A new MobileIron study conducted by Ponemon Institute shows that mobility has introduced disruptive business and employee demands that are causing CIOs to shift to a new model of enterprise IT. The study, called “The Changing Mobile Landscape in Financial Services,” was released today and surveyed over 400 IT professionals in the financial services industry about the future of BlackBerry, mobile apps, BYOD, mobile strategy, and the new IT capabilities required to succeed with enterprise mobility.

Mobile is Replacing the Desktop

According to the report, CIOs expect, though are not fully prepared for, a migration from traditional desktop and laptop devices to the new generation of mobile smartphones and tablets. In a very limited context this will likely play out. However, there are large swaths of enterprise workers who cannot work effectively with a tablet.

• 69 percent of respondents say their CIO believes smartphones and tablets will replace most desktops and laptops.
• Only 38 percent of CIOs are confident that they can address the risks posed by these new mobile platforms.

IT and Business Priorities are Misaligned

I see this disconnect in client IT organizations every day. Although financial services organizations are rapidly expanding their mobile investments, there is a substantial disconnect between IT and the lines-of-business on mobile strategy:

• Strategy gap: 50 percent of respondents say their company does not have a mobile strategy. Of those companies with a mobile strategy, 45 percent say it is not aligned with IT objectives and 36 percent say it is not aligned with business objectives.
• Urgency gap: The line-of-business believes BlackBerry migration is a much higher priority than does IT. On a 10-point scale, 55 percent of respondents rate the level of urgency from the line-of-business as a 9 or 10, while only 15 percent rate the level of urgency from IT as highly.
• Accountability gap: 48 percent say the line-of-business is most responsible for their organization’s mobile strategy, while only 16 percent say that responsibility sits with the CIO. 19 percent believe it is a shared responsibility.

MobileIron’s Vice President of Strategy, Ojas Rege, expands on the upcoming availability of Microsoft Office for iPad by adding -

“CIOs expect a large percentage of their PCs will be replaced by mobile devices. Microsoft Office has been the productivity standard on most corporate PCs. Now, with employees preferring to do their work on smartphones and tablets, many of those PCs are going away. The days of the single operating system are over. Microsoft realizes that, and Office on the iPad now gives users a consistent productivity suite across PC and mobile.”

Perhaps Microsoft realizes [now] that Office on iPad is a good idea, but I think it’s a little late. Their extremely mobile  Office customers have already fled the scene looking for alternative solutions, and it’s unlikely they’ll get them back even if Office for iPad is an awesome iOS app.