It’s my favorite time of the year – the moment when our Global IoT Decision Maker results come back from the field. We’ve been fielding this primary research study for 6 consecutive years, and this year we captured feedback from our biggest sample yet. This year we have inputs from almost 5,000 IoT decision makers in more than 25 countries. The dataset is rich with perspective on deployments, including the challenges and successes these organizations are experiencing. But this year, we are diving deeper into the key metrics they are using to measure success as well as their perspectives on how to truly monetize the IoT.
IoT Deployment Hindrances
Every year we take a pulse of deployment plans. This year we looked to understand the reasons organizations are not investing in the Internet of Things. The data shows that security & privacy concerns as well as lack of budget bubble to the top as the top two reasons hindering deployments. What’s interesting is that other reasons such as not fitting within the company strategy or an unclear ROI are also key issues for organizations that are not investing in an IoT project.
On the flipside, many organizations are deploying IoT projects. The Americas leads on a global scale with Asia and Europe lagging on actual deployments.
Measuring IoT Success
Another interesting topic we dug into during this year’s study was how organizations are measuring success. At a worldwide level, the top metrics for success were
- operational efficiencies
- productivity gains
- cost savings.
However, if you click a level deeper, and look at the measures of success at an industry level, a much different picture emerges. Customer satisfaction rises to the top in finance/insurance and government (think of it as citizen satisfaction). We also see worker safety as a key metric for some industries. For those vendors selling into these industries it becomes clear that success means different things to different organizations – and product/solution messaging needs to reflect that when engaging in discussions.
What We’re Hearing from the IoT Buyer So Far
Our early takeaways from this year’s survey are threefold:
- IoT deployments are beginning to scale from proof of concepts, but organizations need to make sure their infrastructure, skillsets and corporate strategy are closely aligned with their digital transformation plans – driven largely by IoT.
- A vertical focus is more important than ever for the vendor community. IoT buyers are looking for depth of knowledge but also an understanding of the key metrics that will drive a successful project.
- Finally, IoT remains a critical initiative for organizations undergoing a digital transformation. It also create the foundation upon with other next generation technologies can be built.
IDC’s global IoT team will be publishing several reports on this rich survey data in the coming months – from regional, technology and industry perspectives. Stay tuned!
