Smartphones and tablets are not used to their full potential in the workplace due to a lack of resources, tech personnel and education, according to the third annual "Trends in Enterprise Mobility" survey from IT trade group CompTIA.
"Mobile devices get used heavily in employees' personal lives, but there are enterprise aspects such as encryption, proper security settings and enterprise apps that require further and ongoing education," said Seth Robinson, director of technology analysis at CompTIA, in the survey report.
The healthcare industry is part of the trend, according to a new Robert Half Technology survey that says healthcare is lagging behind retail and business services in mobile strategy and application development. In the healthcare industry, 36 percent of organizations report that they have no mobile strategy, according to the survey of CIOs.
CompTIA surveyed 400 U.S. business and IT executives across multiple industries. Of those polled, 55 percent of firms practice some form of bring your own device policy, with the majority providing devices and allowing employees to use their own. Of the companies that offer devices, 76 percent provide smartphones and 61 percent provide tablets.
"The new norm is quickly becoming one employee, three devices," Robinson said. "PCs, smartphones and tablets will all remain major components in the workplace for some time."
Only 30 percent of companies have a formal mobility policy, and just 8 percent have performed significant workflow change as a result of mobility. "By addressing these areas using a broad, company-wide approach, companies can build an understanding of business needs and agree on solutions to potential hurdles," he writes in a blog post about the study.
Another problem with smartphones in the workplace: Two recent studies about smartphones in healthcare reveal that device add-ons, apps and online videos that offer blood pressure readings may not be accurate or trustworthy, as FierceMobileHealthcare recently reported.
For more information:
- read the CompTIA blog
- read the report abstract