AS THE pandemic threats subside with some businesses reverting to “the old normal” in-person ways of working, the South African economy risks sacrificing the immense digital gains that have been made thus far, says independent management consulting firm, IQbusiness.
IQbusiness partner and Experience Innovation lead Rafael Rodriguez said the switch to a new hybrid way of working as things normalise would be much harder than the switch to fully remote was.
“Local businesses simply cannot run the risk of being left behind in the digital age. Their future sustainability in a globally competitive environment depends on their ability to retain the productivity gains that were ‘forced’ on them, rather than simply ‘go back’ to the old-normal,” Rodriguez said.
IQbusiness has launched a unique Digital Maturity Snapshot (DMS) for South African businesses to assess their digital transformation capabilities and readiness.
The DMS allows a business to take the first crucial step in assessing its level of digital maturity and ability to deepen its digital transformation. Businesses can use the data provided by the Snapshot to inform the best way forward to understand and respond to its clients and market better.
IQbusiness Experience Innovation senior manager Tshepo Matjila said South African companies must modernise and optimise their online business platforms if they were to successfully and rapidly adapt to meet the shifting needs of their business, distribution channels and customers.
“A prioritised and agreed strategy to promote digital technological advancements will be essential for continued business growth and job creation in the digital era,” Matjila said.
With the DMS, businesses were said to be empowered with the information they needed to ensure that their use of digital technologies was able to grow their business in the long term.
A business “Starting Out” on their digital transformation journey should start to develop a digital vision and shift more core competencies to digital platforms and tools. Those businesses who were already cautiously progressing with digital adoptions under a “Safety First” approach should raise their focus on enabling technologies.
Those with well-running and “Balanced Out” digital initiatives, as well as very advanced “Technology Led” entities, also had scope to deepen their digital capabilities and enhance their performance.
IQbusiness said by focusing on improving alignment, metrics and governance, these innovators could leapfrog even further ahead.
Rodriguez said by providing South African businesses with the fastest snapshot assessment of their digital transformation readiness and opportunities, they could help upskill and capacitate the local labour market to make the most of global digital developments and ensure that no business was left behind in the digital era.
Orderin Head of Software Engineering Farrel Hardenberg said in an increasingly global marketplace, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were compelled to find and leverage any opportunity they could to remain competitive and stay ahead of the curve.
However, Hardenberg said these past two years, defined by uncertainty and disruption, had made gaining a competitive advantage a business imperative for SMEs.
One of the simplest and most impactful ways for SMEs to not only keep their heads above water, but also remain competitive was through the acceleration of digital transformation.
However, a recent World Economic Forum white paper found that SMEs were still at the low to moderate level of technological maturity with only 23 percent of SMEs noting that the changes brought on by the pandemic had led to the acceleration of their digital transformation goals.
BUSINESS REPORT