Mobility rewards enterprises that dare

By Daniel O. Escasa

The 2013 State of Mobility Survey has found that organizations that deploy?mobile technology to support business operations are experiencing significant?benefits.

The survey was a Symantec-commissioned ReRez Research study conducted in?September and October 2012. The survey covered 1,878 individuals at enterprises?with more than 500 employees in 29 countries, the Philippines included.

Two distinct types of organizations emerge from the survey: ?innovators?, who?readily embrace mobility, and ?traditionals?, who are reluctant to implement it.

?Few issues command the attention of IT today like mobility,? said Marie Pettersson, Symantec?s senior?product marketing manager for Mobile and Security in Asia Pacific and Japan.

?Today,? she adds, ?more and more?enterprises in the Philippines view mobility as a tool to improve productivity and (realize) that its benefits outweigh?the risks. The difference in attitudes and results between the organizations that actively embrace mobility?and those that are reluctant is significant. Organizations taking a proactive approach benefit much more?than those that put it off until they eventually find themselves trying to catch up to the competition.?

The two groups perceive the benefits and risks of mobility differently, says?the report.

Among innovators globally, 65 percent say the benefits are worth the risks,?while 34 percent of traditional businesses feel the risks are not worth it.

In the Philippines, 63 percent of enterprises, with no distinction between?innovators and traditionals, felt the benefits were worth the risks, says the report.

The rate of mobility adoption reflects this, with 50 percent more?employees using smartphones for business among innovators than among traditional organizations.

Globally, more than half of innovators (54 percent) are purchasing phones?for employees, compared to 47 percent of traditionals.

In Philippine enterprises, 55 percent of employee phones were company-supplied.

Furthermore, innovators are more likely to deploy business apps on mobile?devices, with 86 percent of innovators discussing such app stores for employees?compared to 64 percent of traditionals.

Seventy-six percent of enterprises in the Philippines are also discussing?private app stores.

Innovators also more often have mobility policies and they are twice as likely?to use technology to enforce their policies (61 percent in the innovators as?opposed to 43 percent among traditionals).

In the Philippines, 45 percent of enterprises are using technology to enforce?mobile policies.

Unfortunately, the low mobile usage of mobile device technology is proportional?to the number of mobile incidents.

Traditionals incurred a median of 24 mobility incidents in 2012, innovators 31, and Philippine enterprises 50.

You’ll note that, for most of the other statistics, Philippine enterprises’ numbers were closer to those of the innovators globally. Sadly, in the case of mobile policies and the correlated mobility incidents, Philippine organizations are more like the traditionals.

In any case, innovators’ mobility initiatives obviously come with?costs, some of them hidden.

For instance, they averaged twice as many mobile incidents during the last?year, such as lost devices and data breaches, leading to consequences such as?regulatory fines and lost revenue.

Still, innovators are experiencing far more benefits, in three key areas:

• Increased productivity, speed and agility
• Improvements in brand value, customer happiness and overall competitiveness
• Happier employees and improved recruiting and retention rates

As regards the bottom line, innovators are experiencing nearly 50 percent?higher revenue growth than traditionals (44 percent vs. 32 percent).

Philippine enterprises show an average of 48 percent revenue?growth.

All things considered, businesses perceive net positive results with?mobility.

Mobility does have a positive impact on business, with the right preparation.

Symantec offers these guidelines so that organizations may realize the benefits?of mobility while reducing risk:

• Invest in security in parallel to embracing mobility. Organizations should take?a proactive approach to protecting their endpoints and make sure that the mobile?devices allowed into their network are subject to the same IT security policy
  requirements.
• Start with apps with greatest productivity benefits for employees. One of the?best ways to get started with mobility is to implement mobile apps that will?have an immediate impact on the business.
• Get the benefits while minimizing the risks. For innovators in particular,?continue to benchmark against mobility best practices to future-proof your?mobility investment.

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