Our Mobile Computing Survey 2018: What’s the role of mobile technology in business today?
12 October 2018
Part of our commitment
to providing mobile solutions that facilitate operational excellence is
understanding how mobile technology is perceived and implemented by different
industries.
To what extent are
mobile computing systems already helping businesses achieve their goals, and in
which areas could extra support or information be put to use?
Having spoken to key
industry customers and partners, we have collated their responses in our Mobile
Computing Survey 2018 – available to download here.
Here’s a summary of
the survey and some of our key findings.
Who did we speak to about their
uptake of mobile computing?
The majority of the
businesses we surveyed (44 per cent) came from the Manufacturing sector. The
Logistics industry was also strongly represented (26 per cent), as were Oil and
Gas firms (12 per cent). The rest of our respondents came from the Service and
Maintenance, Healthcare and Utilities industries.
Of all the businesses
who took part in our survey, 75 per cent are privately-owned organisations.
In terms of business
size, most of our surveyed companies (28 per cent) have an estimated annual
turnover of between £1 million and £10 million. A fifth of our respondents told
us their turnover exceeds £100 million a year, while 18 per cent said they turn
over between £10 million and £100 million annually. A smaller number (15 per
cent) reported a yearly turnover of less than £1 million.
Another important
aspect of our surveyed businesses was the number of mobile or field workers
they have. The largest group (27 per cent) told us they have between 1 and 50
workers in the field, while 12 per cent have between 51 and 100, and 18 per
cent have between 101 and 500.
How do our respondents use mobile
computing solutions?
A very convincing
majority of the businesses we spoke to (80 per cent) have made some sort of
investment in mobile computing.
When it came to
exactly what they use their mobile computers for, 60 per cent told us they use
theirs specifically for data capture, although a wide range of other software
applications were also mentioned. These included ‘stock control/warehouse
activities’ (38 per cent), ‘workforce communication and management’ (33 per
cent), ‘maintenance and inspection’ (33 per cent) and ‘job scheduling’ (31 per
cent).
What kind of mobile devices do our
surveyed businesses use?
Smartphones are by far
the most popular type of device currently being used by our survey respondents.
Also well represented were tablet computers, consumer laptops and rugged
handheld devices.
Which business technologies have they
recently invested in?
Over the past three
years, three quarters of our survey respondents have made a significant
investment in some sort of technology system. For most (33 per cent), this took
the form of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or general administration
software, while just a few less had invested in business intelligence or
dashboard software.
In terms of mobile
solutions specifically, 20 per cent of businesses we asked had deployed a form
of mobile device management software.
What will their future technology
investments be?
A small majority of companies we spoke to told
us they’ve no plans to spend on new technological solutions in the next three
years, which could be good news for those that do. There could be plenty of
scope for businesses who do make a significant investment to gain a possible
competitive advantage over those that stick with existing systems.
Where investment is
expected, our respondents said they thought it would most likely be in the
areas of mobile application software, cloud computing and mobile device
management software.
What’s preventing further adoption of
mobile computing solutions?
We wanted to know if
there was anything stopping our respondents from using mobile computing
solutions to a greater extent within their organisations. Most told us that
‘background economic factors’ were their number one concern, while the second
largest group of surveyed businesses had trouble getting senior buy-in on the
cost benefits of such an investment.
Other stumbling blocks
included an uncertainty on the expected return on investment, concerns that a
new system wouldn’t integrate properly with existing systems and resistance
from operational personnel.
Download the full Mobile Computing
Survey for more
Our survey reflects a
progressive picture of mobile computing uptake in business today, yet one with
plenty of scope for the multiple benefits of this technology to really make
themselves felt.
There are more
industry insights within our full Mobile Computing Survey 2018 – download your copy now