Increasingly unruly medium

Faced with a growing mobile workforce, a range of feature-rich phones, and demand for enterprise application mobility, CIOs are looking to mobile operator partners to help manage mobile devices, just as other IT assets are managed, writes MarketingCharts.

45 percent of CIOs from top 500 enterprises surveyed said they are looking to mobile operators for such assistance, according to an Mformation Technologies survey conducted by Coleman Parkes (via CIO.com).

Moreover, 62 percent of US CIOs would change their mobile operator if they were offered a comprehensive mobile device management (MDM) solution by a competing mobile operator.

Key research findings:

• Some 82 percent of US CIOs say managing mobile devices has become increasingly difficult.
• Almost all CIOs surveyed (95 percent) are currently looking for a solution for managing and securing enterprise mobile devices and applications.
• The vast majority of US companies (88 percent) expect the operator to have a role in enterprise mobile device management.
• Nearly, 60 percent US companies indicate that they would prefer an arrangement with their operator that gives the IT department direct control over their mobile assets.
• Not surprisingly, then, 62 percent of US companies indicate they would consider switching to a new mobile operator if they offered MDM as a managed service.

"Clearly, very real opportunities exist for mobile operators to provide value-added device management services for enterprise customers, increasing their competitive advantage," said Matt Bancroft, CMO of Mformation.

With most CIOs prefer that their IT departments directly control the devices, with support from the operator, there is "a significant opportunity for operators to help enterprises with the challenges and complexities associated with mobile device management," Bancroft said.

MarketingCharts has more findings from the study.