IMPACTS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN LOGISTIC MANAGEMENT IN UNILEVER KENYA LIMITED.

ICT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit and retrieve information, securely. Recently it has become popular to broaden the term to explicitly include the field of electronic communication so that people tend to use the abbreviation ICT (Information and Communications Technology (Greenwood, 1997). Due to the widespread adoption of the supply chain view by commercial enterprises all over the world, the business management providers are increasingly required to offer global logistics service packages to better satisfy customer needs. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a key role in this process, assuring the linkages between chain participants as well as a more effective control of time, cost, and quality of the service rendered. Nevertheless, introduction of ICT is not equally distributed in the industry. In the case of manufacturing and production, crucial business links and interlinks lines seem to be comparatively slow in implementing ICT in comparison with parcel delivery companies or large freight forwarders. The increasing importance of ICT for logistics as well as for the Supply Chain Management (SCM) presents business world with two alternatives: either to survive in a low-cost world of business providers or to pursue the expensive and problematic path of becoming value-added providers through an extensive use of ICT. Introduction of ICT in logistics provides management an integrated capacity of assurance and reliable communication advantage at every stage of operations, which encompasses activities like cargo tracing, answering customers complain, inquiry billing and information management (Baily 2005). The use of E-mail and other related bulk Short Message Services (EMS) that comes with the application and adoption of Information and Communications Technology provides quick and documented communications with customers and other important stakeholders. This as compared with manual operations besides providing customer value saves costs and time in operations a great deal