Yankee Group: "Wireless Top Strategic IT Project"

I thought I'd share highlights from the Yankee Group 2007 Mobile and Business Applications Survey. An excerpt from the full report is available here or in the November '07 print edition of Mobile Enterprise Magazine. The author is Eugene Signorini, one of the most-respected analysts in the mobile enterprise space.

When asked which strategies will impact business application decisions most in the future, IT executives at companies with more than 500 employees in the US and Europe said "enabling mobile access to corporate apps through wireless technology" is a top priority. When asked which mobile application is the most strategic, those same executives said "service and support."

To all of us in IT with an interest in mobility, these results just confirm what we already know. What's more impressive is how much they've changed in the past year. Consider that after service and support applications, the next most strategic applications are "Productivity Suites" followed by "Email/PIM", "Field Service", and "Sales force automation". In previous years, Email/PIM topped the list. This year's report indicates the shift we've all seen firsthand - wireless email and PIM are the garnish you take too much of at the buffet and put back later once you see the main course.

As IT executives have become increasingly mobile-savvy this past year, service and support has steadily ascended the priority list. Why? Again, for reasons we all know - they're at the epicenter of corporate operations. Devolving true control of these critical apps to the point where service is actually delivered starts a powerful chain reaction that touches every other aspect of the business in powerful ways no other mobile solution can.