Are you having problems with trying to incorporate Internet of Things
technology into your new product? According to a new survey from Cisco,
you’re not alone.
Projections from Gartner show IoT technology reaching more than 20 billion
devices by 2020, while IDC predicts there will be 82 billion IoT endpoints
by 2025.
Yet Cisco’s study – released last month at the IoT World Forum – found
that 60 percent of IoT projects flounder at the proof of concept phase.
Only 26 percent of companies said they had an IoT project they considered
a total success. Worse still, one third of all finished projects were
considered failures.
“It’s not for lack of trying,” Rowan Trollope, Cisco’s general manager for
IoT, said during the forum. “But there are plenty of things we can do to
get more projects out of pilot and to complete success and that’s what
we’re here in London to do.”
Among the findings of Cisco’s study:
- The Human Factors Are Important
Cisco’s study found that three of the four key factors in successful IoT
endeavors had to do with human factors such as culture, organization and
relationships:
Collaboration between IT teams and the business side
A culture that focused on technology
IoT expertise, either in-house or some sort of external partnership
However, the study found an interesting disconnect: IT decision makers put
more emphasis on technology, culture, expertise and vendors, while people
on the business side focused on strategy, processes and milestones.
And IT decision makers were more likely to think of projects as successful
than business decision markers, at a rate of 35 percent to 15 percent.
- Successful Partnerships = Successful Projects
The study also found that sixty percent of those surveyed say that IoT
initiatives prove to be much more difficult than expected. The
organizations that have the most success were the ones that engaged “the
IoT partnership ecosystem at every stage,” which would suggest that a
strong partnership can help companies overcome any learning curves.
“Where we see most of the opportunity, is where we partner with other
vendors and create solutions that are not only connected but also share
data,” said Cisco’s Inbar Lasser-Raab. “That shared data is the basis of a
network of industries – sharing of insights to make tremendous gains for
business and society, because no one company can solve this alone.
- Don’t Ignore The Benefits
When an Internet of Things project succeeds, organizations have the chance
to “reap a windfall in smart data insights,” Cisco says.
Nearly three quarters of the people surveyed said they were using data
from finished IoT projects to help their business. The top IoT benefits
included improved customer satisfaction, operational efficiencies, and
better product/service quality
- There’s A Lesson In Failure
There’s a bright side to all those ill-fated Internet of Things projects:
64 percent of respondents to the Cisco survey said they had learned from
the IoT initiatives that stalled out or died, with those lessons helping
them speed up their companies’ IoT investments.
And despite all the challenges, the people who took the survey were
hopeful: 61 percent of them believe they’ve just begun to uncover IoT’s
potential.
If you’re curious about IoT’s potential for your business, Mars
International’s ciqada division can help.
The fully integrated solution offered by ciqada could jumpstart your IoT
project. Ciqada’s solution includes hardware modules with ciqada
communication firmware, a managed cloud server, user dashboards, and
mobile apps
You’ll find ciqada’s work in IoT products ranging from humidors to HVAC
systems to Pool & Spa equipment. We look forward to creating an IoT
solution you’ll consider a total success.
