PETALING JAYA: Malaysian companies have taken to using smartphones and tablets as part of their business operations faster than the global average, according to a survey.
The global survey found that 72% of Malaysian employees use devices like smartphones and tablets for basic office work.
“Compared with 54% globally, 76% of Malaysian companies report the majority of their employees use smartphones for basic work tasks such as reading e-mail, online documents and calendar invitations,” according to a survey commissioned by Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which polled nearly 600 executives and IT decision makers in 19 countries.
“The nature of work and how business gets done is going through a transformation. Consumer technologies in the workplace are a significant catalyst for this transformation, especially in Malaysia where we are already seeing employees using smartphones and tablets for both basic and advanced business functions,” said Avanade country manager Mac Ghani.
The survey covered top companies in the US, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
It said tablet usage in the workplace is rising fast, especially in Malaysia where 60% reported that the majority of employees are using tablets for basic work functions, almost double the global average of 33%.
However, this dynamic has shifted from enterprise-driven to employee-driven technologies, especially in the area of mobile devices and consumer technologies, the survey pointed out.
Meanwhile, taking the changing environment into account, progressive companies are redesigning how work gets done and are building entirely new business processes around these trends to reap new benefits.
Avanade termed this as “Work Redesigned”. With regard to Malaysia, more than nine out of 10 companies in Malaysia have changed at least one business process, compared with only 71%, globally to benefit from mobile technologies.
These processes include IT management, sales and marketing, human resources and customer services – all in an effort to accommodate emerging work trends, including the use of mobile and consumer technologies.
