CEOs are missing the mobility boat

Published on the 11/07/2017 | Written by Newsdesk


Investment in mobile technology

Research shows 40 percent of Australian businesses fail to invest in mobile technology…

Despite the exponential growth of connected devices globally, enterprises are struggling to manage the chaos of mobile transformation, especially where mobility is critical to their business. That’s according to research from mobile and IoT device management solutions provider SOTI which identified the views of senior executives and remote workers around the globe.

The study was carried out by Arlington Research and polled 1,300 people in organisations with over 50 employees, with 200 drawn from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, UK and the US, and 100 in Sweden.

Respondents from front line management to executives revealed that ‘many in the C-suite don’t understand how vital mobility has become in the basic business arsenal’. That’s because 31 percent of businesses, globally, are failing to invest in mobile technology to stand out from the competition. This number rises to almost 40 percent in Australia, despite 55 percent of Australian respondents (49 per cent globally) feeling mobility downtime seriously hinders their ability to work.

In a statement, Carl Rodrigues, SOTI CEO, said he believes CEOs are at risk of their businesses becoming obsolete by failing to embrace mobile innovation. “As the future becomes increasingly mobile, devices and tools are being embedded with software, sensors and connectivity at a rapid pace. All around the world organisations prepare to take greater advantage of mobile technology, but there are numerous challenges they need to overcome.”

SOTI also said companies are failing to grasp the importance of mobile devices in an increasingly connected world. Perhaps remarkably, it found that globally, 70 percent of CEOs within transportation and logistics companies fail to grasp the importance of rugged handheld devices in the field, despite the pivotal role they play in service delivery.

And on IoT, around which there is plenty of recent interest? SOTI said ‘alarmingly, only’ 38 percent of Australian remote workers (40 percent, globally) feel that IoT is ‘critical to business success’.

There is plenty of momentum and interest behind investment in apps and devices, with 69 percent of workers globally saying the organisation they work for is investing in mobile devices and apps to stand out from the competition. However, that breaks down to 60 percent in Australia, versus 92 percent in Brazil, 70 percent in Sweden and 69 percent in Canada.

Employees have high levels of concern around the potential damages and loss of information, said SOTI, with a quarter of Australian respondents (29 percent globally) worried they may lose their job if something goes wrong with the device they are using.

Rodrigues said the research highlights “A lack of integrated mobility tools to secure, support and enable their front-office, back-office and workers in the field. Many organizations are using mobility for the basics, but do not know how to implement the next level of mobile integration to transform their workforce.”

Access a summary of the Managing Mobility Tsunami report.

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