Enterprise Mobility Increasing Despite the Economic Downturn

Two days ago the Aberdeen Group released the following report:  “More Mobility – Less Budget: Enterprise Strategies in the Current Economic Downturn.”  You can view it and print it for free here.  The catch?  It is free because it is sponsored by a few folks but I am sure you can still glean some useful information.

Following is an excerpt from their press release:

The benchmark report, “More Mobility – Less Budget: Enterprise Strategies in the Current Economic Downturn,” shows that companies continue to maintain or increase their level of mobility support, with Best-in-Class companies increasing their mobility budgets year-over-year as a percentage of total IT spend by 27.4%, proving how important mobility has become to delivering greater productivity and workforce effectiveness.

“Enterprise mobility has passed the tipping point,” said Andrew Borg, senior research analyst. “In this global marketplace, the need to keep enterprise workers in touch no matter where or when is now a given.”

This study reports how Best-in-Class companies – those that are performing in the top 20% across multiple metrics – have found additional efficiencies through consolidated central device management and security, judicious and selective outsourcing of some support functions, and driving compliance to IT standards for mobile devices, whether enterprise- or employee-procured.

“It is rare to find a company that doesn’t have some level of mobility initiative in place today,” said Borg. “If the economic crisis had occurred 12 to 18 months earlier, perhaps enterprise mobility would be at greater risk, but now we find it firmly entrenched.”

So entrenched, in fact, that between 2006 and 2009, those companies with current mobility initiatives in place rose from 59% to 84%, while those with no plans decreased from 19% to just over 1%.

“Mobility is with us for the foreseeable future,” said Borg. “The organizational agility, flexibility, and responsiveness that enterprise mobility enables us to have, has truly become a competitive necessity in today’s global marketplace.”