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Mobility taking the enter-prize |
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Monday, 21 January 2008 |
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IDC predicts mobile workers worldwide to reach one billion by 2011…
Pressure on companies to provide better work/life balance programmes for employees combined with advances in mobile technologies is increasing the number of mobile workers in the
USA and around the world. By year-end 2011, IDC expects the number of the planet’s mobile workforce to reach 1bn; at that time too nearly 75% of the
US workforce will be mobile.
According to IDC’s study ‘Worldwide
Mobile Worker 2007-2011 Forecast and Analysis’ the current generation of workers is demanding more flexibility and mobility in their schedules. They also have a higher comfort level with technology in general, including remote access technologies and mobile devices. The proliferation of high speed networks, widespread public Wi-Fi hotspots, and fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) technology now allows employees to work effectively from almost anywhere.
In addition to meeting the demands of today's workforce, enterprises are deploying mobile solutions to meet both horizontal and vertical industry needs driven by increasing business response time as well as to help reduce corporate space (and leasing) requirements. Organisations deploying mobile solutions enjoy a strategic competitive advantage over their competitors who have not invested in integrating mobility into their cultural roadmap.
“Although mobility deployments can bring a number of benefits to companies, they also bring risks associated with sensitive data sitting on small devices that can be easily lost,” warns Stephen Drake, programme director, IDC Mobile Enterprise Services. “Developing a plan around managing and securing devices should be part of any large mobility deployment.”
Regional comparisons indicate that the
US workforce has the highest percentage of mobile workers at 68% in 2006. However,
Japan's penetration rates will increase the most during the forecast period with mobile workers accounting for nearly 80% of the workforce by year-end 2011, up from 53% in 2006.
Putting some dollar signs around the enterprise mobility market opportunity, Business Insights in its recent study ‘The Mobile Enterprise Market Outlook: Trends in mobilizing the enterprise and vendor assessments’ estimated that revenues in the enterprise mobility market in Europe alone would reach US$33.28bn in 2012, growing from around US$27.85bn in 2006. Business Insights also pegged global enterprise WLAN infrastructure revenues at US$1.4bn at the end of 2008, and global revenues for operators and infrastructure providers from enterprise mobile e-mail at US$1.23bn by 2009.
John Williamson |
