The app development economy is booming and shows no signs of slowing down. But, SA is lagging behind. This is not at all about lack of talent in the country but a dearth in quantity and practice, according to Indran Naick, master inventor at IBM SA.
For a market set to create trillions of dollars in the coming years, Naick believes SA should up its game if it's to eat its fair slice of the cake. This is achievable, especially in Africa, where a highly mobile market is poised to leapfrog directly into the era of apps.
CA Technologies recently commissioned a global survey of 1 425 senior IT and business executives. This survey focused on how global enterprises are responding to the challenges of the app economy, the business results they are achieving, and how companies can remain competitive in this new reality.
The results showed that there is no doubt that the impact of the application economy is already being felt, says Andrea Lodolo, CTO at CA Southern Africa. According to the survey, 50% of all companies say their industry is being very or highly disrupted by the application economy; and 44% are already experiencing this impact in their own organisation.
Lodolo says while the challenges are great - budget constraints and security concerns topped the list in this global study. However, it also highlighted that for those enterprises who can execute effectively, the payoffs are significant.
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For Naick, it's not all that bad in SA, as he describes the local app economy as "fair". Explaining his observation, he says the scorecard on the health of the app economy goes beyond the publication and sales of mobile applications.
"The ecosystem that builds these applications within the borders of SA is critical. If not, then we will only be consumers of offshore applications, with no real 'localisation' - addressing the specific needs of our communities, or be able to export applications built locally but relevant offshore. Local applications make up the larger portion of the economy."
Looking at the South African app economy, he also observes that from a publication and consumption viewpoint, there is a mix of local enterprises who see the need to have a mobile application only because they need to check the box, and a smaller number of enterprises who see mobile applications as a strategic channel for engaging their current clients as well as reaching the broader population.
As our app economy develops, Naick says, more enterprises will move to the latter category. Of course, he elaborates, the increased adoption and confidence in smartphones is also contributing to the growth of this economy.
The localisation aspect
In SA, Naick notes there is also a tendency of enterprises, unfortunately, doing much of their development abroad. While this is unavoidable, sometimes due to the shortage of skills, the enterprises lose out on the 'localisation' aspect of the application, he states.
He believes that a local developer has a better cultural understanding of the local users and they can represent this within the application, either in the user interface or in the terms used within the application.
"There has been a rise of boutique mobile development shops that produce world class applications. Our challenge is to have more of these. Many more, and to create the vehicles to create a steady stream of skilled mobile artists and developers. We're starting to see a rise in coding academies to meet the demand that cannot be satisfied by the traditional channels such as universities."
Naick believes these academies teach coding using a more hands-on approach that will provide the country with skills that are hopefully 'market ready'.
To drive the local app economy, he suggests that developing the necessary skills; incubating start-ups with potential; and ensuring South African developers are positioned to capitalise on Africa's app economy opportunities would be best achieved through a concerted, collaborative effort by enterprises, incubators and accelerators, government, academia and developers themselves.
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