A new survey conducted by Cisco shows an overwhelming number of Internet of Things projects are failing at an early stage.
The survey, revealed at the IoT World Forum, found that 60 per cent of IoT initiatives stall at the Proof of Concept (PoC) stage and only 26 per cent of companies have had an IoT initiative that they considered a complete success.
Even worse a third of all completed projects are not considered a success.
“It’s not for lack of trying,” said Rowan Trollope, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IoT and Applications, Cisco. “But there are plenty of things we can do to get more projects out of pilot and to complete success.”
Key findings of the survey revealed:
1.Human factors matter. The reason for the success of three quarters of successful IoT projects had to do with the relationship between different departments. Collaboration between IT and business departments was the top factor, according to 54 per cent of respondents.
Ihe survey found IT decision-makers are more likely to think of IoT initiatives as successful. While 35 per cent of IT decision-makers called their IoT initiatives a complete success, only 15 per cent of business decision-makers did.
2.Don’t Go It Alone. Sixty per cent of respondents stressed IoT initiatives prove much more difficult than anyone expected.
“We are seeing new IoT innovations almost every day,” said Inbar Lasser-Raab, VP of Cisco Enterprise Solutions Marketing. “We are connecting things that we never thought would be connected, creating incredible new value to industries. But 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.”
3. Reap the Benefits. Seventy-three per cent of all participants are using data from IoT completed projects to improve their business. Globally the top three benefits of IoT include improved customer satisfaction (70 per cent), operational efficiencies (67 per cent) and improved product/service quality (66 per cent).
4. Learn from the failures. Taking on these IoT projects has led to another unexpected benefit: 64 per cent agreed that lessons from stalled or failed IoT initiatives have helped accelerate their organisation’s investment in IoT.
Despite the challenges, many respondents were optimistic for the future of IoT. Sixty-one per cent believe the surface has barely been scratched with what IoT technologies can do for their businesses.
