Some 47% of South African companies polled in the latest PwC Digital IQ survey do not rate their organisation's digital IQ to be more than 70%, trailing their African counterparts, of which 52% found themselves to have a better digital IQ.
According to the report, which is in its10th edition, digital IQ can be described as "the measurement of an organisation's ability to harness and profit from technology". Digital IQ has actually declined since PwC began asking executives to self-assess their own organisations, it says.
Tielman Botha, digital lead for PwC SA, explains: "Digital IQ has a different meaning today than it had 10 years ago. The scope and scale of digital-driven change has grown significantly, and organisations have invested a lot of time and money to keep up.
"As this year's survey shows, many companies are grappling with raising their digital IQ. There is awareness that digital capabilities are a critical component to success, and that emerging technologies have to be explored. But leaders remain challenged by the need to transform their organisations to truly integrate digital into the company's culture."
PwC worked with Oxford Economics in late 2016 to survey more than 2 200 senior business and IT executives from 53 countries and more than 30 industry segments. The territory focused on in Africa included 52 responses from Zambia, Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius and Nigeria.
The survey results show 68% of respondents (Africa: 65%, SA: 50%) stated their CEO championed digital, a steady increase from the 2007 figure of 33%.
"Despite slow progress in developing strategies for digital and exploring new technologies, executives remain committed to digital as a driver of growth. Nearly three-quarters (73%) cite revenue growth as a top benefit of their digital initiatives, followed by increased profits (47%) and reduced costs (40%). Disruption is less of a focus, despite growing evidence that new technologies and new business models will continue to remake entire industries."
The report also highlights that investments in Africa are mostly focused on the Internet of things and artificial intelligence (69% and 42% respectively), and expect to continue doing so in the coming three years.
Botha says although technology and innovation is important, the role of customers and employees (including the chief digital office and chief information officer) and their ability to adapt to change and utilise digital and emerging tech are critical in advancing transformation.
"Currently, just 65% of African countries regularly update their talent model to address changing digital skills, compared with 72% of those across the globe. Despite the chief information officer having attained strategic stature over the past decade, many other senior executives and the functional areas they lead are not yet fully engaged in the project of digital transformation. Most tasks related to digital ? including digital investment prioritisation, innovation, and the development of new products and services ? rest with either the CIO or CEO, while very few functions outside of IT and operations have a leading role in emerging technology exploration."
Botha concludes that acquiring a high digital IQ is mainly about integration of the business ? the customer and employee experience and the technology - to build one cohesive and transformative solution.
"This is what will give a company the competitive-edge."
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