3. Executive summary
3
Mobility is high on the agenda for Australian organisations, and looks set
to get increasing attention and funding in the coming years. However,
many organisations continue to struggle to make significant progress in
their mobility initiatives and generate a better return on their investment.
Accenture research has found three major shortcomings that are holding
Australian companies back including: a lack of enterprise-wide focus on
mobility; misdirected mobility funding priorities; and no formal metrics
for evaluating the effectiveness of mobility initiatives.
4. Accenture annually
surveys executives
around the world about
their views on mobility
in the enterprise, and
our most recent edition
has uncovered some
intriguing findings about
the Australian market.
Australian executives’ enthusiasm
for digital technologies broadly,
and mobility specifically, continues
to grow, and is generally outpaced
only by that of Chinese executives.
In fact, Australian respondents
overwhelmingly view their
investment in digital technologies
as a strategic investment that can
help them engage with customers
and grow their business.
Furthermore, they see mobility as
important to their business—more
than any of the other major digital
technologies—and plan to invest
an average of one-third of their
IT budget in mobility.
Despite this enthusiasm,
however, many Australian
companies continue to struggle
to make progress in their mobility
initiatives. Less than half of the
executives polled described their
overall adoption and deployment
of mobile technologies as
effective, and only 16 per cent
said their company has generated
a 100 per cent or greater return
on their investment in mobile
capabilities thus far.
$
Australian organisations plan to invest
an average of 33% of their IT budget
in mobility
4
5. 1. A decreasing number of
Australian organisations reported
having a formal, enterprise-wide
mobility strategy
Instead, many are opting to
develop business-unit-specific
strategies that may not further
the mission of the broader
organisation. The problem with
this “bottom-up” approach is that
it makes it difficult for mobility
proponents within a company
to get a seat at the leadership
table and get senior leaders’
support of key mobility initiatives.
It also can dilute mobility’s
impact in general, as initiatives
that do get implemented tend
to focus only on improving a
specific aspect of the company’s
operations or service offerings.
2. Australian companies are
struggling to develop formal
metrics for evaluating the
effectiveness of mobility
Only 12 per cent, compared
with 24 per cent of those in the
United Kingdom and 23 per cent
in China, have developed such
metrics. This lack of formal
metrics or analytics makes it
difficult for Australian companies
to truly gauge the effectiveness
of their mobility efforts to
date, as well as to determine
priorities and securing funding
for future initiatives. In essence,
it suggests Australian companies
are still experimenting with
mobility with little clear vision
for what they expect mobility
will enable them to do differently
and better in the future.
3. There is a lack of alignment
between spending and priorities
The mobility priorities cited as
important to the business by the
largest percentage of Australian
executives were also among the
least-frequently named targets for
budget allocation. For instance,
52 per cent of respondents said
generating deeper customer
insights through mobile analytics
is important to their business, yet
only nine per cent said building
capabilities that help them do
that is a priority for investment.
Similarly, despite 51 per cent
citing improving asset reliability
and maintenance through the
deployment of sensors and
other mobile technologies as
important to their business, only
16 per cent said such capabilities
were an investment priority. In
other words, while Australian
companies are, indeed, increasing
their mobility budget, they look
to be spending the least on
some of their biggest priorities—
hardly a recipe for success.
Beyond the Australia-specific
results, our research also uncovered
a number of practices that are
strongly correlated with mobility
success—practices Australian
companies should consider as they
seek to improve their progress
in adopting and using mobile
capabilities and increase the return
on their investment in them. These
practices include taking a more
ambitious, strategic and cross-
company approach to mobility
that’s backed by active involvement
of the company’s senior
leadership, a substantial monetary
commitment to developing
mobile capabilities, and a superior
methodology for developing
and deploying mobile apps.
In the following sections of this
report, we explore our research
findings in more detail.
5
Based on our 2014 mobility insights research, Accenture believes there are three main reasons for this lack of progress:
6. Digital technologies have massive potential to transform the ways in
which companies create revenue and results via innovative strategies,
products, processes and experiences. But do Australian companies
recognise that potential and, more importantly, are they mobilising to
capitalise on it? According to our research, the answer is a qualified “yes.”
Digital technologies hold great promise
for Australian organisations
6
7. Of the major digital
technologies—which
include mobility, social
media, big data analytics,
the cloud, and connected
products—mobility has
risen to the top in terms
of importance to many
Australian organisations.
Seventy one per cent of Australian
executives in our survey (compared
with 87 per cent of Chinese
executives) considered mobility
among their top five priorities for
the coming year, and 33 per cent
said the technology was in the top
two (Figure 1).
Furthermore, Australian
respondents view their investment
in digital technologies as a
strategic investment geared to
helping their companies grow
(Figure 2). The most commonly
cited outcomes Australian
executives look for from their
digital investments were focused
on keeping up with customer
demands and increasing sales
in existing markets. In fact,
Australian executives were
nearly three times’ more likely
to cite these growth-oriented
outcomes than improving
operational efficiency.
As digital technologies continue
to evolve, Australian companies
are looking to gain a foothold
with a new slate of emerging tools
that can help them build on the
investments they have already
made. The most likely of these
tools to be considered as part of
the respondents’ digital/IT agenda
in the next three years will be
wearable computing, low-energy
components and open Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs)
and developer programs.
71% of Australian organisations have
mobility in their top five priorities,
33% in their top two
7
8. Given mobility is a key enabler of the digital business; it makes sense
that mobility has been an area of keen focus among Australian
companies of all types (although the intensity of their focus lags
that of Chinese firms). Just over three in 10 of Australian executives,
compared with six in 10 Chinese respondents, indicated their company
has aggressively pursued and invested in mobile technologies across
the business and consider mobility a key part of their business
strategy. Just over half of Australian executives indicated they are
very interested in mobile technologies and have focused investments
on them where they could demonstrate sufficient return.
Australian companies are clearly focused
on mobility—and plan to spend on it
8
9. Reflecting that
enthusiasm, Australian
organisations plan to
spend considerably
more on mobility in
the coming year.
A quarter of Australian
companies anticipate dedicating
at least 26 per cent of their IT
budget to mobility in their next
fiscal year (including five per cent
that expect to allocate at
least half their IT spending to
mobility). That far outpaces
the percentage of Australian
companies planning to invest
in other digital technologies
(Figure 3). Overall, 30 per cent
of Australian companies plan
to spend at least US$30 million
on mobile capabilities in the
next two years—more than
companies in any other mature
market except the United
States (but less than the
37 per cent of Chinese firms).
Some Australian companies’
investment in mobility will
be focused on applications.
For a number of companies
(49 per cent), that focus
translates into improving
existing apps to make them
more reliable and to improve
the user experience. About four
in 10 Australian companies
indicated their mobile app
priorities will centre on
launching an enterprise app
store, implementing new
features that capitalise on the
latest technologies, or growing
their overall mobile presence
by introducing new apps.
However, a particular segment of
mobility—connected products—
is getting the cold shoulder from
Australian companies, relative
to their counterparts in the
United States, United Kingdom,
and Canada. Executives in the
latter countries are consistently
more likely than their Australian
equivalents to consider a wide
range of connected products
to be relevant to their business
priorities—especially connected
vehicle solutions and connected
building/plant solutions. This
finding reflects the relative
dearth of large-scale products
manufacturing (such as
automobiles) in the Australian
economy, which limits the
country’s ability to contribute
to the innovation of this sector
of the mobility market.
20162014
30M$
30% of surveyed Australian organisations
plan to spend at least $30 million on
mobile capabilities in the next two years
9
10. While the preceding data shows there is considerable interest in and
enthusiasm for mobility, most Australian organisations still have work
to do to make mobility a core—and beneficial—element of their business.
In fact, our survey found that Australian companies’ efforts to date have
not lived up to expectations due to a number of strategic, organisational
and operational challenges that have made it difficult for them to take
full advantage of mobility’s promise.
Challenges with silos and metrics are
preventing greater progress in mobility
10
11. Most Australian companies have
not made substantial progress
toward the mobility priorities that
are important to their business.
On average, only slightly more
than four in 10 companies have
made at least good progress
across these priorities. Looking
more closely at our results, we
found no more than 22 per cent
of Australian respondents
describing their progress as
extensive on any one priority.
To further support this point
is the fact that less than half
of Australian respondents
(49 per cent), compared with
66 per cent of respondents in the
United States and 78 per cent of
those in China, described their
overall adoption and deployment
of mobile technologies as effective.
Such limited progress is reflected
in the return on investment (ROI)
that Australian companies have
generated from their mobile
capabilities in the past two years:
Only 16 per cent have experienced
an ROI of 100 per cent or more—
meaning, their capabilities have
already paid for themselves, and
more. Just under half (49 per cent)
reported less than 50 per cent ROI.
One reason progress is not
more pervasive is that although
Australian companies said they
plan to invest in mobility as
stated earlier; they have not
consistently directed those
funds toward the priorities
they believe are important.
In fact, when considering the
initiatives to which respondents
are planning to allocate their
budget, one can see that virtually
all of these priorities—including
the top five—will be funded
by a far lower percentage of
respondents than those who
believe the priorities are important
to their business. Significant
gaps are especially seen with
generating deeper customer
insights through mobile analytics
and improving asset reliability
and maintenance through the
deployment of sensors and other
mobile technologies. Just over
half of respondents cited those
priorities as important to the
business, yet only nine per cent
and 16 per cent, respectively,
cited them as mobile initiatives
targeted for investment.
In addition to lack of
alignment between
importance and
investment, pervasive
internal shortcomings
could be preventing
Australian companies
from making greater
progress toward their
mobility priorities.
11
12. The most prevalent shortcoming
appears to be a lack of formal
metrics that enable companies
to measure the effectiveness
of mobility initiatives. Eighty
eight per cent of Australian
respondents indicated they
did not have such metrics.
Another common shortcoming
relates to determining where
and how mobility can have
the greatest impact. Eighty
four per cent of respondents said
their organisation doesn’t have
a formal process for identifying,
evaluating, and prioritising ways
mobility can benefit their business.
Below the preceding were a
number of shortcomings that
are present in an estimated
three-quarters of Australian
companies—including no clearly
defined, centralised ownership
of mobility initiatives and related
technology projects within the
organisation; the inability to
keep pace with new mobile
devices, systems, and services,
and adopt them as necessary to
improve the business; and a lack
of internal and external skills
necessary to properly plan and
execute mobility initiatives.
In about seven in 10 Australian
companies, shortcomings include:
• Lack of a robust blueprint to
guide adoption and deployment
of mobile capabilities;
• Insufficient budget to fund
mobility initiatives;
• No formal and robust
methodology for developing
mobile applications that
spans development, testing,
distribution, and updating;
• Current systems and
infrastructure that cannot
smoothly accommodate new
mobile technologies, and;
• Failure to have developed new,
or redesigned existing, business
processes, workflow, and roles
to better incorporate mobility
services.
Just over six in 10 Australian
companies reported having
difficulty extending their
security technologies and
practices to cover their mobile
capabilities, getting their senior
leadership highly engaged
with mobility initiatives,
and truly understanding the
benefits mobility can generate
for their organisation.
Compounding these operational
shortcomings is a major strategic
challenge: 59 per cent of
Australian executives said their
company lacks a formal, coherent
mobility strategy guiding their
mobile investments. Furthermore,
a decreasing percentage of
Australian organisations have a
formal, enterprise-wide mobility
strategy (Figure 4): 39 per cent,
which is down from 65 per cent
in 2013. Instead, a greater
percentage (47 per cent) have
mobile strategies for specific
business units, which means
investments in mobility are
being made in isolation rather
than being integrated into the
overall enterprise strategy.
One reason for the lack of an
enterprise-wide strategy could
be that the CEO is involved
in formulating the mobile
strategy in just 35 per cent
of Australian companies
(compared with 52 per cent of
US companies and 55 per cent
of Chinese organisations).
12%
Only 12% of Australian
organisations have
developed formal metrics
for evaluating the
effectiveness of mobility
12
13. While it’s clear Australian companies have embraced mobility
conceptually—and are making strides in infusing the technology
into their everyday operations—there are a number of things
they could consider doing to generate greater returns on their
mobility investments.
Mobility leaders provide
some tips for success
13
14. When we analysed the
global data from our study,
we found a small group
of companies overall—
about 10 per cent—
reported having generated
more than 100 per cent
return on their mobility
investment.
This group, which we deemed
“mobility leaders,” also were more
likely than other companies to say
their company posted exceptional
financial performance. For instance,
49 per cent of mobility leaders
compared with 29 per cent of
“others”—said their company’s
overall financial performance was
far above the industry average.
Not surprisingly, mobility leaders
also were more likely to report
having made significant progress
toward all of the mobile priorities
covered by our survey, as well as
to believe they have effectively
adopted and deployed mobile
technologies (69 per cent versus
45 per cent).
Helping to drive such compelling
results are some underlying
mobility approaches and practices
that leaders employ—and that are
less evident among the rest of our
survey sample. Specifically, we
found mobility leaders are more
likely than others to:
• Consider the full range of
digital technologies to be
among their top five priorities
in the next year, and to expect
to use those technologies to
build an entirely new digital
business or service rather
than simply improve upon the
existing business (35 per cent
versus 27 per cent).
• Have a formal enterprise-wide
mobility strategy instead of
separate strategies for individual
business units or functions, and
use that strategy to inform their
mobile investments (52 per cent
versus 38 per cent).
• Ensure the CEO and leadership
team or board of directors
owns their mobile strategy,
and that their company’s
senior leadership are highly
engaged with the organisation’s
mobility initiatives.
• Have aggressively pursued and
invested in mobile technologies
across their business and
consider mobility a key part of
their business strategy. In fact,
leaders are far more likely than
others to plan to invest more
than US$30 million in mobile
capabilities in the next two years.
• Develop formal metrics and
analytics capabilities to measure
the return on mobility investment
and guide future planning.
• Be focusing on creating an
enterprise mobile app store
or catalogue to make it easier
for internal users to access
enterprise mobile applications
securely, and have a formal
and robust methodology for
developing mobile apps that
spans development, testing,
distribution, and updating.
14
15. Our survey clearly shows that Australian companies have
considerable opportunity to get more out of their mobility
initiatives than they have to date. Three things are key to doing so.
Next steps for Australian
organisations
15
16. 1. Strategy
They need to develop mobility
strategies that cross organisational
and functional silos. Getting
the CEO more engaged in
mobility strategy development,
implementing strong governance
from the top, and deploying
a mobility centre of excellence
are important first steps.
2. Metrics
They should develop formal
metrics that make it possible to
gauge progress and impact—and,
ultimately, determine mobility ROI
and how mobility can generate
real business outcomes so they can
direct and justify future spending.
3. Balance of investment
They must look to strike a better
balance in their investment across
all digital technologies, seeing such
tools as social media, connected
devices, cloud and analytics as
complementary to, not separate
from, their mobile strategies.
The experiences of mobility leaders suggest there’s no shortcut to generating
strong business results from mobility. Rather, as our survey results show,
mobility success takes a strong dedication of resources and attention,
as well as genuine engagement by the top management of the organisation.
Companies that are committed to building robust mobility capabilities,
and that make these capabilities a core part of their operations, are much more
likely to benefit from the promise of this increasingly important growth-generating
technology—and take greater strides toward becoming a digital business.
16
17. Accenture’s mobility study was designed to explore how companies are
applying digital technologies—especially mobility—to improve various
aspects of their business. To that end, we conducted an online survey of
senior executives between December 2013 and January 2014. A total of
1,475 executives, including 125 from Australia, completed usable surveys.
Australian executives’ titles spanned the C-suite, with the majority
serving in a technology-related role. Respondents’ companies represented
eight industries and were predominantly large: More than one-third have
annual revenues of more than US$10 billion, with 16 per cent reporting
sales of US$50 billion or more.
Methodology and charts
17
18. Cloud
Mobility
Connected products
Social
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Cloud
Social
38%
33%
Big data/analytics
37%
26%
38%
22%
34%
21%
30%
22%
Top 5 priority Top 1 or 2 priority
Figure 1
Percentage of Australian respondents who think the main digital technologies are a priority
Back to chapter
18
19. 32%Increase sales in existing markets
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Increase sales in exisƟng markets
Generate addiƟonal revenue
Keep up with customer demands
Build an enƟrely new digital…
Penetrate in new markets
4%Provide differentiating customer service
10%Increase our speed to market
12%Streamline our business processes and operations
25%Boost overall enterprise profitability
18%Strengthen our brand
25%Increase market share
25%Penetrate in new markets
28%Build an entirely new digital business/service
35%Keep up with customer demands
26%Generate additional revenue
8%Enhance the quality of our offerings
Figure 2
Business outcomes Australian executives expect from the convergence
of social, mobile, analytics, cloud and connected devices
Back to chapter
19
20. Big data/analytics
Mobility
Digital as a whole
Social
Cloud
Connected products
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Mobility
Big data/ analyƟcs
Cloud
26-50%
51-75%
76-100%
81%
83%
80%
77%
82%
67%
6%
6%
7%
9% 2%
2%
2%
1%
1%
1%
9%
20% 3% 2%
14%
9%
10%
13%
8%
8%
0% 20% 40%
Australian companies
60% 80% 100%
51-75% 76-100%1-25%0% 26-50%
Portion of IT budgets
Figure 3
Approximate portion of Australian companies’ IT budgets allocated to the following digital technologies
Back to chapter
20
21. We do not yet have a formal mobility
strategy but are working on one
We do not have a formal mobility strategy
and have no plans to develop one
We have a formal mobility strategy for
specific business units or functions
We have a formal, enterprise-wide
mobility strategy
39%
47%
9%
5%
Figure 4
Australian companies’ approach to mobility strategy
Back to chapter
21
22. Contact us
For more information about
this report and to discuss
how to advance mobility in
your organisation, please visit
accenture.com.au/mobility or
email John Cassidy, Managing
Director, Accenture Digital on
john.h.cassidy@accenture.com.
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