Enterprise mobility tops 2016 IT investments

More than 90 percent of IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) see enterprise mobility as the critical function for customer engagement, competitiveness and operational productivity in 2016. Additionally, nearly three in four (73 percent) say their companies are planning to mobilize the entire organization, shows the new Appian study conducted by Harris Poll.

  • Friday, 18th December 2015 Posted 8 years ago in by Phil Alsop
The online survey, which fielded in October among 306 ITDMs to understand the technology outlook for 2016, defined enterprise mobility as business applications and data that are seamlessly accessible anywhere regardless of location on desktops or mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets and wearables.
Among the key findings, the majority of ITDMs believe cloud-based applications/solutions (70 percent) and enterprise mobility (61 percent) will yield the biggest returns to their company in 2016, with 87 percent reporting enterprise mobility as critical to their company's profitability.
"Companies are shifting their focus from mobile applications to full enterprise mobility," said Matt Calkins, president and CEO of Appian. "IT professionals understand that a strategic focus on mobile apps will fail to deliver the full digital transformation that must occur within the enterprise."
Telecommunications (40 percent), financial services (36 percent), manufacturing (34 percent), energy and utilities (32 percent), healthcare / pharmaceutical (32 percent), transportation (32 percent) and retail (31 percent), were cited as the industries most likely to adopt enterprise mobility in 2016.
Custom Apps Are Key to Enterprise Mobility
An overwhelming majority (92 percent) of respondents agree that new approaches are required to mobilizing an entire enterprise, with approximately 85 percent agreeing that custom software applications are key. With this:
 
  • Over half (59 percent) of ITDMs say they will increase their custom application development budget in 2016 regardless of company revenue.
  • The top drivers for custom application development in 2016 include: efficiency (56 percent), security (53 percent) and speed (48 percent); about four in ten reported operational productivity (42 percent) and customer engagement (37 percent) as top drivers. Regarding speed of delivery, more than four in 10 (43 percent) of respondents indicated it takes their company three-to-six months to deliver a new application to their business.
  • Companies with higher annual revenue ($100M+) are significantly more likely than those at lower revenue companies (under $100M) to report the following three benefits: competitiveness (49 percent vs. 32 percent, respectively); customer engagement (45 percent vs. 31 percent, respectively); and agility (40 percent vs. 27 percent, respectively).
Enterprise Mobility Obstacles Exist
Nearly, all ITDMs (95 percent) cited challenges for achieving full enterprise mobility in 2016. Of those, 64 percent cited agility, speed and security as obstacles. The findings also show:
 
  • Companies with higher revenue ($100M+) are significantly more likely than those at lower revenue companies (under $100M) to report ease of use / user interface as an obstacle (33 percent vs. 22 percent).
  • Additionally, nearly nine in ten of ITDMs are concerned about security in both custom applications (86 percent) and security in pre-packaged applications (86 percent).