Global survey reveals NZ firms are less mature in using mobility

Research commissioned by Unisys shows New Zealand enterprises are less mature in using mobility to drive tangible business returns. The majority are focused in using mobility for internal business processes.

To explore how enterprises use mobility to drive successful business outcomes, Unisys commissioned IDG Connect to survey 449 business and IT decision makers, across 13 countries, including 51 decision makers in New Zealand.

The research found that most organisations have mobility strategies in place. However, just 21 per cent globally, and only 10 per cent in New Zealand, place themselves in the most mature mobility category. This group of “mobile trendsetters is characterised as having a defined mobility strategy that drives the technology roadmap, tracks success metrics, has mobility-related policies in place, and has integrated mobility into overall enterprise governance.

The majority of organisations globally, and in New Zealand, are either mobile enabled with strategies and policies in place but no proactive governance, or mobile aware with pockets of mobile initiatives and some policies in place but no overall strategy or governance.

New Zealand organisations are also twice as likely as the global average to be on the bottom of the maturity scale – in the “Mobile Void” category – with no strategy, policies or governance.

“In the four years that Unisys has conducted market research into enterprise mobility, we have seen the discussion mature from simply what types of devices to deploy and whether to support a BYO approach, to how to use mobile strategies and technology to develop new products and services, improve employee productivity, deliver better customer/citizen service, and generate new revenue opportunities,” says Unisys country manager Steve Griffin.

“New Zealand organisations were early adopters of mobile devices and were quick to start mobile-enabling some enterprise applications. However, our research and our discussions with many New Zealand enterprises have found that they have not yet moved beyond those early stages to embrace mobility as a core part of their business strategies.

“Only 37% of Kiwi organisations have implemented a mobility roadmap driven by business strategy compared to more than half (52%bile Trendsetters,” he says.

The research found that more mature organisations are more likely to be focused on achieving gains beyond employee productivity by also focusing on external initiatives such as CRM, customer/citizen service and new revenue opportunities. They are also more likely to be using mobile solutions to redefine business processes by allowing mobile access to information and create new products/services or revenue streams enabled or enhanced by mobile access, among others.

The research reveals that mobile trendsetters are also more mature when it comes to measuring the business outcomes of their mobility programmes. They are more likely to implement metrics to measure the outcomes of their mobility programmes. Sixty-five percent of mobile trendsetters say that they use a formal, technology-enabled process to measure return on investment, whereas just 14 per cent of New Zealand respondents report doing the same.

Organisations that classify themselves as Mobile Trendsetters say they have had a higher return on their investments in mobility strategies and programmes than New Zealand organisations:

“New Zealand organisations need to take the lead from the mature Mobile Trendsetters by using a mobile business strategy to drive their IT roadmap and measure mobility ROI qualitatively and quantitatively,” Griffin says.