Published on the 06/10/2016 | Written by Newsdesk
Kiwis are on to it, but immaturity largely restricts deployments to proof of concept…
While cloud transition is the number one digital transformation initiative in New Zealand, new research from International Data Corporation shows that interest in the much vaunted but little-deployed Internet of Things (IoT) is gathering pace – albeit slowly. It shared initial results from the its 2016 Global IoT Decision Maker Survey and said the market is steadily pivoting away from proof of concept projects to scalable deployments incorporating cloud, analytics, and security capabilities.
While right now a scanty 11 percent of organisations surveyed in New Zealand have launched IoT solutions, the more impressive figure is the additional 55 percent which are looking to deploy in the next 12 months. What’s more, 50 percent of respondents see IoT as strategic to their business as a means to compete more effectively.
IDC said this was the first year in which local organisations were surveyed, and noted that ‘over’ 160 organisations in New Zealand (we assumed that meant ‘161’ – turns out it was 162) participated; the survey polled business decision makers about their perception of IoT as well as their early forays into solution deployment.
Topics covered include: levels of enterprise awareness of IoT; deployment plans; IoT adoption drivers and inhibitors; perceptions of IoT vendors and vendor selection criteria; organisational factors; and security, cloud, and analytics requirements.
The pressure to do something with IoT is coming from the line of business and senior executives, rather than the IT department (which is, really, as it should be). “In New Zealand, the line of business and the C-Suite are driving the IoT direction,” confirmed Hugh Ujhazy Australia associate VP, in a statement. “IT departments remain significant contributors but the business outcomes are overwhelming technology choices.”
He described a ’tussle’ between line of business execs and CIOs, over setting strategies, finding budgets, and supporting IoT solutions.
This year’s research confirms that vendors leading with a strong ecosystem of partners and the ability to demonstrate real ROI will be favourably considered said Monica Collier, IDC telecoms research manager. “We also note that traditional IT vendors and analytics providers are leading the discussion around IoT solutions.”
The IDC’s Global IoT Decision Maker Survey was conducted in July and August 2016; the worldwide total of 4,500 respondents is drawn from 25 countries worldwide, spanning an array of industries including manufacturing, retail, utilities, government, health, and finance.
The survey seeks to gain insights from enterprise IT and business decision makers about their perception of IoT as well as their early deployments or plans for deployment of IoT solutions.
The survey covered responses from enterprises where respondents were moderately to very familiar with the term ‘Internet of things’ and managed a minimum of 100 employees. Respondents are required to be involved in IT and/or business decisions at their company.
