Surveys: mobile and cloud are paying off.

• Position: MOBILE DEVICES

Embracing bring your own device (BYOD) and other consumer technologies in the workplace can pay big dividends. The majority--70%, according to one study--of companies that have deployed mobile and cloud solutions have experienced some sort of return on investment (ROI) from using consumer devices such as tablets and smart phones in the workplace. These devices are giving companies a competitive advantage and contributing to a healthier bottom line.

These conclusions were echoed in two surveys, one conducted by IDG Enterprises involving 1,155 IT decision makers and the other by Computerworld, featuring 313 business and IT professionals who influence buying decisions.

The Computerworld "2014 State of the Enterprise Survey" found that an increasing number of businesses consider mobility (59%) and collaboration (58%) technologies to be very important or critical to creating a competitive advantage for their organizations' long-term future. Therefore, it's no surprise that the vast majority of the respondents said they are in the process of adopting, have completed deploying, or have optimized their ROI from mobility (74%), collaboration technologies (73%), cloud (58%), and consumer IT (45%) initiatives.

This growing trend translates to increased spending on such devices. Almost half of the IDG respondents to the "2014 Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise" survey plan to invest in tablets and employee training to make the most of this technology; 43% will invest in smart phones. On a business level, this trend is prompting IT leaders to move beyond first-responder status to craft a long-term strategy for success.

"Driven by widespread mobile device usage, the spread of consumerized technologies such as mobile devices appears poised to move from the mainstream to a transformative technology that will trigger widespread changes in how business users work,"...