Accenture conducted a global survey of leading information technology industry professionals and an online survey of application developers to assess the use of mobile technologies by enterprises, identifying the key priorities and goals of companies, the obstacles to achieving them, and the challenges facing developers.
The results of the study show that CIOs in companies in emerging economies pay special attention to corporate mobility, consider this area of activity a priority and invest heavily in such projects.
A global study, The Accenture 2012 CIO Mobility Survey, found that approximately two-thirds (67%) of IT employees and executives believe that mobile technology will have a greater business impact than the Internet in the 1990s. The survey also found that more than two-thirds (69%) of business leaders surveyed will allocate approximately 20% of their IT budgets this year to the development of mobile technologies in their companies – while 94% of them are specialists from countries with emerging economies and only 35% of specialists from developed countries.
The study identified several areas that should be given special attention when introducing mobile technologies for enterprises. Most of all, IT staff were concerned about the security and costs associated with enterprise mobility. More than 50% of respondents cited security issues as the main factor holding back the adoption of mobile systems, 46% – financial and budgetary constraints.
and only 26% answered that they were concerned about the compatibility of the mobile system with the existing network, or did not understand the benefits of corporate mobility.
An important addition is the fact that application developers for the most popular smartphone operating systems do not provide high device security. The most secure system was named Apple iOS (53%), second place was taken by Android from Google, which was noted by 24% of respondents.
“Most CIOs believe that mobility has the potential to transform their organizations’ business, as evidenced by the increasing spending on mobility in departmental budgets,” said Dan Ladderback, Global Managing Director of Accenture Mobility Services. “But we also see that CIOs are struggling with the proliferation of mobile devices for employees, as well as applications written by them, because many specialists are just discovering the possibilities of corporate mobility. Companies are focused on empowering customers and employees, and exploring the promise of mobile commerce.”
The results of the study highlight the complexities created by market fragmentation. Application developers cited differences in platforms and devices as a major challenge to manageable and profitable enterprise mobility. For IT professionals, this difference in platforms also makes it difficult to implement the main trend: employees are asking to connect their own smartphones and phones to the corporate network and install corporate applications on them.
“The decision to develop custom mobile apps for employees or customers is not easy, and the sheer volume of mobile devices makes the process even more difficult,” Ladderback says. “In order to select the right solution, CIOs need to conduct appropriate research.”
In this tumultuous market, IT managers and application developers have their own vision of new revenue streams. 42% of them said they want to improve their mobile workforce and customer service by instantly accessing corporate databases and relevant information or making transactions on the spot. App developers named the following resources through which they can make a profit: downloads (41%), in-app purchases (29%), traditional advertising (24%), subscriptions (20%).
“Companies need to take a comprehensive approach to enterprise mobility projects – These projects must be standardized and incorporated into the company’s IT strategy. – says Mikhail Romanov, Partner, Head of the Communications, Media and High Technologies practice in Russia and the CIS. “The rise in smartphone and tablet use is shrinking IT innovation cycles for enterprises to 12-18 months.”
According to the study, 93% of professionals in Latin America and 81% in Asia believe that mobility can create new opportunities for profit. And only 66% of European and 56% of North American IT managers agree with this statement.
In addition, half of survey participants from Mexico and China, 40% of participants from Brazil and 32% from India strongly agree that mobile technologies will affect their business more than the Internet did in the 1990s. Among respondents from the US and the UK.
48% of respondents from developing countries have a strategy for the development and implementation of mobile technologies, while only 12% of respondents from professionals in mature markets have such a strategy.
“We have seen examples of such breakthroughs in emerging markets before,” said Lars Kamp, head of strategy and corporate development at Mobility Services. “Very often companies from developing countries create technologies from scratch.”
In conclusion, the authors of the study say that IT professionals need to create a comprehensive enterprise mobility strategy. To do this, Accenture recommends using a multi-factor approach consisting of three main elements: technology, business requirements, and governance.
The survey covered representatives of 23 industries from 12 countries: from Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Half of those surveyed work for companies with profits between $500 million and $1 billion, the other half represent companies with profits over $1 billion and up to $5 billion. America.
