The survey, conducted by Cohen Research Group, gathered insight from 200 U.S. and 200 UK IT decision makers (CXOs, VPs, Directors) at enterprises of all sizes.
Some 44 percent of enterprises surveyed have at least a quarter of their workforce operating solely using a mobile phone. Some 30 percent of enterprises support tablets as well. You might think the trend would be more pronounced at smaller enterprises, but the survey suggests the mobile substitution trend is most pronounced in the mid-market and enterprise segments of the market. This tends to be most true for organizations with six or more locations.
Fully 62 percent of respondents are expanding their enterprise’s unified communications capabilities, while instant messaging, web collaboration and videoconferencing were identified as the top UC services they are looking to support on mobile devices over the next three years.
Also, some 72 percent of U.S. respondents are looking to deploy videoconferencing across their organization in the next year, compared to 56 percent in the United Kingdom.
Many respondents believe their mobile network operator is better positioned to deliver single voicemail, instant messaging, video calling, unified messaging, voicemail and email integration, extension dialing and video conferencing than fixed line providers, Microsoft, Google or IBM.
When asked who could best deliver a complete, integrated set of unified communications services, “my mobile service provider”, Microsoft and Google were top choices among respondents.
Separately, PwC sees enterprise mobility growth as well, in part because the nature of work at enterprises is changing. As exemplified by the tablet boom in the consumer market, so enterprise work now includes content consumption, in addition to content creation. Smart phones and tablets are the key devices in that regard.
In many ways, the BroadSoft data should not be surprising, as it simply tends to mirror similar changes in consumer markets, where mobile data is driving service provider revenue growth.
Mobile data will be the largest contributor to U.S. telecom service provider growth over the next five years, says Pyramid Research.
Voice services are expected to dwindle, on both the fixed and mobile networks, but remain significant. There is a shift from circuit-switched voice to IP telephony, but revenues are not keeping pace. Since at least 2007, mobile voice revenues have been of greater magnitude than fixed-line voice, as well.