Last week Microsoft released the “IoT Signals” report to show that it’s on the rise in the major business sectors! According to the report, the majority (94%) of companies by 2021 will be using the Internet of Things (IoT). The reports demonstrate hardcore facts that industries such as manufacturing retail/wholesale, transportation, government, and healthcare are not slowing down with the use of IoT, in fact, it’s growing even more. IoT is modifying the way people live and work.
Why Should we use IoT
“Business decision-makers, IT decision-makers, and developers at enterprise organizations are incorporating IoT at high rates, and the majority is satisfied with their experience.” said the IoT Signal reports. The enthusiasm for IoT adoption is going global and there is no way of stopping it.
USA, UK, Germany, France, China, and Japan are the top leading countries in the areas of manufacturing, retail/wholesale, transportation, government, and healthcare. According to the reports, the majority of businesses are satisfied with the results, in fact, they say they are crucial when it comes to decision making because they believe it has a strong return of investment. Many believe that in two years from now they will be able to see their return of investment at cost savings and efficiencies as well. However in a few words, the reasons why any business should adopt IoT are efficiency, productivity, optimization and improvement of employee productivity, security, manage chain, assure quality, track assets and enabling sales.
Needless to mention each company adopts different use cases according to their needs but once they have them aligned, the results are tangible.
Challenges
Like every good thing in this world, it comes along with difficulties; to name a few are complexity and technical challenges, security concerns and lack of talent/training. However, the most common one is the complexity level and technological challenges that are the #1 barrier for companies wanting to use IoT (38% of companies say these are the reasons they aren’t using IoT more). The second reason is the lack of budget & knowledge and staff resources. Lack of budget and staff resources (29%), lack of knowledge (29%), and difficulty finding the right solution (28%) are the next most common roadblocks. Lack of talent and training is the newest challenge and this is due to the fact that it’s hard to find workers with these specific skills and experience. Security is always a factor (19%), at the moment of implementing IoT, concerns elevate in the areas of firmware management, hardware/software testing and updating it. An example of this according to the IoT Signals reports “our findings show that IoT adopters believe around one-third of IoT projects fail in proof of concept (POC), often because the implementation is expensive or the bottom-line benefits are unclear.”
“Due to IoT’s complexity, an IoT strategy requires leaders to bridge organizational boundaries, communicate the strategic vision for IoT, and achieve broad alignment across all participating teams. Having a technology leader with end-to-end accountability can be critical to achieving success with IoT.” states IoT Signal reports.
What is Expected in The Future
Besides IoT’s complexity, IoT is globally known for making companies efficient, productive and safe. It is estimated in the near future that by implementing IoT in business the ROI will increase as well as becoming indispensable to any organization. The future of IoT seems to project prosperity at its best.
