An e-business readiness survey conducted by MB Worksoft, the e-business arm of MB Technologies, has revealed that while a number of South African businesses in various industry sectors consider themselves to be more advanced than their competitors, in reality, they`re not focusing on the key elements that would enable them to be globally competitive.
The survey was directed at the top 1 000 South African organisations, ten percent of which responded. Mark Gilfillan, MD of MB Worksoft, describes the survey as an alternative to hiring a team of black-suited consultants.
"Worksoft`s e-business hierarchy is utilised as the conceptual framework needed to establish the degree of e-business readiness in the industries reviewed and also plays a role in defining the process that an organisation needs to follow in order to become fully e-business enabled," comments Gilfillan.
The metric used to establish an organisation`s position in the hierarchy is Worksoft`s e-business quotient, derived from the results of a 12-point questionnaire covering the topics of computer access, networking, collaboration, extranets, systems integration, e-commerce, knowledge management and customer relationship management, among others.
E-business quotient
The e-business quotient gives a percentage value of an organisation`s e-business readiness. The milestones on the road to e-business enablement are summed up as standalone, connected, integrated, structured and enabled. The survey findings indicate the South African industry overall has an integrated level of e-business enablement.
"The results show that on average the majority of staff in South African business have access to computers and are linked by local and wide area networks. It also shows that staff use e-mail as the primary means of formal communication and that collaboration of functions is limited to diary synchronisation."
Gilfillan explains the objectives were to develop a more detailed understanding of the relative degree of e-business readiness of each industry sector in the local economy, and to determine the relationship between profitability and the degree of e-business readiness for the respective industries as well as for South African business as a whole.
Other objectives were to determine correlations between the size of the organisation and the degree of e-business readiness for each industry, and to identify the level of e-business enablement of suppliers and customers in each industry and the relative importance of specific e-business components to each industry.
Inwardly focused
An interesting relationship, he pointed out, is that between the retail and food industries. The larger retail industry is significantly more committed to e-enablement throughout its supply chain, of which the food industry is a component. In essence, the retail industry is acting as a motivator of e-business enablement, drawing the food industry along in its wake.
"The survey shows that most organisations` corporate websites fulfil communication needs with their stakeholders which include staff, suppliers and customers. Moreover, most of the respondents` data is stored in a vaguely defined structure with knowledge management systems and techniques used in sporadic fashion," he adds.
However, most respondents rated extranets, enterprise portals, outsourcing and virtual private networks as the least important e-business components - a clear indication of their inwardly focused e-business strategies, says Gilfillan.
Related links:
http://www.eqsurvey.co.za
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