SOTI Study Reveals Some CEOs are Missing the Boat, While Their Competition Rides Mobility Wave for Competitive Disruption

New research finds nearly a third of businesses are failing to invest in mobile technology to stand out from the competition

TORONTO, July 6, 2017 /CNW/ - Despite the exponential growth^[i] of connected devices globally, enterprises are struggling to manage the chaos of mobile transformation, especially where mobility is critical to their business. That's according to new research from SOTI which identified the views of senior executives and remote workers around the globe.

Commissioned by SOTI, the world's most trusted provider of mobile and IoT device management solutions, the global study was carried out by Arlington Research. Respondents from front line management to executives revealed the following trends taking shape across global enterprises:

Key concerns for the C-suite: many don't understand how vital mobility has become in the basic business arsenal 

• Mobility management issues are likely to continue, as almost a third (31 per cent) of business is failing to invest in mobile technology to stand out from the competition
• This is despite 49 per cent of employees feeling mobility downtime seriously hinders their ability to work
• 18 per cent suffer through outages for extended periods of time. Worryingly though, research shows 49 per cent of CEOs only care about business mobility when such downtime occurs

Companies are failing to grasp the importance of mobile devices in an increasingly connected world 

• 70 per cent of CEOs within transportation and logistics companies fail to grasp the importance of rugged handheld devices in the field, despite the pivotal role they play in service delivery
• 60 per cent of remote workers feel IoT is not critical to business success

Investing in apps and devices is critical for success: innovate or fall behind the competition 

• 69 per cent of workers globally said that the organization they work for is investing in mobile devices and apps to stand out from the competition

Strict rules for the use of unsanctioned apps are not being enforced 

• 45 per cent of all employees surveyed believed that although their organization had the ability to block unsanctioned apps, they chose not to enforce it
• 24 per cent of respondents stated their organization had no strict rules about downloading unsanctioned apps onto work devices
• The UK market proved to have the highest awareness of the proportion, with 48 per cent of employees stating their organization blocks unsanctioned apps
• The lowest proportion was recorded among Swedish remote workers at 23 per cent

Employees have high levels of concern around the potential damages and loss of information 

• 29 per cent are worried they may lose their job if something goes wrong with the device they are using
• 60 per cent worry they will lose precious information
• 54 per cent worry it will impact negatively on their customer relationships

Carl Rodrigues, CEO and founder of SOTI, believes CEOs are at risk of their businesses becoming obsolete by failing to embrace mobile innovation. He says, "As the future becomes increasingly mobile, devices and tools are being embedded with software, sensors and connectivity at a rapid pace. All around the world organizations prepare to take greater advantage of mobile technology, but there are numerous challenges they need to overcome."

"The research highlights a lack of integrated mobility tools to secure, support and enable their front-office, back-office and workers in the field. Many organizations are using mobility for the basics, but do not know how to implement the next level of mobile integration to transform their workforce."

"This has left businesses with a piecemeal approach to their mobile operations - a disconnected set of point solutions required to perform business critical operations. However, at this juncture, it's very much a sink or swim time for businesses. Ignoring the endless possibilities innovation brings could prove disastrous for organizations who fail to jump on board. Leaders must act now to stay ahead of the pace of change, or risk finding their business adrift while the competition rides the wave of the mobility tsunami."

A summary of the report, are you managing the mobility tsunami or struggling in the next technology tidal wave can be found at http://www2.soti.net/mobility_tsunami

Research details 

Carried out by Arlington Research, this study is based on interviews of 1,300 individuals in organizations with over 50 employees. All respondents use a smart device for work purposes, and have used their smart device when working remotely at least once during the last month. As such, the sample represents the views of 'remote workers' from across the globe. The respondents comprise of 200 employees each in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, UK and the US, as well as 100 employees in Sweden.

About SOTI Inc.  

SOTI is the world's most trusted provider of mobile and IoT device management solutions, with more than 17,000 enterprise customers and millions of devices managed worldwide. SOTI's innovative portfolio of solutions and services provide the tools organizations need to truly mobilize their operations and optimize their mobility investments. SOTI extends secure mobility management to provide a total, flexible solution for comprehensive management and security of all mobile devices and connected peripherals deployed in an organization. For more information, visit http://www.soti.net.

i. wearesocial.com/uk/special-reports/digital-in-2017-global-overview

SOURCE SOTI Inc.