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Two-thirds of small businesses believe mobility = competitive edge

Many small businesses equate improved efficiency with devices such as a smartphones and notebooks. That's why almost half are using them despite inadequate management policies, finds a new CDW survey.
Written by Heather Clancy, Contributor

For good or bad, I equate the term "entrepreneur" with small-business owners - because of the can-do ingenuity many of them use to get their jobs done.

I personally believe that the mass movement to embrace mobile technologies is something that small businessese have been advocating for years, because it gave them a leg up to compete with larger companies.

My personal bias is validated by a new survey of small-business users and IT professionals by CDW that shows almost two-thirds of them believe their company would suffer competitively if someone were to confiscate their mobile devices.

An even higher number (94 percent) believe that, at the very least, mobile devices such as smartphones, notebooks and tablets make them more efficient, according to CDW's 2012 Small Business Mobility Report.

There were 752 people from five industries surveyed (construction, food services, manufacturing, professional services and retail).

Those two factors are probably a big reason that almost half of the small businesses surveyed by CDW were living with the fact that they didn't have an adequate security or management policy for handling how these devices interact with their IT infrastructure.

"They want still more apps to help them manage unique aspects of their businesses, and the prospect is for dramatic growth in tablet use," said Jill Billhorn, vice president, small business for CDW. "That expanding demand, though, also means growing need for solutions to manage and secure mobile devices, as only a fifth of small business IT managers say their company has deployed or even plans to deploy such as solution."

Does your company fall into the majority or minority?

For more on the survey, see the brief video below:

 

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