Study Highlights Enterprise Concerns for Mobile Integration

The shift to mobile is growing at such a fast rate that businesses of all sizes are scattering to find the best way to integrate this platform to the products and services they provide. No matter what type of mobile engagement solutions a company chooses, it faces many challenges, and a recent study reveals this fact. “The Rise of Holistic Enterprise Mobile Engagement” is a study conducted by Forrester Consulting, which was commissioned by OpenMarket, a provider of comprehensive mobile solutions for enterprises to engage and transact with their customers via their mobile devices.

The research revealed that enterprises are in agreement with the business opportunities mobile offers, but IT departments are having a difficult time using available skills and technology to build and maintain in-house mobile solutions. The survey asked mobile decision makers from 167 enterprise businesses, revealing that 74 percent feel mobile is a priority. With 43 percent of respondents questioning the IT capability of their IT resources to successfully keep pace with B2C mobile efforts, the problem is quite challenging.

Additional challenges include the struggle enterprises face building advanced mobile engagement solutions with new architectures, code and client platforms, data privacy and security. This includes the complexity of integrating applications and services using different languages and framework, which is compounded by the number of platforms in the marketplace.

Organizations want to shift to mobile, but the seamless solution they are looking for is not readily implemented when in-house resources are not able to meet the challenges. With 63 percent of enterprises spending less than $5 million each year on mobile, organizations have to ask themselves whether the investment is adequate enough to make gains on competitors who are willing to invest more in the market. The market, meanwhile, is slated to grow at 48 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from the $12.8 billion spent in 2012 to $90 billion in 2017 in just one segment, mobile payment, according to Forrester.

The study points out in-house solution can work, but it is not a sustainable and expects companies to look to independent software vendors (ISVs) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers to give them the solutions they need to make progress in their mobile development.

"Mobile represents a critical communication channel for enterprises to engage with their customers. Companies are already beginning to tackle siloed mobile projects, but there is a need for a more comprehensive, cross-channel approach that lowers operational costs and increases loyalty by engaging customers throughout their entire lifecycle. Leveraging OpenMarket's Mobile Engagement Platform and our vast mobile expertise, enterprises can realize immediate value to their business, whether the goal is to improve customer satisfaction, provide support or generate new revenue," said Jay Emmet, general manager of OpenMarket.