Internet of Things gaining momentum in businesses: Verizon

• Number of business-to-business IoT connections forecasted to quadruple between 2014 and 2020
• Only 10% of enterprises have deployed IoT technologies extensively

ENTERPRISE adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) is starting to gain momentum, says Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

According to Verizon’s “State of the Market: The Internet of Things (IoT) 2015: Discover How IoT is Transforming Business Results” report, the IoT is being fuelled by technological, political and social factors.

For example, the use of social media and mobile technology has transformed consumer and citizen expectations. Also, the declining costs of sensors, connectivity and processing power have made IoT a more viable proposition to a broader set of organisations. Changing regulatory requirements across a number of industries are also making an impact, said the company in a statement.

“When you look across the spectrum, IoT covers a multitude of solutions, from wearable devices, to remote monitoring of energy management devices to industrial transportation to improve safety and efficiency.

“New use cases are created every day; however, the business case for IoT and enterprise adoption often gets overlooked,” says Mark Bartolomeo (pic), vice-president IoT Connected Solutions at Verizon.

“Within the past year, amid an improving economy, we’ve seen a number of new entrants starting to use IoT as a roadmap to improve their customers’ experiences, accelerate growth and create new business models that are driving societal innovation.”

The report notes that “off-the-shelf” IoT solutions are starting to materialise with greater frequency as a replacement for highly-customised solutions, which have historically characterised many enterprise IoT implementations. And a broader IoT landscape brings greater security challenges. Verizon notes that digital certificates can help address growing C-suite and public concerns and meet regulatory demands around IoT and security.

New research commissioned by Verizon from ABI Research forecasts massive growth broadly, with the number of business-to-business IoT connections – more than quadrupling between 2014 and 2020 – rising to an estimated 5.4 billion connections globally.

In the automotive industry, Verizon’s telematics experts note that 14 car manufacturers account for 80% of the worldwide automotive market, and all of them have a connected car strategy.

Additionally, ABI Research cites that organisations will introduce more than 13 million health and fitness tracking devices into the workplace by 2018. Verizon experts predict that by 2025 smart cities capabilities will become a critical consideration for companies deciding where to invest and open facilities, due to their impact on operating costs and talent availability.

Verizon saw a 45% year-over-year revenue growth in its IoT business in 2014, with 4GLTE activations growing by 135%. Today, Verizon manages more than 15 million IoT-enabled connections for a wide range of industries.

According to the report, machine-to-machine connections managed by Verizon resulted in growth in 2014 in the following sectors:
 

However, Verizon’s experts believe that widespread enterprise adoption is currently low. Verizon experts estimate that just 10% of enterprises have deployed IoT technologies extensively – suggesting that many organisations are in a pilot phase or are waiting for more insights from early adopters. This also applies to widely covered categories such as the connected car. According to Verizon’s telematics experts, more than 600 million vehicles worldwide are currently not connected to a network.

Bartolomeo points out that while the core technologies powering the Internet of Things are familiar to most businesses and public sector organisations, formulating a viable strategy and developing IoT solutions can be highly complex. Additionally, Bartolomeo says a lot more needs to be done in regard to the creation and ratification of industry standards.

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