Mobile devices promise a more agile and responsive workforce that has access to a broad variety of enterprise applications without being chained to a desk. Besides providing more flexibility, mobile-specific technology like geolocation promises to bring new capability to the mobile enterprise. Our Technology Trends survey data suggests that the dream of the mobile enterprise is not yet here; however, investment in mobile applications continues to rise at a healthy rate.
Less than half (42%) of survey respondents reported deploying any mobile applications as of yet. But investment is rising quickly: while only 31% in 2013 reported investing in mobile apps, 51% are reporting new or ongoing investments this year. We expect that rate of investment to continue to rise as the already ubiquitous mobile devices get more sophisticated and more powerful.
Figure 2 from the full study, Mobile Business Application Adoption and Economic Experience, shows the percentage of organizations at five adoption stages. 36% report that they have some mobile applications in place and intend to increase investment. Only 6% report having mobile apps in place but plan no further investment.15% report that they are currently implementing mobile apps, and 17% are considering it. Twenty-six percent report no activity at all.
The full study provides metrics for mobile application adoption and investment and reports on customer satisfaction and customer experience with return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO). It also examines what applications enterprises are adapting to the mobile experience as well as the platforms on which they are choosing to develop those applications. Finally, we assess which sectors are adopting mobile applications, and whether those organizations are developing mobile applications in-house, outsourcing the task, or relying on commercial software vendors.
This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report on this subject, Mobile Business Application Adoption and Economic Experience. The full report is available at no charge for Computer Economics clients, or it may be purchased by non-clients directly from our website (click for pricing).