Firms embrace mobility as competitive tool, study shows

A cross-industry survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit in co-operation with Nokia shows that mobility has become a key component of competitiveness. In industries ranging from financial services to pharmaceuticals, mobility moves decision-making closer to problems or opportunities with customers, making firms more agile and more competitive. More than one-quarter of survey respondents said that over 30% of their employees can be considered “mobile workers”, defined as those who spend at least one day of the work week away from the office.

Far from being a requirement for just a few specialised technology firms, mobility is now seen as broadly applicable to companies in industries such as financial services, pharmaceuticals, accounting, and advertising.

Key findings of the report include the following:

• Competitive factors are pushing businesses towards greater mobility. Survey respondents said business mobility offers important competitive advantages such as quicker response time to customers (36%), improved collaboration within the enterprise (27%), and the ability to work with multiple partners/suppliers (12%). These findings suggest business mobility leads to revenue gains rather than simply reducing operating costs.
• Companies plan to adopt mobile applications for core business activities.Over the next two years, respondents said their companies were likely to make greater use of remote network access (41%), customer relationship management (34%), collaborative applications such as mobile groupware (21%), and sales force automation (17%). Increasingly, activities in the field are regarded as central to the success of the business. No longer is mobility associated simply with capturing information in the field and bringing it back to the office for processing.
• Business mobility creates its own challenges. Managing a mobile workforce (19%) and maintaining a cohesive culture across a dispersed workforce (18%) emerged as the two primary challenges associated with business mobility. Measuring mobility’s impact on competitiveness (12%) was a factor as well.

"By enabling decision-making 'on-the-move', business mobility solutions let organisations respond more quickly to customer needs, develop ideas for innovative products and services, and attract new talent", said Nigel Holloway, Research Director, Americas at the Economist Intelligence Unit. "Although it presents new managerial challenges, the long term trend toward greater business mobility is clear."

“This research clearly demonstrates that business mobility has arrived, and is viewed as a fundamental part of being competitive regardless of the industry", said Olivier Cognet, VP, strategy and business development, Enterprise Solutions, Nokia. "We have resolved a great deal of earlier mobility industry 'teething problems' related to infrastructure, and the need for business-optimised devices and complete solutions. Now is the time to fully reap the far-reaching benefits that business mobility has to offer. "

For further information, please contact:

Economist Intelligence Unit
Winter Wright, report editor, +1 212 698 4792 /  winterwright@eiu.com
Joanne McKenna, press liaison, +44 (0)20 7576 8188 / joannemckenna@eiu.com

Notes for editors:
Business mobility and the agile organisation: the quest for competitiveness is an Economist Intelligence Unit briefing paper, sponsored by Nokia. The research is based on a survey of 532 executives, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit in February and March 2007, as well as in-depth interviews with senior executives from a wide range of industries worldwide. More than half the companies surveyed for this report (50.8%) have annual revenues exceeding US $500mn. About one-fifth (19%) had revenues of US $10bn or more.

About the Economist Intelligence Unit
The Economist Intelligence Unit is the business information arm of The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist. Through our global network of over 700 analysts, we continuously assess and forecast political, economic and business conditions in 200 countries. As the world's leading provider of country intelligence, we help executives make better business decisions by providing timely, reliable and impartial analysis on worldwide market trends and business strategies.

About Nokia
Nokia is a world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.