A new study commissioned by Citrix has shown that South African companies are complacent when it comes to digital transformation, as business leaders do not consider it a priority.

The BMI-TechKnowledge- (BMI-T-) conducted study found that more than half of the respondents are investing in technologies simply to “keep the lights on”, as opposed to chasing competitive edge innovation.

This indicates that progressive technology investment is being sidelined by South African businesses, with only 31% of the business respondents surveyed saying digital transformation was being driven from the highest level.

“In order for South African businesses to become more agile and competitive, proactive investment in innovative technologies is an imperative,” Citrix South Africa country manager Brendan McAravey said in a statement.

Over 50% of the respondents listed their business priorities as improving efficiencies, while cost reduction and the improvement of customer service was important for 40% and nearly 46% of the companies surveyed respectively.

Innovation is low on the priority list.

The report noted that companies were at risk of becoming irrelevant on the global stage, as other countries surge ahead with digital transformation projects to create innovative and technology-driven businesses.

The survey also revealed a disconnect between technical workers and business respondents, with the former understanding the importance of digital transformation, while business leaders underestimate the importance of digital transformation in a changing world.

“Given the convergence of cloud, mobile, big data analytics and the Internet of Things . . . South African businesses now have a choice. They can either invest in technology for the purpose of innovation rather than just operational efficiency, or they can opt to ignore the fact that digitisation is inevitable and continue on a path to global irrelevancy,” McAravey said.

Around 83% of the technical respondents believed there was a direct correlation between digital transformation and reaching their strategic business aims.

The respondents indicated that the right investment could result in improvements to growth, innovation and productivity.

“The [biggest] benefit of digital transformation to 65% of respondents is improving operational efficiencies, followed by improved business processes and 40% identifying the benefit of real-time decision-making,” the report noted.

“The top challenge of respondents is getting people with the right skills set to manage data-driven systems; this is especially the case where business resources would need to be more technically skilled in information technology terms.

BMI-T conducted 329 interviews in September with both business leaders and technical respondents from 254 companies.