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Businesses that look to add Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices to their networks are likely to enjoy benefits including higher revenue and better relationships with customers as a result of the technology, a new study has claimed.
IoT is one of the biggest trends affecting the networking sector at the moment, with millions of internet-connected devices expected to be added in the coming years.
In fact, one estimation from Cisco forecasts that machine-to-machine connections are set to grow nearly threefold between 2015 and 2020, making up nearly half (46 per cent) of all connected devices by the end of the decade.
LogMeIn and Harbor research found that this technology is already bringing measureable benefits to businesses that embrace it. It revealed that nearly all companies that have adopted IoT report both financial and customer experience benefits.
Some 87 per cent of organisations said they had seen a direct increase in revenue as a result of adding IoT connectivity, while 93 per cent stated they enjoyed better customer support and 88 per cent cited improved customer relationships.
The survey also found that while higher revenue is a strong benefit of IoT connectivity, it is not a main driver for such projects. Even though nearly nine out of ten organisations reported improvements in this area, just six per cent anticipated beforehand that this would be the top advantage of an implementation.
Instead, most organisations named better business efficiencies as the key driver for IoT deployments. More than a third of respondents (34 per cent) named this as their top advantage when they are trying to justify IoT projects internally.
However, it also noted that businesses will have to overcome a range of challenges if they are to reap the benefits of IoT. For example, 44 per cent of organisations with active IoT deployments named managing the data these devices generate as a key issue, while 43 per cent cited integrating the gadgets with existing systems as an issue.
Paddy Srinivasan, general manager of Xively by LogMeIn, noted that adding IoT to a business' network can be a "long and sometimes bumpy road", but it is a journey that can transform an organisation for the better.
"The challenges companies face are extremely diverse and often times the anticipated issues are not the ones that end up holding an IoT project back," he continued. "Connected product management tools are designed to help companies move beyond the hurdles of connecting and launching a product for those in the early phases and scaling, securing and integrating products with existing business systems for those later in their deployment."
One issue that frequently crops up during the early stages of a deployment is interoperability. More than a third (34 per cent of companies) in the planning stages named this as as their greatest expected challenge, while 39 per cent of those in early IoT deployment cite it as their biggest issue.
However, once firms get up and running with the technology, this figure drops dramatically. Just 23 per cent of companies that have active IoT deployments see integration as a major challenge.
