Respondents to a Microsoft-sponsored survey say three to four major values prompt interest in internet-of-things solutions. As almost always is the case for early value drivers of new technology, operational improvements are key.
IoT is valued for efficiency and productivity gains. The top two reasons that companies adopt IoT are operations optimization (56 percent) and improvement of employee productivity (47 percent).
For 44 percent of respondents, safety and security come next. Lower percentages of respondents believe IoT is useful in supply chain, quality assurance or asset tracking. That is probably not an unusual finding since some business verticals do not have to track assets or run complicated supply chains as a big part of their operations.
You might notice one omission. Respondents pioneering IoT are not looking at deployments to directly grow revenue. Most of the attention is on cost reduction and efficiency. And that happens because any important new technology is easiest to justify as a way of reducing capex or opex.
Manufacturing executives say internet of things use cases work for industrial automation, quality and compliance; production planning and scheduling as well as supply chain logistics. In manufacturing, the top use cases for IoT are: automation (48 percent), quality and compliance (45 percent), production planning (43 percent), supply chain logistics (43 percent), and plant safety and security (33 percent).
For retail or wholesale companies, IoT is highly relevant for supply chain (64 percent) and inventory optimization (59 percent), while for transportation and government organizations equipment management and safety/surveillance are particularly important (40 percent to 55 percent).
Within healthcare, IoT helps companies track patients, staff, and inventory (66 percent), as well as assists with remote device monitoring and service (57 percent).
IoT adopters believe around 33 percent of IoT projects fail in proof of concept, often because implementation is expensive or the bottom-line benefits are unclear. Those of you familiar with enterprise applied new technology trials will not be surprised. None of this is unusual.
Among those who have had IoT projects stall in the trial stage, the top reason is the high cost of scaling. Some 32 percent of respondents said that was the main issue with getting their projects funded.
In other cases, business benefits were not well defined: 28 percent of respondents reported that their projects failed because their pilots demonstrated unclear business value or return on investment.
Some 26 percent of respondents found it hard to justify a business case when short-term impact could not be demonstrated.
None of that would sound unfamiliar to those of you with experience or familiarity with big IT projects, especially those using new technologies.
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