South Africa’s digital productivity paradox – new survey

In a post-Covid world, the swiftly digitising business landscape in South Africa faces significant challenges in collaboration and productivity.

These challenges were highlighted in a recent study conducted by World Wide Worx, titled State of Enterprise Collaboration and Productivity in South Africa.

World Wide Worx surveyed 410 randomly selected medium and large businesses between June and July 2023, using a comprehensive questionnaire.

SA’s digital productivity paradox

Presenting the survey results at the Zoholics Johannesburg event earlier this month, World Wide Worx CEO Arthur Goldstuck pinpointed the culprit: a lack of unified platforms for efficient work.

Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx, SA’s leading independent technology market research organisation.

He said digital transformation and hybrid work models significantly influenced the tech choices of South African businesses, but they’ve also unearthed underlying inefficiencies.

Goldstuck explained: “While load shedding and poor Wi-Fi emerged as top challenges, the next biggest challenge was data silos, which can hold back companies in a demanding market.”

And when it comes to choosing the right tech solutions, several factors play a role, including hybrid work setups, shifts in employee choices, and South Africa’s broader economic landscape.

Also speaking at the event, Andrew Bourne from Zoho Africa said the study reiterates the need for a unified experience in modern businesses, especially in the current conditions.

Hyther Nizam, president for Middle East and Africa (MEA), added that: “As a result, we’re seeing an uptake in adoption of Zoho Workplace”, referencing Zoho’s comprehensive collab platform.

Collaboration and Productivity in SA

Hybrid vs on-site work:

The ease of collaboration differs significantly between on-site and hybrid models.

Despite access to tools, 61% of the hybrid workforce found team collaboration extremely easy, compared to 72% of fully on-site workers.

Discrepancies were also noted in preferences for improving productivity between these work arrangements.

Challenges

Several challenges were highlighted during the survey presentation.

Some of these challenges include miscommunication and scaling issues, as well as a strong need for unified collaboration platforms.

These challenges were pronounced in companies with employee sizes between 201 and 1 000.

Collaboration platforms

As per the study, 37% of respondents felt that quick access to contextual data across apps was the key to productivity.

They also cited challenges such as load shedding (46%) and poor WiFi connection (40%) as hindrances to collaboration and productivity.