Innovation has become an imperative for European industrial companies. Dealing with cost pressure tops the priority list for companies and technologies under the IoT umbrella can be powerful tools for addressing the major challenges in their internal operational performance. Companies are aware of this and the vast majority are planning to increase spending in this area.
Apart from improving operational efficiency, IoT solutions open the gates for innovation and put companies in a position to move up their value chains by offering better and connected products, and new services based on them, as well as to gather valuable customer data that can be monetized. The majority of companies are already running IoT initiatives in different phases of deployment, maturity and scale, which confirms that the IoT is perceived as a potential solution of multiple issues and as the key to unlocking the doors of wider digital transformation of both operational technology and information technology systems. This is why IoT gets a significant amount of the overall digital transformation budget.
On the road to innovation, IoT companies are usually guided by third parties and are engaged with a range of stakeholders, the most prominent of which are IT services companies and consulting firms. The pace of IoT adoption will depend on the internal organizations and decision-making rights in terms of IoT investments. Despite the fact that most companies make these decisions within the IT department, there is a significant amount of diversity as some companies lead initiatives from the lines of business or the boardroom. Integrating these departments and fostering collaboration will improve the chances of deployment of enterprise-wide solutions that could maximize the benefits to the business.
A major concern of most companies comes from a data security and privacy perspective which, due to growing cyber threats and burdening regulations, could slow down the overall adoption of IoT solutions. Supporting IoT initiatives requires investment not only in IoT solutions but also in the underlying infrastructure such as IoT and analytics platforms, which need to be integrated into companies’ IT systems. Results show that there is a solid number of companies making steps in this direction.
Want to know more about the status of IoT in European industrial companies? Fill out the form to download the report Digital Industrial Transformation with the Internet of Things.