Frost & Sullivan: Australian MDM market to grow at CAGR of 39.1% from 2013 to 2020

~ Enterprise mobility moving beyond BYOD towards corporate app stores and device independent environments ~

SYDNEY, Aug. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Australian Mobile Device Management (MDM) market is poised for high growth driven by trends such as Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) and cloud based deployment models. Organisations are increasingly looking to minimise their asset management overheads, and allowing employees to bring or choose their own devices. As use of employee-owned mobile devices become more widespread within organisations, IT departments are faced with three main challenges – management of devices, application of user policies and ensuring security and compliance. Recognising this demand, a number of specialised MDM players have established themselves in the market offering solutions to address these challenges.

Frost & Sullivan's latest report, Analysis of the Australian Mobile Device Management Market (MDM) 2013 forecasts that this lucrative market will experience very high growth rates in the next five years. The report forecasts the market to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 39.1% from 2013 to 2020.

The nascent stage of development of the MDM market in Australia has created opportunities for the early entrants to establish a strong market base. AirWatch, MobileIron and Good Technology have all managed to secure a strong foothold in the market and together account for the majority of market share. Within this group, AirWatch has gained a significant lead over its competitors and holds a dominant position in the market. Among the key reasons for AirWatch's position in the market is its strong channel partner network, its ability to cater to large scale deployments and its local data centre capabilities. Over the next few years, competition in the MDM market is expected to increase with a number of new players entering the market. Additionally, MDM solutions are well suited for delivery over a cloud based model, which lowers the barriers of entry and encourages global players to enter the Australian market.

Audrey William, Head of Research, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan ANZ says, "A majority of MDM deployments are currently on-premise based, with organisations retaining maximum control. Most vendors already offer both on-premise and cloud based MDM solutions to cater to the demand. In the next 3 to 5 years, the benefits of greater flexibility and scalability will drive momentum for cloud based deployments. Vendors and channel partners with a clearly defined strategy for offering a choice of deployment models will be advantageously positioned to address the future demands".

As the awareness of MDM solutions improves, there is a growing demand for related services such as consulting, maintenance and support. While a number of channel partners and re-sellers are beginning to establish their presence in the market, specialised players such as MSC Mobility, UXC Connect and MobiliseIT are building a strong reputation for providing MDM related services. Major MDM vendors have also identified partnering with these specialised players as a key aspect of their channel partner strategy.

Anand Balasubramanian, Industry Analyst, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan ANZ, says, "Over the next few years, enterprise mobility will move beyond device oriented trends such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) towards an application focused approach. As the market matures, devices will become less important in the overall enterprise mobility environment with management and provisioning of services becoming the main focus. Going forward, organisations will focus more on managing the various apps and applications available to employees as opposed to controlling the devices. This will be a major shift in the MDM market and will favour vendors and channel partners that offer solutions to efficiently manage the way apps are accessed."

One emerging trend in such a shift towards a device-independent approach is the corporate app store. Corporate app stores allow organisations to develop and build their own private stores where employees can download approved apps. This will have the effect of offering a secure method of downloading and using mobile applications necessary for work, thereby minimising the risks associated with employees using un-authorised apps. The uptake of corporate app stores among organisations in Australia is expected to increase significantly as mobile devices and BYOD trends reach mainstream adoption. The resource intensive nature of building and maintaining a corporate app store will initially limit uptake to large enterprises. However, in the long term advances in technology will significantly reduce the complexity in developing a corporate app store as MDM vendors and partners focus on promoting greater adoption.

The Australian MDM market is at an early stage of development, with only a small number of organisations adopting MDM solutions for managing mobile devices. However, with mobile devices becoming increasingly integrated with organisations' business processes, there is a huge base of target customers for MDM solutions across virtually all industry sectors. Traditionally conservative verticals such as Government and Healthcare are also beginning to adopt mobile devices to extend the reach of their communications and collaboration solutions. As a result, there will a greater need for a centralised solution to efficiently manage this growth in connected devices. This combination of strong demand and availability of competitive solutions will be a key factor driving growth in the Australian MDM market.

Frost & Sullivan's survey of IT decision makers in Australia showed that BYOD is now a pervasive trend, with an increasing number of organisations recognising the benefits of MDM solutions:

• Over 60% of organisations in Australia support a BYOD policy. Within this group, 25% provide full IT/helpdesk support for employee owned devices. On the other hand, 20% of organisations oppose BYOD policies, while 16% intend to introduce a BYOD policy in future.
• Apple's strong market penetration as a consumer device has also made its iOS the preferred operating system among most organisations. Over 60% of organisations support Apple's iOS based devices as a part of their BYOD policies. Many organisations are also building their enterprise mobility strategy on iOS platforms and are standardising their mobile applications and policies to suit the iOS environment. Apple's closed ecosystem for its software and app store, combined with its screening process before making an app available on its app store, greatly increases the perception of iOS in terms of security.
• Although Apple's iOS based devices account for the majority of devices used by employees as a part of BYOD plans, organisations are experiencing increasing numbers of Google's Android based devices. Apple iOS has also benefited from being the preferred platform for IT departments to support as a result of its stronger security perceptions. As a result of such factors, 41% of organisations expect iOS to remain the dominant platform in the next 12 to 18 months. On the other hand, 32% of organisations expect the growing popularity of Android OS will make it the preferred platform in the next 12 to 18 months.
• For 70% of organisations, e-mail and instant messaging (IM) are the main applications accessed from mobile devices. Being able to access e-mail and IM from any device greatly enhances the ability of employees to stay connected and to communicate with their colleagues. Voice based applications is another important application on mobile devices given voice is typically the platform upon which other Unified Communications (UC) applications are built.
• Over 70% of organisations have experienced an increase in voice and video communications over mobile devices over the past year, as more employees use their personal devices for work. Within this category, 22% of organisations report a significant increase in the use of mobile devices for voice and video communications.
• When queried about the main reasons for deploying MDM solutions, over 70% of organisations cite the ability to have a centralised tool to manage security as an important reason. Ease of management, including applying user access policies and software updates, was mentioned by 54% of organisations as a key reason for deploying MDM solutions.
• On-premise based deployments are currently the preferred method for MDM deployments, with 73% of organisations opting to keep storage and management of the application in-house to retain maximum control. This preference is particularly high among organisations in regulated industries such as Government and Banking and Finance. Less than a third of organisations are currently using cloud based or hosted versions of MDM solutions.

Frost & Sullivan's report, Analysis of the Australian Mobile Device Management Market (MDM) 2013, forms a part of the Frost & Sullivan Enterprise Communications Research program. All research services included in this subscription provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants. For media queries and more information please send an e-mail with your contact details to Donna Jeremiah, Corporate Communications, at djeremiah@frost.com.

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan