Consumerisation: Not yet a reality in Australia and NZ

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Ovum’s recent survey identified that despite much of the buzz in the industry around the consumerisation of mobility, the majority of large enterprises in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) still provide devices for employees with a mobility need.

"These enterprises still have a high degree of control over mobility and are not inclined to adopt a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy – at least not in the short-term" said Claudio Castelli, senior analyst.

Only around 10 percent of companies say their preferred model is for employees to provide their own devices and reclaim costs through expenses. Companies that choose this route could find mobility increasingly difficult to manage as usage, particularly of data, grows.

"But in the long-term however, CIOs will be pressured to respond to users' preferences and will need to support an increasing number of applications and devices chosen by users. Providers should take a proactive approach and make sure their device management capabilities and partnerships expand to support enterprises in dealing with this greater diversity. Cloud-based solutions will help," adds Castelli.

The survey also indentified a number of opportunities for providers of mobility services for large enterprises in ANZ. The growing appetite across enterprises for smartphones and big-screen devices is creating a foundation for greater adoption of mobile applications. This will ultimately drive higher data traffic usage and new access technologies. Providers with either in-house professional services capabilities or partnerships with system integrators (SIs) will be in a good position to support enterprises in mobilizing data applications, and profit from these additional services and greater use of their networks.

"Telcos in ANZ have a strong reputation in enterprise mobility and should take leadership and profit from the mobility trend. They should partner with other players to offer end-to-end solutions and choose their SI partners for complex and highly customized projects carefully," advised Castelli.