Communications

CIOs recognise importance of mobile

5 March 2012

Two-thirds of CIOs and other IT professionals believe mobility will impact their businesses as much as or more than the internet did in the 1990s, according to Accenture research.

“A majority of CIOs now recognise mobility’s potential to transform their business, and we see that reflected in the increasing share of spend for mobility in their IT budgets,” said Dan Lauderback, global managing director, Accenture Mobility Services.

The Accenture 2012 CIO Mobility Survey also found that almost half of respondents in emerging markets have an extensively developed mobile strategy compared to only 12 per cent in mature markets.

"We’ve seen this leapfrog effect in emerging markets before,” said Lars Kamp, strategy and corporate development lead at Accenture Mobility Services. “Very often companies in these markets can start with a clean sheet of paper and simply deploy new technology.”

The companies that are focused on employee enablement, customer enablement and finding new avenues for commerce via mobility are in a class by themselves

Dan Lauderback, Accenture IT professionals and application developers have various plans to generate revenue. In the enterprise arena, 42 per cent of IT professionals indicated they want to improve field service or customer service delivery with instant access to corporate databases, relevant business data, and on-the-spot transaction processing.

Application developers cited downloads, in-app purchases, traditional advertising and subscriptions as ways to monetise consumer applications.

However, the biggest concerns for those surveyed were security, cost, interoperability with current systems or a lack of understanding about the benefits of mobility.

We see CIOs struggling with a proliferation of employee devices and employee-developed apps and many appear still in the discovery phase regarding the opportunities mobility presents,” said Lauderback. “Mobility is not simply an extension of today’s legacy IT systems, it’s a completely new way of doing business.

"The companies that are focused on employee enablement, customer enablement and finding new avenues for commerce via mobility are in a class by themselves.”

In order to craft a comprehensive strategy for enterprise mobility, Accenture recommends a multi-pronged approach that includes three key elements: technology, business requirements, and management.

“Companies need to develop a comprehensive list of the mobility projects they have underway and clarify associated goals; accelerate projects by standardising them; and innovate to create competitive advantages,” said Kamp. “The rising penetration of smartphones and tablets is compressing IT innovation cycles for the enterprise to 12-18 months.

"Companies should review their mobile strategy every six to 12 months to ensure that they’re placing their bets on the right trends.”

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