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Up to this point, IoT projects haven’t quite lived up to expectations or realized the full potential of the technology, according to a survey by Opinion Matters of 500 U.K. and U.S. based senior decision makers and implementers of IoT strategy within five vertical markets. A full three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents who have embarked upon an IoT initiative in the last 12 months said their IoT project was, at best, only somewhat successful in meeting expectations and realizing benefits. Just less than a quarter of these decision makers said their project was very successful. Despite this potential for disap- pointment, 86 percent of respondents said IoT is a priority for their business, and 89 percent plan increased invest- ment, with just under half (44 percent) planning to boost spending by between 51 and 100 percent. Perhaps 12 months simply is too quick to realize an adequate return, or at least that’s the hope, as a full half of respondents said they are planning further IoT projects in the next two to three years. Security, connectivity and device onboarding were cited as top challeng- es, each named by about four in 10 of respondents. “However, no one challenge clearly stood out which indicates that multiple pain points remain,” said the study, commis - sioned by IoT solution provider Eseye. Looking to the future, respondents identified security of the devices, connectivity resilience and uptime, and management of the estate as the top areas of concern. Perhaps also good news, the study found that the more devices respondents have in the field, the more they are planning to deploy in the coming 12 months. “This indicates a tipping point in IoT projects in terms of scale,” said the study. “However, of 500 respondents only 10 percent had deployed between 10,001 devices and 100,000 in the field and only 2 percent had deployed more than 100,000 devices.” Half of all U.S.- based deployments are between 500 and 5,000 devices, while 77 percent are between 500 and 10,000. The study also suggests that IoT project are undertaken by organiza- tions looking to disrupt traditional business models and foster innova- tion. When asked about the benefits their IoT initiative has or is predicted to deliver, 35 percent of respondents said it enabled the business to enter new markets, while 34 percent said it increased profit, and 32 percent of respondents said their initiative was aimed at delivering new lines of business. Cloud and remote access were cited as the top technology drivers which, given the events of the past year, is not surprising. Interestingly, 42 percent stated “intelligent edge” as a top technology driver both now and in the future. Organizations Struggle to Reap IoT Rewards, Yet Push On EMERGENT What were the main challenges you had to deal with or hurdles/barriers you had to overcome with your IoT initiative(s)? Both U.K. U.S. Security of the devices/environment 39% 36% 41% Device onboarding, testing and certification 35% 29% 41% Cellular connectivity across countries, regions, locations 35% 41% 29% Managing the estate and all the devices, contracts 34% 31% 37% Device deployment and rollout 32% 36% 28% Designing the hardware 29% 28% 30% There were no main challenges 0% 0% 0% Source: Eseye; Opinion Matters What are the key technology drivers both now and/or in the future for your IoT initiative? Both U.K. U.S. Cloud and remote access 46% 48% 45% Intelligent Edge hardware 42% 40% 44% LPWAN technologies (NB-IoT or LTE) 41% 37% 45% 5G 38% 42% 35% No key technology drivers 0% 0% 0% Source: Eseye; Opinion Matters 8 CHANNEL V ISION | Fall 2021