Page 12 - AeM_Nov_2017

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Asia's IoT optimism

and adoption

outstrips the global

average as IoT

deploys at scale

According to Vodafone’s newly released IoT Barometer  91% believe cross industry collaboration will
2017/18, Asia's businesses are leading the world in In- generate joint IoT solutions;
ternet of Things (IoT) adoption, with the number of com-
panies embracing connected devices, soaring 200%  89% believe AI and machine learning will be
from 2013 to stand at 36% now. commonplace by 2022.
The Vodafone Group is one of the world's largest tele- Vodafone’s Director of IoT for APAC, Justin Nelson,
communications companies that provides a range of ser- said: "This is a defining moment for IoT. Asia's busi-
vices (voice, messaging, data and fixed communica- nesses now see IoT as a core component of their cur-
tions) and serves more than half a billion mobile custom- rent and future business, and their confidence in it de-
ers and 18.5 million fixed broadband users. livering a competitive advantage is soaring "

Vodafone’s global survey of business sentiment, relating The report noted as well that on top of the overwhelm-
to investment and innovation in the IoT, examines four ing adoption numbers, the most significant factor was
key factors for modern businesses, namely the state of that IoT has been increasingly deployed at scale, bring-
the market, business benefits, moving forward, and fu- ing a higher ROI as a result. The widening range of
ture optimism. benefits that businesses receive, such as greater busi-
ness insights, reduced costs and improved employee
One of the most interesting key findings this time, how- productivity, are topping the list.
ever, is the fact that Asia is leading the way in connected
device adoption and showing that IoT has hit critical Regarding business benefits, improved brand differenti-
mass and is now being deployed at scale. ation (42%) and improved market competitiveness
(53%) are rated the primary benefit, compared to 35%
Furthermore, the report revealed that: in the Americas and 33% in Europe, while the ability to
monetize IoT remains on average with the rest of the
 77% of Asia's businesses see IoT as mission- world at 53%.
critical to their business;
When asked about the next steps, the surprise finding
 88% of Asian respondents have increased the use was the positive framing of IoT security, which rather
of IoT solutions in the past 12 months;
than being a barrier to IoT deployment was regarded as
 Over half (53%) of Asia's enterprises say IoT has "giving businesses the confidence to do more." Asia
increased their market competitiveness; was once again much more positive in this area with
86% of respondents, hailing security as an enabler
 42% of Asia businesses have more than 1000 con- compared to 79% globally, and 83% of businesses stat-
nected devices and 53% are seeing significant ing they have adequate skills to manage IoT security,
returns on investment. significantly way ahead of Europe (70%) and the Amer-
icas (65%).
When it came to optimism and the future, the message
Asian businesses sent to the world was even clearer, As the scale of IoT projects increases, the report also
stating:
notes a rise in connectivity requirements. Businesses
 91% believe IoT will have an enormous or sizea- are looking to use a mix of technologies from fixed line
ble impact on the wider economy in the next 5 to low power wide area networks (LP-WAN), depending
years; on the application. Typically, large scale projects use
four different connectivity options with mobile and Wi-Fi
 79% believe IoT usage will rise as security and pri- the two most popular. There is increasing interest in
vacy concerns greatly reduce; the newer technologies, such as Narrowband IoT (NB-
IoT), with 28% of all companies now considering it and
other LP-WAN options, for new IoT projects. ◊
12 November 2017 - Email Marketing & Lead Management