One of the greatest barriers to the success of e-business in South Africa often comes from within the company itself - in the form of resistant-to-change employees and managers, particularly in the legacy IT department.
The answer, according to Joanne Cradock, e-business executive at IS (The Internet Solution), a member of the Dimension Data Group, is for companies to invest in training and lifelong learning.
"The long term effects of having legacy computing systems run by legacy people can be disastrous," she warns.
While conducting research for the first SA book to explore the New Economy from a SA perspective, E-business - Redefining the Corporate Landscape, which she co-authored, Cradock found increasing evidence of enormous frustration among young IT professionals.
"They are hitting a brick wall when it comes to implementing the new technologies which can enable the e-business transformation. The old Cobol and Case brigade appear to be blocking progress of the young XML and Java bucks and doing everything in their power to integrate all new systems into the outdated mainframe technology," she says. "Equally unempowered employees are afraid that the transition to e-business will result in job-losses because they are not qualified and do not understand the e-economy."
Cradock believes that the only way around this for a company planning to adopt an e-business strategy is to embark on a continuing lifelong learning programme to help employees keep up with the latest developments and skills necessary to engage in the new economy.
While this applies globally, the thin line of professional or suitably qualified personnel in the average SA company makes investment in training and re-training even more critical.
"This is particularly necessary in customer-facing skills, so that employees can meet the customer-centric needs of the new Internet-based economy," she adds.
Another barrier to success identified by Cradock arises from the failure of senior management to understand that e-business requires substantial technology and organisation restructuring, entailing enormous investment which might not be recouped for many years.
"They fail to realise that making the move to Internet-based technologies is key to survival - not to making immediate profits. So they either resist change or pare their investment in new technologies to the bone by trying to squeeze the last gram of functionality out of their legacy systems."
Additional barriers to success also exist outside the organisation in the form of shareholders who, having seen some e-businesses fail, incorrectly believe the new model is destined for the scrap heap.
"Many people are quick to overlook the successes to date and the potential of the new business model.
"The challenge in SA is for companies to train an entire nation to be able to participate fully in the new economy," concludes Cradock.
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