Executive summary

IoT is at the core of digital transformation

From farm to fork, food producers are collecting and leveraging data from tens of thousands of internet-connected sensors to better manage the quality, safety and distribution of their products worldwide.

Sprawling healthcare complexes are leveraging IoT-enabled track and trace capabilities so medical personnel can quickly locate critical emergency equipment needed for urgent patient care.

Cities and communities are looking at ways to improve citizen engagement, quality of life and safety while bridging the digital divide through IoT and infrastructure upgrades.

Across the energy and construction industries, companies are deploying IoT-connected unmanned aerial vehicles—“drones”— instead of dispatching workers to perform inspections, maintenance and other high-cost tasks.

Even the insurance industry has taken to the skies in a big way, with 70% of Fortune 500 property & casualty companies tapping network-connected drones to perform inspections and other claims-related work1. It’s no longer a question of if or when, but rather of just how deeply IoT will transform the industry going forward.

No turning back

In our view, 2016 was the year IoT gained signi cant momentum in the enterprise. In 2017, it is clear there is no turning back. Businesses are laser-focused on IoT as an enabler of sustainability, safety and economic growth— with 73% of executives either researching or currently deploying IoT, according to a survey of industry executives commissioned by Verizon2. By digitizing their most important assets and processes through IoT—everything from eet and pharmaceutical tracking to data analytics that support public safety and sustainability e orts, enterprises are banking on:

• Dramatically growing their businesses.

• Increasing operational e ciency.

• Delivering an unparalleled experience to partners and customers.

Yet this is happening at a slower than expected pace. Here’s why.

Most enterprise IoT projects are in the proof of concept or pilot phase, not in production3.

In the industrial sector, in particular, “companies are often constrained by long capital cycles, organizational inertia and a shortage of talented sta that can develop and deploy IoT solutions,” McKinsey & Company notes.

For now, businesses seem most focused on simpler use cases to track data and send status alerts. These are easier to deploy but lack data analytics capabilities. Yet, because these simpler projects generate value more quickly, customers will remain focused on them, at least for the immediate future, according to the McKinsey & Company report. And this means they will not obtain full value from IoT.