Yankee Group: Mobility Is on the Rise with European Businesses

Yankee Group has announced "the results of its 2006 Transatlantic Wireless Business Survey of European large enterprises and small and medium businesses, which provides insight into wireless/mobile technology adoption drivers as well as current and planned spending on wireless/mobile products and services." Major highlights include:

• In 2006, large enterprises plan to spend the most on mobile data services including e-mail, remote access/mobile VPN solutions and salesforce automation applications. In contrast, small businesses are investing most in mobile voice services. These investments in voice are expected to grow substantially from 2005. Small business investments in mobile data are also expected to rise heavily from 2005, which is attributed to workers relying more on mobile e-mail.
• The percentage of mobile workers in European small businesses continues to rise as mobile investments become a business priority. More than 50% of small business employees are classified as mobile workers, spending more than 20% of their time away from their primary workspace. This figure grew from 48% in 2005.
• European large businesses are increasingly interested in fixed-mobile integration as a means to control voice costs and consolidate fixed and mobile infrastructure into one managed solution. About 41% of respondents listed this capability as very important in terms of managing their organizational mobile voice programs.
• Large enterprises as well as small and medium businesses in Europe rarely work with just one mobile operator to deliver mobility solutions. More than 45% of large enterprises and 40% of small and medium businesses have relationships with more than one operator.

Nicholas McQuire at Yankee Group said, "The growing appetite for mobile voice and data and services among European businesses presents European mobile operators with excellent market opportunities. Their ability to offer customized, higher value services for mobile data and voice, and to become trusted IT advisors on business mobility, will be crucial for success in this segmented market."