Assessment of Office Software Utilization in Ministry of Public Health, 2014

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the status on the utilization of the Office software among personnel in Ministry of Public Health. A set of online questionnaire was sent to all units of the Ministry, including those in the provinces. There were 606 respondents, of whom the majority were in the Official of the Permanent Secretary for Public Health. The respondents were female (79.70%), with age range of 31-40 years old (32.01%), and had bachelor degree (32.01%). Majority were software users. As for the software use, 43.71%, preferred Window XP for Operation System, 21.95% used Office for software application, and 32.02%, for Adobe Photoshop graphic design. Other commonly used software included Adobe Acrobat Reader for Utility and PHP for content management system. Additional findings included the acknowledgement of the Computer Crime Act B.E 2550 (2007), (57.59% of the respondents 36.47% currently utilizing copyright software within the government procurement; and 37.62% were aware of the penalty for software piracy. Advantages of using LibreOffice 3.6 to replace Office software were acknowledged by 48.51% of the respondents, and 40.10% were ready to use the free license software. It was recommended that policy on the use of Open Source software such as LibreOffice should be formulated to ensure long-term use of free license software within the agencies of the Ministry; and the Information and Communication Technology Center should support the process by continued supervision and production of appropriate manuals. The topics on Open Source software should be included in the recruitment testing of new staff. Finally, LibreOffice should become the software of choice for the installation of all newly procured computers.