resource utilisation. In addition to user satisfaction, the quality of an EDMS can be evaluated based on response and turnaround times, system adaptability, and user-friendliness.
Perceived usefulness
The perceived usefulness of a computer system is affected by the user's subjective evaluation of the system's ease of use, which in turn affects the user's acceptance of the technology. Perceived usefulness is defined by (Davis, 1989, p. 320) as "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular technology has enhanced his or her job performance or his or his organization's performance,. The perceived usefulness of EDMS in this research was defined as the degree to which respondents believed the software would enhance their ability to carry out a specific task.
User satisfaction
The success of an information system can be assessed by how delighted its users are with it. User satisfaction is defined (W. H. DeLone & McLean, 2016, pp. 10-11) as "the degree to which end-users are pleased with the usefulness of the information provided by the organisation in the form of reports, websites, and support services." User satisfaction with various aspects of the reports and the EDMS has been used to evaluate the success of EDMS. Moreover, positive feelings about the system are linked to higher levels of user satisfaction.
In the context of this research, it is essential to point out that the research concentrated on the functionalities of the systems involved in the electronic document management system. The research on the usefulness of EDMS features is summarised as the following:
Research Methods
Measurement Development
For the purpose of this research and to answer the research questions, the quantitative method is an efficient research methodology. There are several distinct research methodologies that can be utilised in the context of the quantitative research approach. These methodologies include: (1) experimental; (2) observation; (3) case studies; (4) action research; (5) grounded theory; (6) survey; and (7) mixed methods (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). The formulated hypotheses were tested using a questionnaire developed in English and translated in Malay. The developed questionnaire was forwarded to four experts from the Faculty of Information Management, University of Technology MARA, for perusal, after which an initial empirical pre-test was conducted. In this regard, (Memon et al., 2017) stated that the questionnaire needs to be tested. Following this, pre-test of the questionnaire was also carried out by four prospective respondents from the field of study that involves experts from the agencies of the Sarawak Government, particularly those experienced with EDMS usage. The pre-test is designed to ensure that the design of the questionnaire and the clarity and relevancy of the items are established (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). After the initial round of testing, certain questionnaire questions were altered to improve its readability. On a scale developed by Likert, the items were scored according to the following extremes: (1) Strongly Disagree; (2) Moderately Disagree; (3) Slightly Disagree; (4) Neither agree nor disagree; (5) Slightly Agree; (6) Moderately Agree; (7) Strongly Agree.
Data Collection
Data collection has taken considerable time beyond what was anticipated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The questionnaire was distributed online to the Head of Department for each government agency to distribute questionnaires, with a link provided. The Head of Department then selects personnel from selected Sarawak government ministries, departments, and agencies to complete the questionnaire. The process of data coding was accomplished by entering the responses into the SPSS software. A unique code was assigned to each questionnaire during the data coding process. The data was converted to two platforms for statistical analysis: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Squares Equation Modelling (SmartPLS) for data analysis. The minimum sample size for this study is 200, the minimum sample size for the model structure is 100, and the minimum sample size is 200. Both of these numbers compare to the defect effect, which has a recommended minimum sample size of 200. Out of the 500 questionnaires were distributed to State Ministries, Chief Minister’s Department, State Departments, Resident Offices, District Offices, State Statutory Bodies in the state government of Sarawak, 293 were returned online. Hair et al. (2019) suggested that the number of people who participated in the study should be at least eight times greater than the number that the study constructs. Thus, the minimum sample size required based on this recommendation was n = 48. Accuracy was established by conducting statistical power analyses to estimate sample size based on (Cohen, 2013), which was calculated using A-priori sample size calculator for structural equation models by Soper (2021). A sample size of 96 respondents was needed to obtain an alpha of 0.05, a moderate effect size of 0.15, and a power of 0.80. Because the sample size was comprised of 293 responses, it was deemed appropriate for SEM-PLS analysis.
Findings
The demographic characteristics of the respondents indicate that 104(35.5%) of the sample size was male while 189(64.5%) were female, which implies that the population of the female respondent is higher than male. The age range of 26 to 33 years old makes up the most significant proportion of participants in this study (32.4%), followed by the age range of 42 to 49 years old (29.7%), and then 34 to 41 years old (27%). According to the findings, the majority of those who participated in this research have a bachelor's degree (n=131, 45.8%), followed by SPM and diploma graduates (n=58, 20.3% and n=57, 19.9%) respectively, and then Master’s degrees (n=21, 7.3%) and STPM (n=58, 20.3%). Figure reveals that the categories with the highest number of respondents are those with a duration of less than 5 years (n= 93, 31.7%), then those with 16 to 20 years (n= 57, 19.5%), then those with 11 to 15 years (n= 50, 17.1%), and finally those with 5 to 10 years (n= 49, 16.7%). The total number of respondents who had served between 21 and 25 years was 29 (9.9%), and the total number of respondents who had served between 26 and 30 years was 10 (3.4%). Only (n=5, 1.7%) of the respondents who took part in this study had more than 30 years of service experience.
Descriptive analysis of construct
Apart from eight variables for document management services which consisting of main constructs including Automated Information Capture, Federated Search & Retrieval, Collaborative Tools, Hierarchical File Indexing & Classification, Storage & Archival Method, Automated Workflow, Security & Audit Trail, and Super Administer Compliance, this study also measured four variables of Information System effectiveness which is Information Quality, Systems Quality, User Satisfaction and Perceived Usefulness.
Information Quality
It was determined that the overall mean for the variable task innovation was 5.738, which indicates that the Information Quality of the respondents is higher than the average. The standard deviation of the mean falls between the range of 5.683 to 5.823. The overall standard deviation is equal to 1.045, and the range is from 1.022 all the way up to 1.095. The "ISE IQ1" item has the lowest mean score overall. And the one with the highest score is item "ISE IQ5" as shown in the Table 2.
Service Quality
The overall mean for the variable System Quality is 5.815, which indicates that the system quality of the information system's effectiveness is above average. The standard deviation of the mean lies in the range of 5.693 to 6.020. The range of values falls within the vicinity of 0.974 and 1.098, with the overall standard deviation coming in at 1.057. The point with the highest mean is "The EDMS is useful," while the point with the lowest is "The EDMS requires little effort to use," as indicated in Table 3.
User Satisfaction
The overall mean of the variable satisfaction is 5.771, which indicates that the level of satisfaction regarding the effectiveness of the information system is greater than the average. The range of the mean is from 5.747 all the way up to 5.799. The overall standard deviation comes in at 1.032, with a range that goes from 1.023 to 1.057. The item that received the lowest mean score was "I am satisfied with EDMS," while the item that received the highest mean score was "I am satisfied completion of tasks in EDMS” as displayed in Table 4.
Perceived Usefulness
It was found that the overall mean for the variable perceived usefulness was 5.852, which indicates that the perceived usefulness of the information system effectiveness is higher than the average. The range of the means is from 5.802 to 5.969 in terms of values. The ranged values fall between 1.039 and 1.081, with the overall standard deviation at 1.041. The item "EDMS improves my job performance" has the lowest mean, and the item "EDMS is useful to my job" has the highest mean as presented in Table 5.
Conclusion
The result from the descriptive analysis shows the mean value of information system effectiveness and proves that the importance of document management services in influencing the effectiveness of electronic document management systems used in the government agencies. This proved that EDMS is a reliable device for providing a document management service. According to the findings of this research endeavour, a significant positive relationship exists between information quality and user satisfaction. The output of an electronic document management system, also known as EDMS, is generally regarded as the information quality that measures the level of satisfaction experienced by users. The current study validated that the information quality obtained from the electronic document management system (EDMS) is relevant to the users' work (Sezgin et al., 2013). EDMS also meets the needs of the user (Björk, 2006). Users can complete their tasks more with the help of EDMS because it streamlines their processes (Forcada et al., 2005). The current study also found a significant positive relationship between information quality and perceived usefulness. Gable et al. (2008) found that EDMS enables the user to accomplish their tasks more quickly. Seddon et al. (2002) also emphasized that perceived usefulness is desirable for job assessment in spontaneous. EDMS was used to impact users on an individual level with efficiency and effectiveness at work with better, easier, and quicker processes, which enabled the user to concentrate on core work. This was accomplished by reducing time wasted on administrative tasks (Afonso et al., 2015). The research results show that system quality significantly correlates with perceived usefulness (Chung & Koo, 2015). EDMS offers timely responses to the request for information or action that leads to a degree of perceived usefulness by the system user. Users would desire EDMS to be able to respond to individual users at the level of effect, with information being available when it is required. The findings showed that end users would also believe that the system is reliable, which will undoubtedly lead to the belief that the system, such as EDMS, provides accurate and trustworthy information without any room for uncertainty (Abbasova, 2020). Thus, results demonstrate that systems quality positively correlates with perceived usefulness. According to the overall result, eight of the twelve tested proposed hypotheses were accepted, while the remaining four were not. Due to this, it is strongly suggested that the functionality of automated information capture in EDMS should be improved in the system in order to enhance the effectiveness of the information system. The government or authority of decision-making should endeavour to improve the functionality of collaborative tools in EDMS for information systems effectiveness. Management should also consider the hierarchical file indexing and classification in EDMS as it will contribute to the significant positive relationship with information systems effectiveness. This also pertains to the system's functionality in terms of security and audit trail, which are highly vital to the effectiveness of information systems.
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Gani, D. H. A., Abd Kadir, I. K., Rahman, A. A., & Yunus, A. M. (2024). Electronic Document Management System in Electronic Government Environment. In A. K. Othman, M. K. B. A. Rahman, S. Noranee, N. A. R. Demong, & A. Mat (Eds.), Industry-Academia Linkages for Business Sustainability, vol 133. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 585-597). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2024.05.48