Getting mobile right

Mobile technology is delivering real business benefits, but the growing complexity and the manner in which the technology is acquired and managed can stretch IT thin.

These are the main findings of a survey of 531 mobility decision-makers at North American businesses by Forrester Research, in association with Network World, which set out to examine the current mobile environment and the organizational structure needed to push mobility forward.

While challenges lie ahead, the survey revealed broad agreement that mobility is already paying dividends. Specifically, respondents said mobile devices improve user flexibility (43% of respondents), response time to internal issues (42% of respondents), and response time to customer, partner and other external party issues (38% of respondents).

The trick will be to gain even greater benefits as the technology matures and changes, which will require more centralized strategy and control than are common today.

Change is coming whether you're ready for it or not. The shift from desktops to laptops continues, with half of the survey respondents reporting they expect to issue mobile PCs to up to three-quarters of their employees in 2013. But the biggest change will come with handhelds.

Click to see: Bar chart of what percentage of employees will be given mobile PCs

Click to see: Bar chart showing what percentage of employees will be issued smartphones

User's mobile device preferences – traditional mobile phones, PDAs and smartphones included – are shifting from voice-centric devices to data-centric devices. Today, 41% of respondents use smartphones, but this will double over the next five years. This shift will result in more data and more business-critical applications to manage and secure.

Click to see: Pie chart of employees requests for handhelds

Click to see: Pie chart of how handhelds are used by employees

Click to see: Pie chart of whether employers will provide handhelds

What mobile operating systems are these shops supporting? It's a mixed bag and won't get better any time soon: 74% support Research In Motion's BlackBerry, 53% support various flavors of Microsoft's Windows Mobile, and 40% run Palm OS-powered Treos or Centros. Apple's Mac OS X-powered iPhone has also established a critical beachhead, with 12% of the respondents saying they support iPhones today.

Click to see: Bar chart showing what handheld operating systems you support

Looking five years out, respondents are predicting an equally diverse landscape. Almost three-quarters say they are "very likely" or "likely" to support BlackBerry, followed by 66% planning to support Windows Mobile. Apple's Mac OS X and Linux (upon which Google's Android mobile OS is based) will very likely or likely be supported by 22% of respondents.

This mixed environment, coupled with increasing device sophistication, adds up to trouble for IT, which is losing insight into device capabilities, levels of security, and the ability to manage and sync mobile and corporate resources. Supporting this model will become too cumbersome for IT shops already spread thin by cost cutting.

And it gets even worse when you consider the network diversity IT must contend with. Some 51% of the survey respondents say they have a range of 802.11 Wi-Fi technologies, and 75% support access to external wireless networks for connectivity to business applications outside of the office. The future points to even more WAN options, as carriers investigate everything from WiMAX to 4G wireless technologies.