Do business leaders embrace or fear the rise of the smartphone?

It's almost a given nowadays that the Internet is going to play a significant role in delivering your solutions to customers, be they businesses or individuals.

If so, how important are the devices people are using - particularly devices undergoing high growth in user adoption such as smartphones ?

For the last 15 years it's been all about PCs and a fairly stable selection of browsers. Now, you can let go of certainties like that. 

We've been poring over some market research commissioned by Compuware and carried out by IDC, where 474 business and IT leaders in six countries aired their views on the importance of smartphones and the Internet to their businesses.

Just like the businesses we provide with IT services in Bristol, these worldwide business leaders expect to have to adapt to the increasing use of smartphones become more widely used to both consume and deliver services.

On the consumption side, nearly 8 out of 10 decision-makers expect their organizations will be using smartphones extensively in the next two years to access Internet-based business activities.

But that makes things more complex and adds a level of risk, about which businesses are feeling a general sense of concern. It's tough to contemplate a world in which your success depends on Internet services, browser software and end user devices over which you have little or no direct control. Only 3 in 10 of the decision-makers surveyed believe that their IT organisation is well equipped to help business leaders understand the impacts, risks, and opportunities of their company's rising use of the Internet and smartphones.

It seems businesses are still not sure whether they should fear or embrace the smartphone, but one thing's for sure: any business that prevaricates too long may well be steamrollered by the smartphone.