Schneider Electric has presented the findings of its “IoT 2020 Business Report,” which analyzes the short- and medium-term impact of Internet of Things technologies. The report also examines the current impact of IoT and how businesses perceive it. Furthermore, it lays the groundwork for market evolution in the coming years.Analysis of more than 2,500 authoritative voices in the industry, combined with Schneider Electric's experience in the field of industrial automation, reveals the following trends for 2020:
The next wave of digital transformation
The IoT will drive the next wave of digital transformation in businesses, unifying the worlds of OT and IT, and powering a mobile and digital workforce: As more companies expand and deepen their digitization programs, the IoT is taking on an increasingly central role. This new wave of transformation will be enabled by more affordable, intelligent, and embedded “connected” sensors, faster communication networks, cloud infrastructure, and advanced data analytics capabilities.
Revealing data
The IoT will translate previously untapped data into profound insights that will allow companies to take the customer experience to the next level: When considering the value proposition that the IoT can bring, many companies mention efficiency and cost savings. However, access to data—even untapped data—and the ability to transform it into actionable information is the true advantage of the IoT, as it enables a greater transformation of dedicated customer service and new opportunities to build brand loyalty and satisfaction.
Trust in the cloud premise
The IoT will promote an open, interoperable, and hybrid computing approach, fostering collaboration between industry and government to achieve global standards for cybersecurity architecture. While cloud-based IoT solutions will grow in popularity, no single computing architecture will be able to monopolize their distribution. Furthermore, the IoT will extend across systems, both on-premises and at the edge, as part of private or public cloud systems. Making the IoT available across diverse computing environments will facilitate its adoption by end users in the form that best suits their security and mission-critical needs.
Innovations that bypass existing infrastructure
The IoT will act as a source of innovation, driving disruptive business models and economic growth for companies, governments, and emerging economies. Just as the Industrial Revolution, the birth of the internet, and the mobile revolution fueled progress, innovation, and prosperity, so too will the IoT. Businesses and cities alike will offer new IoT-enabled services, new business models will emerge, and emerging economies will have a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on this change rapidly, unconstrained by existing infrastructure. In fact, McKinsey predicts that 40% of the global IoT solutions market will be generated by developing countries.
A better planet
IoT solutions will be leveraged to address major social and environmental problems: IoT will help countries and their economies respond to the greatest challenges facing our planet, including global warming, water scarcity, and pollution. In fact, respondents identified better resource utilization as the primary benefit of IoT for society as a whole. Working alongside the private sector, local and national governments can adopt IoT to accelerate and optimize current initiatives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as outlined in the COP21 climate agreement, in which 196 countries committed to limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
The full report is available here
Study Methodology:
This study was commissioned by Schneider Electric in November 2015 to gather information on how companies are using or planning to use the Internet of Things (IoT). With input from Schneider Electric, Redshift Research conducted 2,597 online interviews with managers and decision-makers from companies with 100 or more employees. The study was conducted in 12 countries, including Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The study, which provided respondents with a uniform definition of the Internet of Things, included 118 multiple-choice questions. The responses were analyzed by Redshift Research in partnership with Text100.
