Well, here’s something we can all celebrate! Recent research by Zoho highlights Canadian business growth in 2021 and optimism for 2022, as current investments in digital transformations are paving the way for Canadian companies to build successful hybrid work models.
The results of new research by Zoho Corporation are in our hands – and they reveal a surprising amount of growth among Canadian businesses in 2021. Despite the pandemic and the challenges it presented, most respondents indicated they experienced year-over-year growth in 2021.
The survey queried 501 business owners across Canada, and 72.5% had year-over-year growth in 2021. Even more said they had high hopes for the future, with 82.6 % stating they had optimism for growth in 2022.
“The pandemic has greatly accelerated digital transformation for many Canadian businesses, and they see fantastic returns on their investments. In addition, the innovative technologies they are embracing have enabled them to manage a distributed workforce like never before, which sets these businesses up for a new future of work,” said Chandrashekar LSP, evangelist for Zoho in Canada. “As business leaders and entrepreneurs continue to drive digitization and automation within their organizations, it is vital they determine how to best support their team with the tools they need, and collaboration and productivity tools like those from Zoho will be a key part of that.”
Key Survey Findings
The following are key findings from the survey, which should interest businesses of all sizes across Canada:
- 72.5% of Canadian businesses say their business is growing compared to 2020:
- The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) leading the pack at 77.6%,
- Montreal lags at 66.7%,
- And Calgary came in last at only 59.3%.
- 82.6% of Canadian businesses are optimistic about the next 12 months
- That optimism is significantly less pronounced in Calgary, with only 67.9% stating optimism for 2022.
- 66.3% of businesses say they are at the intermediate to advanced level of fully digitizing/automating their interactions, indicating a solid acceleration in digital transformations.
- Business apps are popular among Canadian businesses, with 56.9% of respondents using 1-40 apps and another 7.6% using more than 40 apps.
- 64.9% said low-code apps improve speed-to-market, and another 62.2% plan to use a low-code tool to build more apps.
- While 40% say they’ll maintain a work-from-home or hybrid model in the future, 33.3% of respondents overall said they’re unsure about where their employees will ultimately work.
- In Montreal, 50% of those surveyed plan on having employees return to the office full-time.
- Almost 1-in-5 people surveyed have relocated since the beginning of the pandemic.
“While some businesses struggled with the disruption of the pandemic, as we now see, a majority of entrepreneurs and business leaders continue to succeed in large part due to their use of innovative technology designed to improve productivity and collaboration,” said LSP. “Focusing their investments on apps that resolve operational challenges – including digitization and retention challenges – while delivering real-time insights for business decisions will be a critical step to their continued success as we further navigate through the pandemic.
Report Methodology
Conducted in October 2021 by Zoho Survey, this study contacted 501 individuals across Canada. Participants of the study included a range of business leaders from manager roles to the C-level at small and large enterprises across various industries.
About Zoho
With 50+ apps in nearly every major business category, including sales, marketing, customer support, accounting and back-office operations, and an array of productivity and collaboration tools, Zoho Corporation is one of the world’s most prolific technology companies.
Zoho is privately held and profitable, with more than 10,000 employees. Zoho is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with international headquarters in Chennai, India. Additional offices are in the United States, India, Japan, China, Canada, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, the Netherlands, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. For more information, please visit www.zoho.com/