OpenMarket has released additional findings from a commissioned study conducted by IDC. The research surveyed 600 technology decision makers representing global 2000 enterprises across the US, UK and major markets in Europe and Asia. It examined how mobile messaging can help organizations meet today’s most pressing business challenges, including improved business operations and enhanced communications with customers and employees.

Despite similar business priorities across the globe, the survey results revealed a discrepancy in maturity levels across the various regions. For example, the results indicated that the US was the most mature region for mobile messaging, while Asia was the least mature. However, the study shows Asia is further along in its enterprise adoption of mobile messaging technology than experts anticipated. This outcome is most likely due to the wide deployment of mobile devices in emerging regions and the end user familiarity with messaging technology.

The top customer-focused use cases in production in these regions are customer promotions and alerts. In terms of top investment priorities for customer-centred messaging technologies, businesses are looking for ones that differentiate or improve the customer experience, attract and retain customers, and offer deeper insights into customer preferences.

The most popular internal employee-focused messaging use cases are company announcements, mobile workforce management notifications, and IT system status and network outage alerts. The top priorities for future investments in internal use cases are centred on mobile messaging that enhances multichannel delivery, improves employee communication, and optimizes the workforce.

“Although all of the regions have varying levels of mobile messaging maturity and use cases can differ in terms of how global enterprises are integrating mobile messaging, the study revealed that the business priorities for mobile messaging services are aligned across markets,” said Robert Parker, group vice president of IDC Insights. “It will be critical that enterprises understand how to cater to the different preferences of each region.”

Key enterprise mobile messaging findings from each region include:

The US is more mature than other regions in its use of customer service-focused use cases such as promotions and alerts. 50 per cent of this region’s respondents are in pilot or production for mobile messaging services and are using mobile messaging for customer promotions and offers, while 49 per cent are using the technology for customer alerts, reminders, and notifications. This is due to restrictive consumer privacy protections and established promotion practices. However, the US is less mature relative to the overall results in employee engagement, particularly with regard to surveys, timesheet reminders, and authenticated sign-in.

The UK has the highest expectations for mobile messaging to drive brand awareness, as 59 per cent of this region’s respondents believe that mobile messaging has a considerable or major impact on increasing brand awareness. The region is significantly ahead in customer-focused categories, with consistently higher maturity in use cases for promotions, alerts, and surveys. The common language spoken in this country, as well as native conditioning to non-traditional commerce channels, has created an advantage for brands using mobile messaging.

When compared to adjacent regions, the rest of continental Europe is ahead of the UK in several employee-related services, including company announcements and mobile workforce management use cases. Additionally, using mobile messaging to enhance multichannel delivery is an important priority for this region.

Despite being the least mature region of all, Asia had the strongest showing of employee-related messaging services. All responding organizations said they are in pilot or production of mobile messaging services, with 69 per cent of use cases within mobile workforce management and 29 per cent deploying mobile messaging for timesheet reminders.

“This research validates the importance of effective, traditional mobile messaging and its ability to improve customer and employee communication in key regions of the world,” said OpenMarket general manager, Jay Emmet. “With billions of mobile subscribers worldwide, nearly every one of a global business’ employees and customers has messaging-capable devices, and enterprises must utilize this technology to capitalize on the communication and engagement opportunities it provides.”

The IDC study surveyed technology decision makers across automotive, consumer packaged goods (CPG), education, financial services, healthcare, high tech, media & entertainment, transportation & logistics, travel & hospitality, and utilities companies. Respondents represent corporations with 500 or more employees, from all parts of their organizations, including, customer service, human resources, IT/security, operations and logistics, and sales and marketing.

You can download a whitepaper based on the research here.