IBM: Research shows that speed and analysis are the factors for enterprises to promote mobile applications

The study shows that 90% of the companies surveyed worldwide are willing to maintain or increase their investment in mobile technology in the next 12 to 18 months. One of the reasons why companies are increasing their investment in this area is that mobile technology has a measurable impact on speed and productivity. For example, half of the companies surveyed believe that promoting mobile technology can increase employee productivity by more than 10%.

Based on responses from more than 600 companies across eight industries and 29 countries, the report, The 'Upwardly Mobile' Enterprise: Setting the Strategic Agenda, highlights how the business benefits of adopting mobile technology are leading to fundamental changes in how companies engage with customers and develop and deliver innovative products and services.

The report focuses on a group of companies in the survey called "mobile strategy leaders", which have established a clear development direction in the mobile field and their mobile strategies are significantly different from other competitors in the industry. Among the leaders surveyed, 73% of the companies said that their investment in mobile has received a measurable return, and 81% of the companies surveyed said that mobile services have fundamentally changed their business models.

To identify the gap between leaders and the rest of the industry, it is critical to examine how companies are addressing core mobility challenges. For example, while many companies are using mobility to pursue multiple avenues of innovation, the majority of leaders (62%) are focusing on innovating their business models—that is, redefining their roles in the value chain, where they collaborate, and how they do it.

“Mobile is rapidly emerging as a game-changer in the enterprise today, driving innovation and engagement,” said Kevin Custis, head of IBM’s social and mobile business. “Defining mobile as a device or a business channel is too limited. Companies that prioritize mobile and use it to drive business expectations and user experiences will be well positioned.”

Emphasis on mobile strategy and meet challenges

Currently, only 20% of companies believe that they have a leading mobile strategy compared to their industry competitors, while more than 44% of the companies surveyed hope that their mobile strategy will be ahead of their competitors in the next three years.

Most mobile leaders have invested heavily in BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) strategies. Compared with other companies, leaders are twice as likely to provide BYOD for employees (66% vs. 32%). In addition, leaders are more likely to provide the necessary support to successfully implement these plans, including comprehensive policies and IT support. In order to effectively support BYOD strategies, companies should first consider the various mobile application scenarios that exist internally, such as using applications to improve customer service, rather than just being limited to the device level.

How to Transform Your Business: Learning from Mobile Strategy Leaders

According to relevant data, enterprises have made significant progress in the mobile field, but only a small number of global enterprises are classified as mobile strategic leaders, accounting for only 14%. According to the report, the three major challenges faced by enterprises in the mobile field are:

Integrate mobile applications with current systems (54%)

Implementing end-to-end mobile security solutions for devices and applications (53%)

Respond to changes in technology and mobile devices within a reasonable time frame (51%)

Mobile strategy leaders excel in several influential categories, including analytics, speed, integration, and security:

Analytics: About 70% or more of the leaders surveyed believe they are very effective in areas such as processing structured and unstructured mobile data, processing large amounts of data, analyzing mobile data, and taking actions based on data. In contrast, less than 37% of non-leaders are able to handle these issues.

Speed: Survey results demonstrate a key benefit of an efficient mobile environment: the ability to deliver timely information and insights to service customers, regardless of location. In fact, 58% of surveyed companies believe that "faster customer response time" is a key benefit of using mobile services to improve employee productivity. In addition to focusing on expanding network infrastructure, 78% of leaders (compared to 44% of non-leaders) are planning to increase investment in improving employees' ability to work outside the office.