British businesses risk being outperformed by those in China, India and Brazil unless greater emphasis is placed on mobility, new research has revealed.
The study of 1,700 senior IT decision makers by Citrix show UK businesses are struggling to contend with legacy systems, business app use and other mobile platforms.
When asked about the number of barriers faced in supporting mobile initiatives, 53% of UK businesses said legacy systems were not suitable for mobile purposes, higher than the global average of 37%.
Another 45% cited support for multiple mobile operating systems, while 37% cited competing business priorities and a rapid increase in different devices.
And almost half of UK businesses voiced concern about managing access control and IT departments losing control over app procurement, while 56% worry about app security
The research found that over half of UK businesses thought that having mobility, such as BYOD policies, would enable a competitive advantage, which was lower than the global average of 62% and that of developing nations including China with 93%, India with 85% and Brazil with 78%.
Only Taiwan with 34%, Denmark with 41%, and South Korea with 45% ranked lower than the UK
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The research found that while 48% of UK businesses had already established a formal mobile strategy in line with the global average of 47%, only 25% believed that mobility should be a top business priority, lower than the global average of 45%.
James Stevenson, area VP of Northern Europe at Citrix, said technology has always been a differentiator for business, but never more so than in the last few years.
"With organisations looking to make headway despite difficult market conditions, more are turning to mobility to secure a competitive advantage – a fact borne out of this report. In particular, an increasing number of businesses are looking to exploit mobile technology to improve flexibility, productivity and agility.
"However, the playing field isn’t level and high growth economies like Brazil, India and China are clearly moving to capitalise on the potential of mobile, leaving those economies we consider to be more developed at risk of being left behind."
