One of the significant highlights of the Stratix 2022 Enterprise Mobility Outlook report is our new Mobile-First Score which shows where organizations think they are compared to where they really are in mobile-driven digital transformation. We found a big gap between self-perception and reality. 

What is Mobile-First? 

The use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets in the workplace has steadily increased since they first became available, but the pandemic has sharply accelerated mobile-driven digital transformation. Enterprises needed solutions for remote work, contactless transactions, and many other use cases. In addition to solving pandemic challenges, companies saw how mobile devices improve productivity, nimbleness, and user/customer experiences.  

That has them leaning into mobile-first principles that put mobility at the heart of strategy, operations, and the user experience. Mobile-first is more than just deploying mobile devices for specific workflows. It’s a holistic approach utilizing centralized decision-making that constantly evaluates the organization’s technology to leverage mobile benefits. 

Third Year for the Stratix Enterprise Mobility Outlook  

As an enterprise mobility leader, Stratix studies how organizations utilize mobile solutions to learn what’s working, what’s not, and possible ways to improve. We’ve put out our Enterprise Mobility Outlook to provide valuable insights for the past three years. With our research this year, we wanted to understand where companies are after two years of pandemic disruption, reveal their pain points, and see where they’re headed. 

Mobile-First Score Shows a Big Gap 

The overall report offers a wide range of data on mobility and enterprises. We’ve also added our new Mobile-First Score this year, which measures how organizations see themselves vs. reality. First, we asked respondents to rank themselves on how they perceive their progress towards implementing mobile-first strategies.  

The research found that more than half of organizations describe themselves as mobile-first and another 41 percent as somewhat mobile-first. 

Then, we asked a series of questions designed to rank them on topics like device use, access to tools needed for work, and the importance of mobile in strategy and decision making.  

We assessed an enterprise’s total “score” and then normalized the distribution across low, medium, and high.   

Mobile-first Score

While about half THINK they’re doing well, the supplementary questions show they actually have a long way to go. The reality is only 29 percent have a high mobile-first ranking, and 41 percent come in at medium. 

Why Organizations Scored Lower 

In order to be considered mobile-first, organizations needed to do well in three areas: 

  • Mobile is Central to Strategic Decision-Making
    • Centralized decision-making allows leaders to leverage a holistic view of the entire organization to see where there are opportunities for scale, potential savings, and increased efficiency. 
  • The Organization Has a Comprehensive Understanding of its Mobile Environment
    • Understanding their mobile environment at a holistic level means they can proactively manage it, track device inventories/status, and forecast future needs. Without that big-picture strategy, there can be security breakdowns, inefficient change management, and poor ROI.
  • Proactive Digital Transformation
    • Mobile-first organizations proactively and thoughtfully examine workflows and existing technology for opportunities to improve. 

Our research found that while mobile solutions are widespread, decision-making is decentralized, meaning missed opportunities for better strategies. Enterprises also use a patchwork of platforms to manage mobile solutions, which means more security vulnerabilities and lost efficiency. Lastly, only about a quarter of organizations can give employees the ability to access all the things they need to do their jobs from anywhere and any device. 

Read the Full Report 

The Mobile-First Score is significant because if organizations are not leveraging the benefits of mobile-first strategies as well as they could be, then they’re missing out on the potential benefits. Check out the full 2022 Enterprise Mobility Outlook to read more about the Mobile-First Score and all the other insights we’ve gathered in this year’s research. 

2022 ENTERPRISE MOBILITY OUTLOOK

Research shows most organizations are behind on mobile-driven digital transformation.

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