Mobility to Take a Big Share of IT Budgets in 2016

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Businesses are getting ready to carve out a generous slice of their IT budgets for mobile initiatives, according to a new study from SOTI, a provider of enterprise mobility management solutions.

The study, released today and conducted by IDG Enterprise, revealed that 70 percent of those polled will spend nearly one-fifth of their IT budgets on mobility. Another 25 percent of the 118 IT decision makers surveyed said they’re going further, spending 20 to 50 of their IT budgets on mobile technology.

Most CIOs and IT managers, 68 percent, consider mobility critical for success. In larger organizations with more than 1,000 employees, that figure climbs to 74. The average company size for all respondents was 19,065 employees.

Unsurprisingly, security concerns loom large among technology professionals tasked with mobilizing their workforces.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents pegged malware, hacking and mobile security in general as their prime worry. Just keeping up with the rapid pace of change in the mobile space was a major concern for 47 percent of senior IT decision markers.

Naturally, technology professionals will want to keep tabs on this dynamic market, according to Carl Rodrigues, CEO of SOTI.

“Enterprises must not expose themselves to gaps in their mobility investments and implementations,” he said in a statement. “If they don’t catch up to the rapid pace of today’s mobility demands, they’ll be left in the dark.”

Employees are driving mobile demand at their enterprises, according to 28 percent of technology executives and other senior IT personnel. For 27 percent, it’s IT departments that are taking the lead.

Then there’s the matter of getting everything to work properly with their existing setups. While transitioning to more mobile workstyles, 46 percent of respondents said they had concerns about integrating their systems, data and applications.

Enterprises aren’t only turning to mobile devices to promote on-the-go productivity, but also a catalyst for business transformation and to gain a competitive edge (45 percent). Nearly half said (47 percent) said they are using mobile solutions to deliver new products and services.

SOTI’s report suggests that a good number of businesses have adapted well to the explosive popularity of tablets and smartphones like the iPhone among business users. Thirty-nine percent of businesses are “aggressively” using mobile platforms to engage with their partners and customers.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.