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Mobile Enterprise Apps Gain Traction in North America

The demand for mobile enterprise applications among businesses across North America is increasing rapidly, according to the latest market study by Frost & Sullivan. Companies that reported the deployment of at least one mobile worker app has risen from 73 percent in 2013 to 82 percent in 2014.

Currently, 49 percent of businesses across North America adopt between one and ten applications, indicating a significant acceptance of these solutions.

Market analysis finds that nine out of ten current app users are very or somewhat satisfied with these solutions -- based on a survey of 300 decision-makers -- including mobile asset tracking, mobile sales force automation (SFA), mobile workforce management and wireless email apps.

"Satisfaction levels among businesses that have implemented new mobile worker applications have risen after previously showing a descending trend," said Diana Herrera, customer research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

Strategic Business Outcomes Motivate Adoption

Current enterprise app users cited increased employee productivity and business process efficiency as the key benefits influencing satisfaction levels. The top three beneficial impacts of newer mobile enterprise applications for businesses are improved customer engagement, competitive advantage and customer satisfaction.

When it comes to machine-to-machine (M2M) applications -- such as mobile asset tracking -- users focus on hard-dollar impacts such as decreased transportation costs, labor expenses and paperwork.


Across all mobile enterprise applications segments, data security continues to be the strongest barrier to adoption. The high cost of mobile enterprise applications is the second-strongest factor discouraging the uptake of these solutions.

Other major impediments include back-office integration requirements, a lack of internal resources and expertise, and the absence of a trusted mobility application development partner.

Mobile Cloud Market Development Trends

Despite these customer concerns, the North American mobile enterprise applications market is growing. During 2014-2015 alone, 79 percent of respondent companies plan to deploy mobile worker applications -- many of which will incorporate mobile cloud solutions.

Besides, the proportion of businesses with a lack of interest in new applications has noticeably decreased since 2013. Frost believes that this uptrend is due to an improvement in enterprise mobile application platform vendor marketing efforts.

To take advantage of these opportunities, vendors need to design their products and services based on customer preferences for open source technologies. Also, some businesses prefer to purchase mobile enterprise applications that are based on pre-built reusable templates, rather than create a new application.

Moreover, businesses of all sizes also tend to choose mobile network service providers and the major software vendors as their mobility partners. Leading open source software solutions companies, such as Red Hat, are well positioned for these enterprise mobility market development opportunities.

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