New Research Exposes 'App Gap' in Mobile Presence of Businesses

The results of a study conducted by independent market research firm, Vanson Bourne, show that despite the prevalence of mobile devices and the widespread use of mobile applications in the workplace today, organizations are falling behind when it comes to developing apps for their own staff, customers and partners.

The result in missing the boat on business opportunities and failure to capitalize on certain advantages is being referred to as the “App Gap” by the research firm, whose sponsorship comes from software company Progress Software Corporation, reports businesswire.com.

Conducted between December 2012 and January 2013, the study found that 95 percent of the organizations surveyed had employees who used personal mobile devices and apps for their work. Of these employees, 92 percent believed making use of mobile apps would not only give their organization a competitive advantage, but that any failure to do so would put them at a disadvantage.

Despite this proliferation of and confidence in mobile devices and applications for business purposes, only 29 percent of the 600 organizations surveyed had begun a mobile development project, though 42 percent planned to do so in the next year.

In addition, only 51 percent of organizations interacted with their employees using mobile apps and only 45 percent used mobile apps to interact with their customers.

Possible explanations for this reticence included a number of perceived risks to implementing formal mobile strategies: 54 percent saw security as a major risk factor; 48 percent saw the requisite additional investment as a roadblock; the need for long-term tech support was standing in the way of 47 percent.

56 percent expressed the concern that they lacked the requisite skillsets within their organization for developing and implementing mobile applications in such a varied and changeable marketplace. Additionally, only 15 percent say that their entire software portfolio could be easily tailored in the manner required.

Sixty-two percent would have preferred to outsource the development of mobile applications to an established third-party, versus 38 percent who said they would have preferred to do most of the work in-house.

Finally, almost two-thirds of the organizations surveyed said that mobile access to applications like CRM and ERP would be very useful.