KENET’s mission is to catalyze the transformation of member institutions using information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the associated ICT-based information systems. Transformation is only possible if an institution or a community achieves a certain minimum level of institutional ICT-readiness or e-readiness. The level of e-readiness of an institution or community is a measure of its preparedness to leverage on ICTs to achieve its mission outcomes or development goals (see e-readiness methodology at https://ereadiness.or.ke). 

E-readiness surveys involve massive data collection from participating institutions and subsequent staging analysis on a biennial basis. Consequently, it has so far been restricted to universities category of members because of the limited e-readiness survey research budget. The e-readiness research was initially funded by Partnership for Higher Education in Africa project but is now fully through the KENET research fund. KENET’s strategic plan of 2016-2021 therefore developed strategies for tracking a few foundational e readiness sub-indicators for all members of KENET that could be measured using the Annual ICT Core Data. 
KENET started collecting Annual ICT Core Data from all member institutions in November 2016 to track the following foundational sub-indicators of e-readiness on an annual basis.

1. Broadband Internet access measured using Internet bandwidth per user (or per 100 or 1000 users for educational institutions). This is one of the sub-indicators of internet availability indicator in an institution or community.
2. Broadband Internet affordability measured as Internet expenditure as a percent of the total institutional recurrent expenditure. This is a sub-indicator of ICT affordability indicator of e-readiness framework.
3. Readiness for blended / online learning measured by percent of participating institutions that had deployed institution-wide learning management systems. This is a new sub-indicator of enhancing education with ICT indicator.
4. Degree of deployment of administrative information systems or ERPs, one of the sub-indicators of the e-campus e-readiness indicator.
5. Mitigation of institutional cybersecurity risks measured using the availability of off-site backup or disaster recovery sites. This is one of the sub-indicators of the networked campus environment indicator.
6. Availability of critical ICT human capacity in an institution (i.e., network and systems administrators). This is a sub-indicator of ICT Human Capacity e-readiness indicator.
7. Sustainable financing of Internet and ICT services in educational institutions. This is a new sub-indicator of ICT financing indicator

In addition to measuring the above foundational e-readiness sub-indicators, the annual ICT core data is also used to measure the size of the KENET community, to estimate the demand for Internet and cloud services, and to support ICT data-based benchmarking services. 
KENET collects the annual core data through the respective ICT directors or heads of ICT directorates of each member institution but with authorization of the CEOs (e.g., Vice Chancellors or directors). The completed questionnaires must be signed off by both the ICT directors and the CEOs or their assigns to assure credibility of the data.