Small businesses and entrepreneurship at all levels are the key to building back momentum in a South African economy stuck at below 2% for the past decade (minus covid effects). Jaco Oostehuizen, Mobility Category Head at Rectron looks at how strategic technology investment can help ensure the best operational and cost efficiency of an enterprise into the long-term.
Over the past three decades or so, South Africa’s unemployment rate has shot up from 22,5% to now hovering around 33%, with large corporations and the Government unable to soak up the rapidly growing population of millions of jobless people.
The answer to creating work and resurrecting a currently flat economy lies not just in new small business development, but efficient small business development. With as many as 80% of new businesses folding within the first five years, the key to efficient small business development may rest (amongst other factors) in ensuring the right technology use.
According to the International Trade Organisation, South Africa is a leader in Africa’s digital transformation, a key enabler of economic and entrepreneurial activity in the digital.
Despite this, a Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) study notes that while the fourth industrial revolution is set to advance entrepreneurship, the country is not fully prepared to implement key digital technologies that can support aspiring business people.
Some of the barriers the study cites include high data costs, inadequate worker expertise, data protection inefficiencies, insufficient funds to invest in digital infrastructure, poor digital technological readiness, undependable power supply, untimely decline in industrialisation and high crime.
While some of these are out of individuals’ control, aspiring entrepreneurs can take a few easy steps to ensuring they have the best essential technological tools, best practices and support to properly equip and grow their emerging businesses.
- Know yourself
To get the most out of your tech investment you need to have a clear understanding of your operational needs, size, as well as projected growth based on your current offering and trading environment. A small civil engineering design firm might need laptops with more powerful graphics processing than a large construction sub-contractor. Same industry, different processing, imaging, applications suite (including AI), peripherals, and so on.
2. Choosing the right hardware
All laptops are not created the same, and in some cases a laptop might not necessarily be the answer. Factors like portability, performance, durability, and budget should be carefully scrutinised. The ASUS NUC and ASUS VA249HG, for instance, are compact mini-PCs ideal for video editors, graphic designers, and photographers, as well as developers and engineers.
3. Consider software
Business software requirements are very different from personal use or student applications. An entrepreneur must consider the right set of productivity tools, the right office suite, as well as the most common collaboration platforms used by customers, partners and suppliers. The Lenovo ThinkCentre NEO 50s might have a CPU that is considered mid-range, but this affordable tower setup is ideal for business professionals and office workers who need reliable daily tasks like email (secure enterprise mail rather than free mail), document creation, spreadsheets and presentations.
4. Consider security
The days of buying antivirus software in boxed sets is long gone, so is the need to manually manage anti-malware software. Modern systems like the ones above often come pre-installed with Windows 11 Pro or are fully compatible with its cloud variant. An operating system needs to offer real-time protection against malware, viruses and other threats. The MS Defender SmartScreen, for example, protects against potentially dangerous websites, downloads and applications by using a reputation-based database. These are just some of the higher tier security and control capabilities that businesspeople must look out for to help protect their sensitive data and customer information.
5. Getting the right support
Whether in-house or outsourced, IT services need to be bolstered by a combination of continuous staff training and vendor support. A business owner must take an active role in tech issues, regularly checking relevant online forums and engaging with communities and mentors on tech issues, while also leaning into the robust support channel offered under their software licenses.
These simple steps are just the beginning. With technology constantly evolving, early-stage entrepreneurs need to make smart, cost-effective decisions when equipping their businesses, with relevant systems for managers, employees and even outsourced contractors.
Rectron, being Africa’s leading technology distributor not only stays on the pulse of South Africa’s unique business and technology landscape but is always pushing the edge when it comes to emerging tech globally.
Through Rectron’s extensive network of vendors across South Africa and the Southern African region, entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey can make the best decisions for their businesses today and into the distant future.
