Canadian companies are ahead of the global competition in bringing mobile technologies into the workplace – but if they want to disrupt their industries, they’ll need to get the C-suite involved.
In a recent survey from IT consulting firm Accenture, 85 per cent of 150 Canadian respondents said they’ve adopted and deployed mobile technologies. The global average was just 69 per cent among the 1,475 executives polled, showing Canadians are ahead of the curve.
However, only 31 per cent of Canadians polled said their CEO is directly involved with their organization’s plans for mobile – less than the global average of 35 per cent.
And there’s another factor holding Canadian businesses back. Like many of their counterparts in other countries, 70 per cent of Canadian companies are finding it hard to keep up with all of the new mobile devices and systems constantly being released.
For a full version of the infographic above: Accenture – mobility adoption among Canadian businesses
“To stay competitive and become digital disruptors in industries that have gone through years of disruption from new entrants, CEOs need to become more engaged in creating and implementing their digital strategies with their IT teams,” said Stephen Gardiner, managing director of Accenture Digital Canada, in a statement.
“The entire business strategy must be fully aligned and integrated in order to take advantage of digital technologies, including continuing the strategic shift to mobile that Canadian businesses are doing so well at. Mobile, cloud, social and analytics are rapidly – and permanently – transforming industries. Every business is now a digital business, and leaders who understand this and use it to capitalize on the benefits of digital are most likely to succeed in the long term.”
Adopting mobile is something businesses are definitely thinking about, as 56 per cent of the Canadians polled said they expect mobility to be one of their organization’s top two priorities in investing in digital technologies. For these respondents, they said they wanted to use mobile technologies to boost revenue by engaging more with customers on their mobile devices, boost revenue by using mobile devices to do transactions, provide better customer service with access to data and capturing new leads, and finding new channels for sales and marketing.
Twenty-six per cent of respondents said they expected digital technology to create more revenue for their companies, while 25 per cent said they want to build new digital businesses and services. Twenty-nine per cent said they plan on moving into new markets.
