Rising mobile data costs causing major concerns for 57 percent of IT managers

USA:  iPass Inc. and MobileIron published their 2013 Mobile Enterprise Report.

The survey, which draws from the experiences of 477 IT executives worldwide, found that IT is concerned about rising mobility costs and feeling frustration and loss of control over Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). The majority of survey respondents (57 percent) thought their mobile data roaming costs would rise in 2013, with eight (8) percent saying they'll rise more than 25 percent.

BYOD is creating new challenges for IT. The top two sources of frustration were onboarding and then supporting the increasing number and variety of personal devices, far outranking even security concerns. The survey also found that IT is increasingly losing control of mobility budgets as departments assume greater responsibility for mobile initiatives.

The number of enterprises in which IT manages the mobility spend has dropped to 48 percent, down from 53 percent in 2011. Forty (40) percent of companies' mobility budgets are now managed by non-IT departments.

When asked about rising data costs, 44 percent of IT managers named the growing number of devices per mobile worker as a factor; 41 percent highlighted pricey 3G (and 4G) data plans; and 22 percent pointed to an increase in the number of mobile workers as major cost culprits.

On an average, IT departments spend $96 a month on data fees alone for each mobile worker. North American mobile workers rack up the highest fees ($97/mo), exposing the expense of mobile broadband. Since free Wi-Fi is abundant in North America, these fees primarily reflect non-Wi-Fi forms of mobility, such as 3G and 4G.

The survey shows that BYOD continues to gain ground. Fifty-six (56) percent of respondents, up from 47 percent in 2011, have changed their corporate guidelines within the past year to be more accommodating of employees' preferences for using personal devices. Eighty-one (81) percent of respondents state their company now accommodates personal devices in the office. More than half (54 percent) have formal BYOD policies in place and North American companies are more likely than European companies to have done so.

The survey found that while many organizations allow BYOD not all of them have actual policies for it. Of the 72 percent of enterprises with enterprise mobility strategies in place, only 37 percent of IT managers thought their own company's mobile strategy was effective, while 35 percent felt that their company had an insufficient approach.