Sixty percent of those surveyed had apps created internally, while 35 percent had custom apps created by a third party, according to the 2015 Enterprise Mobility Report, from Apperian with the help of CITO Research.

In addition, 63 percent purchase apps from a vendor and another 52 percent download enterprise apps from a public app store. While all categories of apps are experiencing growth, Apperian found that internally developed apps are growing the fastest, exhibiting double-digit growth compared to 2014.

“It’s a pivotal time for mobility, as industry-leading organizations move beyond the legacy mindset and prepare for a more sophisticated approach,” said Dan Woods, Editor and CTO of CITO Research. “In this era, it is all about the enterprise mobile apps. We hope that this survey informs enterprises looking to take full advantage of the continuing mobile revolution with custom enterprise mobile apps.”

Key findings from the survey include:

■ Top App Investments – Nearly half of respondents (47 percent) are investing in apps that support core business processes to increase adoption and drive ROI. UI/UX investments rank second, with 43 percent looking to provide a great experience for users.

■ Enterprise Mobile App Roll Out – Mobility programs come in all sizes. More than half (52 percent) are already rolling out to more than 2,000 users, while a third (33 percent) are rolling apps out to 1,000 users or fewer.

■ Key Benefits – 64 percent of participants cited improved business processes as the top benefit, followed by increased user satisfaction and competitive advantage, which was tied at 60 percent of respondents each.

■ Greatest Impact on ROI – Productivity apps, such as note taking and office doc apps, rated the highest. Field service apps, including maintenance and parts inventory apps, ranked second followed by selling, HR and travel apps, respectively.

■ Barriers to Mobility – 67 percent of respondents cited security as the top challenge to achieving their mobility goals, followed by the ability to determine ROI (32 percent) and a lack of budget (29 percent).

■ App Usage Metrics – Just more than half of respondents (51 percent) are tracking which apps are being used. 48 percent can see who is using them and 42 percent can see how frequently apps are used. The other half of respondents do not have this visibility at all.

Apperian surveyed more than 300 IT and mobility professionals on the state of their enterprise mobility programs.

Jonathan Burg is the Senior Director of Marketing and Customer Acquisition for Apperian