2013 Mobile Enterprise Survey Results

The 2013iPass/MobileIron Mobile Enterprise Report tells a story of the rise of BYOD, and with it increased frustration and loss of control by IT, and concern over rising mobile data costs. Results from our survey show that while Mobile IT brings with it a huge potential to improve workforce productivity, it also introduces significant new challenges for enterprise IT. We also found that Mobile IT means a new relationship between IT and the end-user. The end-user now has the ability to influence IT policy, demanding less IT control and more accommodation of employee owned devices in the workplace.

Highlights include:

-- IT departments are becoming more responsive to mobile employee demands. 68 percent of IT managers believed their mobility costs would go up over the next 12 months. The bulk of the increase was attributed to a rise in the number of mobile users and employees’ expanding use of multiple devices.

   -- 56 percent of enterprises changed their corporate guidelines within the past year to be more accommodating of employees’ personal devices.

   -- 81 percent of companies state they now accommodate personal devices in the office.

  -- 54 percent of companies have formalized bring your own device (BYOD) policies. North American companies are more likely than European companies to have formulated policies regarding BYOD. However, more organizations allow BYOD than have policies for it.

 

-- At the same time, BYOD is creating new challenges for IT. The top two sources of frustration (out of nine common IT issues) relate to onboarding and supporting personal devices. The fact that onboarding and supporting personal devices beat out even security concerns suggests the significance of the burden IT feels from BYOD.

 

-- In line with the overall BYOD trend, IT is increasingly losing control of mobility budgets and departments are assuming greater responsibility. The number of enterprises in which IT manages the mobility budget has dropped from 53 to 48 percent, while it is now managed by business units in 22 percent of companies, and by finance in 18 percent of firms.

 

-- 57 percent believe their mobile data costs will increase in the next year, with 8 percent saying they’ll rise more than 25 percent. Smartphones and 3G data plans were singled out as the main reasons for rising data costs. 44 percent of IT managers said broader smartphone usage was a factor, 41 percent suggested 3G (and 4G) data usage and 22 percent pointed to an increase in the number of mobile employees.

 

-- In 2012, Apple’s iPhone passed Research in Motion’s (RIM’s) BlackBerry to become the most popular smartphone in terms of corporate IT support. BlackBerry is still entrenched in the enterprise but it seems that it is being phased out.

 

-- Tablet adoption is growing increasingly mainstream within the enterprise. Between 2011 and 2012, tablet usage increased in all nonexecutive departments, especially legal, HR/ administration and finance/accounting. The iPad is the top choice, with support from 73 percent of companies.

- 55 percent of the companies surveyed reported some form of security issue over the past year, mostly in conjunction with lost or stolen phones.


-- More than half (55 percent) of IT managers are using Wi-Fi connectivity apps for work purposes. Wi Fi apps were the most widely used out of 10 different types of enterprise mobility apps.

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