Execs Say IT Is Too Slow to Deliver on Mobile

- 1 of
-
Agenda Item
74% of enterprises view mobile as a major business priority, as 36% of consumers access the Internet on a smartphone and 12% do so on a tablet. -
Need for Speed
43% have "critical" or "significant" concerns that their IT departments can't move fast enough to support customer-facing mobile efforts. -
Unclear Commitment
More than 60% of enterprises are investing less than $5 million on mobile initiatives this year, and 40% are spending less than $1 million. -
Staffing Shortfall
Only three out of 10 organizations have 50 or more people working full-time on mobile efforts. -
Top Mobile Strategic Priorities
Increase customer engagement: 63%, Improve customer satisfaction: 38%, Acquire new customers: 35% -
DIY
39% of enterprises are custom-building internal mobile infrastructure through their IT department. -
External Affairs
19% are outsourcing mobile infrastructure needs to an agency, and 7% are outsourcing to an e-commerce platform vendor. -
Top Tech Deployed for Mobile Services
SMS notifications: 70%, Bar or QR codes: 60%, Call queuing: 46%, Two-way SMS: 46%, Direct carrier billing: 40% -
Critical Challenges of Mobility
Expense of integrating mobile into back-end systems: 55%, Data privacy and security: 53%, The number of different platforms and operating systems: 50% -
Opportunity Knocking
47% of enterprises are struggling to find skilled developers to design the user interface and experience.
A growing number of enterprises are in a hurry to move into customer-benefiting mobile initiatives. However, many top business decision-makers feel that IT can't respond rapidly enough to accommodate the swift speed of the market, according to one finding from a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of OpenMarket. The accompanying report, "The Rise of Holistic Enterprise Mobile Engagement," depicts a landscape in which ambition is thwarted by reality: Organizations rank mobile strategies as a top priority, citing it as a critical component of future customer-based expansion and loyalty efforts. However, they're still not devoting a significant share of budgeting to mobility—nor are they ramping up required staffing in a notable way. Ultimately, the report concludes, these decision-makers should adopt a bigger-picture view of the topic and invest accordingly. (Perhaps that would change the perceived "slow" follow-up from IT.) "Mobile represents a critical communication channel for enterprises to engage with their customers," says Jay Emmet, general manager of OpenMarket. "Companies are already tackling siloed mobile projects. But there is a need for a more comprehensive, cross-channel approach that lowers operational costs and increases loyalty by engaging customers throughout their entire life cycle." More than 165 mobile decision-makers and nearly 11,100 smartphone owners took part in the research.