Enterprise Mobility - A Business or IT Strategy?

In my Enterprise Mobility Survey 2011 (September 2011) I asked survey respondents the following question, "How important do you view enterprise mobility to your company's future success?"  80% said enterprise mobility was "very important" (36%) to "critical"(44%) to their company's future success.  With these numbers it seems mobility is an area worthy of significant brain energy.

Another survey question on the same survey asked, "What are your company's motivations for wanting to deploy mobile apps?"  Here are some of the answers:

  • 79.1% said increase productivity
  • 48.6% said improve customer interaction and service
  • 43.4% said reduce costs
  • 41.7% said achieve competitive advantages

The results of this survey clearly highlight how important enterprise mobility solutions are to a company's business.  However, some companies are still treating enterprise mobility as if it were an IT issue.  That is simply wrong thinking.  Who makes competitive advantages, customer service, productivity and cost reductions the responsibility of the IT department?

I meet with large enterprises either via phone or in person weekly.  Finding good mobile technologies are no longer the main challenge.  The biggest challenge in enterprise mobility today is getting the business to understand what is possible with mobile technologies and designing a business plan to take advantage of it.

First, the business must understand mobility so they can identify how their business models, strategies and processes can be improved by using mobile technologies.  Once the business has identified what they want to accomplish using mobile technologies, then it is time for the IT department or third-party experts to identify the mobile technologies, frameworks and infrastructures necessary to achieve the business' goals.


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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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Interviews with Kevin Benedict