THE COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT E-READINESS ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Digital integration, with its Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, and its applications of e-government, e-commerce, e-learning, and other e-applications, is becoming of increasing importance, as a vital tool for development, both nationally and internationally. During the last decade, many leaders in government, business, and social organizations around the globe have considered how best to harness the power of IT for development. E-readiness assessments are meant to guide development efforts by providing some suitable tools for comparison and gauging progress. Several e-readiness initiatives have been launched to help countries in this area, and numerous e-readiness assessment tools have been created and used by different groups, each looking at various aspects of IT, society, and the economy. This paper is concerned with the comparison of the e-readiness assessment tools. In the first section, the e-readiness definition, background and importance will be reviewed. In the next section the focus will be on some of the existing e-readiness tools such as, the MI, the EIU, the UNCTAD, the TAI, the GDI, the NRI and the KAM. At the end of this section, a comparison among the mentioned tools will be presented. Finally, a suitable tool for comparing the e-readiness in developing countries will be proposed.