Recent reports indicate that Canadian SMB firms could benefit from being more aggressive about adopting new IT and technology as a means to improve productivity and gain from leveraging these types of investments.
"Only half of Canada’s SMBs have a web site, he said, while fewer than one in three used cloud computing," says Sam Sebastian managing director of Google Canada.
"“For companies that are not open to embracing technology, achieving this objective will be a challenge and they will consistently come second to those companies that are open to adopting not just new technology, but new ideas,” says Kwon Song of Ernst & Young.
Source: The experts agree with Google Canada’s head about our IT adoption issues , Canadian IT News. 
"Advanced technologies are driving the disruptive innovations that will bring significant and permanent change to Canada’s business landscape," says a recent Deloitte report looking at disruptions which are predicted to come in the Canadian economy and around the world.
Of course one could argue that these are people and organizations who have a particular biase towards I.T. and new technologies however discounting their comments and view simply for that reason is very dangerous. With the rapid expansion of the roles of the millennial generation in Canadian businesses, those who fail to adopt current levels of technology such as mobile communications, cloud systems and others stand to be challenged in the recruitment of the best talent as well as being behind others due to poorer sources of information.
People across the country have adopted the latest communication tools in their personal lives and they expect to see the same or better tools available in their working lives. Cloud tools are taken as a given with the development and adoption of thousands of apps which provide easy access to information.
Becoming adept at incorporating these types of opportunities is rapidly becoming a necessary business strategy. Technology adoption is a key part of business strategy for dealing with the disruptions ahead. Unfortunately according to the Deloitte study only 13% of Canadian firms are highly prepared for the four categories of disruption they see coming and 35% are wholly unprepared. This leaves a large middle ground that has some success in becoming ready, although 87% are seen to have significant work to do.
The impact of avoidance and reluctance to spend in these areas can only be a worsening of Canadian competitiveness which is an issue for the whole economy.
What are the four disruption needs?
- Cultivate awareness
- Build the right culture for preparedness
- Foster organizational agility
- Develop effective resources
There is good news in that by looking at what the highly prepared firms have done and understanding what the results of their efforts have been, examples are available for others to follow. This hopefully can accelerate the adoption levels of those who have only begun to act.
Lee K
Photo credit: By Brocken Inaglory (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
