As coordinator of the Digital Age: Innovation & Technology stream at the successful Global Café, prelude to the G20, I was one of the lucky few to be part of the team to bring this ‘once in a generation’ event to life.

Amongst the high calibre of speakers who participated was Frank Farrall, Lead Partner of Deloitte Digital. Franks presented some insightful and highly relevant statistics during his presentation, many of which I was surprised by. For example, did you know that SME’s make up over 99% of business in Australia? With this many SME’s in Australia it is surprising to see such numbers of businesses using digital for more effective business operations.

Deloitte’s research called The Connected Business showed only 16% of SME’s were using advanced digital technology in their business.  A full copy of the report is available here: https://www.deloitteaccesseconomics.com.au/uploads/File/Connected%20Small%20Business.pdf

A few of the findings from the report reiterate the importance of digital to SME’s:

• SME’s that are using digital technology are 4 times more likely to be growing when they competitors are struggling to keep up.
• They are also generating up to $100K per employee more than competitors so they generation and engagement piece is incredible important
• In operations and efficiency, only 25% of SME’s are using digital tools to drive business efficiency
• Digital has bought the costs of setting up business to less than $50K whereas 10 years ago this would cost closer to $1 million

So for those Small businesses that don’t think Digital is important for you, think again!

You can see Franks presentation at Global Cafe here: