IDC analyst Kevin Burden, one of the authors of the recent study, said interest in mobile support has increased as IT shops try to figure out what they should be doing.

"IT managers are starting to realize that mobile [technology] support is different from supporting a laptop in an office," Burden said. "IT departments have traditionally just wanted it to be easy and have been building mobile solutions piecemeal.

"Cost is the biggest barrier to providing mobile IT resources, since IT managers have demands coming from all over," he added. He argued that over-the-air support has to be given more consideration than it has received so far.

Sometimes, for instance, IT shops find that offering wireless e-mail is easy, Burden said -- but that doesn't necessarily hold true for other functions mobile workers need. "Staying connected on the road through e-mail and voice -- now, that's really easy. But if IT's talking about the process of taking data that runs inside the company and manipulating it and changing it from the road, that's not easy," he said.

Despite those concerns, some IT managers are already taking the issue seriously.