IT spend on mobility to grow 15%;security,privacy top concerns

Proportion of expenditure on mobility outside of IT will also grow by 11% over three years: Study

With more organisations embracing mobility solutions that allow employees to work on the go, the share of IT spending on mobility by Indian companies is expected to rise by 15% over three years, a report by global IT major CA Technologies says.

According to the study, 41% respondents from India said they have had to rethink their IT strategy as mobility changes the way the business operates, especially as concerns over security and privacy of enterprise data escalates.

The study, titled 'TechInsights Report: Enterprise Mobility It's All About the Apps' was conducted by Vanson Bourne covering 1,300 senior IT leaders in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, public sector and telecommunications in 21 countries.

Nearly 85% of the respondents in India said they either have a strategy already or plan to do so within 12 months, compared to 95% in China, 60% in Singapore and 49% in Japan.

Companies said they have experienced 21% to 31% improvement in business in the form of increased revenue, faster time-to-market, improved competitive positioning, enhanced customer experience, better employee productivity and lower costs.

"Today, CIOs are under enormous pressures to address the rapid pace of technology change and evolution. Mobility has dramatically elevated the complexity of what is needed both for internal users and customer-facing systems," CA Technologies Vice President (Solution Strategy - APJ) Vic Mankotia told PTI.

Mobile security is crucial and unless companies adopt an effective and integrated mobile device management technology, the mobile devices quickly become mobile paperweights, he added.

"The potential of not complying with key regulations, inadvertent dissemination of corporate information, or negatively impacting brand reputation because of a poor mobile application shopping experience, are few examples of risks faced by organisations that do not have an enterprise-wide mobility strategy," Mankotia said.

The study found that the proportion of IT spending on mobility by Indian organisations will increase by 15% over three years.

Also, the proportion of expenditure on mobility outside of IT will also grow by 11% over three years, indicating that IT departments need to prepare for not only for more mobility work in general, but also for inter-departmental mobility projects.

The study found that enterprise mobility deployment has moved beyond supporting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and CIOs are now focusing on specific strategies for balanced servicing of customer, IT and employee needs.

About 46% of Indian respondents said they are giving priority to external customer-facing mobile apps and device support initiatives, compared with 36% prioritising internal BYOD IT projects.

According to the global study, 45% of Indian respondents said they are concerned about security and privacy of their enterprise mobility initiatives, the second highest in the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region after China.

The report found 43% of Indian respondents saying they are deploying mobility initiatives to increase the security of mobile access to data and applications, while 36% said have had to redesign their security strategy and policies as adoption of mobile devices increases.

Despite these concerns, Indian firms are advancing faster than every country in the APJ region (apart from China) in the adoption of a single, company-wide mobility strategy.

"The debate is no longer around whether to enable a mobile workforce. It is more about deciding which devices to support, and how to develop the infrastructure that is needed to support these devices," Mankotia said.