Forrester Research: Mobile Solutions Connect Information Workers to Collaboration and Innovation Processes March

A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commissioned By Avaya
Mobile Solutions Connect Information Workers To
Collaboration And Innovation Processes
March 2012

Forrester Consulting
Mobile Solutions Connect Information Workers To Collaboration And Innovation Processes
Page 1
Table Of Contents
Mobile Collaboration Is An Imperative For Today’s Businesses....................................................................................................2
Mobile Solutions Connect Workers To The Workplace And Processes......................................................................................4
Implement Mobility To Drive Collaboration And Innovation ......................................................................................................6
Appendix A: Methodology.....................................................................................................................................................................7
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Page 2
Mobile Collaboration Is An Imperative For Today’s Businesses
The nature — and pace — of work has changed dramatically in recent years due to mobility. With employees
increasingly less likely to work from a single work location, companies that do not embrace mobility risk being left
behind. Fifty-percent of information workers (iWorkers) today are working from multiple locations; this mobility rises
with seniority, where as many as 87% of directors and 62% of managers are working in multiple locations, untethered
from the office.1
Mobility is an inevitable, growing, and increasingly complex part of the business as employees expect
— and demand — to use personal mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets for work. About 75% of firms
experience interest in consumerization (i.e., their employees want to use consumer technology in performing their
duties at work) to varying degrees (see Figure 1).
This consumerization trend may include both hardware, like tablets, and personal cloud services that enable
collaboration. Successful mobile collaboration within organizations helps remote and traveling workers quickly access
the right information and reach the right person to respond to business issues. Improved productivity and
collaboration are the primary drivers for companies investing in mobility (see Figure 2). The ability to enable
collaboration between office-bound and remote or mobile colleagues increases the speed and effectiveness of business
decision-making and client interactions. For example:
• Property and casualty insurers want to enable underwriting and field adjusters to exchange information about
claims, such as digital pictures of damage and the original insurance coverage documents, in near real time to
accelerate claims settlement. Claims representatives need equipment to capture images as well as a repository to
store and share the images and their notes, as well as review coverage documentation and claims history.
• Law enforcement officials want to deliver and receive information about emergency situations as they develop.
Officers at large events have the ability to share images with the command post to do facial recognition, thus
increasing the likelihood of success when looking for persons of interest.
• Sales teams want access to customer history, product inventory, pricing, and logistics information — while in
their customer’s office — when they are closing a sale. Making clear, profitable, and consistent commitments to a
customer in real time increases closure rates and reduces sales cycle time. Laptops and tablets that can work over
any available wireless signal and that have a customer relationship management (CRM) interface tuned for
mobile access are becoming increasingly common sales tools.

Page 3
Figure 1
Interest In Consumerization Is Present At Most Companies
Base: 133 US IT and business decision-makers at organizations with 1,000 or more employees
(percentages do not total 100 because of rounding)
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Avaya, January 2012
Figure 2
Companies Invest In Mobility To Improve Productivity And Increase Collaboration
(multiple responses accepted)
“Regardless of IT’s willingness to support it, has your IT department experienced any user interest
in consumerization?”
We haven't
experienced any
user interest
20%
A few individual
employees are
interested
29%
Senior
executives are
interested for
their own use
8%
A few specific
departments or
groups are
interested in
enabling their
employees
5%
There is
moderate
interest across
multiple
departments or
groups
20%
There is broad,
companywide
interest from
many employees
in many
departments
14%
Don't know
5%
“You mentioned mobile technologies are of high or critical priority to your IT organization. What
are the drivers for investing in mobility?”
1%
36%
40%
48%
52%
69%
76%
Other
Improve quality of products and/or processes
Enhancing the customer experience
Improved collaboration with remote workers
Increasing collaboration with customers
Increasing collaboration between employees
Improve workforce productivity

Page 4
Mobile Solutions Connect Workers To The Workplace And Processes
Executives are the group most likely to have access to mobility technologies today (see Figure 3). They are more mobile
than most workers and are likely to have larger and more distributed teams; they need to be able to connect with the
office, their team, and their processes from wherever they are located. More than half of sales teams, field forces, and
even office workers also have access to mobility technologies. Many of these workers have defined business processes
that require mobile solutions. Others are finding creative ways to use consumer mobile technologies to make them
more efficient, and some just like the freedom and flexibility that mobility allows them.2
Few organizations have fully deployed mobile technologies across the board, but the majority are at least evaluating and
piloting mobile technologies or rolling them out in limited production for users (see Figure 4). Eighty-eight percent of
decision-makers surveyed report that functionality is a key criterion in evaluating mobile solutions.3
What
functionalities do they favor? Email access ranks the highest, followed by business applications, corporate directory
access, and IM/presence (see Figure 5). More than one-third of businesses report implementing, or plans to implement
within a year, mobile applications for network and systems management, sales force, help desk, or emergency and
critical response applications.4
Businesses want to connect their mobile workers to processes at the office. Because mobile email and calendar are
generally available and keep workers connected and on schedule while on the road, deeper business applications are
now the target. Vendors are making browser-based and smartphone-specific interfaces to enable mobile access from
multiple devices — and businesses are anxious to adopt.
Figure 3
A Majority Of Employees Across Different Groups Within The Organization Have Access To Mobile Technologies
(multiple responses accepted)
“Which groups of employees have access to mobility technologies today?”
87%
69%
56% 53%
44%
4%
Executives Sales force Field force or
remote workers
Office workers Research &
development
Other

Page 5
Figure 4
Few Organizations Have Fully Deployed Mobility, But The Majority Are Planning And Piloting
(percentages do not total 100 because of rounding)
Figure 5
Email, Business Apps, Corporate Directory Access, And IM/Presence Are Key Capabilities For Mobile
“How far has your organization gone with its mobility implementation?”
We're still in the
evaluation and
planning stages
26%
We have limited
the pilot to select
users within IT
only
11%
We have piloted
it to select end
users
27%
We have put it
into limited
production for
select users
25%
We have fully
deployed it to all
users
8%
We are not
investing in
mobility
4%
“Which of the following collaboration capabilities is your organization interested in putting on a
mobile device?”
7%
12%
8%
22%
14%
25%
31%
7%
17%
21%
34%
40%
26%
47%
14%
23%
23%
12%
17%
21%
7%
12%
11%
14%
7%
13%
8%
8%
33%
22%
17%
13%
8%
14%
4%
23%
11%
14%
11%
6%
4%
1%
4%
4%
3%
1%
2%
2%
2%
Mobile IP videoconferencing
Web conferencing
Desktop telephony features
IM and presence
Access to corporate directory
Business applications
Email
Expanding/upgrading implementation Implemented, not expanding
Planning to implement in the next 12 months Planning to implement in a year or more
Interested but no plans Not interested
Don't know

Page 6
Implement Mobility To Drive Collaboration And Innovation
Incorporating mobile needs into your business processes will drive innovation and flexibility. Make sure you consider:
• Devices and user interfaces. Whether they are “bring your own” or corporate issued, devices define a large part
of the user’s experience — and much of the rest is wrapped in the UI. Make a variety of devices available to enable
the tech savvy as well as the tech slacker to adopt and use mobile solutions. With this strategy, training costs and
adoption is guaranteed – as employees can use their favorite devices. Assuming that users will flock to new
mobile solutions and mandating adoption are tactics that won’t work. A clear communication of the benefits and
advantages of mobile solutions will generally get early adopters and empowered employees to try the solutions.
• Work/life balance. Just because workers have mobile solutions doesn’t mean that they will all work 24x7. Allow
your users the permission and latitude to “turn off work” and recharge their batteries by immersing themselves in
their personal lives. Mobility by definition blurs the line between work time and personal time: Make sure you
respect that division.
• Defined business need. Our survey is clear — executives, sales team, and field forces have implemented and
adopted more mobile solutions. Why? Because they need them to succeed in today’s market. Trial and deploy
mobile solutions with these groups first because they will immediately grasp the advantages and act as evangelists
or role models for other workers.

Page 7
Appendix A: Methodology
In this study, Forrester conducted an online survey of 133 IT and business decision-makers and interviewed six IT
decision-makers at organizations with more than 1,000 employees in the US to evaluate the challenges they face in
business innovation and collaboration and to assess the investments they have made in video and mobile technologies
to overcome those challenges. Survey participants included IT and business decision-makers responsible for mobile and
video collaboration strategies. Questions provided to the participants asked about what elements respondents felt were
vital to business innovation, the challenges they face in the area of collaboration, and the benefits they have realized
from investments in video and mobile collaboration technologies. The study began in December 2011 and was
completed in January 2012.
1
Source: Forrester's Forrsights Workforce Employee Survey, Q1 2011.
2
Forrester Principal Analyst Michele Pelino looked at mobile user profiles in her February 2011 report. Source:
February 16, 2011, “The Rise of Wannabe and Maverick Mobile Workers” Forrester report.
3
Source: Forrester Forrsights Networks And Telecommunications Survey, Q1 2011.
4
Source: Forrester Forrsights Networks And Telecommunications Survey, Q1 2011.

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Forrester Research: Mobile Solutions Connect Information Workers to Collaboration and Innovation Processes March