Enterprise Mobility by the Numbers – the iPass Mobile Workforce Report

Thursday, February 25th, 2010 Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor

Today we released our first quarterly iPass Mobile Workforce Report. This first report clearly supports the notion that consumer behaviour and expectations continue to drive how individuals operate in the workplace and demands they place on IT organizations. In no category is this more obvious then in Enterprise Mobility where devices and how they are used are in plain sight. From analysis of this month’s survey of 695 mobile employees and the mobile usage data we collected during the fourth quarter of 2009, we found…

1) You should stop worrying and learn to love devices like the iPhone: With all of the buzz of Android and the popularity of the Blackberry in the workplace, mobile employees still want iPhones. According to our survey, 32 percent of mobile employees prefer their Blackberry smartphone, but 54 percent of Blackberry smartphone users would switch to an iPhone if their corporation let them. The survey also found that 63 percent of mobile employees prefer a smartphone to 37 percent that prefer a laptop.

The time has come for enterprises to embrace devices like the iPhone. With the right enterprise mobility strategy and technology in place, enterprises should be able to give their mobile employees flexibility and choice to use the technology they want to use without getting locked in.

2) Mobility strategy shouldn’t be in the hands of your employees. Our survey found that 64 percent of mobile employees have no idea how much their mobile connectivity is costing their companies. IDC predicted last year that more than 56 percent of corporate mobile devices will be individual-liable devices by 2013. Even though many companies find this appealing, long term it could cost more money. Especially with technology that enables enterprises to initiate their own mobility service, mix and match networks to meet their needs, and take even more control over their employees’ mobility decisions, not less. The days of managing two-year mobile phone contracts for each of your employees are swiftly coming to an end.

3) Mobile employees aren’t just business travelers. Last week’s IDC report predicting 1 billion mobile employees by 2012 at first glance looks staggering. But IDC didn’t get to this number by evaluating business travel data. Increasingly your mobile employee comes into the office every day, and travels less than five days a quarter. Our Q4 mobile usage data found that while many mobile employees have some business travel (32 percent), many more are logging in from home (68 percent).

The mobile Internet revolution is enabling employees on mass with the flexibility to work when and where they want from their favorite device. You should be planning right now for a largely mobile workforce, not just for your frequent business travelers.

To read more of this report, head to our iPass Mobile Workforce Report Web Page. What’s your guess for the percentage of employees that received a surprise mobile connectivity charge? [Hint: The answer is not “Under 10%”]

Tags: Android, Blackberry, enterprise mobility, iPhone, mobile employee, smartphone, wi-fi access