Business mobility: the new competitive mandate, according to global survey

Mobility solutions lead to revenue gains rather than simply reducing operating costs; improved workforce agility, collaboration, and ability to attract and retain the best talent cited among key benefits

NEW YORK, NY


Competition is pushing businesses towards greater mobility, and companies plan to adopt mobile applications for core business activities - these were two key findings in a recent global survey on business mobility conducted by Nokia and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and in cooperation with the CIO Forum. As business mobility continues making headway into organizations and more advanced applications and processes are mobilized, the reasons behind companies' mobility adoption can vary from hard core ROI benefits to softer values such as employee retention. Companies are increasingly implementing mobility to offer greater collaboration, responsiveness to customers, and better work-life balance to staff, fundamentally changing the ways people are working.

Nokia and EIU polled more than 500 global executives across a range of industries to find out how their organizations were using business mobility. In the survey, three quarters of the respondents pointed to human factors such as attracting the best talent - including new entrants to the workforce--improving customer support, and building brand reputations as reasons for deploying business mobility.

The survey shows that business mobility has gone mainstream. Well over one-third of executives reported that at least 20% of their employees can be considered 'mobile workers', defined as those who spend at least one day a week away from the office. Far from being a requirement for just a few specialized technology firms, business mobility is now seen as broadly applicable to companies in many industrial sectors.
  • Important competitive advantages such as quicker response time to customers (36%);
  • mproved collaboration within the enterprise (27%);
  • And the ability to work with multiple partners/suppliers (12%).
The survey also showed that activities occurring in the field are increasingly core to the success of a business and companies can no longer rely on information merely being captured in the field. Respondents also planned to increase their use of mobility solutions over the next two years, with companies more likely to make greater use of:
  • Remote network access (41%);
  • Customer relationship management (34%);
  • Collaborative applications such as mobile groupware (21%);
  • And sales force automation (17%).
"This research clearly demonstrates that business mobility has arrived, and is viewed as a fundamental part of being competitive regardless of the industry," said Olivier Cognet, VP, strategy and business development, Enterprise Solutions, Nokia. "We have resolved a great deal of earlier mobility industry 'teething problems' related to infrastructure, and the need for business-optimized devices and complete solutions. Now is the time to fully reap the far-reaching benefits that business mobility has to offer."

Along with advantages, respondents also said business mobility brings challenges such as managing a mobile workforce (19%) and maintaining a cohesive culture across a dispersed workforce (18%). The ability to measure the impact of business mobility on a company's competitiveness was also cited (12%).

"By enabling decision-making 'on-the-move', business mobility solutions let organizations respond more quickly to customer needs, develop ideas for innovative products and services, and attract new talent," said Nigel Holloway, Research Director in the Americas at the Economist Intelligence Unit. "Although it presents new managerial challenges, the long term trend toward greater business mobility is clear."

As a means of enabling business mobility, Nokia's integrated business mobility solutions portfolio makes it easier for companies to take a more strategic approach to business mobility, overcome the challenges, and help quantify the total return on investment (ROI). The portfolio includes Nokia Intellisync Mobility platform; Nokia Eseries business devices; secure connectivity technologies designed to safeguard data on the device and over the network; technical support; and professional services. Offerings are built on four key cornerstones: being simple to deploy, manage and use; being connected to eliminate the boundaries of both distance and technology; being intelligent enough to make communication affordable and respond to changing company and employee needs; and being trusted to protect sensitive corporate data and systems.

The global study was conducted in the first quarter of 2007 as part of the Nokia for Business Executive Forum, an initiative focused on competitiveness through business mobility.