SMEs around the world have some digital catching up to do
Adobe recently commissioned The Future of Digital Work study, which surveyed more than 1,000 employees of SMBs worldwide on whether technology helps or hinders small business productivity.
How well are SMEs around the world digitally positioned? This was the question addressed in a study conducted by Adobe. It surveyed 1,000 employees in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, and Japan. The survey also took into account pervasive socioeconomic factors such as inflation, recession, layoffs, and global unrest.
Digitization has a positive impact on work
The results show: Small businesses around the world have some digital catching up to do. For example, 88 percent of SMEs say that inadequate technologies would affect their company's productivity. 55 percent of the SMEs surveyed also say that at least half of the work in their company is still done on paper. Due to outdated work processes, half of SMEs (58 %) lose between two and four hours of productivity per day. Correspondingly, almost a unanimous number of SMEs (85 %) believe that automation increases their company's productivity. An even higher percentage (92 %) of employees in AI-savvy SMEs say that AI-driven technology has a positive impact on their workflows.
Good technology increases workplace attractiveness
The "digital fitness" of an SME is also a decisive factor for job placements. This is because almost all employees (92 %) of the SMEs surveyed say that work technology is a factor in whether they accept a job at a new company, with almost a quarter
(24 %) say it is "absolutely critical" because their success depends on good technology. Respondents go on to say that they place great value on technologies that promote collaboration in decentralized teams, including video conferencing tools, but also digital document management - PDFs and e-scans rank first among the technologies that are indispensable to them, while collaboration tools and video conferencing rank second and third.
Software against digital pent-up demand
"Digital documents are an essential part of our business. We use them for everything from invoices to contracts to product catalogs," says Sofiya Deva, founder of The Postcard Edit. "For example, we find that it's smooth and easy to edit, share and close contracts with Acrobat. We operate globally and work with both large retailers and young designers*. PDFs help us communicate in a way that feels professional while being agile and user-friendly."
Good technology not only helps small businesses be more productive, it also helps them attract qualified employees. Automation and AI continue to be the buzzwords of the day when it comes to getting work done smarter and faster, the Adobe study concludes.
Source: Adobe
