Cloud based prototype for electronic tea auctioning: case of Momul tea factory
Date
2018
Authors
Chepkwony, Irine Cherotich
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Kenya is among the global leaders in tea exports. Tea sub-sector is among the largest foreign exchange earners in the county. Processed tea is sold through the Mombasa tea auction; each tea factory is represented by a broker. The method of auction is “open cry “; all buyers and sellers meet and compete for tea sales and purchases publicly; the prices and awards are also public. The auction processes are currently done manually and the auction model is broker centric. There have been serious challenges affecting the Mombasa auction house; inefficiency in the manual processes, lack of transparency to all stakeholders and concerns of unfair auctions practices of collusions and price manipulation. The aim of this research was to remodel tea auction using information technology innovation as an agent of that change. The remodelling involves devolving tea auctions so that the tea processing factories can auction their own tea directly to the buyers. This is achieved through the use of a cloud-based e-auctioning prototype. By enabling factories auction their own processed tea, it resolves the issues of transparently, collusions and price manipulations and it indirectly reduces the cost of production through minimal dependence on brokers for tea auctions thus positive impact on raising the overall income. The research design used is a mixed method research design; qualitative and quantitative, information was collected from written literature; raw data were collected from the population of the case study: Momul tea factory limited by means of interviews and questionnaires and were analysed using SPSS. The analysis results were presented in form graphs of which over 80% of the respondents felt that brokers controlling the auction process were the main challenge ailing tea auction in Kenya. The tools used to develop the prototype are: MySQL, PHP, HTML and JavaScript, these are open source programming tools. Usability tests were carried out among the selected users. The overall reception of the concept was positive with recommendations to include more factories and tea trade regulatory bodies.
Description
Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) at Strathmore University
Keywords
Tea Exports, Auctioning, Cloud-based Auctioning