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How to Boost your Business-Critical Mobility

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It only took 10 years after they were introduced for companies around globe to become dependent on smartphones. Almost 80% of companies believe their employees cannot do their jobs effectively without mobile technology. If this is accurate, what business goals are driving companies to deploy mobile devices and apps? What challenges are they encountering during rollout? And what problems do they run into after business mobility is in place? After two decades in the business of business mobility, SOTI needed to understand these issues so they could improve their solutions and educate the market about the motivations and challenges of business mobility deployments.

 

SOTI worked with VDC Research, the industry experts at enterprise mobility, industrial automation and the Internet of Things (IoT), to conduct a global survey about business-critical mobility. The survey collected data from almost 400 Senior IT decision-makers located in North America, EMEA, APAC and Latin America. The respondents represented companies of all sizes and in all major industries. For detailed information about the survey including key industry insights, please read the whitepaper, Implementing Business-Critical Mobility Solutions – Successfully Minimizing Downtime and Mobile Worker Disruption.

 

Key findings from the survey include:

 

Top drivers for business mobility deployments

What business goals propelled your company to deploy business mobility?

 

  1. Improve worker productivity (36%)
  2. Increase sales/revenue (29%)
  3. Improve real-time decision-making (27%)
  4. Improve competitive advantage (26%)
  5. Reduce paperwork (26%)

 

Business goals were consistent across companies of all different sizes, but there were notable differences between industries. For example, retail respondents wanted to increase sales/revenue, whereas healthcare respondents were not motivated by increasing sales/revenue, but were anxious to support key compliance mandates.

 

Challenges to business mobility initiatives

What challenges did your company experience during the implementation and scaling of business mobility?

 

  1. Data and file security (46%)
  2. Employee mobile training (41%)
  3. Interoperability with legacy systems (39%)
  4. IT leadership buy-in (38%)

 

It should come as no surprise that the biggest concern for ongoing business mobility initiatives is data and file security. With new data privacy regulations such as the GDPR popping up around the world, companies are more concerned than ever about keeping sensitive data secure and private. Data breaches can be ridiculously expensive due to fines, litigation, lost revenue and the potential for tarnishing a brand.

 

 

Leading causes of mobile failure

What are the top issues that your company experienced once business mobility was in place?

 

  1. Network/connectivity issues (49%)
  2. Application issues (42%)
  3. Mobile battery failure (36%)
  4. Security and access control (36%)
  5. Operating system issues (34%)

 

Once business mobility is deployed, company’s report network connectivity issues are the leading cause of failures. This includes anything from basic cellular and WiFi connectivity glitches to secure VPN problems. Almost as troublesome are software errors, specifically application issues, operating system problems and security/access control complications.

 

Failure can be very expensive for companies that depend on their business mobility, especially when it’s business-critical. SOTI’s survey found that the downtime from mobile failure averaged around 100 minutes per incident and that companies experienced hundreds of failures per year (depending on the scale of their mobile deployment).

 

 

The benefits of EMM for business mobility

It is well established that EMM is required for successful business mobility. As companies broaden and deepen their mobility deployments, real-time security and management of mobile devices, apps and their connectivity are more critical than ever. SOTI’s survey showed some clear benefits to EMM.

 

  • Reduced number of IT tickets opened due to mobile failure by 8%
  • 9% increase in the number of mobile device issues fixed remotely
  • Reduce time required to fix mobile issue by 26%
  • 29% decrease in devices shipped to depot where “no trouble found”

 

However, these benefits from an EMM solution such as SOTI MobiControl’s are just the beginning. The survey also found that companies reliant on mobile technology need to maximize the uptime of their mobile assets. However, over a third of them lacked the ability to diagnose and fix a mobile issue in the field. SOTI Assist is the industry’s first help desk solution that is purpose-built to fix mobile device and app problems quickly, on the first try.

 

In addition, many companies surveyed are looking for help with mobile app development. The survey found that developing a single mobile app takes an average of five months and can cost the company more than $55,000 per app. SOTI Snap enables organizations to build mobile apps faster, cheaper and on time. Each SOTI ONE solution solves a key challenge and working together they can future-proof your business-critical mobility deployment.

 

The VDC survey generated an incredible wealth of data. SOTI is busy working through the responses to understand and identify note-worthy trends regarding business-critical mobility. Contact us and let us show you how SOTI ONE reduces the cost, complexity and downtime of business-critical mobility.