New global research from Oracle indicates that workers around the world are happier than ever to work in a mobile and flexible way, confident that to do so makes them more productive.

SuhasUliyar, VP Mobile Strategy, Product Management, Oracle said,“Oracle passionately believes in the power of mobile to transform businesses and we are calling on all organizations to accelerate mobile adoption, because it is currently happening too slowly and too tactically in many businesses.”

“The current situation where employees are taking it upon themselves to go mobile is simply not tenable and insecure; without a strong partnership withIT, it will be very challenging for businesses to secure the mission-critical data being accessed by mobile workers.”

However, with the majority of organizations yet to embrace mobile working, the research also reveals that employers are at risk of it taking off without their input and guidance, leaving their businesses at the mercy of integration challenges and security threats.

Censuswidereseach reports around the world, workers are embracing the concept of mobile working and believe that doing so makes them more productive:

• 68% of respondents stated they are happier working in a more mobile and flexible way. In APAC, the figure is higher than the global average at 73%.
• Over half (53%) think mobile and flexible working makes them more productive, risingto64% inAPAC.

According to employees however, their employers are less enthusiastic about the mobile revolution, with some actively trying to hold back its use within their businesses:

• Less than a quarter (24%) of respondents stated that their employer actively encourages mobile working. In APAC, this figure slightly rises to 32%.
• 21% of respondents overall and 31% of respondents in APAC say their employer actively tries to limit the applications and data employees can access on their mobile phones

“Our message is therefore clear: businesses need to deploy effective mobile applications for their end users (employees, customers and partners) in a way that is simple, mobile contextual and cost-effective.”

Simplicity holds the key to the rapid and effective integration of business data with user-friendly mobile applications to enable teams to collaborate more effectively no matter where they are.This requires a robust end to end mobile platform to execute on this mobile strategy. Preserving user-experience without compromising on security can be achieved through innovative mobile security techniques like ‘containerization’ enabling businesses to adopt a secure BYOD strategy,” he noted.

In the face of this challenge, Oracle calls on business executives to stop ‘holding back the tide’ and to instead ensure mobile working is deployed efficiently, securely and on their business’ own terms.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm from employers, the research also reveals that restrictions on mobile working are often ineffective and employees are taking it on themselves to use mobile solutions at work:

• Only 18% of respondents believe their company effectively controls what can be done on a mobile device. In APAC, this figure is higher at 20%.
• 15% of those surveyed said they had found a way to use their mobile for work without any help or intervention from their employer, falling to 13% in APAC.
• Over half (56%) of respondents overall and in APAC said they are working in a more mobile way than they were two years ago
• 40% believe mobility will become even more integral to their work in the next two years; or49% in APAC.

“If businesses don’t have a mobile strategy, then they do not have a strategy for growth. Mobile is creating new business models challenging old ones. Mobile working is going to happen in businesses whether they want it to or not – the question now is whether organizations want to benefit fully from this revolution or continue to try and stop the inevitable,”Uliyar added.

About the Research

Censuswide carried out the research on behalf of Oracle, surveying 1,500 professionals working for global organizations: 500 in North America, 500 in EMEA and 500 in APAC.

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.

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