Businesses to Double Mobile Project Spend in Next 18 Months

U.S. and U.K. businesses are embracing mobile technology at an unprecedented rate, with average current investments of $422,000 rising to $926,000 in the next year and a half, and a third of companies planning to launch four or more mobile projects in the next 12 to 18 months. But frustrations around the cost, complexity, management and timescale of those projects are growing, too, according to the “Mobile Business Forecast 2012” released today by Antenna Software, which commissioned Vanson Bourne to poll 1,000 CIOs and business unit leaders in the U.S. and U.K.

The survey revealed that U.K. and U.S. companies are working with an average of three separate mobile solutions vendors simultaneously, highlighting the general inability of suppliers to address multiple aspects of the mobile value chain. The report indicates that companies undertaking concurrent development are likely to see their mobile business strategies become increasingly fragmented, hampered by redundant technologies and difficult to manage.

Jim Hemmer, CEO of Antenna, said mobile devices are now so ubiquitous that a business without a mobile strategy is a business without a strategy. Investment in mobile technology is growing at a meteoric rate, and that€™s partly due to companies thinking beyond the app and beyond the idea that mobility is only critical when it comes to consumer engagement.

€œOf course, the challenges and strains of joining the mobile revolution are still too much for many businesses to handle,€ he added. €œOnly 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 survey found 45 percent of IT and business decision-makers in the United Kingdom and the United States are dissatisfied with the speed at which the mobile projects they commission get to market. In addition, 42 percent of respondents attested to being frequently dissatisfied with the eventual cost of the solutions deployed. The report revealed that, on average, projects commissioned by U.S. and U.K. companies take more than six months to come to fruition, with one in 10 taking a year or more to complete.

€œMobile technology has changed the way that people interact, and the implications for business are equally profound,€ said Eugene Signorini, senior vice president of research for Yankee Group. “The question today is how companies seize the opportunities afforded to them by mobility while still maintaining control and visibility. Today, an organization must consider the entire mobile experience and approach enterprise mobility in a holistic, unified fashion to satisfy both employees and customers and drive new revenues and growth.€

The release of the “Mobile Business Forecast 2012” coincides with the launch of AMPchroma, Antenna€™s cloud-based, mobile business suite, which allows companies to design, build, deploy and manage mobile assets€”including native and hybrid Web apps, mobile Websites and corporate app stores€”from a single Web-based console. The suite has been designed to support a holistic approach to mobile management by helping CIOs unify their mobile business strategies.