By 2020, 44% of IT budgets globally will be solely used for the purpose of IoT project development and maintenance, with the vast majority of decision makers (91%) expected to be using some form of commercial IoT service within the next two years.
‘Overwhelmingly businesses have woken up to the transformational benefits of IoT and are rushing to deploy those services, but at the same time appreciate there may be a rocky road ahead turning a good idea into a technically feasible and profitable one,’ said Jim Nolan, Executive Vice President, IoT Solutions, at InterDigital.
> See also: IoT adoption is driving the use of platform as a service, says Gartner
But in order to truly take advantage of the IoT, they’re facing a huge challenge in making the new sensor, network and device technologies work with their existing systems – nearly two thirds of companies starting to undertake IoT projects are currently working with systems integrators, according to the research report by InterDigital and TelitOverall.
‘This is where companies like IBM, HP, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Accenture and other system integrators are worth their weight in gold,’ says Nolan, ‘making the link between specialised IoT providers and the applications that companies need to leverage connectivity.’
With such vast scale building around commercial IoT deployments, decision makers singled out the importance of agreeing a set of IoT standards to futureproof new services and build interoperable IoT applications.
> See also: How the Internet of Things is changing business models
Of the businesses participating in the research, 66% highlighted standards as being either crucial or significantly important in the adoption of the IoT services over the next couple of years.
As part of the solution for solving the complexity of incorporating IoT, 76% of companies are either exclusively or primarily focusing on integrating legacy business systems with IoT solutions to get them fit for purpose.
‘The importance of marrying IoT with the existing legacy systems cannot be downplayed. Along with having a set of standards in place, businesses will be leaning heavily on system integrators to weave the future with the present,’ said Andy Castonguay, principal analyst, Machina Research and lead author of the report.
‘Our research shows businesses are prepared to set aside nearly half of their IT budgets by 2020 to get this right, demonstrating just how much of an opportunity IoT represents.’
