Nov 15 — Osterman Research released the results of a recent study conducted on the growth and challenges of mobile messaging. The study was commissioned by PostPath, a provider of email and collaboration solutions. The survey was conducted with enterprises that have approximately 1,000 or more e-mail users.
Mobile messaging extends corporate users’ email and collaboration environments to mobile devices. By allowing users to be online and accessible, says Osterman, much more of the time – for instance when away from their desks or travelling – mobile messaging changes workplace culture, making it more continuously cooperative and dynamic, shortening decision cycles and improving team collaboration. The adoption of mobile messaging is changing the nature of how, when, and where employees work and communicate.
Research Highlights
As of mid-2007, 15 percent of the workforce in mid-size and large companies have employer-supplied and supported mobile devices. The research projects that 28 percent of workers will have mobile messaging devices by 2009, almost double the number in use today. In fact, 36 percent of those with mobile devices use them even within the office, suggesting mobile devices are being used to multi-task, for instance in meetings, or to check a phone number or a message while working on something else. In-office use is expanding rapidly, so that within two years, a full 50 percent of employees with mobile devices are projected to use them while in the office. Employees most likely to use mobile devices include:
- 81 percent senior management
- 71 percent IT staff
- 64 percent salespeople
- 44 percent non-sales traveling employees
“While many enterprises are seeing significant growth in mobile messaging, some have been slow to upgrade their infrastructure to support the needs of their organization,†said Michael Osterman, principal of Osterman Research. “To accommodate user demand, enterprises must find alternative technologies that enable their organization to support mobile messaging, without overloading infrastructure or unreasonably increasing the burden of mobile device management on IT staff.â€
Cost and Complexity Key Issues in Stunting Growth of Mobile Devices
The rapid growth of mobile messaging is being driven by the need to access critical corporate information, collaborate with colleagues, and make rapid decisions even when employees are not located at corporate facilities. Respondents reported that when BlackBerry devices are unavailable due to unplanned downtime, 93 percent of users are less productive. In addition, 65 percent of decision makers agree that mobile messaging can significantly improve user productivity.
Productivity gains from the use of mobile devices are little disputed, but there are other aspects to mobility that this research highlights, including the cost and complexity of supporting mobile messaging. These findings conclude that 62 percent of messaging decision makers believe mobile messaging is difficult to manage.
Companies are evaluating a number of options to overcome these challenges. Solving these issues, however, is made more complex by the number of mobile devices enterprises must support. Most companies currently support the BlackBerry, with many also supporting Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices. Now, 62 percent of organizations are receiving requests to support additional devices, the majority of which are requests for support of Apple’s iPhone. Supporting four or more mobile operating systems increases complexity and places a significant burden on IT resources. To support mobile messaging, organizations are already taking the following measures:
- 34 percent of organizations have upgraded existing servers to address the additional workload created by the use of mobile devices.
- 31 percent have limited the number of mobile devices that their IT organization will support.
- 30 percent have distributed users across multiple servers.
- 23 percent have added additional servers.
Mobile messaging is a critical component of enterprise productivity and will continue to grow rapidly, but corporations and IT departments must simplify and streamline its support. Enterprises must also support the deployment of mobile devices, while minimizing the burden of mobile device management on IT. The brief “The Growing Impact of Mobile Messaging†is available for download at PostPath’s Web site: www.postpath.com/osterman-mobile-report
