Mobile in the Enterprise: What to Expect in 2018

Global mobile commerce growth was expected to double this year¹, and there are no signs of that growth slowing as we move into 2018. We are seeing the same kind of growth in the use of mobile devices in the enterprise. However, equivalent IT support for that growth is not always a given.

As many of us remember, digital and mobile devices were not always welcome in the enterprise. There was a time when personal mobile devices came into the organization through the “back door,” with employees using them on the sly. The idea of leveraging such devices to access corporate information and systems was just unthinkable.

Flash forward several years: The number of people using mobile devices grew exponentially, and users became accustomed to information at their fingertips—whether their fingertips were at home, in the office, on the soccer field or beyond. The IT department still wanted no part of mobile—at least, not officially—but the genie was out of the bottle and the BYOD movement was born.

Today, as the use cases for mobile have grown, so, too, has the use of mobile. According to Gartner research, two out of three employees in 2016 used a personally owned device or devices for work.² However, these devices and the apps that run on them are not always woven into the fabric of the workplace. This is the difference between “bring your own device” and a digital workspace. The latter will pave the way for mobile in 2018, by which time 95% of global enterprises will have both a choose-your-own-device (CYOD) and a formal BYOD plan in place.³

Indeed, developing digital workspaces is essential for any company that wants to attain or maintain competitive advantage. Partners must work with customers to develop solutions that will simplify app access and management, unify endpoint management and transform delivery of corporate applications. Partners can also help companies bridge the gap from where they are to where they need to be by providing education on the most effective—and secure—ways to integrate mobile across products and processes (including development).

Mobile today isn’t a value-add; it is core to the business. Partners that can deliver the tools to build the digital workspaces needed to fully utilize mobile will find success in 2018 and beyond.

^{1. Statista, “Global mobile retail commerce revenue from 2012 to 2018,” January 2017}

^{2. Gartner, Mikako Kitagawa, “User Survey Analysis: Mobile Device Adoption at the Workplace Is Not Yet Mature,” October 2016}

^{3. Gartner, “The Things People Buy: CIOs Need to Know the Smartphone User Preferences That Impact Mobile Policies” January 22, 2016}

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