UK firms open up wallets for mobile

UK businesses are taking a liking to mobile technology.

A third of enterprises will increase their spend on mobile by 20 per cent over the next year, compared to growth of just 2.5 per cent for overall IT spend, according to a new survey conducted by Quocirca on behalf of mobile company O2.

Mobile email is one area businesses are keen to invest in. More than two-thirds of survey respondents have already rolled out mobile email to some extent, while nearly one-third have achieved a widescale or significant level of rollout.

UK enterprises are also eager to provide employees with remote access to business applications, with 38 per cent of respondents having already implemented some sort of mobile access to systems and a quarter saying they expect to undertake such a project in 2005.

No one platform dominates, with 60 per cent of businesses planning to use 3G data cards for laptops. Half of respondents said they'll roll out wireless PDAs such as those running Mobile Windows while over 40 per cent will offer to employees the RIM Blackberry.

Rob Bamforth, Quocirca research analyst and author of the report, said in statement: "Businesses are clearly thinking hard about the possibilities and many are already seeing substantial benefits from mobile email but the real value to them will come when they combine this with access to their critical and fundamental services - the rest of IT."

They study was based on interviews with 100 senior IT and communications executives in the UK.