Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are starting to consider technology as being more important than accessing a bank loan.
This is according to the latest research commissioned by Research in Motion (RIM) - the domestic marketers of BlackBerry - in conjunction with the Ipsos Reid MORI research group, in the pan-EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region.
RIM regional director for sub-Saharan Africa Deon Liebenberg says 53% of the 900 respondents said technology has made setting up a business easier and cheaper.
"The first asset SME owners would recommend a friend starting a business is technology - with mobile technology coming second only to a computer," he says.
"Five times as many SMEs cite office space as a wasteful investment compared to mobile technology, suggesting an industry trend towards mobile working."
In the UK and Germany, SME owners already believed a computer was more important to starting a business than capital.
Of the sample, 62% said they had won a piece of business thanks to being able to stay in touch when on the move, with reacting to customer queries (42%) and communicating regularly (21%) being the two most critical aspects for SMEs to be successful with their customers.
Local research house World Wide Worx confirmed these trends are applicable to SA.
Strategy MD Steven Ambrose, however, adds that his company`s research has found that SMEs in SA are generally not very tech-savvy and need simple technology solutions.
"They need extremely simple, integrated solutions. SMEs have a long way to go," he says. "They may understand the benefits, but they don`t understand the technology."
To this end he quotes statistics from World Wide Worx`s 2007/08 mobility study, that show that nearly half of all SMEs have only an average or below average usage of even basic technologies like PCs and cellphones.
Advanced technologies, like WiFi, are used by only about 20% of local SMEs.
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