The Australian enterprise mobility market will be approaching $5.5 billion by the end of the decade, up from $3.3 billion this year, according to new Telsyte research.
The Telsyte Australian Enterprise Mobility Market Study 2017 forecasts that the market will consist of $1.9 billion of devices (smartphones and tablets), $1.2 billion of management tools (including mobile device management) and $2.3 billion of integration and support services by 2020.
With it having been a consistent trend over the past two years, 34 per cent of businesses have staff regularly working outside of work premises, according to Telsyte.
“Furthermore, mobility is becoming more strategic for corporations, with C-suite executives now in charge of mobility in 80 per cent of organisations, up from 62 per cent in 2014,” Telsyte states.
“Despite the rise in BYOD (bring your own device), almost 80 per cent of business still buy some smartphones for staff, and 50 per cent buy tablets. Almost half of all tablets purchased have cellular features, given the productivity benefits from an always-on connection.”
Apple and Samsung smartphones (in that order) are purchased by most organisations, Telsyte states.
Meanwhile, bring your own apps (BYOA) “has started to gather steam in the Australian market”, with awareness increasing and more organisations “trying to enforce rules that stop or limit the use of consumer-grade apps for workplace use, mainly due to security fears”.
Despite this, Telsyte has found that the efforts of organisations “are being overwhelmed”.
“Despite the fears, around 10 per cent of organisations admit they can’t control BYOA and staff use personal apps regardless of policies,” Telsyte senior analyst Rodney Gedda commented.
BYOA is allowed by around half of all businesses with greater than 20 employees, with most citing productivity and employee demand as the main reasons, along with lack of training needed to use apps, Telsyte states.
“With arrival of Facebook’s Workplace, more companies will look to enterprise applications that leverage consumer platforms to reduce training requirements and promote adoption, a trend that has been a driver of BYOA in the past,” Gedda commented.
According to Telsyte estimates, almost half of all organisations in Australia now have enterprise-grade mobile device management, which it expects to near 70 per cent by 2020.
“Australian enterprises still have a lot of opportunity to go beyond basic management and re-engineer business processes with mobile devices and applications,” Telsyte states.
“Telsyte research shows less than 20 per cent are mature with their enterprise mobility and realising innovation and productivity benefits.”
The leading mobile device management vendors in Australia are (in order) BlackBerry (following the acquisition and integration of Good Technology), IBM and Samsung, according to the Telsyte research.
Telsyte states that the growth in mobile device management is being driven by a high rate (86 per cent) of enterprises still concerned about enterprise mobility security, including inadequate separation between work-related device use and personal use, and the security of devices with access to corporate information but which are not corporately managed.
