UK IT decision makers failing to provide satisfactory mobile experience

UK employees are dissatisfied with their corporate mobile IT experience according to new research commissioned by the people-centric computing company, AppSense. 72 per cent of 1,000 surveyed end-users were limited to only being able to access corporate email on their mobile device and had no access to corporate applications or data while out of the office. 63 per cent of respondents also felt that when accessing work email on a personal device the experience was of a lower standard than personal email or they found it difficult to switch between the two.

Two fifths of end-users (40 per cent) believed that they would be more productive if they were allowed to use their own mobile devices for work purposes. This highlights a significant share of the workforce willing to meet their own IT needs and a desire to participate in a bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scheme. This is in stark contrast to the 19 per cent of IT decision makers (ITDMs), from a survey of 100 also commissioned by AppSense, that believe employees want to see BYOD implemented for reasons of productivity.

Despite this dissatisfaction amongst end-users, only 43 per cent of ITDMs see meeting employee expectations as a benefit and driver for adopting a BYOD policy, and 51 per cent of the same sample recognise meeting expectations as a potential challenge of implementing a BYOD policy. This is despite less than a third (29 per cent) of ITDMs being able to declare that they provide business specific mobile applications to their workforce.

“These figures highlight that there is a disconnect between the IT department and the employee around the user experience offered by corporate IT infrastructure, particularly in mobile, “ says Nick Lowe, VP of Sales, EMEA, AppSense. “Users are becoming frustrated with the experience offered to them and see it as restrictive, while this research would suggest that IT decision makers are oblivious as to what is happening all around them in their own organisations.

“Mobile technology has come on leaps and bounds in a few short years, and it is from within the consumer sphere that these advancements have been driven. Advances in traditional IT infrastructure has changed at a slower rate; however employees have become accustomed to using powerful mobile applications in their personal lives and now expect the same in a professional context. Implementing a strategic BYOD policy, and the right technology, is one potential method of bridging this gap between employee expectation and IT service.”