At least 71% of the enterprises globally are discussing deploying custom mobile applications and one-third currently implementing or have already implemented custom mobile applications, according to a survey conducted by security software provider Symantec, entitled ‘2012 State of the Mobility Survey.’

Around 48%, however, state that is somewhat to extremely challenging while a further 41% them identified mobile devices as one of their top three IT risks.

Symantec Endpoint and Mobility Group senior vice president CJ Desai said they are impressed by the pace of mobile application adoption within organisations,
"This cultural change from refusing mobile devices not long ago, to actively distributing and developing mobile applications, has introduced a new set of challenges and complexities for IT staff. Encouragingly, from a security perspective, a majority of organizations are thinking beyond the simple case of lost or stolen mobile phones," added Desai.

The State of Mobility Survey also throws light on challenges faced by organisations to accommodating the mobility tipping point while also identifying and quantifying mobility-associated risks as perceived by IT decision makers.

Over 6,000 organisations from 43 countries revealed the transformation in the usage of mobile devices and mobile applications in this survey.

The survey noted that the gains expected from new technologies far exceed the reality upon implementation.

Though 70% of the respondents expected to see increased employee productivity, with usage of smartphones and tablets, around 77% percent actually saw productivity gains after implementing.

While 59% of respondents are now relying on mobile devices for line-of-business applications, an indication that mobility has attained mainstream status.

As mobile devices are being increasingly used to deliver critical business processes and data, the cost of security incidents can be significant.

The average annual cost of mobile incidents for enterprises, including data loss, damage to the brand, productivity loss and loss of customer trust was $429,000 for enterprise.

The average annual cost of mobile incidents for small businesses was $126,000.

It was also found that organisations that adopt mobility, without compromising on security, are most likely to improve business processes and achieve productivity gains.

One key recommendation presented in the survey was that to get the most from mobile advances, enterprises should plan for line-of-business mobile applications that have mainstream use.

Employees will use mobile devices for business one way or another – make it on your terms.

It was also suggested that enterprises should realistically assess the ultimate scale of their mobile business plan and its impact on their infrastructure and then take a cross-functional approach to securing sensitive data no matter where it might end up.

Another suggestion is that mobile devices are legitimate endpoints that require the same attention given to traditional PCs. Therefore, many of the processes, policies, education and technologies that are leveraged for desktops and laptops are also applicable to mobile platforms.

So the management of mobile devices should be integrated into the overall IT management framework and administered in the same way.

As more employees connect their personal devices to the corporate network, organisations need to modify their acceptable usage policies to accommodate both corporate-owned and personally-owned devices.