The story is different with tablets. Avanade found 33 percent of companies say that the majority of employees use tablets for basic work functions, but 33 percent also say the majority of their employees use tablets for advanced business uses with enterprise applications like CRM, project management, content creation and data analysis.

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Avanade's Mick Slattery, executive vice president of Global Line Services, says he believes the release of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 will continue to drive enterprise adoption of advanced uses of mobility.

"What the research shows is how ingrained tablets have become in the workplace in less than three years since they hit mainstream," Slattery says. "Companies are recognizing the business value tablets can offer and creating solutions and enabling access to business systems to capitalize on the opportunity. With the release of Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, there will be a new wave of enterprise-ready mobility solutions entering the workplace as employees increasingly use their personal tablets and smartphones to get their jobs done more effectively."

"It's about how do I use a device for changing a business process rather than just allowing you to get email all the time," says Dan O'Hara, vice president of Mobility at Avanade.