APAC companies recognise transformational role of IoT: Forrester-Zebra study
By Digital News Asia January 16, 2015
- Businesses say IoT is ‘the’ transformative technological initiative of the decade
- 70% of APAC firms have or to have IoT solution in place, Singapore leads at 90%
MORE than 85% of firms in Asia Pacific believe that the Internet of Things (IoT) will be the most strategic technology initiative for their organisation in a decade, higher than the global average of 80%, according to a survey conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Zebra Technologies Corporation.
These firms look to IoT solutions as a way to address a variety of strategic, operational, and business challenges, Zebra Technologies said in a statement.
The November 2014 study surveyed IT and business decision makers in nearly 600 global firms in the retail, consumer products, manufacturing, transportation, government, oil and gas, healthcare, and hospitality industries.
READ ALSO: Welcome to the year of integrated intelligence
Zebra Technologies said it piloted an initial investigation into the understanding and adoption rate of IoT in enterprises in a 2012 study entitled Building Value from Visibility, which established a baseline for global IoT adoption in business.
One of the data points showing the increase in IoT adoption over the past two years indicates that only 15% of surveyed firms had an IoT solution in place in 2012 – this has increased to 25% in 2014.
“Over the last two years, there has been a growing need for organisations to obtain a full picture of their business operations,” said Zebra Technologies chief executive officer Anders Gustafsson.
“I believe that with these survey results, it is clear that enterprises in key industries globally are adopting IoT solutions to arm themselves with the real-time data and intelligence to become smarter and more connected.
“At Zebra, we believe that IoT and visibility solutions can help businesses reach new levels of efficiency and deliver greater value for customers,” he added.
Other findings:
- Strong IoT solution deployment momentum among global firms
There is also strong IoT deployment momentum across the globe, with over 70% of Asia Pacific firms having an IoT solution in place, or being in the process of implementing an IoT solution.
Singapore in particular shows a very high rate of adoption, with over 90% expected to have implemented IoT before the end of 2015.
New cities, buildings, and infrastructure in many Asia Pacific countries have enabled this strong adoption rate.
In comparison, 60% of North American, 52% of European and 71% of Latin American firms are in these same stages of IoT solution deployment.
- WiFi, real-time location tracking, and security sensors are important elements of IoT solutions
Sensor technologies to monitor assets and the surrounding environment were also pointed to as important or very important technology elements by over 80% of global firms.
- Improved customer experience identified as top business benefit IoT can help achieve
Supply chain optimisation, visibility, loss prevention and cost efficiencies also were identified as top five benefits by between 44% and 46% of firms.
Zebra Technologies specialises in products and services that provide real-time visibility into organisations’ assets, people and transactions, and acquired Motorola Solutions’ enterprise business last October 2014.
Related Stories:
Asia Pacific to be the frontline for IoT: IDC
New IP, SDN takes hold, IoT becomes a business issue
Wearable tech may be next enterprise game-changer: Frost
IoT will be largely driven by makers and younger startups: Gartner
US$64bil potential for IoE in Malaysia: Cisco
For more technology news and the latest updates, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Like us on Facebook.
