New iGR large enterprise survey shows strong demand for managed cloud and managed mobile services with small cells in transition to Opex-based Operations

Survey sponsored by Cisco, Intel and SpiderCloud Wireless

AUSTIN, Texas, June 9th, 2015 – As more people use their mobile devices in the workplace, there is an opportunity for the mobile operators to offer cloud and mobile managed services to enterprise IT to ease the management of corporate and mobile solutions as customers move from a majority CapEx-based to OpEx-based business operations.

To understand the critical success factors for this evolution, iGR fielded a web-based survey in May-June of 2015 of enterprise IT managers working for companies with 500 employees or more who are familiar with their corporation's mobile deployments. The survey focused on:

• Current level of mobile use in the enterprise and how those services are supported
• Mobile management functions currently provided by the enterprise IT department and those that are outsourced, and to who they are outsourced and why?
• The survey examined the following functions: Unified Communications, Mobile Device Management, Mobile & PBX Integration, Web Filtering, Firewall Services, Policy Services, Wi-Fi as a Service, and Context/Location Services.
  • Which mobile management functions and cloud services the IT department plans to outsource or would like outsourced and why?
  • Critical success factors for outsourced mobile management functions and cloud services and why?
  • Benefits from an outsourced cloud model for the IT manager and why?
  • Anticipated future use of mobile solutions in the enterprise and future cloud services that will be needed.

The survey found:

• There was strong interest from enterprises of all sizes in all of the mobile management functions tested: Unified Communications, Mobile Device Management, Mobile & PBX Integration, Web Filtering, Firewall Services, Policy Services, Wi-Fi as a Service, and Context/Location Services.
• Enterprises that had deployed their own Wi-Fi solutions were especially interested in having Wi-Fi managed as a service.
• In companies with 500 – 1,000 employees, there was very strong interest in having Mobile Device Management, Mobile & PBX Integration, Web Filtering, Firewall Services, and Policy Services offered as managed services.
• Among larger companies, the main driver for using managed cloud services was to reduce costs.
• One of the major critical success factors for deploying mobile management services as a cloud solution is the ability for the enterprise to retain control of their employees, devices and environment. The mobile cloud provider's solution must enable:
  • Direct control of enterprise mobile devices regardless of where the equipment/software actually sits (data center, enterprise private cloud on-premise, etc.)
  • Security & enforcement of policies
  • Allow the enterprise to develop the expertise without the hassle of dealing with physical hardware
  • Make it easy to support, monitor/maintain devices
• Awareness of enterprise small cells was very strong among the survey respondents.  iGR believes that ground-up education is no longer required and that the enterprise is now primed for wide-scale deployment of enterprise small cells to meet in-building communication needs.
• In addition, interest in having enterprise small cells offered as a secured managed service was strong with enterprise IT managers wishing to retain control of the solution and environment.

"This new survey shows that while enterprise small cells have been discussed for some time by the industry, the enterprise customer is ready for small cell-as-a-service solutions to be deployed," said Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR.  "The main driver for offering cloud-based and mobile managed services is to reduce capital expense in the corporation.  Provided the enterprise IT manager feels that they are retaining control of their environment, and the solution is secure, the opportunities for mobile managed services are significant."

The full results of the study will be available in the coming weeks from iGR's website at [www.iGR-inc.com][1]**.  **Alternatively, contact Iain Gillott at (512) 263-5682 or at [Iain@iGR-inc.com][2] for additional details.

About iGR

iGR is a market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile communications industry. Founded by Iain Gillott, one of the wireless industry's leading analysts, in late 2000 as iGillottResearch, iGR is now in its fifteenth year of operation. iGR continuously researches emerging and existent technologies, technology industries, and consumer markets. We use our detailed research to offer a range of services to help companies improve their position in the marketplace, clearly define their future direction, and ultimately improve their bottom line.

iGR researches a range of wireless and mobile products and technologies, including: smartphones; tablets; mobile wearable devices; connected cars; mobile applications; bandwidth demand and use; small cell and het-net architectures; mobile EPC and RAN virtualization; DAS; LTE; VoLTE; IMS; NFC; GSM/GPRS/UMTS/HSPA; CDMA 1x/EV-DO; iDEN; SIP; macro-, pico- and femtocells; mobile backhaul; WiFi and WiFi offload; and SIM and UICC.