EXPLORING COMPUTER SYSTEM SOFTWARE FOR BOQ AUTOMATION IN NIGERIA: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MS ACCESS AND MS EXCEL

¹Inuwa, I.I.; ²Iro, A.I. and; ³Gambo, N

^{1,2 & 3}Department of Quantity Surveying Programme,

Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi-Nigeria

Email: inuwaibrahimibrahim@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

The software use in accomplishing QS tasks in Nigeria are all of foreign origin and their cost is an important factor which consequently attracts more cost to the construction project clients in form of overheads. Nowadays, computer system software are being widely used by most of the Quantity Surveying practicing firms as well as individual practicing Quantity Surveyors that cannot afford buying the purposely made billing software by reasons of financial constraints, lack of exposure to the latest advancements in the area of information technology and computing and/or competent personnel that will handle the latest sophisticated Quantity Surveying software for the preparation and management of BOQ. This research aimed at exploring computer systems software, exclusively to uncover the most efficient system software between Microsoft access and Microsoft excel for BOQ automation in Nigeria. The research design is contextual, descriptive and analytical. The research conducted an extensive literature search to obtained secondary data. A set of 25 criterion comparing the efficiencies of the two system software for processing and managing data extracted from Microsoft manufacturer’s manual are used as a benchmark for obtaining the primary information (data) on the basic functionalities of the two applications on a weighting scale of 0-2. And the indicators, Apply (absolutely efficient), Acceptable (partially efficient) and doesn’t Apply (absolutely inefficient), are weighted as 2, 1 and 0 respectively. Paired t-test was use to test the research hypothesis at 5% level of significance and establishes that MS Access is more efficient than MS Excel in the preparation and automation of BOQ. The research findings revealed that both MS Excel and MS Access are both efficient in the preparation and automation of BOQ, however, MS Access is 26% more efficient than MS Excel. It recommends’ the use of both system software for BOQ automation and for other QS services.

Keywords: Computer and ICT; MS Excel; MS Access; BOQ Automation; QS Services.