South African businesses have a reputation for improvising their way through disruption, and the data suggests technology is now doing much of the heavy lifting. According to Standard Chartered’s Future of Trade 2026 report, 90% of South African businesses surveyed say digital tools help them respond faster to supply chain disruption, well ahead of the 83% global average.
Yet the same research shows that only 15% have fully integrated their treasury and supply chain systems and that the biggest hurdles are visibility, interoperability and in-house skills. While companies globally are redrawing their supply chains less and strengthening their capabilities more, the lesson for local small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is clear: resilience is increasingly built through connected data, not new locations.
A Digital-First Response to Disruption
Ask South African business executives what will shape trade over the next three to five years, and technology tops the list. According to the report, 59% name technology and digital transformation, as well as conflict (59%), as the two leading issues. Trade policy follows closely at 51%.
Their response is practical: 90% say digital tools help them respond faster to supply chain disruption, and 87% report clear, measurable benefits from at least one digital capability. Both figures are higher than the global picture of 83% and 80%.
“Corporates with stronger digital capabilities are more confident in navigating future uncertainties. This makes digitalisation a critical advantage to building resilience for tomorrow,” states the report.
For an SME owner, the takeaway is that digital tools are no longer experimental. Your larger customers and competitors are already relying on them. This means that SMEs who don’t leverage digital tools risk falling behind, reducing their resilience.
Resilience Without Relocation
The old answer to supply chain risk was to shift and find a new factory, a new sourcing country, a new “plan B”. The report shows global corporates stepping back from that approach. 95% expect to adjust their supply chains over the next three to five years, but almost 60% expect neither to enter nor exit a market.
Priority for geographic reconfiguration drops by 7,2% points, while supplier strategies rise by 4,3% and inventory management by 2,9%.
South African businesses face the same constraints: they name transition and relocation costs (37%), limited insight into treasury management (31%) and friction in cross-border payments (29%) as the main brakes on change. For SMEs with limited capital, refining what you already have is far more realistic than starting over.
The opportunity here is to make a new network effective. Alternative locations must replicate the capabilities, relationships and operating conditions embedded in established supply chains, while maintaining visibility, coordination and financial control across more complex trading networks.
The Integration Gap
South African businesses have adopted the tools, but they have not yet connected them. Only 15% report fully integrated treasury and supply chain systems, compared with 10% globally. 40% report limited integration and 35% partial integration. The gaps are specific: limited visibility across the supply chain (30%), misalignment between procurement and treasury (23%) and inadequate digital infrastructure (21%).
The ambition is there, with as many as 41% planning closer integration over the next three to five years. For an SME, this is where cash is won or lost: knowing what stock you hold, what is in transit and what cash you will have to pay for it.
What is the Integration Gap for SMEs?
For SMEs, the integration gap refers to the disconnect between adopting isolated digital tools (such as software for accounting, CRM, or AI applications) and having them work together as a unified system.
Key aspects of the SME integration gap are:
- Limited automation: Standalone tools generate isolated data or content, but they fail to automatically trigger actions or update workflows across other core business systems.
- Inconsistent decision-making: Different teams within the business rely on separate data inputs, causing conflicting interpretations of the same operational or customer problem.
- Poor scalability: Manual data bridges, custom workarounds, and fragmented apps become harder to manage as transaction volumes, user counts, and data complexity grow.
- High IT and resource barriers: Smaller businesses often lack in-house IT expertise, specialised staff, or the capital required to build and maintain seamless software integrations.
- Cultural resistance: Employees often resist new integrated systems due to fear of disruption, workflow displacement, or steep learning curves.
Chris Egberink, Group Chief Executive and Head of Banking and Coverage, South Africa, Standard Chartered, said: “South African businesses are already using digital tools to respond faster to disruption. The next step is to connect those capabilities across trade, treasury and supply chains so that businesses have a clearer view of cash, risk and inventory. Closing integration gaps will help companies reduce friction in cross-border transactions, manage foreign exchange and liquidity risks more effectively, and convert resilience into growth.”
Where the Digital Payoff Comes From
Digital tools clearly work, but most firms – small and large – are only scratching the surface. Globally, 80% report gains from at least one digital capability, yet only 7% from five or more, and even the most established tool, automated payments and collections, is mature in only 37% of companies.
The prize for going deeper in digitisation is substantial. Corporates expect digitalisation to cut costs in individual trade processes by 19% to 22%, enough to offset much of the roughly 13% cost increase they expect from reconfiguration.
In an illustrative Digital Acceleration scenario developed by Standard Chartered and Oxford Economics, global trade ends up 6,9% (2,8 trillion) above baseline by 2031, with services trade up 11,4%. These are global modelling results, not a South African forecast, but they point to where the opportunity lies.
The Barriers to Digitalisation
If South African firms are this keen on digital tools, what is holding them back? The report points to interoperability and integration challenges (48%), cost and uncertain returns (44%), and limited internal expertise (42%). Respondents also cited data protection and localisation requirements (56%), inconsistent regulations and standards (44%), and insufficient digital trade provisions (44%) as regulatory obstacles.
Many SMEs lack the internal capabilities needed to participate. The 2025 WTO-ICC Business Survey finds that SMEs are more likely than larger businesses to face barriers to digitalisation such as limited in-house expertise and high upfront adoption costs. This capability gap also limits access to innovations such as deep-tier supply chain finance (DTSCF), which can extend financing to SMEs deeper within supply chains.
“For these solutions to scale, SMEs must first have the resources to generate, share, and verify digital business data. Building these digital foundations is essential for SMEs to fully participate in digital trade and financing ecosystems,” highlights the report.
Conclusion: Five Moves For This Quarter
The report’s closing message is that the cost of standing still may be greater than the cost of disruption itself. South African businesses have shown they can adopt technology quickly. The task now is to connect it so that decisions about cash, stock and suppliers are made on the same current information.
Checklist for this Quarter:
- Map supplier and customer concentration
- Build a simple three-scenario cash-flow model
- Review currency exposure and payment costs with your bank
- Automate one process, such as invoicing or collections, and measure the result
- Ask your bank and logistics partners how their systems can connect to yours.
“As businesses focus less on redrawing supply chains and more on increasing resilience, visibility and agility, investment in digital capabilities is becoming a critical source of competitive advantage. Combining digital tools, AI-enabled insights and more integrated treasury and supply chain functions can help clients make faster decisions and respond more effectively to disruption,” concludes Roberto Hoornweg, CEO, Corporate and Investment Banking, Standard Chartered.
