[PITURE-RIGHT]Around 32% of small businesses that have a significant focus on digitally innovating their business reported growth of more than 10% last year.
This is according to a report titled, 'Tech-Savvy Businesses do it better', commissioned by market and technology cloud accounting firm, Sage, and conducted by IDC.
The research found that almost a third of small businesses who commit to technology show demonstrable growth. However, over half (56%) of all small businesses interviewed have yet to adopt digital technologies - preferring to maintain their business with traditional methods, despite the rewards shown in the findings, notes the report.
Anton van Heerden, MD and executive vice-president, Africa and Middle East at Sage, says: "More and more African business builders are embracing mobile technology and the cloud to streamline red tape and to improve the agility of their businesses. Over the next three years, it will be exciting to see how innovations such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of things will turn Sage's vision of invisible admin into a reality. Our mission is to make admin seamless so our customers can focus on the stuff that really matters: growing their businesses and delighting their customers."
"We have our foot on the pedal and will continue to deliver the solutions to market that our 3 million customers worldwide are demanding," adds Van Heerden.
With more than 1 million new customers following Sage to the cloud in 2016, the company says small businesses are beginning to see the advantages of technology.
Despite innovation featuring in the top three challenges overall, only 8% of small businesses indicated that they spend quality time on innovation, in contrast, looking at tech-savvy businesses, this jumps to around 29%. Overall, 79% of small business owners very much enjoy working for their own business with this percentage rising to 94% among tech-savvy businesses.
With tools to automate and free up time easily available, many small business owners say they are seeing opportunities brought about by innovation - 57% of the respondents say they see new digital business models as an opportunity for their business with a quarter of the total calling it a "significant opportunity". Also, over 57% are focused on digitally innovating their business.
The research further revealed some small businesses feel they have fallen a little behind their peers in terms of their use of technology, with 13% of business owners feeling they are 'a bit behind' their peers in their use of technology, with an additional 2% feeling that they are 'far behind'. Another 30% say they need to improve on their IT skills to make full use of the IT tools they have.
Werner Vogels, chief technology officer at Amazon, says smaller companies have a lot to gain in the digital era - provided they adopt the right mindset, which is aimed at creating innovative digital experiences. "Continuous customer-centric experimentation has been the leading principle. In the past decade, our company has introduced 2 500 plus new services and features, and around 90% of them were the result of wishes articulated directly by customers."
Share