CA Southern Africa has revealed the results of a mobility research survey that shows South African organisations need to focus on developing mobility strategies that are more attuned to their business goals.

Commissioned by CA Technologies, the survey interviewed 50 senior South African IT decision-makers during December 2013.  Full details of the findings will be unveiled at the CA IT Management Symposium on the 20th February, in Johannesburg. “The survey shows clearly that South African organisations are very much awake to the potential of mobility, with 54 percent saying they already have a strategy in place and 30 per cent stating they plan to have a single, company-wide mobility strategy in place within the year,” observes Andrea Lodolo, CTO of CA Southern Africa. “Money is definitely being spent on mobility, but what’s concerning is the way it’s being done.”

Lodolo believes that the issue is that mobility projects are being implemented tactically without a coherent enterprise mobility strategy.   “We need to take a more strategic approach to mobility as a whole”, he continues.  “IT needs to take the lead as mobility literally places productivity in the hands of the employee. If we don’t adopt a top down approach we risk missing the potential synergies and ultimately diminishing the role of the CIO.”

According to the survey, more than three quarters of organizations are already spending more than 10 percent of their IT budgets on mobility projects.  Gareth James, CA Southern Africa, solution strategist, cloud and mobility, says this amount is set to rise over the next three years. “It is interesting to note that 88 percent of respondents surveyed stated that over a tenth of their spending on mobility projects comes from outside of the IT department,” says James.

James notes that the need for rapid and continuous application development in order to keep pace with customer demand - is an added challenge. “Overseeing the application programming interface will be vital to the attainment of a consistent and seamless customer experience across all applications, as well as data security,” James emphasises.

“Mobility is increasingly a vital business enabler so organisations need to ensure that they have a consistent and effective strategy in place,” James concludes. The Mobility track at the IT Management Symposium on the 20th February at Vodacom World, Johannesburg will provide the opportunity to dig deeper into the insights afforded by this research, and a wealth of material from international subject matter experts.