Online Extra: Baseline’s Mobile Computing Survey

Enterprises continue to pump more data outside of the office. In 2006, large companies—those with more than 1,000 employees—are planning to spend 5% to 14% more on mobile computing projects than last year, according to a Baseline survey of readers conducted March 2006. In the following sections, you’ll find additional results and analysis from our survey, available exclusively online. Click here to read the main story with the survey results.

The Big Spenders

Who spends the most for mobile? According to our survey, financial services firms are most likely to have spent $1 million or more on mobile projects last year, with a quarter of respondents who identified their organizations as working in the financial services sector falling into this bunch. Across all industries, the $1 million-plus club is more likely than the average firm to support non-PC mobile devices—including smart phones and proprietary gadgets—and is twice as likely to support field-service applications.

Table 1: Percentage of respondents, by industry, whose companies spent $1M or more on mobile projects in 2005

Industry$1M+ spending
Financial services25%
Energy/utilities17%
Manufacturing (non-I.T.)15%
Retail14%
Information technology14%
Health care0%

Source: Baseline survey of 143 I.T. executives whose I.T. organizations support mobile devices

Table 2: Top mobile devices among organizations that spent $1M or more on mobile projects in 2005*

Device$1M+ spendingAll respondents
Standard mobile phones85%67%
Personal digital assistants82%64%
Notebook/tablet computers78%84%
Smart phones that can access e-mail and Web74%53%
Proprietary/customized mobile devices30%9%

* Multiple responses allowed
Source: Baseline survey of 143 I.T. executives whose I.T. organizations support mobile devices

Table 3: Top mobile applications among organizations that spent $1M or more on mobile projects in 2005

Application$1M+ spendingAll respondents
Remote access to e-mail89%84%
Remote access to corporate network files78%60%
Personal contact management74%56%
Field-service applications63%32%
Customer-facing applications44%25%
CRM/sales force automation41%27%
Logistics/tracking41%18%
Inventory management41%23%
GPS/maps/geographic information systems37%21%

* Multiple responses allowed
Source: Baseline survey of 143 I.T. executives whose I.T. organizations support mobile devices