Some 50% of South African respondents surveyed for the 2014 Sage Business Index stated that they use a tablet or smartphone to communicate with customers, suppliers or colleagues.

Business management software and services provider, Sage compiled its business confidence index, which revealed that half of the South African small and medium sized businesses surveyed use mobile technology to operate.

Sage's Business Index surveyed 13,710 decision-makers from small and medium sized businesses in 18 countries, between 9 July and 29 August 2014.

African business organisations that formed part of the survey were in Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia.

A statement noted that more than 40% of the respondents think that tablets and smartphones will be of most use for accounting and or payroll in the future.

Furthermore, 59% of the respondents believe the mobile infrastructure in South Africa makes it possible to work effectively on mobile devices.

Ivan Epstein, co-founder of Softline and chief executive officer of Sage AAMEA (Australia, Asia, Middle East and Africa) said, "Mobile technology is bringing new levels of efficiency to South African businesses, thanks to falling data tariffs and affordable smart devices.

"It is making them more responsive and giving business owners more flexibility than ever before. It is a development as significant as the dawn of the PC era," said Epstein.

According to research from the IDC the Middle East and Africa region remains the world's fastest growing region as it continues to be an area of focus for all vendors operating in the tablet space.

In the second quarter of 2014 - 3.95 million units were shipped to the region, the IDC noted.