By focusing on mobile apps in particular, you can boost your business‘ overall labour productivity ““ and its overall profits
By Gary Turner, MD EMEA, Xero
South Africa‘s small business community is an essential part of its economy and its labour market: some estimates put its total contribution at up to 52% of GDP. Encouragingly, according to research from Xero and World Wide Worx, 58% anticipate growth within the next year.
The presence and resilience of small businesses is an immense credit to the country ““ and if they tackle some of their longstanding problems, they‘re likely to benefit even more. In the 47 years between 1967 and 2014, labour productivity has decreased by 41%, and it‘s fallen continuously since 2011.
We can‘t reasonably attribute this decline to any one cause, because labour productivity is informed by a number of different factors: the general health of the economy, for example. Nonetheless, these businesses can make dramatic improvements in certain areas. We recently compiled research with NZ Signal which indicated that companies can improve annual profits by some RD47,000 simply by adding a single technological tool.
By focusing on mobile apps in particular, you can boost your business‘ overall labour productivity ““ and its overall profits.
A change of attitude
Our research indicated that, at 66%, a comfortable majority deem technology “œvery important“ or “œimportant“. However, only 26% of businesses, for example, think that PCs are essential business tools; 6% consider the internet to be critical; and 4% believe that smartphones are crucial (and 10% don‘t have one at all).
What‘s more, this has immediate, practical impact on overall efficiency. Consider that 40% of businesses are dependent on paper records and spreadsheets, and that 88% of these spreadsheets contain errors and discrepancies. Not only is this a time-consuming means of handling sensitive data, it‘s a potentially risky one.
How mobile apps are changing the workplace
The age of the app has given rise to more small business-friendly tools. It‘s now possible to automate and consolidate functions like payroll, bookkeeping, training, and marketing, and if you take advantage, you‘ll see considerable improvements to labour productivity and profitability.
Everyone finds it hard to break long-term habits, and your employees will be no exception ““ so before you adopt anything, think about how it can help them perform their core job duties. According to research from Citrix, 93% of South African workers have expressed a preference for remote working ““ and in some markets, companies have already seen dramatic improvements by allowing it.
Many apps exist that can make this kind of work style both possible and desirable: Dropbox, for example, gives employees access to critical files from anywhere with an internet connection; GoToMeeting enables your team to meet from all corners of the globe; time-tracking software such as Sapience can improve focus (and allows you to check what they‘re doing from afar, if you‘re so inclined).
There‘s also an abundance of software that can directly benefit individual departments. In particular, South African finance and accounting teams are rather spoilt for choice. Yoco‘s card reader and cloud-based point of sale app offer a simple means of processing credit and debit payments; PayFast makes it possible to conduct transactions instantly, securely, and with minimal extra fees; and PaySpace‘s HR software automates several time-consuming HR processes ““ distributing payslips, converting currencies, and monitoring employee lifecycles.
Practical considerations
This software is usually offered on a per-user, per-month subscription, which can be expensive or inexpensive depending on your head count. This is no small matter ““ according to Xero‘s report, 39% of businesses expressed concerns about cashflow. Many of these apps, thankfully, do offer a “˜freemium‘ option: MailChimp has a “˜forever free‘ plan; Dropbox offers 2GB of free data ““ which isn‘t very much, but may be sufficient if you‘re not planning on using it too heavily (or want to try before you buy).
Arguably a more important consideration is the way these apps work together: Asana, for example, integrates with Outlook pretty well, but with tools such as Trello it‘s much harder. You may opt to consolidate wherever possible with full-suite products such as Marketo or Office 365: they may not do social as well as Hootsuite or IM as well as Slack, but there‘s something to be said for having everything hosted within a single dashboard.
In any case, the specific apps are less important than finding a combination that works. 83% of South Africa‘s businesses want to run more smoothly, but only 9% are investing in technology. Using the right mobile tools is no longer a luxury, but a practical necessity: small inefficiencies do add up and can have an impact on your bottom line.
By increasing their uptake of mobile apps, South Africa‘s small business community will avoid these problems, increase their productivity ““ and maximise their profits.
Follow Theunis on Twitter: @Theunis_BWB
