Australian zeal for mobility exceeds ROI

Nearly half of the executives surveyed by Accenture reported a less than 50 per cent return on investment on mobility projects

Australian organisations are making little progress on their mobility initiatives even with a great deal of enthusiasm for the projects, according to a report by consultancy firm Accenture.

The company surveyed 1,475 executives of large organisations in 14 countries between December 2014 and January this year. One-third of the companies reported annual revenue of more than $10 billion. There were 120 executives surveyed in Australia.

The online survey found that 30 per cent of Australian organisations plan to spend more than $32 million in the next two years on mobile capabilities. That was more than organisations in any other country except for the United States.

One quarter of the Australian organisations said they planned to dedicate at least 26 per cent of their IT budget to mobility, while an additional 5 per cent said they would allocate at least half their IT spend to mobility.

However, the return on investment (ROI) of mobility has not yet matched the executives’ zeal for the initiatives, said Accenture.

Only 16 per cent of the Australian respondents said they had achieved more than 100 per cent ROI for mobility implementations in the last two years, the report said. And nearly half reported less than 50 per cent ROI, it found.

Accenture attributed the small ROI to a lack of direction and leadership. The report found that only 35 per cent of Australian CEOs were involved in developing their organisation’s mobile strategy.

Organisations are also making mobility investments in isolation rather than integrating them into overall enterprise strategies, the report found. Nearly half of the Australian organisations said they are creating multiple strategies for different business units.

And only 12 per cent of Australian respondents said they had developed formal metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of mobility.

“One of the biggest challenges to progress is the lack of formal, enterprise-wide mobility strategies, which in Australia is the case for 39 percent of organisations,” said John Cassidy, Accenture Australia’s mobility lead.

“If we look to the United States, UK and China we can see a direct connection between investing in a formal mobility strategy, and achieving greater ROI. For Australian organisations to truly harness the potential of mobility, they need to make investments at a strategy, organisational and operational level.”

Adam Bender covers telco and enterprise tech issues for Computerworld and is the author of dystopian sci-fi novels We, The Watched and Divided We Fall. Follow him on Twitter: @WatchAdam

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.

Tags Australiamobileroienterprise

More about Accenture Australia

Show Comments
[]