Mobility trends: Businesses will think beyond BYOD in 2015

Enterprise mobility will continue to be one of the hottest topics in IT, and high on the list of priorities for all CIOs, according to Ovum’s ‘2015 Trends to Watch: Enterprise Mobility report’.

Consumerization (i.e. the impact of technology designed first and foremost for consumers) has driven the enterprise mobility market over the last few years, and the market research firm has identified the five key trends in mobile consumerization that will have the biggest impact on businesses in 2015.
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Enterprise mobility trends to watch in 2015:

The “mobility mismatch” between employers and employees will persist, even as enterprise IT departments get to grips with consumerization. For example, the rate of bring your own device (BYOD) behavior (i.e. employees using personal devices to access corporate data) continues to grow, but it is not being embraced by IT at nearly the same rate.

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More businesses will think beyond BYOD - the distinction is formal versus informal and managed versus unmanaged. Informal (unmanaged and largely unrecognized) BYOD usage will slowly be displaced by a more managed approach, due to the introduction of more formal support models for employee-liable connections and devices in larger companies, as device management solutions for smartphones mature. In some companies, particularly those with high security/data-protection needs, a corporate-liable approach will be sustained, possibly alongside formal managed BYOD.

More enterprises will frame enterprise mobility management (EMM) in a workspace strategy. This means framing EMM as part of a wider “workspace” strategy, incorporating management of all endpoints and applications, with the crucial aim of giving employees access to the tools and data they need wherever they happen to be and with whichever device they happen to have in front of them. Enterprise multi-screening behaviour is increasing, and embracing a workspace strategy is the best way to capitalise on it.

Senior line-of-business executives will apply pressure, not just employees. Consumerization has largely driven the EMM market up to this point, but line-of-business managers - particularly in HR, procurement, and operations - will have an increasing influence on deployments.

SMEs and the vendors that sell to them should expect 2015 to be more mobile-centric. The vendors and service providers selling to them need to embrace this move as the SME market provides a potential “long tail” of demand - but this will be a challenge for service providers, which are not generally viewed as trusted partners by SMEs when it comes to delivering IT services.

Richard Absalom, senior analyst, enterprise mobility at Ovum: “While pressure from end users continues to have an impact on the shape of the EMM market, it is time for enterprises to become more proactive with their mobility strategies and look for ways that mobile devices - whether corporate or employee-owned - and apps can work in tandem with other endpoints to transform the way that people work. Vendors and service providers in the space need to keep expanding the range of features and services that they offer to meet the growing range of demands, and they will also need to continue to build effective partnerships, especially in support of large, global organisations which expect and demand consistent global service delivery.”