The enterprise and industrial segments are poised to become the biggest IoT battlegrounds, with $300 billion in anticipated revenues – twice that of the consumer segment – by 2020, according to Bian & Company.
A new report from the company reveals that industrial executives often struggle to determine where and how to invest in IoT – decisions that are complicated by fragmentation in industry sub-sectors and the mission-critical requirements of the technology.
In its global survey of more than 500 industrial customers and 150 IoT vendors, Bain found that among companies considering adopting IoT solutions, about 60% are still at the planning/discussion stage.
“Industrial uses promise to be among the largest markets for IoT devices and services in the coming years,” said Michael Schallehn, a partner in Bain’s Technology Practice and an IoT expert.
“That translates to a lot of opportunity and requires thoughtful allocation of resources to ensure the right solutions are in place. Now is the time for industrial companies to make investment decisions and choose the right partners as they define their IoT ambitions and transition from proof-of-concept to scaling their IoT solution.”
According to the research, platforms will play an essential role in the development of the industrial and enterprise IoT as they provide an integrated suite of services for participants, including connecting and authenticating devices and sensors, ensuring security, aggregating data and running analytics while providing access to internal and external developers.
However, organizing a company’s resources around an IoT platform poses several challenges. Industrial companies are still hindered by concerns about how technology will integrate with their existing environment, how they will manage security, and whether or how their investments in IoT will drive tangible, bottom line results.
As a result, delivering an IoT solution can be quite difficult, even for some of the larger industrial firms that have already invested billions in developing their IoT platforms.
First published in Networks Asia