CIOs View Enterprise Mobility as Having Complex, Security Obstructing and Expense Issues

What do 300 Information Technology (IT) decision makers in the U.K. and the U.S. think about mobilizing enterprise applications? Mobile Helix sought to find out the answer to this question. The company was created to redefine end point computing in the enterprise. This is accomplished by extending the existing IT infrastructure instead of rebuilding it.

Mobile Helix feels that the transition from corporate owned and corporate controlled computers to an environment with a vast range of employee as well as corporate owned computing devices has accelerated at an unprecedented pace. This kind of change is being led by mobility.

Mobile Helix conducted a survey of the 300 IT professionals. While it is clear that they do understand the benefits that the end user side could have, many of companies have yet to mobilize a lot of applications. The numbers are high for the group that is delaying full deployment of enterprise apps on mobile devices.

Mostly it has to do with some major concerns. The first concern that most of those surveyed brought up was cost. Obviously you cannot simply take a PC-based app and run it on a smartphone or tablet. In most cases, a mobile app would have to be created. The CIO needs to take the cost factor involved into consideration. As you can imagine, this would be a complex process.


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A factor that is not only a concern to CIOs, but just about anyone in the enterprise, is the security issue. The survey showed that there is compelling end-user demand for sensitive corporate data and apps to be available on mobile devices. In fact, 87 percent of CIOs said their employees want more access to enterprise data and applications on their mobile devices.

"Users expect critical data and applications to be available on any device and in any context, both in mobile and fixed environments, in the way that is most familiar and convenient to them. CIOs understand the obvious benefits of empowering employees and making them more productive, yet only a small proportion of enterprise apps and critical data are currently mobilized. Why aren't more enterprise apps available on any device? We all want apps and data to be available to employees when they need them using the tools that are available at that time. Companies need to bridge app silos in the enterprise and ensure applications work in both fixed and mobile to deliver a seamless converged 'app' experience," said co-founder and COO of Mobile Helix Matt Bancroft.

It is easy to say that employees want this and that and since they are bringing their own devices (BYOD) to work they want the mobile apps to work on them. However, there are two costs that are involved with being able to do this. The above mentioned app design cost and the cost involved with support and maintenance.

Having setup, managed and maintained several corporate data centers, I know this to be true, as I have had to deal with these types of issues in the past. An overwhelming 65 percent of CIOs need to find the corporate capital needed to develop the mobile apps needed to work seamlessly with the fixed app.

The percentage of CIOs that cited security concerns was also high. This came in at 63 percent. It is not surprising to me these are the major concerns. While convenience is great and can sometimes lead to increased productivity, that is not always the case. These apps are not off-the-shelf items; they need to be developed and incorporated.

Bancroft continued with the following comments: "The current approach to mobility is limiting the market, enterprises are now looking for solutions which will allow them to develop and deliver apps to their employees simply and cost effectively. Companies already have the infrastructure and skills to mobilize, deliver and support enterprise applications in a cost-effective way, while still ensuring enterprise-grade security. Every device platform on the market today has a high performance, HTLM5-compliant engine. By taking this HTML5 browser-based approach, corporate IT can build a unified applications platform that extends across devices of all shapes and sizes, without compromise in functionality, performance, or security."

The problem with these comments is that HTLM5 has its own faults. HTLM5 still has some security and privacy issues that are being worked out now. The main international standards organization, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is working on privacy issues which in turn can lead into security issues.

These are all concerns that CIOs need to take into consideration before rubber stamping an “OK” on mobile apps that deal with sensitive corporate data. When you add the cost factor of having to develop new mobile apps, you can see why CIOs are concerned and taking the slower route to enterprise mobility.