The number of companies deemed "intelligent enterprises" by Zebra Technologies' Intelligent Enterprise Index nearly doubled in 2018, though the number still remains relatively low at 10 percent.
The Index is a global survey that measures where companies are on the journey to becoming an intelligent enterprise—one that connects the physical and digital worlds to drive innovation through real-time guidance, data-powered environments and collaborative mobile workflows. Companies must score more than 75 points on the overall index to be defined as intelligent.
Overall, the Index revealed year-over-year growth of Internet of Things (IoT) deployment and investment, highlighting new momentum as enterprises expect less resistance to adoption and increasingly acknowledge IoT solutions as a core component for driving future growth across their organizations.
“As new technologies continue to transform the front line of business, real-time data-driven signals at the edge of operations are empowering front-line workers with the right information to optimize actions and outcomes,” says Tom Bianculli, chief technology officer of Zebra Technologies. “Based on our second annual Index, it’s clear that more companies acknowledge the value of leveraging IoT strategies, and they will continue to propel adoption and investment in the future.”
Other key Index findings include:
IoT investment is up, and resistance to adoption is down. The Index reveals for those companies surveyed, their average annual spend on IoT is up 4 percent year-over-year, while 86 percent expect that number to increase in the next 1-2 years, with nearly half anticipating investment growth of 11-20 percent.
As employees become more receptive to new technologies, the number of companies that expect resistance to their IoT plans moving forward has dropped from 75 percent in 2017 to 64 percent in 2018.
Enterprises are driving a performance edge with real-time guidance. Fifty-two percent of respondents globally say information from their IoT solutions is shared with employees in real or near-real time. This is up 37 percent from last year’s Index, underscoring the increased need for collaborative mobile workflows. In addition, two-thirds of those surveyed have established a plan on how to organize and analyze their data, up 10 percent from last year.
Real-time analytics (66 percent) and security (63 percent) were reported as the most prevalent elements of a company’s data management plan.
Security is a top priority across the enterprise. Companies are taking a more proactive, thorough approach when it comes to employing security standards within their IoT solutions. The Index revealed an 18 percent increase in the number of companies that are constantly—versus routinely—monitoring their IoT security to ensure privacy and integrity.
Companies are demonstrating a greater reliance on a solution ecosystem. Forty percent of the companies surveyed report using a strategic partner to manage their entire IoT solution, up from 21 percent in 2017. This dependence on third-party expertise and management of IoT processes is a key indicator that an enterprise is committed to accelerating data intelligence and adopting IoT.
