A report shines a light on the evolving state of mobile technology and business.
No Platform
43% of companies reported using both iPhones and Android devices, while 28% use only Apple devices and 11% use only Android devices.
Policy in Place
91% said that they believe their company has a mobile policy in place that's both current and widely followed by employees.
Security Lacking?
42% of IT decision makers believe that their company's mobile security is merely "average."
Sensitive Matters
One-third of IT decision makers indicated that they lack confidence in their organization's ability to identify all mobile devices that contain sensitive business data.
Lost and Found
25% said they aren't fully confident employees understand their company's internal processes when these scenarios occur.
Your Virtual Assistant
57% of IT decision makers believe employees will have their own virtual assistants within the next five years.
Dialing into Risk
61% reported human errors as a result of keeping manual records of all devices and 57% said that improperly installed and uninstalled device security software is a problem.
Forward Thinking
IT decision makers believe that the most common connected devices in five years will be: smartphones (70%), laptops (62%), tablets (58%).
Emerging Tech Emerges
Other key mobile technologies that IT decision makers believe will make an impact include machine-to-machine systems (51%), wearables (40%), and virtual reality headsets (39%).
AI and Automation Challenges
95% of respondents believe that AI will provide benefits in the mobile space. Top barriers include cost (28%), security unknowns (24%) and morale, including job security (21%).
Eye on IoT
Top concerns about M2M and IoT functionality include complicated implementation process (20%), costs (18%) and difficulty tracking so many devices (15%).
Final Thought
Organizations can transform the challenge into opportunity by focusing on three key areas: benchmarking success, confronting and overcoming challenges, and planning for the future.
Few areas of business and IT are advancing and changing as rapidly as mobility. For business and IT decision makers, addressing the nuances and complexities of today's environment is increasingly challenging -- and vital for success. A newly released report from mobile platform vendor MOBI Wireless Management, Enterprise Mobility in 2017 and What Comes Next, offers insights into the state of enterprise mobility. The firm surveyed 300 IT decision makers at firms with more than 1,000 global employees in order to better understand what today's mobility programs look like and how business and IT executives are adapting. It examined mobility issues decision makers are most focused on, which ones they spent the most time thinking about, and how they believe digital technologies and business transformation will intersect with mobility in the months and years ahead. While there's no perfect or ideal way to manage mobility technology at the enterprise level, a coherent strategy is critical. Here's a look at some of the key findings:
This article was originally published on 2018-01-22
Samuel Greengard writes about business and technology for Baseline, CIO Insight and other publications. His most recent book is The Internet of Things (MIT Press, 2015).
