IoT expected to account for 30% of firms’ revenues within two years

Photo by Stephen Brashear

The adoption of Internet of Things is growing rapidly such that IoT decision makers believe 30% of their company’s revenue two years from now will be due to this technology, a report from Microsoft shows.

Microsoft surveyed over 3,000 IoT decision makers in enterprises in an effort to get a holistic, market-level view of the IoT ecosystem, including adoption rates, related technology trends, challenges, and benefits of IoT.

The report titled IoT Signals also hinted that the industry faces a significant IoT skills gap, as well as complexity and security challenges that may compromise business benefits to IoT if not addressed.

“IoT is transforming businesses in every industry and is powering breakthrough innovations,” said Sam George, head of Azure IoT.

“Our research shows that unlocking IoT’s full potential requires the industry to address key challenges like the skills shortage, security concerns and solution complexity,” George said.

The survey also showed that 85% of respondents are in IoT adoption, and three-fourths of these have IoT projects in planning.

Among IoT adopters, 88% believe IoT is critical to business success. Nearly all IoT adopters — 97% — have security concerns when implementing IoT, but this is not hindering adoption.

Also, 38% of IoT adopters cite complexity and technical challenges to using IoT as a barrier to furthering their IoT adoption. Lack of talent and training present challenges for half of IoT adopters, and 47% say there are not enough available skilled workers.

Respondents believe critical technology drivers for IoT success in the next two years are AI, edge computing and 5G.

Nearly one-third of projects (30%) fail in the proof-of-concept stage, often because implementation is expensive or bottom-line benefits are unclear.

In partnership with BCG Group, Microsoft identified seven key ingredients for success in IoT — business strategy, leadership and organisation, a technology roadmap, talent, operations and core business processes, partnerships, and security.