Overview of Enterprise Mobile
To put it simply, mobile is a really big deal. And every year, it becomes a larger cornerstone of modern life. Consider the words of David Murphy, founder and editor of Mobile Marketing Daily: “The future of mobile is the future of online. It is how people access online content now.” Mr. Murphy isn’t alone in that belief. Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, echoed Galligan’s sentiments:
“Mobile is the future, and there’s no such thing as communication overload.”
Long before “mobile” and “the future” became synonymous, mobile enterprise management was as simple as supporting a single mobile application, such as email, on one kind of standard,company-issued device — typically a BlackBerry. In-house IT had no trouble managing these bare-bones infrastructures, but that model is light years away from the mobile landscape of today.
Now, Gartner reports that mobile strategy is the number-two priority of CIOs, second only to business analytics. Mobile has become so important, in fact, that a 2012 Forrester research report suggested that the creation of a chief mobility officer (CMO) is a key factor for success in enterprise mobile strategy.
Enterprise mobile — which includes content, apps, and devices — suddenly went from barely a blip on executives’ radar to a pressing concern. According to the 2014 Kinvey State of Enterprise Mobility Survey, 51 percent of CIOs say a mobile strategy is important to their business, and 46 percent say it is critical. Below, we’ve summarized a few key takeaways on the state of mobile in enterprise.
CIOs expect big things from mobile
76 percent want to boost productivity and reduce costs, 64 percent want to generate revenue, and 12 percent want to disrupt the marketplace.
Companies are frustrated with app development
CIOs surveyed reported that app development is slow, expensive, and fragmented. Part of the problem may be who’s at the helm — 75 percent of app development is led by functions (e.g., marketing) and product lines rather than enterprise IT professionals.
Fully 62 percent of CIOs cite the impossibly fast pace of change as a reason their mobile strategy is falling behind.