ITWire

The survey - of a relatively small sample of 45 45 C-level executives, business unit leaders and IT decision makers - was carried out for technology provider Avanade by Wakefield Research during August and September.

Not only are personal devices used by the majority of employees at 72% of the surveyed companies, 62% of respondents said the majority of employees use smartphones for email, web and calendaring.

Tablets are understandably associated with more sophisticated activities: 33% report that the majority of employees use tablets for advanced business uses with enterprise applications such as CRM, project management, content creation and data analysis.

"What the research shows us is how ingrained tablets have become in the workplace in less than three years since they hit mainstream," said Jeyan Jeevaratnam, country manager at Avanade Australia.

"Companies are recognising the business value tablets can offer, and creating solutions and enabling access to business systems to capitalise on the opportunity," he added.

Mr Jeevaratnam predicted that the release of Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 will be followed by a new wave of enterprise-ready mobility solutions, as well as new customer-facing line-of-business applications in markets such as retail and healthcare.