Information Technology (IT) Systems as Tools for Improving Productivity in Business Administration

Information technology (IT) systems have fundamentally altered how firms organize work, manage resources, and generate value. This keynote examines the relationship between IT system adoption in business administration and business productivity, drawing on decades of empirical research and contemporary organizational evidence. It demonstrates that strategic IT deployment generates measurable productivity gains when organizations align technology adoption with specific operational objectives, human capital development, and institutional governance. This lecture establishes a conceptual framework for understanding IT systems in business administration, surveys the empirical record on IT and productivity, examines the specific productivity mechanisms of enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), cloud-based collaboration tools, business intelligence (BI), and workflow automation, and addresses implementation realities for organizations in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. The lecture identifies the primary barriers to IT adoption in developing economies and concludes with evidence-based recommendations for business administrators seeking to maximize productivity returns from IT investment. The central argument is that IT systems produce measurable productivity gains when firms align technology deployment with clear operational goals, invest in human capital, and maintain discipline in change management.