China is still leading the world in the successful implementation of mobility technologies, new research finds.
A study by IT consultancy Accenture found that two-thirds of Chinese businesses are citing good progress in meeting their key mobility priorities, compared with just 44% globally.
Nearly four out of five Chinese businesses (78%) described their overall adoption and deployment of mobile technologies as effective, compared with less than half of others (46%).
The research also found that Chinese businesses are more likely to see mobility as a major strategic area of focus compared with other markets. More than half (59%) ranked it among their top two priorities for the coming year, with 87% naming it in the top five, compared with 77% of their global peers.
Of the mobility priorities that Chinese respondents cited extensive or very good progress on, generating deeper customer insights through mobile analytics scored highest at 75% compared with a global average of 47%.
Driving revenue through customer engagement on mobile devices followed closely at 74%, against just 39% globally.
China was also significantly ahead of other markets in terms of developing new mobile-specific products or services (71% compared with 43% on average), as well as in improving asset reliability and maintenance through the deployment of sensors and other mobile technologies. Here, 70% of businesses in China have made good progress, compared with just 44% elsewhere.
Accenture surveyed nearly 1,500 C-level executives across 14 countries for the Accenture Mobility Insights Report 2014, including 100 in China. Overall, Chinese respondents named digital technologies as a higher priority than the global average, with 79% placing mobility, analytics, connected products, cloud and social in their top five, compared with 67% globally.
“China was significantly ahead of the rest of the world when we looked at digital priorities and progress in businesses,” said Neil Hickey, MD of Accenture Mobility in Greater China, part of Accenture Digital.
But when it comes to mobile applications, China is actually behind many of its global counterparts. One example of this is around the discoverability of apps and their adoption by target audiences, which 45% of Chinese firms named a challenge, compared with just 38% of companies globally. Chinese companies suffered in-line with the global average (43% compared with 41%) from performance issues in apps leading to bad reviews.
Meanwhile, three-quarters (77%) of Chinese businesses lack any formal metrics to measure the effectiveness of their mobility initiatives, and 75% have no formal process for identifying, evaluating and prioritising ways in which mobility can benefit the business.
The report also showed that, despite Chinese businesses aggressively pursuing and investing in mobile technologies (62% compared with a global average of 40%), they are no more likely to report the generation of significant return on investment from their mobile capabilities in the past two years than their global peers.
“While Chinese lead the world on having mobility strategies, it seems they are not necessarily ticking all the right boxes with them,” said Hickey. “Without measurements in place to understand the success – or otherwise – of a technology implementation, it can be impossible to learn lessons for future implementations and improve results.”
Sally Percy is editor of The Treasurer