Business digital maturity: find where you stand on 5 axes

12 min

Your company has a website, a Facebook page, invoicing software and orders coming in on WhatsApp. Does that make it a digital company? Not necessarily. That is the whole point of the new international standard on the digital maturity of organisations, which ISO experts were due to present in Abidjan. Yet to measure your company’s digital maturity, you need neither an auditor nor a certificate. A simple grid, about an hour and a little honesty are enough to know where to start.

What is being presented in Abidjan

Experts from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) were due to present to the Ivorian authorities and the main players in the digital sector a standard dedicated to assessing the level of digital maturity of organisations (Fraternité Matin (via allAfrica)). The initiative is led by the Ivorian consultancy BMI-WFS, whose CEO, Sekongo Clotchôr, announced it in a press release dated Saturday 3 October 2026 (Fraternité Matin (via allAfrica)). A press lunch was scheduled for Saturday 10 October 2026 (Fraternité Matin (via allAfrica)) (Les Afriques).

What caught the press’s attention: Côte d’Ivoire is not simply adopting a text from elsewhere. According to Les Afriques, which cites a press release sent to the Agence ivoirienne de presse, the standard was designed and developed with a direct contribution from Ivorian experts (Les Afriques). Fraternité Matin goes further and presents it as designed, developed and led by BMI-WFS (Fraternité Matin (via allAfrica)).

The text targets businesses as well as public institutions and digital ecosystems (Les Afriques). The logic of the standard therefore applies to your SME, even if you will probably never read the text.

Spending is not progressing

The starting idea is simple. Many organisations measure their digital progress by the budget they devote to it. The standard starts from a different observation: what matters is the ability to turn these investments into performance, innovation and value creation (Fraternité Matin (via allAfrica)) (Les Afriques). It aims to provide benchmarks for assessing your situation, identifying room for improvement and organising your transformation (Fraternité Matin (via allAfrica)).

On the ground, you see this every day. Management software bought and then abandoned after three months. A website delivered four years ago, never updated, that nobody has the login details for any more. An active Facebook page, with no way of knowing how many customers it brings in. In all three cases, the money was spent. Maturity, however, did not move.

What we do not know yet

Be cautious about what exactly this standard is. Les Afriques points out several questions the press release leaves open (Les Afriques):

the status of the text: already officially published by ISO, or still being finalised;
the exact scope of the Ivorian contribution;
whether there is any certification, audit or support for organisations that wish to comply with it.

The press release describes it as a “guidance tool” (Les Afriques). For an SME, the practical lesson is clear: there is no need to wait for the official text, and no need to aim for a certificate. You can ask yourself the right questions right now.

What happens next is still worth following. If Côte d’Ivoire formally adopts this framework and integrates it into its digital policy, Les Afriques believes it could use it as a lever of influence with other French-speaking West African states (Les Afriques). The details given to the press, followed by ISO’s official publications, will show what role this text will play for businesses.

Measuring your company’s digital maturity on five axes

The checklist below is not the ISO standard. It is a self-assessment we offer, built on the same logic: look at what actually works, not at what has been bought. For each item, score 0 if the answer is no, 1 if it is partly true, and 2 if it is a clear yes.

1. Online presence

A customer who types your company name into Google finds your address, your opening hours and a phone number that gets answered.
Your website displays correctly on mobile phones.
Every page offers a clear action: call, message on WhatsApp, request a quote.
Your social media accounts point to a place where people can contact you or buy from you. On this point, see how to make social media and your website work together.

2. Tools

Quotes, invoices and inventory are kept in a shared tool, not in a notebook or in one person’s head.
Orders received via WhatsApp or by phone are recorded somewhere.
Mobile money payments are matched against your sales without spending hours on it.
Every software subscription you pay for is actually used.

3. Data

You know how many customer enquiries you receive each week, and through which channel they come in.
Your customer list, with contact details, is up to date and kept in a single place.
You look at your figures at least once a month before making a decision.

4. Skills

Someone on the team knows how to update the website and post on social media.
If that person leaves tomorrow, someone else can take over without starting from scratch.
Key access credentials (domain name, hosting, social media accounts) are in the company’s name, not in the name of a service provider or a former employee.

5. Security

Your website and files are backed up regularly, and you have already checked that a backup can be restored.
Two-factor authentication (a code sent to your phone in addition to your password) is enabled on your email, your Facebook page and your WhatsApp Business account.
The website and its plugins are kept up to date.
You know whom to call and what to do if an account is hacked.

Reading your score honestly

Add up the points area by area, then compare each total with the maximum possible: 8 for online presence, tools and security, 6 for data and skills. Do not calculate an overall average. It hides what matters most.

What counts is your weakest area. A company can have a great website and no backup. The day the site goes down, the shop window is no longer of any use.

A few guidelines for reading the result:

less than half the points in an area: the foundations are missing, and that is where to start;
between half and three quarters: the basics are in place, but they often depend on a single person or a fragile habit;
above that: the area is solid, and you can improve it later.

A word of caution: if security is your weakest area, deal with it first. A hacked Facebook account or a website wiped out with no backup can cost you far more customers than a poorly designed page.

Where to start this week

Fill in the checklist with someone else. You and the person who handles digital matters day to day. If your answers differ, that in itself tells you something.
Choose a single area. The weakest one, or security if it scores below half the points. Five projects running at once means zero projects finished.
Set one action for the next thirty days, with a result you can check: two-factor authentication enabled everywhere, Google listing completed, customer list gathered in a single file.
Go through the checklist again in three months. Your starting score matters less than your progress.

Getting support, if needed

You can fill in this checklist on your own. If you would like an outside view of your results, the DiGit Summit Digital strategy and marketing team carries out online presence audits and helps you set your priorities. For the security area, our Web security and maintenance service takes care of backups and updates.

Fill in the checklist this week, choose your weakest area and set yourself one action for the month. In three months, you will know whether you have made progress, with figures to back it up.

Frequently asked questions

Does my SME need to get certified to this ISO standard?

Nothing requires it at present. According to Les Afriques, the press release does not say whether certification or an audit is planned, and the text is described as a guidance tool. For an SME, the main value lies in borrowing its approach to carry out its own assessment.

What is this standard’s number and where can I find it?

Press articles published in early October 2026 give neither its number nor its official publication date. Les Afriques even asks whether it has already been published or is still being finalised. The safest option is to follow announcements from ISO and the consulting firm BMI-WFS.

How long does it take to complete the self-assessment grid?

Allow about an hour if you complete it with the person who handles digital matters day to day. The longest part is not answering, it is checking: finding out who holds the domain name or testing a backup can take a little longer.

Which area should I start with if my scores are low across the board?

Start with security: backups and two-factor authentication on your key accounts. These are quick actions, and they protect everything else. Then move on to your online presence, so that your customers can find and contact you.

How often should I repeat the assessment?

Every three months is a good pace for an SME. It allows enough time to complete an action and see whether the score for the area you worked on has actually improved.

Sources

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Business digital maturity: an ISO standard, a simple grid