Close to 70% of executives say the Internet of Things (IoT) is essential to their business and quickly becoming a competitive differentiator that will affect almost every industry, according to Hitachi Vantara's newest report.
The study surveyed more than 500 senior executives worldwide, including 220 in Asia-Pacific who are leading IoT initiatives within their companies.
All respondents were director-level or above and represented companies with 500 employees or more. Forbes Insights also conducted interviews with several senior executives to add context to the findings.
"Across the Asia-Pacific region, it is clear that executives see the value in IoT initiatives," said Bruce Rogers, chief insights officer of Forbes Media. "70% say that IoT as either important or very important to their business, and that it is quickly becoming a competitive differentiator that will affect almost every industry."
In Asia-Pacific, close to 87% believe that IoT will be important to the future of their businesses. Of all emerging technologies, executives in Asia-Pacific said IoT, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will be the most important.
More than 72% of respondents say their company has significant or pilot IoT programmes in operation, and 11% say IoT programmes are already a major contributor to their business.
There are important obstacles, however. According to the Asian leaders surveyed, the most important challenges to putting these technologies in place are keeping IoT secure (31%), cross-department cooperation (31%), availability of skilled staff (31%), inability to present a compelling return on investment (30%) and integration of disparate data (28%).
Companies that are meeting or exceeding expectations in regard to IoT follow some of the following practices: IoT efforts are typically championed by the CTO (40%) and CIO (32%); 42% include external vendors on their IoT planning team; and 82% use a third-party platform as the basis for their IoT operations.
Overall, IoT has been beneficial for companies implementing it. Close to 76% are operating IoT programmes that generate revenue, while 60% agree that IoT programmes are generating data that is very useful to their business. As a result, 88% expect increases in their IoT budgets in the coming fiscal year.
"We are encouraged to see that a majority of businesses already view IoT as key to their future success," said Daniel Chong, senior vice-president for Asia-Pacific at Hitachi Vantara. "What business organisations around the world share in common is the need to secure top-down support for their IoT initiatives, and find a trusted innovation partner that helps them achieve their desired business outcomes."