Access to Enterprise Software from Mobile Devices Lagging

In mid-2011, IFS, a global enterprise application company, conducted a study among manufacturing executives and professionals of middle market to large manufacturers to better understand their interest in and demand for mobile device access to enterprise applications. The study found that while many respondents viewed the mobile interface as an important consideration in enterprise software selection, few respondents actually have access from their mobile device.

In the study of more than 281 manufacturing executives conducted with analyst firm Mint Jutras, only 27 percent of respondents were performing any functions in enterprise software using a mobile device. And 47 percent of respondents said they had little to no access to ERP from a mobile device. Among customer relationship management (CRM) users, 32 percent said they had little to no mobile access to their CRM application, indicating that mobile access is more mainstream for CRM than it is for ERP, but is still not prevalent.

All in all, mobile access to enterprise software appears to be a tremendous opportunity to increase productivity given that additional work can be completed while in transit, both inside and outside of work hours, and the benefits may far outweigh the cost of the intrusion of a mobile device.