17 Feb 2016

IoT survey: UK businesses expect to reap rewards in 2016

A research report from Webroot, a cyber security specialist, and IO, a data centre organisation has shed light onto the extent to which UK businesses are looking to the Internet of Things (IoT) as a way of improving their competitiveness.

According to the survey, 44 per cent of respondents expect to gain competitive advantage from their IoT initiatives. However, only a third expect to generate more revenue by creating new products and service lines.

The research was conducted by OnePoll, and gives an overview of the opinions of 500 CEOs and senior decision makers in UK businesses. A quarter of the respondents were from small and micro-size businesses (under 250 members of staff), half were from mid-size businesses (250-1,000 members of staff) and the final quarter from enterprises (over 1,000 staff members).

Of those businesses surveyed, 87 per cent (and 92 per cent of enterprises) are investing in initiatives to prepare for the IoT, with 60 per cent saying that they are increasing their investments in IoT projects by an average of 42 per cent.

The report’s findings also point to the increasingly mature use of IoT. 68 per cent of respondents said that they are expecting to reap benefits from IoT investments this year, a “huge progression” from the one in five that say that they are already seeing benefits from IoT.