1. WH IT E PA P E R
Mobile in the Enterprise: Market
Pulse
The Gap Between
Expectations and Expertise
MO B I L E T E CHN OLOGY I S ON THE BR INK OF TR ANSFOR M ING
B U S I N E S S, B UT MOST ORGAN I ZAT IONS NEED HEL P.
As in the consumer space, mobile is a major trend in business. resources as well as expectations, processes as well as
And its significance in the business environment will increase potential. Yet it is also an approach that, up to this point,
substantially over the next several years. Mobile is a forceful and has been seriously underimplemented.
compelling change in business computing. It’s a radical shift in
terms of end user devices, modes of communication, opportuni- » Both Sides Now
ties and in how people access enterprise information. Mobile is not unlike other transformative technologies—such
It’s important that technology executives understand the as portals, business intelligence or CRM—that have entered
trends, requirements and imperatives related to enterprise organizations over the past several years, according to Vishy
mobility and how organizations can use this for tangible busi- Gopalakrishnan, VP, Mobility Solutions, at SAP. “Most organiza-
ness benefit. That’s why SAP and CIO magazine conducted tions have a pretty good idea of how to handle new technologies.
a survey of business technology executives to gauge current The wrinkle with mobile is that it changes very fast and is
developments, opinions and expectations related to enterprise pervasive,” Gopalakrishnan says.
mobility. Another difference is that mobile is both a top-down and a
The results are both insightful and surprising: bottom-up phenomenon. What’s driving the mobile imperative
» TRANSFORMATIONAL. Most executives agreed that mobile is the ubiquity of mobile devices, a function of the widespread
can transform the ways their organizations do business. “consumerization of IT” phenomenon, an increasingly tech-
» PRODUCTIVE. A significant number pointed to productivity savvy workforce, and the demand for real-time information from
gains already made, and most have high expectations related to executive management.
mobile for productivity, efficiency and customer engagement. Also, mobile has more than just buy-in from the top in most
» ENGAGING. Mobile is expected to intersect with other organizations—it also has push. Senior executives on both the
high-profile trends such as cloud computing and social business and technology sides are the primary champions of
networking in an interdependent, virtuous, self-reinforcing mobile investments, technology executives said. That’s because
circle of innovation.
Given mobile’s recognized importance, it’s surprising, then, $
Champions of Mobile Investments
that very few organizations today have an enterprise-wide mobile
strategy. And although most technology executives acknowl-
Senior IT 66%
edged the need for mobile architectures and a common platform
for developing, deploying and managing mobile apps, fully half Executive business
65%
admitted that they lack internal mobile application development leadership (CXO level)
expertise and a significant number are looking for help with Line of business management
mobile device management and mobile application support. 54%
or business unit heads
This points out the need to approach enterprise mobility
Line of business or 29%
strategy and implementation in a comprehensive, cohe- business unit staff
sive, detailed way. It’s an approach that takes into account
IT staff 26%
Customers/clients 19%
BASE: 140 RESPONDENTS WHO ARE INVOLVED IN THE PURCHASE PROCESS
FOR MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES

2. Market
2 MOBIL E IN THE E NT E RPRIS E : T H E G A P B E T WE E N E X P E CTAT I O N S AN D E X P E RT I S E
Pulse
savvy execs realize the sea change mobile technology represents,
especially for business and customer interaction opportunities.
The push for mobile is coming not only from inside organi- Does Your Company Have a
zations but also from the surrounding ecosystem of partners Comprehensive Mobile Strategy?
and customers. These points speak to mobile’s positive effect
on existing business processes. And that positive effect will
increase as mobile technology disperses across the enterprise We have 6%
We have a
and throughout the global consumer landscape. no plans to No 18% well-defined
develop a Yes strategy that is
mobile strategy
documented,
» Leap of Faith understood,
Indeed, mobile is perceived as a business game changer. “The and executed
simple truth is that mobility is key to our success,” says William 42% against the entire
But we are Not yet 34% organization
Morse, CTO of the University of Puget Sound. Of course, Morse developing Somewhat
is dealing with an extremely tech-savvy—and mobile—constitu- a strategy
ency. “I just think people need to realize that this is the way your Strategies have
customers or your consumers are going to work,” he says. been developed at
the department or
According to survey respondents, (more than two-thirds of
business unit level,
whom are at the CIO, CTO or director level), most tech execu- but there is not one
tives agree. Almost three-quarters of the respondents (71 company-wide strategy
percent) reported seeing mobile as transformational or strategic
BASE: 140 RESPONDENTS WHO ARE INVOLVED IN THE PURCHASE PROCESS
to their business. This is a significant vote of confidence. FOR MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES
Still, a quarter of the executives consider mobile technology
simply a tactical tool. Mostly that’s because they’re either
unclear on the business case for it or haven’t seen enough mobile phenomenon is developing.
payback. That’s not surprising. ROI can be difficult to measure “We advise people not to sit back, wait a year, formulate
in connection with such a radical and transformative computing a very detailed strategy and then start executing,” says Milja
shift as mobile technology. Gillespie, director of mobility thought leadership and strategy at
Lack of IT resources to support mobile initiatives is another SAP. “There is a base checklist of questions and approaches you
significant factor that limits mobility’s potential. Resources— should work through to form a straw man of a strategy and then
specifically a lack of IT skills to support these new platforms— just get started and learn from each execution. It’s important
will emerge as a significant factor in why mobile technology to find the balance between quick wins and really significant,
hasn’t made a wider impact, sooner, on most organizations. strategic, ROI-generating applications,” she says.
It ties in with the lack of enterprise-oriented thinking In fact, the VP at a large (85,000-employee) insurance
about mobility at most organizations due to the sudden and company says he’s trying to instill that bottom-up thinking in
overwhelming pervasiveness of the mobile opportunity. relation to mobile technology and fight against a tendency
“Organizations have not had a chance to catch their collective toward top-down mobile strategy-making and implementa-
breath and deal with this,” says SAP’s Gopalakrishnan. tion, which so far has not yielded the benefits the firm has
been looking for. “We need to make a much more aggressive
» Strategizing Strategy push, bottom-up, in terms of how we’re really going to look at
Despite executives’ belief in the transformative power of mobile, our whole operational improvement and then get back to the
organizations with enterprise-wide mobile strategies are a customer and customer satisfaction. Mobility will play a key role
significant minority (18 percent). However, almost all organiza- in those satisfaction levels,” he says.
tions agree that mobility needs planning and care. The question
is: How (and how well) will it be implemented? » Adventures in Architecture
In this regard, it’s interesting to note that the majority of the As for what constitutes a mobile strategy—currently or in the near
surveyed technology executives considered having a common future—the most common checkpoints are related to security
platform for development, deployment and management of policies/requirements, followed by mobile device policy and device
mobile applications either somewhat important (21 percent), management. These have become table stakes in the enterprise
very important (55 percent) or critical (16 percent). And a signifi- mobility game, mainly because they have been the most imme-
cant percentage (42 percent) said they are in the process of diate enterprise pain points related to mobile device proliferation,
developing an enterprise mobile strategy. especially with the trend towards Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).
More than a third (34 percent) said mobility strategies are Interestingly, “mobile architecture” scores fourth on the
developing ad hoc, at the business unit level, within their organi- mobile strategy wish list, with more than half of the technology
zations. That’s not necessarily bad. This “organic” approach may executives (55 percent) acknowledging its importance (or
be the most practical, and most effective, given how fast the potential importance). Yet, fewer than half (45 percent) cited

3. Market
3 MOBIL E IN THE E NT E RPRIS E : T H E G A P B E T WE E N E X P E CTAT I O N S AN D E X P E RT I S E
Pulse
3 MOBILE
WAYS THAT BUSINESSES “processes for mobile application development” as having a
STRUGGLE WITH
place on their mobile strategy lists, dropping the actual means of
accomplishing a mobile architecture down to eighth in priority.
It’s enlightening to note that executives from organizations
that consider mobility transformational or strategic scored
mobile application development processes much higher on their
mobile strategy list than other organizations. Nonetheless, the
1
general disconnect that appears to exist between architecture
REALITY GAP and process is not unique in the mobile business environment.
71 %
» Mind the Gap
For example, half of the respondents reported that their organi-
zations lack expertise in the area of mobile application develop-
ment, followed closely by expertise in mobile device manage-
OF SENIOR ment (cited by 41 percent) and mobile application support (40
IT LEADERS SEE MOBILE AS percent). It seems reasonable to assume that the general lack of
TRANSFORMATIONAL YET an enterprise view of mobile technology might relate to a lack of
OR STRATEGIC
18
resources to support it. But relate how?
ONLY % Given that resource constraint, it’s surprising that almost
two-thirds (62 percent) reported that mobile application develop-
ment efforts over the next 12 months will involve at least some
HAVE A in-house work, from light customization to total internal develop-
COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY ment. There seems to be a disconnect between strategy and
resources when it comes to mobile. But why?
“Organizations have not thought through how to structure
themselves to really handle mobility,” says SAP’s Gopalakrishnan.
2
“They haven’t really sat back and said, ‘OK, if I have to develop
SKEPTICS ABOUND five, six, 16 of these apps, what does that mean?’” He uses the
analogy of long-distance running: the difference in commitment,
training and execution between the casual runner and the multi-
56%
ARE UNCLEAR ON THE marathoner and how it relates to the one-off mobile application
BUSINESS CASE
? development approach versus the long-term, future-oriented,
well-invested mobile strategy. “It’s the regimen, it’s the structure,
49% DON’T SEE SUCCESS FROM it’s the discipline, it’s the exercising, it’s the dieting—and it’s the
THEIR MOBILE INVESTMENTS shoes,” he says.
The desire to use internal resources may relate to the fact
that the mobile applications deployed or planned for deployment
39%
LACK THE TIME
OR RESOURCES in the next 12 months are, in large part, industry-specific.
Or it may be a simple case that most organizations are
writing wishful mobile checks they can’t cash (yet). “They haven’t
3
defined their enterprise strategy, so they haven’t figured out
EXPERTS NEEDED what their app development strategy is or don’t know what their
resource needs really are,” says SAP’s Gillespie.
HELP
50
WANTED
%
» Value Proposition
The two most important factors when it comes to mobilizing
62%
applications are value to the business and usability, according
OF
ENTERPRISES LACK to the technology executives. That jibes with mobile’s dual top-
MOBILE DEVELOPERS OF APPS ARE down/bottom-up orientation.
EITHER CUSTOM-BUILT OR Security risk is a relatively low concern. That may be because
NEED HEAVY TWEAKING
most organizations (60 percent) now consider security to be part
of the application development process (and uppermost on the
Who Did We Ask? mobile strategy list) rather than as a “bolt-on” afterthought.
IDG Research polled 140 members of CIO’s invite-only LinkedIn
Forum in February 2012, of which 99% held titles ranging from Cost of development is the lowest concern for developing
VP to CIO to IT Manager. mobile applications. This is surprising, given the general lack of

4. Market
4 MOBIL E IN THE E NT E RPRIS E : T H E G A P B E T WE E N E X P E CTAT I O N S AN D E X P E RT I S E
Pulse
productivity improvements, and more than a quarter (28 percent)
+ have increased the efficiency of business processes by using
Mobile apps already deployed
mobile technology.
Once again, it’s the consumerization of IT that’s been driving
Industry specific (unique
to your industry process) 58% the mobile-for-all trend, and these mobility wins are a function of
time and familiarity. Companies have been achieving productivity
Line of business (Finance, gains with mobile solutions for well over a decade. For example,
52%
HR, CRM, field service)
workers now check their mobile devices for e-mail anytime,
Productivity (approvals, anywhere, and not just when in the office. The small productivity
51%
time & expense) gains of replying to an e-mail in the grocery store or approving a
Analytics (dashboards/KPIs) 46% workflow from the doctor’s office add up over time.
However, the real and significant business benefits of enter-
Business to Consumer (loyalty prise mobility are still in the anticipation phase. And anticipation
40%
management, social media)
runs red-hot when it comes to mobile technology and strategy.
Expected improvements include not only better productivity and
BASE: 140 RESPONDENTS WHO ARE INVOLVED IN THE PURCHASE PROCESS
FOR MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES efficiency, but also better customer support, increased competi-
tive advantage and more-informed decision-making. That’s a
laundry list of business innovation and process improvement.
So it’s reasonable to infer from the expectations technology
experience and expertise organizations have with mobile tech- executives place on enterprise mobility—and the priority and
nology at the enterprise level, and indicates the high expecta- investment they said they’re willing to make—that the antici-
tions most organizations have for the eventual payback (ROI) pated business improvements related to mobile technology are
from enterprise mobility. not long-range. For most tech execs, these improvements and
Mobile is not a unique (stand-alone) phenomenon—it is advantages seem to appear to be within their short-term grasp.
synergistic with other emerging and important technological
trends such as cloud computing and social networking. Once » The Expertise Imperative
again, this is a function of the “consumerization of IT” trend: That’s where an expert can help. A provider with experience and
Think teenagers, smartphones and Facebook. expertise in mobile technology, management and service can bring
But it helps explain why cloud computing, presence and to bear the necessary resources to enable an enterprise-wide
social media are the application areas that will generate the mobility strategy and help technology executives achieve their
most mobility-related business value over the next 12 months, planned goals for mobile technology in a timely and effective manner.
tech execs believe. Even video squeaks in as a valuable mobile For instance, SAP offers a wide range of mobile applica-
application for more than a quarter of these business technology tions, underlying infrastructure and services. Using SAP mobile
executives. solutions, businesses can increase productivity, speed decision-
In other words, for experienced mobile users and savvy tech- making and accelerate business processes by giving employees,
nology managers, it’s a short jump from a consumer applica- partners and customers secure access to vital data and applica-
tion that accesses Netflix on the iPad to a business-to-business tions on their preferred mobile devices.
tablet experience that starts at LinkedIn. “These people are Mobile is already a business reality. Business transforma-
already using these technologies as part of their mobile experi- tion enabled by mobile technology can be achieved—and will
ence, and they are going to want to apply those in their enter- be, sooner rather than later, by the bold and ambitious. Getting
prise implementations as well,” says SAP’s Gillespie. from here to there is a matter of successful implementation of
strategy and resources. n
» Anticipating Achievements
Organizations report significant mobility wins. More than a third Learn more at sap.com/mobile and the CIO Forum Group on
(34 percent) of the survey respondents said they have achieved LinkedIn.com.
Copyright© 2012 SAP