BoxTone is a mobile device management (MDM) vendor, and is using this experience to highlight 5 trends that will transform the space in 2014 and 2015. While mobile is hot for consumers, it is just as critical for enterprises.
“Mobile is driving substantial gains in productivity, customer service and revenue growth. However, the three-way collision of highly-diverse mobile technology portfolios, large populations of mobile users, and business demands for highly-reliable mobile apps and services will run over most organizations in 2014, if not properly addressed,” said Brian Reed, Chief Product Officer at BoxTone.
“During the next two years, enterprise mobility will become infinitely more complex. The IT Operations and Support teams will need to transition their primary focus from the 'connect-athon' to a 'support-athon.' This means a fundamental shift from Security to Operations Management.”
Number one is that IT will struggle to keep pace with the demands of mobile. “In 2014, enterprise investment in mobility will grow by 70-80 percent, while the IT management budget will grow by an anemic 5-10 percent; further squeezing IT Operations and Support teams and increasing the pressures to "do more with less,” BoxTone argued.
The second could have just as easily been number one, which is that BYOD is making mobile happen in enterprises. “By 2015, nearly 100 percent of all enterprise employees will be mobilized via multiple smartphones, tablets and apps -- with more than 50 percent of the enterprise-connected devices being BYOD-based and most organizations utilizing two or more mobile containers,” the company said. In fact, MDM near entire existence is based on making BYOD actually work.
Similar to the first prediction, BoxTone believes that it will cost more to support mobile than to take care of PCs. In two years, over half of the support budget will go towards mobile.
While in-house PCs can be generally made to meet SLAs given that you can control the network access and configurations, mobile is far more random.
“By 2015, mobile will formally become a tier-one IT service for most organizations, requiring 95-98 percent availability; yet, upwards of 90% of mobile enterprises will annually experience two or more catastrophic failures across their mobile deployment,” BoxTone argued.
In a like vein, for years IT has understood the TCO of the PCs they specify and support. And here again, mobile is far more random. “By the end of 2014, mobile deployment cost overruns will be rampant because more than 90% of organizations have no idea what their real total MCO is and will be forced to start tracking and managing costs more effectively,” BoxTone argued. In fact, this mobile TCO issue is already a large concern for many in IT.
MSPs Feel MDM Pinch
Recently BoxTone recently surveyed over 350 MSPs and IT pros, and found that the demands of managing all these devices isn’t just growing, but compounding.
“The emergence of mobility provides numerous challenges for organizations. While much has been written about the challenge of securing devices, supporting and maintaining mobile IT systems can pose an even greater challenge. With mobility as a primary, mission-critical system for businesses, IT must ensure the reliability of these services. They must also efficiently and cost effectively support a growing group of mobile users,” BoxTone said.
While Forrester found that 37 percent of workers use personal devices without corporate permission, BoxTone took a broader look, and found that “57 percent of the respondents report that approximately half of their employees are now using enterprise connected devices. This is a marked increase from previous surveys that showed 30-40 percent enterprise mobile adoption in 2012, up from 20-30 percent adoption in 2011.”
Image via Shutterstock.
This massive BYOD movement creates equally large challenges. Complexity is the biggest issue, said 57 percent of those surveyed said, followed by security, the array of devices and how much it all costs.
"More employees are now using a wider variety of mobile devices, apps and services, with the expectations of problem free, uninterrupted service. This wide diversity and always-on imperative have collided to make efficient service desk support a far more complex undertaking, and in many cases uncharted territory for service desk staff. It's clear that security and support are now the two sides of the coin for mobility, where you must address both to be successful with BYOD. This challenge will only increase in importance as organizations deploy mission critical mobility to run the business and gain competitive advantage,” said Reed.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
