Research Report: Mobility in Small and Midsize Companies

Transcription

1 Research Report: Mobility in Small and Midsize Companies October 2007 $499 bmighty Fredric Paul, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

2 >> The bmighty Research Report: Upshot Mobility, in the broadest sense of the word, is the ability to use computing or communications devices without being tethered to a desk. This report examines the challenges that small and midsize businesses face in the process of sourcing, deploying, and managing mobile devices such as laptops, handhelds, or cell phones; and networks based on cellular or Wi-Fi technology, for example, that support mobile communications. Crux: Mobile computing devices, backed by wireless voice and data networks, are becoming a ubiquitous and intrinsic part of small and midsize business computing infrastructure and strategy. While more than four out of five respondents describe wireless voice and data networks as important to their organizations, remaining challenges for mobile devices include battery life, cost, screen size, and security. And of course network security remains an ongoing issue. The report contains the following: The Upshot 01 Wireless Deployment Strategies 02 Features & Benefits 04 Technologies In Use 07 Usage Patterns 09 iphone Adoption 10 Vendors Used & Satisfaction 11 Methodology 13 Although the benefits of mobility drive increased investment, only one-in-four small and midsize companies report that mobile technologies lead directly to higher revenue or profits. This is due, in part, to fairly vanilla applications of the technology by smaller firms. And yet, promisingly, 31% of companies with a bigger-than-average wireless data and voice network investment report that mobility yields increased sales or revenue, compared to just 17% of firms with a below-average wireless network deployment. In other words, greater usage leads to greater returns. bmighty Fredric Paul, Publisher/ Editor in Chief fpaul@cmp.com

3 pg 2 Wireless Deployment Strategies Wireless technologies are proliferating through small and midsize businesses as the cost of handsets along with voice and data plans plunge to attractive, commodity levels. At SMB organizations, higher demand for mobile technology coincides with rising perceived business value of the technology. In the study, four out of five companies report that wireless voice and data networks are highly important and another 16% believe they are somewhat important. Not surprisingly, nine in ten companies with above-average deployments of wireless voice and networks rate those networks as highly important to their organizations. Companies with above-average deployments also tend to be more committed to mobility as a business and technology investment. This surge in importance is also reflected in SMB spending on mobile technology. Three out of five small and midsize businesses report that their spending on mobile technology increased compared to last year, and 36% report it stayed the same. Only 4% of companies report a decline in mobile technology spending and that may be due to costsavings more than a decline in use. Companies with above-average wireless deployments are helping to drive this push. By a 66% to 55% margin, companies with above-average wireless deployments will invest more in the coming year than those firms with below-average wireless deployments. Clearly, satisfaction is helping to drive increased investment. Generally, small and midsize organizations feel that their investment in wireless technologies is paying off. Sixty-two percent of the companies in our study are highly satisfied with their investment in

4 pg 3 wireless voice and data technology and services. Significantly, a higher percentage of companies with above-average voice and data network deployments report an even higher level of satisfaction than their peers with smaller deployments. Sixty-nine percent of those widely deployed sites report that they are highly satisfied with their investment in wireless technologies, compared to 57% for below-average deployments. The more widely deployed networks appear to be generating more business value. In 2007, it's hard to imagine a company opening a new office with a strictly wired infrastructure. Wireless Yet if companies are largely satisfied, why isn't deployment more widespread? Three out of five companies report that less than half of their employees use mobile technologies for work-related purposes. In most cases fewer than one-in-four employees use wireless for work-related purposes. The reasons for this limited deployment can be chalked up to several factors, we believe, such as: Most use is ad hoc. In many small firms there are lots of users with different plans or devices Lack of custom or dedicated business applications Lack of management or administrative controls Security concerns Cost mobility is a commodity for some companies but overhead for others. Cost is a gating factor when a company lacks plans to accrue revenue from its mobile networks or devices. Unlike larger enterprises, many smaller companies are used to having all personnel visible on site and may be less comfortable with a truly mobile workforce. networks are now pervasive - with 42% of SMBs deploying a wireless network across the whole office or campus and 36% deploying in a limited manner, for example in conference rooms. Among companies with a wireless network, two-thirds offer wireless Internet access to guests such as business partners and contractors.

5 pg 4 Features & Benefits A growing number of small and midsize businesses are finding high-value ways to deploy mobile devices well beyond phone, voic , and Web access. Nine out of ten SMB companies enable employees to check via mobile devices and 64% use mobile devices for remote computing. More than half of SMBs allow employees to access applications and business data via mobile devices. With the hiring of so-called Gen-Y workers, organizations of all sizes can expect to see an exponential increase in the amount of textmessaging, which today is occurring in just two-infive small and midsize companies. Interestingly, texting does not represent a dramatic change in mobile usage, though it may result in fewer calls and fewer s and thus require further refinements to carrier contracts. Serious text-messaging (and -capable) devices, such as the RIM Blackberry and T-Mobile Sidekick, do tend to add a cost premium above basic cell phones; however, the added functionality can lead to higher satisfaction particularly for Gen Y workers who most likely already own such devices. While we're still in the early years of mobile technology deployments, smaller companies are finding that sheer mobility remains the key advantage rather than more traditional goals such as increased sales or revenue. In fact, only one in four SMBs report that mobile technologies help them boost sales and revenue.

6 pg 5 But other, less tangible mobility benefits are also gaining recognition. For instance, half of small and midsize companies report achieving increased customer interaction and responsiveness, and 47% report that they are able to make faster and better decisions. As managers know, one gating factor to making faster and better decisions is the ability to instantly reach hands-on staffers even after hours. Equipping your team with mobile devices makes everyone more accessible. By far the most widely reported mobility challenge facing SMBs is insufficient battery life, which was cited by 71% of SMB organizations. Workarounds for battery life are increasingly plentiful, but these represent an additional cost that may strike some Despite the obvious advantages of mobility, the technology is not without challenges and obstacles.

7 pg 6 organizations as unexpected or burdensome. Security issues remain a key concern for SMBs. Two-fifths of smaller companies find device security to be challenging and nearly a third cite network security as an issue. A case in point: Nearly 10% of SMBs report that their mobile security has been compromised at least once and 39% believe that even though they've had no incidents reported, their security policies and safeguards need improvement. That makes sense, considering that most smaller organizations still take an ad hoc approach to mobile deployments. Few SMBs have specific security policies and procedures related to mobility. Most rely upon cell phone carriers, for example, to secure mobile communications.

8 pg 7 Technologies In Use Adoption of wireless local-area networking (WLAN) technology is widespread and seems on the road to ubiquity; more than half of SMBs already use it, though that's still far short of cellular's 85% penetration. WiMax wide area networking, now in use at less than 10% of smaller companies, also holds promise. One lesser-known reason is that WiMax offers business continuity in the event of a failure on the part of standard Internet services. integration with desktop operating systems is helping to drive interest in Windows as a mobile operating system. The leading mobile operating systems in use are Windows at 80%, followed by Blackberry at 66%, and Palm OS at 37%. Although smaller companies typically do not create custom mobile applications, increasingly, more packaged applications and information services will be pushed out to mobile devices. In the meantime, Given the prevalence of cell phones in America, it's easy to assume that nearly every organization uses them. Odds are that many employees of almost any company use them at work on a regular basis. However, the design point of this study is whether the organization itself deploys mobile devices such as cell phones - not whether individuals use their own devices in the course of their work day. Even with that more-restrictive measure, cell phones are deployed by nearly four out of five SMBs.

9 pg 8 That edges out the three-quarters of smaller companies that deploy wireless laptops. More than two-thirds of companies use Smartphones equipped with voice and data capabilities. Wireless laptops and Smartphones also top the list of most useful mobile devices. PDAs without voice capabilities, on the other hand, are moving down the list of usage and are cited as a mobile device SMB companies love to hate. A year from now, we expect to see wider deployment of handsets that use wireless Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. SMBs may initially adopt VoIP phones mostly for wireless campus deployments. The fact that wireless-enabled laptops top Smartphones in perceived usefulness by SMBs is further evidence that neither basic productivity applications nor custom business applications are yet commonly available on Smartphones. The value of PDAs has steadily declined because their functionality has become an intrinsic part of Smartphones, which add the ability to communicate in real-time with voice and data. Eventually, PDAs will go the way of the Day-Timer, as they will be unable to match Smartphones' ability to synchronize calendars in real-time with co-workers or customers, for instance.

10 pg 9 Usage Patterns Use of mobile devices is widespread in many categories. The top application is for business trips, but three quarters use their mobile device anywhere in the office or at a home office. Of course, mobility often extends beyond the office and office hours. During off hours, businesstechnology professionals are most likely to respond to a company-issued Blackberry or other enabled Smartphone. Perhaps that's because three out of five employers expect employees with a company-issued Blackberry or Smartphone to respond during off hours. Half of SMB respondents report being contacted during off hours two times a week or less, while another 28% endure after-hours contacts three to five times a week. While mobility can boost productivity, it can also undermine our work/life balance. The infamous Crackberry nod, in which Blackberry users continually glance down at their devices to check for new messages, is a well-known example of our business lives blurring into our personal ones. For an SMB, the convenience of being able to reach key employees in off-hours is tempered by the risk of burning them out from the pressure of constant off-hours interaction. Still, it's quickly become common for trusted employees to take calls from employers after hours.

11 pg 10 iphone Adoption New crossover personal and professional communications devices typically take a few months to win or lose consumer trust. And then there's Apple's unique iphone. It arrived in June 2007 amid tremendous hoopla and unprecedented consumer demand - considered by many experts to be a category-busting device. Apple reported it sold 1 million units in just 75 days on the market. organizations on a one-off basis. A small business owner decides to replace a Blackberry with one. A younger employee graduates to an iphone, typically replacing a cell phone that was illequipped for texting or playing music. Four months after the product shipped, 9% of smaller companies have tried iphones; while 7% plan to buy them in the next year. Approximately a quarter of companies surveyed are considering a purchase of iphones at some point in the future, but the majority of companies (61%) have no firm plans to use the iphone. But unlike consumers, companies usually wait until the bugs are worked out of new devices before equipping entire teams of workers, such as field sales people or executives. And the iphone's high price, though reduced after launch, has also helped keep the device out of many companies. For the most part, iphones break into

12 pg 11 Vendors Used & Satisfaction The most widely used mobile service providers in this study include AT&T Wireless/Cingular and Verizon Wireless, caught in a dead heat for the leader position, followed by Sprint/Nextel and T- Mobile. Verizon Wireless has the largest group of very satisfied customers, although for overall satisfaction both Verizon and AT&T/Cingular score very close. AT&T has a very large group of customers that are somewhat satisfied. Apple and RIM dominate in customer satisfaction. Only the ubiquitous Blackberry shows up at the top of both charts. In this study, Alltel's customers issued a fairly loud concern about the carrier's performance. Verizon, on the other hand, scored exceptionally high ratings for very satisfied customers. While AT&T earned the fewest very-satisfied scores, it also had the second lowest number of dissatisfied customers. The mobile equipment mostly Smartphones and laptops brands in highest use include Dell, RIM (Blackberry), and Motorola, but Hewlett-Packard,

13 pg 12 The fact that three in five SMB companies have deployed at least one Dell mobile device shows that the company, despite problems in recent years, has done a superior job of selling into the SMB mobility market. Among Smartphones, RIM's Blackberry remains highly popular although a bevy of competing Windows OS handhelds from Dell and others aim to usurp its place atop the list of Smartphones. The list itself mixes handheld devices, such as Smartphones with laptops by HP, Lenovo, and Apple among others. While HP scored a bit lower than Dell in terms of equipment in use, it was the surprising first-place finisher in the influential category of vendor satisfaction. Apple, which weighed in with only 18% of SMB firms as customers, still boasts the second highest satisfaction scores. However, it's interesting to note that quite a few companies scored either low or no negative marks at all. Palm, which ran into financial difficulties in recent years, was the only vendor to break into the double digits of dissatisfaction.

14 pg 13 Methodology bmighty Research conducted this Web survey to examine wireless and mobile strategies, usage, and investment plans among small and midsize businesses. The survey was conducted in September 2007 and was completed by 543 business technology professionals from companies with 50 to 1,500 employees. The participants were drawn from a random sampling of subscribers to InformationWeek - a bmighty sister publication. Seven of ten respondents hold IT titles, and the remaining respondents have corporate or consulting responsibilities. Respondents come from a crosssection of vertical industries. The average respondent works in a company where 42% of the workforce uses one or more mobile devices for business purposes. None of the respondents work in companies that lack mobile devices.