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Survey reveals increased IoT investment, real-time data sharing

7 Nov 2018

Zebra Technologies announced the results of its second annual 'Intelligent Enterprise Index'. The Index is a global survey that measures where companies are on the journey to becoming an "intelligent enterprise" - one that connects the physical and digital worlds to drive innovation through real-time guidance, data-powered environments and collaborative mobile workflows.

By scoring more than 75 points on the overall Index, the number of companies defined as an “intelligent enterprise” doubled to 10% in 2018. The Index measures to what extent companies today are meeting the criteria that define today’s intelligent enterprise.

Source: pixabay.com

Overall, the Index reveals year-over-year growth of Internet of Things (IoT) deployment and investment, highlighting new momentum as enterprises expect less resistance to adoption and increasingly acknowledge IoT solutions as a core component for driving future growth across their organisations.

“As new technologies continue to transform the front line of business, real-time data-driven signals at the edge of operations are empowering front-line workers with the right information to optimise actions and outcomes,” said Tom Bianculli, chief technology officer at Zebra Technologies.

“Based on our second annual Index, it’s clear that more companies acknowledge the value of leveraging IoT strategies, and they will continue to propel adoption and investment in the future.”

Key findings

IoT investment is up, and resistance to adoption is down.
The Index reveals for those companies surveyed, their average annual spend on IoT is up 4% year-over-year. And 86% of the companies surveyed expect that number to increase in the next one to two years, with nearly half anticipating investment growth of 11-20%. As employees become more receptive to new technologies, the number of companies that expect resistance to their IoT plans moving forward has dropped from 75% in 2017 to 64% this year.

Enterprises are driving a performance edge with real-time guidance.
Fifty-two percent of respondents globally say information from their IoT solutions is shared with employees in real or near-real time. This is up 37% from last year’s Index, underscoring the increased need for collaborative mobile workflows.

In addition, two-thirds of those surveyed have established a plan on how to organise and analyse their data. This is up 10% from last year. Real-time analytics (66%) and security (63%) were reported as the most prevalent elements of a company’s data management plan. Forty-seven percent respondents in EMEA say information from their IoT solutions is shared with employees in real or near-real time. This is up 19 percentage point from last year in EMEA.

Notably, EMEA organisations are empowering their frontline with actionable data as 27% of the EMEA respondents say they provide insights to the frontline workers. This reflects the need for innovations, technologies and real-time data at the edge of the enterprise.

Security is a top priority across the enterprise.
Companies are taking a more proactive, thorough approach when it comes to employing security standards within their IoT solutions. The Index revealed an 18% increase in the number of companies that are constantly – versus routinely – monitoring their IoT security to ensure privacy and integrity.

Companies are demonstrating a greater reliance on a solution ecosystem.
Forty percent of the companies surveyed report using a strategic partner to manage their entire IoT solution, up from 21% from 2017. This dependence on third-party expertise and management of IoT processes, similar to Zebra’s Savanna platform empowering its customers and partners, is a key indicator that an enterprise is committed to accelerating data intelligence and adopting IoT.

View the infographic.