In Africa, the growth of the enterprise mobility (EM) market is still at a fairly early stage.
This is due to the various factors driving enterprise mobility in the continent, which include the type of infrastructure policies that are in place, urbanisation, mobile device penetration, an educated and tech - savvy workforce and support from the private sector.
This was according to Anesu Charamba, team leader of information and communication technology, Africa at Frost & Sullivan.
Speaking at the ITWeb Enterprise Mobility 2016 Summit held in Johannesburg yesterday, Charamba explained that organisations across Africa are tapping into the growth opportunities presented by enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions through changing their business process strategies, to adapt to the trend.
"This means managed mobility services are likely to spur the uptake of mobility solutions in Africa and increased productivity and collaboration with field and remote employees is essential. This will result in alternative revenue stream for network operators, which will in turn boost growth," he pointed out.
From 2004 to 2015, mobile subscriptions more than tripled globally, continued Charamba, reflecting the ever-increasing mobile penetration. User access to data, connectivity and the Internet has created an intrinsic link between individuals and their ability to access and process information at will, across multiple platforms, he added.
"By 2020, the global population will be 7.5 billion and mobile Internet users will represent 90% of all Internet users.
"EMM solutions are designed to help companies leverage mobile technology as a tool for business transformation, by empowering users to be productive on any device wherever they are. In this ecosystem, with rising smartphone penetration, small players are key contributors through their innovative thinking and smart solutions," he continued.
According to Frost & Sullivan, African consumers' and individuals' primary access to the Internet is via a mobile platform. EM is most developed in Nigeria (Voice: 107% data: 46%), Kenya (voice: 88%, data: 75%), Ghana (Voice: 128%, data: 66%), South Africa (voice: 176% data: 52%) and Tunisia (voice: 130 % data: 45%).
Charamba believes enterprise mobility speaks to connected living, which is about how people are receiving video, voice and data services and accessing connectivity anytime and anywhere.
"There are three parts that make up connected living. Firstly, connected cities, which are about interlinking technologies between the governance, banking and education sectors.
"Secondly is the connected home, which includes connected entertainment, home automation and home health. Thirdly, is connected work. This is where enterprise mobility comes in. We can't have mobility functioning at its prime without the inter-collaboration of communication at any point in time. However, there are constrains," he pointed out.
Among the constraints faced by organisations in implementing EMM, noted Charamba, is a lack of mobility management expertise to maintain equipment, bandwidth constraints of wireless networks which renders some applications redundant and data security concerns, which hold back enterprise uptake.
"For an enterprise to successfully implement EMM in their organisation, they need to formulate a mobility policy across all the main pillars, align the organisation growth strategy with the mobility strategy and assess the needs and user segments across different business units of the organisation," advised Charamba.
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