Investment in mobile ERP increasing: IDC

However, security concerns remain.

$1 in every $8 spent today on IT in Australia goes to mobile ERP, according to a white paper by IDC and mobile ERP vendor IFS. And investment in mobile is expected to increase, they said.

IDC conducted 50 phone interviews and Web surveys in Australia, with nearly half of the companies belonging to one of five industries: industrial manufacturing, process manufacturing, retail, construction and contracting, and service provider.

More than half of enterprises have a mobile ERP plan, IDC and IFS found. About 36 per cent do not have a plan, but 14 per cent of these are planning to spend money on mobile services, it said.

IDC and IFS found that 52 per cent of companies plan to focus on rolling out mobile smart devices--and most will be Apple iOS devices.

Most mobile investment is going to customer care and sales, according to IDC and IFS. Some 41 per cent of respondents plan to invest in mobilising customer care and sales force, while 18 per cent plan to invest in CRM, the survey said.

IDC and IFS said only 17 per cent of companies plan to invest in mobile device management (MDM) services in the next three years.

However, security concerns still remain as a barrier to companies adopting mobile ERP services, the survey found, with 45 per cent of companies saying so. Another 24 per cent said they have not adapted their work processes for mobile, while 14 per cent said company policy was the barrier and another 14 per cent cited integration concerns.

“Mobility as a solution has moved from being a voice-centric to a data-centric solution focusing on smartphones and tablets with access to corporate data, and this is creating a whole new set of challenges for CIOs and IT managers,” IDC said in the white paper.

“The use of mobile solutions has established itself as an interface to email solutions, but is growing steadily as a tool for collaborative solutions, other types of communications, and push information to mobile workers.”

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