Enterprises are struggling to make the most out of their internet of things (IoT) deployments despite it being “transformational technology”, a new report has claimed.
According to analyst firm Gartner, enterprise adoption of IoT has become stuck in a “trough of disillusionment” as interest wanes post initial deployments.
“IoT is in the trough because we see that many companies are implementing the technology, but they struggle to define the best opportunities for using its measurement and tracking capabilities,” explained Mike Burkett, vice president distinguished analyst with the Gartner supply chain practice.
According to Gartner’s 2019 Digital Business Impact on the Supply Chain Survey, 59 per cent of respondents had partially or fully deployed IoT across the entire organisation.
Another 22 per cent were piloting and 15 per cent had not invested yet, but planned to do so in the next two years.
Although Burkett said Gartner had marked IoT as a “transformational technology” because it has the potential to “impact many areas of the supply chain in a broad and profound way”.
He added that most current IoT use cases are in manufacturing, but argues it has potential to help customer experience in the services sector.
“More mature organisations will also be able to create information-based products such as providing visibility and analytics for better asset usage,” he said.
According to a recent report by PwC, Australia’s IoT industry hit almost $19 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow to $30 billion by 2023.
This month, the Federal Government has released a voluntary Code of Practice for IoT, aimed at improving the security of these types of devices for Australian consumers, to which more than 4,000 organisations contributed.
Now, in order to make the most out of any initial IoT deployments, Gartner advises identifying the correct supply chain processes that can benefit from the technology.
“In some cases, processes will have to be redesigned to accommodate IoT capabilities. If the subject matter expert is an external provider, supply chain leaders should always check how they might use – and possibly monetise – captured data,” Burkett added.
