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SOTI study reveals some CEOs are missing the boat while competitors ride mobility wave for disruption

Despite the exponential growth of connected devices globally, enterprises are struggling to manage the chaos of mobile transformation, especially where mobility is critical to their business. That’s according to new research from SOTI,a mobile and IoT device management solutions provider,which identified the views of senior executives and remote workers around the globe.

Commissioned by SOTI, the global study was carried out by Arlington Research. Respondents from front line management to executives revealed the following trends taking shape across global enterprises:

Key concerns for the C-suite: Many don’t understand how vital mobility has become in the basic business arsenal

• • Mobility management issues are likely to continue, as almost a third (31%) of businesses are failing to invest in mobile technology to stand out from the competition. In the UK, this figure drops to 14%
• • This is despite 53% (49% globally) of British employees stating they would be seriously impaired or find it impossible to do their job without their mobile devices
• • 50% of UK professionals suffer through outages for extended periods of time. Even more worryingly though, research shows 47% of British CEOs only care about business mobility when such downtime occurs

Companies are failing to grasp the importance of mobile devices in an increasingly connected world

• • In terms of global research results, 70% of CEOs within transportation and logistics companies fail to grasp the importance of rugged handheld devices in the field, despite the pivotal role they play in service delivery
• • Alarmingly, only 29% of British remote workers (40% globally) feel IoT is critical to business success

Investing in apps and devices is critical for success: innovate or fall behind the competition

• • 69% of workers globally said that the organisation they work for is investing in mobile devices and apps to stand out from the competition
• • 66% of British remote workers feel this way, showing the UK is lagging behind the likes of Sweden (70%) and Brazil (92%)

Strict rules for the use of unsanctioned apps are not being enforced

• • 39% of British employees (45% globally) surveyed believed that although their organisation had the ability to block unsanctioned apps, they chose not to enforce it
• • This is despite 79% of UK businesses having strict rules about downloading unsanctioned apps onto work devices
• • However, the UK market proved to have the highest awareness of the issue, with 48% of employees stating their organisation blocks unsanctioned apps
• • The lowest proportion was recorded among Swedish remote workers at 23%

Employees have high levels of concern around the potential damages and loss of information

• • 31% of UK employees (29% globally) are worried they may lose their job if something goes wrong with the device they are using
• • 62% of UK employees (60% globally) worry they will lose precious information
• • In the UK, 55% worry it will impact negatively on their customer relationships

Carl Rodrigues, CEO and founder of SOTI, believes CEOs are at risk of their businesses becoming obsolete by failing to embrace mobile innovation. He says, “As the future becomes increasingly mobile, devices and tools are being embedded with software, sensors and connectivity at a rapid pace. All around the world organisations prepare to take greater advantage of mobile technology, but there are numerous challenges they need to overcome.”

“The research highlights a lack of integrated mobility tools to secure, support and enable their front-office, back-office and workers in the field. Many organisations are using mobility for the basics, but do not know how to implement the next level of mobile integration to transform their workforce.”

“This has left businesses with a piecemeal approach to their mobile operations – a disconnected set of point solutions required to perform business critical operations. However, at this juncture, it’s very much a sink or swim time for businesses.

Ignoring the endless possibilities innovation brings could prove disastrous for organisations who fail to jump on board. Leaders must act now to stay ahead of the pace of change, or risk finding their business adrift while the competition rides the wave of the mobility tsunami.”

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