LOB decision makers cite the objective of current mobile projects as primarily about automating business processes.

Red Hat revealed in a new mobile survey focused on line of business (LOB) decision makers that almost half (47 percent) see mobility as a means to automate existing business processes but only 26 percent of them cite the objective of mobile as changing the way they do business. IT decision makers, on the other hand, view mobile apps as more transformative (35 percent) for the business.

Red Hat commissioned research firm Vanson Bourne to conduct two separate surveys, the first of which polled the views of 200 IT decision makers in October 2015, followed by a more recent survey of 200 LOB decision makers in January 2016, from private sector organizations across the U.S. and Western Europe. The latest research reveals that LOB decision makers are well-aligned with their IT colleagues on many aspects of mobile strategy, investment growth, performance measurement, and the increasing role of the business in mobile decision making. This points to greater harmony between LOB and IT in meeting demand for mobile apps.

Key findings of this survey include:

LOB decision makers see the current approach to mobile app development as primarily IT-led (38 percent) followed by business-led (24 percent). However, they see this flipping towards being business-led (36 percent) over the next two years.

In regards to the current primary approach to building apps, LOB decision makers in the U.S. and Western European favor different methods. While 28 percent of U.S. LOB decision makers use a collaborative Mobile Center of Excellence (MCoE) approach, only five percent of LOB decision makers in Western Europe take this approach to app development.

LOB decision makers are more focused on client side development tools and technologies, while relying on IT to support them with a range of modern app development and integration technologies. Seventy percent of LOB decision makers have already used the IT department as a resource for designing and building mobile apps, compared to just 27 percent that have used a third party.

LOB decision makers expect implementation of IoT projects to increase in 2016. Twelve percent of LOB decision makers said their organizations have already implemented an IoT project, but that number jumps to more than half (53 percent) that expect IoT projects to be initiated this year or next.

The majority of LOB decision makers (78 percent) cite the use of KPIs to measure mobile success and see responsibility for tracking these shifting more towards the business. LOB decision makers (58 percent) report that senior IT heads are currently responsible for tracking KPIs but half of LOB decision makers expect that LOB heads will be responsible for KPIs in the next year.