We recently published two new Perspectives reports that provide in-depth data and insights about the state of SMB mobile solution adoption. These reports tell an interesting story: While 55% of small and 65% of medium businesses view mobile solutions as critical to their businesses, and as mobile budgets continue to rise, SMBs are challenged by high data service costs, uncertainty about which solutions are the right fit for their businesses, security and management concerns, and integration.
The first, SMB Adoption Trends and Requirements: Mobile Applications, examines SMB drivers, challenges, requirements and future implications for SMB adoption and of mobile applications. Some of what we learned includes:
- 84% of small and 87% of medium businesses view mobile apps as complementary to traditional business applications, and a majority envision that mobile apps will replace some traditional applications.
- Employee use of mobile collaboration apps is ubiquitous, and adoption of mobile business apps jumped 9% in small and 5% in medium business from 2013 to 2014.
- SMBs are rapidly adopting customer-facing mobile websites and apps to help attract new customers, respond faster to external constituents and keep up with the competition.
- Security concerns, development and deployment costs, and lack of a strong business case are preventing SMBs from implementing more mobile apps.
The second report, SMB Adoption Trends and Requirements: Mobile Management, explores how SMBs are handling mobile management today, their future plans, and what they need vendors to do to better serve their needs. For instance, we found that:
- From 2013 to 2014, spending for mobile consulting, management, apps and security services rose in terms of actual dollar expenditures. However, dollars allocated for these areas decreased as a percentage of the total SMB mobile spend, while the percentage allocated for mobile devices and services continues to grow.From 2013 to 2014, small business support for BYOD jumped 33%, while medium business support grew 10%. However, BYOD adopters are struggling to determine the best policies to administer and reimburse for BYOD device and service plans.
- Less than half of SMBs have implemented mobile device management solutions, while about one-third use a mobile application management solution.
- 29% of small and 28% of medium businesses are seeking services to help them craft mobile strategy, security, use and management policies.
These reports underscore that although many SMBs want to continue to expand their use mobile technologies to transform their businesses, they need vendors to provide them with easier access to better solutions to manage and scale their mobile capabilities.
For More Information
Report highlights, detailed table of contents and pricing are available for each report by clicking on the report links above.
Please contact Lisa Lincoln, lisa.lincoln70@smb-gr.com or 508.734.5658, for additional information or to order.