High Cost of Going Mobile Frustrates Businesses
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CREDIT: Dreamstime.com |
Businesses are increasing their mobile projects at a rapid rate, but they’re also becoming increasingly frustrated with the projects’ cost, complexity, management and time scale, new research shows.
Conducted by Antenna Software, the study found that the average of $400,000 businesses are currently spending on their mobile projects is expected to climb to nearly $1 million in the next year and a half. Additionally, a third of the surveyed companies are planning to launch four or more mobile projects in the next 18 months. Projects include creating mobile websites and mobile apps and forming a mobile device management strategy.
"Mobile devices are now so ubiquitous that a business without a mobile strategy is a business without a strategy," said Jim Hemmer, CEO of Antenna. "Investment in mobile is growing at a meteoric rate, and that’s partly due to companies thinking beyond the app and beyond the idea that mobile is only critical when it comes to consumer engagement."
However, with businesses working with an average of three mobile solutions vendors simultaneously, many companies are finding their mobile business strategies fragmented and difficult to manage, the research found. And many business leaders are dismayed at the projects’ price tags — and the length of time it’s taking to complete them.
The study found that 45 percent of businesses are dissatisfied with the speed, anywhere between six months and a year, at which the mobile projects they commission get to market, and 42 percent admitted to being frequently dissatisfied with the eventual cost of the solutions deployed.
"The challenges and strains of joining the mobile revolution are still too much for many businesses to handle," Hemmer said. "Only when companies can quickly, securely and cost-effectively mobilize themselves whenever, wherever, and however they need to, will we see them unlocking the true potential of the mobile channel."
The study was based on surveys of more than 1,000 CIOs from companies throughout the United States and the United Kingdom.
Chad Brooks is a Chicago-based freelance writer who has worked in public relations and spent 10 years working as a newspaper reporter and now works as a freelancer business and technology reporter. You can reach him at chadgbrooks@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @cbrooks76.