Mobility is transforming how enterprises do business, and most organizations expect the burgeoning focus on mobility will consume, on average, nearly one fifth of their IT budgets in 2016. That's according to a new poll completed by senior IT personnel across a range of industries, and announced today at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015.

The survey was commissioned by SOTI Inc., the world's leading provider of Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) solutions, and was carried out by the IDG Enterprise portfolio of sites in late September.

Survey respondents, including IT decision-makers at C-suite and senior leadership levels, revealed the following trends taking shape across the enterprise: 

Top concerns for key IT decision makers: security, integration and keeping pace

• Security concerns top the list of mobile priorities with 69 percent of IT decision markers citing mobile security, hacking and malware as their number one concern.
• 47 percent of senior IT decision makers are concerned about their ability to keep pace with rapidly changing mobile technologies.
• 46 percent of decision makers are concerned about integrating systems, data and applications with enterprise systems.
  

Top global enterprises cite mobility as a critical agent for business success

• 68 percent of respondents stated mobility is critical for the success of their businesses; among larger organizations of more than 1,000 employees, the number climbed to 74 percent.
  

Major investments in mobile technologies will dominate the enterprise in 2016

• 70 percent of organizations will spend up to one-fifth of their budgets on mobility.
• An additional 25 percent of enterprises will spend between 20 to 50 percent of their IT budget on mobile technology investments.
  

Mobile technology in the enterprise is no longer just about bring your own device (BYOD)

• While most organizations' first foray into mobility was BYOD, today, 47 percent are leveraging mobility as the platform to deliver new products and services.
• An additional 45 percent of companies are turning to mobility to drive business process transformation and competitive differentiation.
• 39 percent of businesses are aggressively using mobility as a means to extend their ability to engage with customers and partners.
  

Employees and IT departments are key forces pushing the speed of mobility adoption

• 28 percent of senior IT decision makers report that employees were in the driver's seat in dictating the speed of mobility adoption.
• An almost equal percentage (27 percent) of those surveyed reported that IT was determining the pace of mobility adoption within their organizations.
  

"These survey results illustrate what SOTI's known all along: mobility transforms how enterprises do business, continues to impact brand connections with customers and partners, and directly impacts the bottom line," said Carl Rodrigues, SOTI CEO. "Enterprises must not expose themselves to gaps in their mobility investments and implementations. If they don't catch up to the rapid pace of today's mobility demands, they'll be left in the dark."