Agility, speed and security cited as top obstacles

RESTON, Va. — December 16, 2015 — According to a new report, announced today, more than 90 percent of IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) see enterprise mobility as the critical function for customer engagement, competitiveness and operational productivity in 2016. Additionally, nearly three in four (73 percent) say their companies are planning to mobilize the entire organization, shows the new Appian study conducted by Harris Poll.

The online survey, which fielded in October among 306 ITDMs to understand the technology outlook for 2016, defined enterprise mobility as business applications and data that are seamlessly accessible anywhere regardless of location on desktops or mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets and wearables.

Among the key findings, the majority of ITDMs believe cloud-based applications/solutions (70 percent) and enterprise mobility (61 percent) will yield the biggest returns to their company in 2016, with 87 percent reporting enterprise mobility as critical to their company’s profitability.

“Companies are shifting their focus from mobile applications to full enterprise mobility,” said Matt Calkins, president and CEO of Appian. “IT professionals understand that a strategic focus on mobile apps will fail to deliver the full digital transformation that must occur within the enterprise.”

Telecommunications (40 percent), financial services (36 percent), manufacturing (34 percent), energy and utilities (32 percent), healthcare / pharmaceutical (32 percent), transportation (32 percent) and retail (31 percent), were cited as the industries most likely to adopt enterprise mobility in 2016.

Custom Apps Are Key to Enterprise Mobility

An overwhelming majority (92 percent) of respondents agree that new approaches are required to mobilizing an entire enterprise, with approximately 85 percent agreeing that custom software applications are key. With this:

• Over half (59 percent) of ITDMs say they will increase their custom application development budget in 2016 regardless of company revenue.
• The top drivers for custom application development in 2016 include: efficiency (56 percent), security (53 percent) and speed (48 percent); about four in ten reported operational productivity (42 percent) and customer engagement (37 percent) as top drivers. Regarding speed of delivery, more than four in 10 (43 percent) of respondents indicated it takes their company three-to-six months to deliver a new application to their business.
• Companies with higher annual revenue ($100M+) are significantly more likely than those at lower revenue companies (under $100M) to report the following three benefits: competitiveness (49 percent vs. 32 percent, respectively); customer engagement (45 percent vs. 31 percent, respectively); and agility (40 percent vs. 27 percent, respectively).

Enterprise Mobility Obstacles Exist

Nearly, all ITDMs (95 percent) cited challenges for achieving full enterprise mobility in 2016. Of those, 64 percent cited agility, speed and security as obstacles. The findings also show:

• Companies with higher revenue ($100M+) are significantly more likely than those at lower revenue companies (under $100M) to report ease of use / user interface as an obstacle (33 percent vs. 22 percent).
• Additionally, nearly nine in ten of ITDMs are concerned about security in both custom applications (86 percent) and security in pre-packaged applications (86 percent).

2016 Technology Outlook Survey Methodology*

An online custom survey was fielded among 306 Information Technology Decision Makers (ITDM) between October 1-12, 2015 to understand the technology outlook for 2016. Information Technology Decision Makers (ITDM) were identified as those working full-time, with sole or a major influence on IT decision-making at a company with 20+ employees, as well as a balance of companies with less than 250 employees and companies with more than 250. The survey was fielded by Harris Poll. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please click here to get the full survey report.