Although only 43% of small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs) currently use tablets, this figure will rise 77% to 76% in 18 months, according to [pdf] a September 2011 survey from Fonality and Webtorials. Results of “The Nature of Mobility in SMB Workforces” indicate the only other mobile device which will see growth among SMB users are specialty/custom-built devices, whose usage will grow 44% from 9% to 13% of SMBs.
Meanwhile, smartphones, currently used by 94% of SMBs, will see their SMB marketshare slip 6% to 88% in the next 18 months. Notebook computers/laptops, also currently used by 94% of SMBs, will see their share drop 11% to 84% of SMBs. Traditional cell phones will experience the most dramatic decline in SMB market share, dropping 30% from 63% to 44%, while netbooks will experience a more moderate 18.5% decline, going from 27% to 22%.
Almost Half of SMBs Waste 1-5 Hrs Per Week Per Mobile Employee
Eighty-five percent of SMBs report some amount of weekly wasted time per mobile employee, mainly due to inconsistent access to corporate resources outside the company. Close to half (46%) waste one to five hours per week per mobile employee, while another 19% waste five to nine hours.
Smaller percentages report wasting 10-14 hours (11%) and 20 hours or more (9%). On average, an SMB will waste five to hours per mobile employee per day.
Company Directory Top UC Capability
Looking at the percentage of SMBs rating different unified communications (UC) capabilities as one of the two most important, the survey shows company directory/calendaring was chosen by the largest percentage of respondents (52%). This was the most popular capability by a wide margin, beating the number two capability, ability to share an on-screen view of a document for collaboration, by 23% (40%).
Other higher-ranked capabilities include business-grade IM/chat/text (32%), call/contact center capabilities (27%) and presence (24%). Of the various types of call/contact center capabilities, access to customer escalation was voted most important in mobile solutions, followed by skills-based routing and queue management.
Other Findings
- Wi-Fi connection was the most popular wireless connectivity option (78%), followed by 3G/4G connectivity (73%).
- 43% of respondents indicating plans to deploy mobile solutions will do so in a cloud-based or hosted setup.
- 75% of respondents say the biggest reason for mobility is to enable employees to work wherever the job demands.
- Half of SMB employees are mobile at least some of the time, and those employees work outside the office nearly half their workdays, resulting in one-quarter of the average SMB’s staff working outside the office at any given time.
J.D. Power: Broadband Enhances SMB Wireless Satisfaction
Small/medium business segment customers with mobile broadband connections are more satisfied with their wireless service overall than are customers in this segment without broadband connections, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Business Wireless Satisfaction Study. Satisfaction among small/medium segment mobile broadband customers averages 682 on a 1,000-point scale, compared with 643 among non-broadband users.
About the Data: Webtorials conducted a survey of 161 small-to-mid-sized businesses (defined as having 10-250 employees) in August 2011.
