A Forrester Consulting
Thought Leadership Paper
Commissioned By SAP
Immediate Insights From
IoT Propel OutcomeDriven Business
Transformation
June 2016
Table Of Contents
Executive Summary ........................................................................................... 1
Enterprises Are Investing In IoT To Transform And Strengthen Their
Businesses .......................................................................................................... 2
IoT’s Value Depends On Immediate Insights — And Most Firms Need To
Enhance These Capabilities ............................................................................. 5
Many Areas Of Your Business Stand To Benefit From IoT Initiatives ........ 7
Firms That Proactively Deploy IoT Are More Likely To Drive
Transformative Business Results .................................................................... 8
Key Recommendations ..................................................................................... 9
Appendix A: Methodology .............................................................................. 10
Appendix B: Supplemental Material .............................................................. 10
Appendix C: Demographics/Data ................................................................... 10
Appendix D: Endnotes ..................................................................................... 11
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Project Director: Karin Fenty, Market Impact Consultant
Contributing Research: Forrester's Infrastructure & Operations research group
1
Executive Summary
The internet of things (IoT) — or what Forrester refers to as
the connected world — combines technologies that enable
devices, objects, and infrastructure to interact with
monitoring, analytics, and control systems over internetstyle networks. These IoT-enabled solutions hold vast
promise, with the potential to revolutionize customer
experience, enhance safety, improve health, and tear away
inefficiency. But in order to capitalize on these promises,
enterprises need to harness an explosion of IoT data to
generate real-time insights that guide business processes
and customer interactions.
KEY FINDINGS
Forrester’s study yielded four key findings:
›
IoT initiatives are integral to achieving digital
transformation and business goals. Over 70% of
respondents believe that IoT is critical or important to
achieving their top business priorities, including revenue
growth, customer experience enhancements, and
leveraging big data and analytics for business decisions.
In addition to helping drive these outcomes, 90% of firms
see IoT initiatives as key to driving digital transformation
efforts.
›
Enterprises anticipate many operational, customer,
and business model innovation benefits from IoT.
Though initial IoT momentum has focused on asset
optimization, desired outcomes from IoT have shifted
beyond operational excellence alone. Product innovation,
customer experience transformation, or business model
evolution is the primary objective for 69% of firms
deploying IoT solutions. Firms envision many business
outcomes and benefits from IoT, including enhanced
customer service capabilities, improved decision-making
from immediate access to IoT data, and the potential for
new revenue streams from value-added services.
›
The success of IoT initiatives depends on a firm’s
ability to leverage immediate insights. Achieving
desired business outcomes from IoT hinges on a firm’s
ability to harness massive volumes of data and generate
insights in real time. In fact, two-thirds (65%) of firms
agree that real-time analytics are important or critical to
the success of IoT initiatives. Additionally, more than 70%
believe a wide range of IoT analytics capabilities are
important, but these capabilities prove challenging for the
majority of organizations to address. To help close gaps
in their capabilities, firms seek partners with analytics and
security expertise.
›
Firms that go all in on IoT and supporting analytics
are more likely to achieve transformational business
results. In comparing respondents that reported proactive
and widespread adoption of IoT use cases and supporting
analytics technologies with those that have only deployed
IoT or IoT-related analytics technologies in one or a few
areas, we found that the more proactive firms are two
three times more likely to perform on key business
metrics including revenue growth and market share. They
are also more likely to report meeting most or all of their
IoT objectives.
In April 2016, SAP commissioned Forrester Consulting to
evaluate how enterprises are taking advantage of IoT, how
IoT fits into broader digital transformation initiatives, and the
role of immediate insights in realizing the benefits that IoT
can deliver. This study builds on a 2015 SAP-commissioned
study conducted by Forrester Consulting that focused on
similar topics. To explore these issues, Forrester developed
and tested the following hypothesis: Enterprises that
successfully combine IoT-enabled solutions and big data
opportunities to generate real-time insights will transform
customer relationships and realize competitive advantages.
As enterprises progress on their IoT journeys,
they seek to radically transform and strengthen
their businesses by turning IoT data into
immediate, actionable insights, and, ultimately,
business value.
Forrester conducted an online survey of 364 IoT decisionmakers in IT, operations, and line-of-business roles at
enterprises in the US, the UK, Germany, India, and Brazil.
In addition, Forrester conducted in-depth interviews with six
participants in the US and the UK. This study revealed that
enterprise decision-makers see IoT solutions as both
integral to digital transformation and helpful in achieving a
wide range of business priorities. Although decision-makers
recognize the tremendous benefits associated with IoT,
immediate insight into these smart connected assets and
processes is essential in unlocking IoT’s full potential.
2
Enterprises Are Investing In IoT To
Transform And Strengthen Their
Businesses
Enterprises across the globe are exploring ways to use IoT
solutions to revolutionize their operations, transform
customer experiences, and enable new business models.
IoT solutions will play a major role in nearly 60% of global
enterprises over the next few years, with 30% of global
enterprises using IoT solutions today and an additional 29%
1
planning to implement them in the near future.
We surveyed enterprises that are currently using IoT
solutions or are planning to implement IoT solutions within
the next 12 months. We found that while some challenges
remain, IoT initiatives are transforming business models and
processes in many ways. Enterprise decision-makers
recognize IoT solutions as integral to driving their
businesses forward in the age of the customer — helping
them increase operational efficiency, create personalized
customer experiences, and pave the way for new revenue
streams and business growth. Study results confirm that:
›
›
›
IoT plays a major role in helping enterprises achieve
business imperatives. To get ahead in today’s business
environment, enterprises must juggle a wide range of
priorities, including growing revenues, improving customer
experiences, and better leveraging big data for decisionmaking. More than 70% of the firms consider their
investments in IoT as critical or important to the success
of these business initiatives (see Figure 1).
IT, operations, and business leaders consider IoT
initiatives integral to digital transformation.
Enterprises across the globe feel pressure to accelerate
their digital business capabilities. Seventy percent of
respondents said it is critical or important for their firm to
engage in business transformation to become more
“digital ready.” While companies engage in digital
transformation in many ways — from cloud computing to
eCommerce to mobile apps — IoT is among the most
important digital transformation initiatives. In fact, 45% of
survey respondents said that IoT is the most important
element of their firm’s digital business transformation, and
an additional 45% of respondents consider IoT to be one
of a few key initiatives to support their firm’s digital
business transformation (see Figure 2).
Desired outcomes from IoT initiatives extend across
the enterprise. Operational excellence remains the top
FIGURE 1
IoT Helps Enterprises Address Business Priorities
Critical or
high priority
in the next
12 months
IoT is critical or
important to
the success of
this initiative
Grow revenues
78%
77%
Improve the experience
of our customers
75%
71%
Gain visibility into
processes and
operations
74%
73%
Improve margins
74%
73%
Create a more direct
relationship with our
customers
73%
74%
Better leverage big data
and analytics in business
decision-making
72%
75%
Increase influence and
brand reach in the
market
72%
73%
Top business priorities
Base: 337 to 364 IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are using
or planning to use IoT solutions
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of SAP, April 2016
business outcome firms seek from IoT solution
deployment. However, 69% of respondents identify
product innovation, customer experience transformation,
or business model transformation as the foremost
objective of their IoT initiatives (see Figure 3). These
results highlight an evolution in the state of the IoT
market. Initial IoT momentum focused on asset
optimization and operational efficiencies. These
operational and asset efficiency use cases remain
relevant to some firms. However, a growing number of
proactive enterprises use IoT solutions to differentiate
their products and services, transform customer
engagement, and generate new revenues.
Given IoT’s role in broad digital transformation, IoT
outcomes are often closely interrelated. For example,
a retailer that uses IoT to manage back-end operations
and inventory told us that while this will yield some
efficiency benefits, the more important outcomes are
3
happier and more loyal customers. Similarly, a high-tech
manufacturer we spoke to envisions using predictive
maintenance scenarios to benefit customers and drive
repeat business and revenues. Yet another example is a
retail equipment company that uses smart grocery cases
to deliver efficiency, energy, and safety benefits to the
store and enhance shopper experiences.
FIGURE 2
Nine In Ten Respondents Consider IoT Integral To
Their Digital Transformation Initiatives
“Which of the following statements best describes
how your organization’s internet-of-things
initiatives fit into broader digital business
transformation initiatives?”
“Our internet-of-things [deployments] are primarily
focused on back-end inventory and how inventory is
managed. If we run a sale or offer a free item in an
internet promotion, it will create a ripple effect that
could cause us to run out of stock. Based on what
we know about other sale items, coupons, or
targeted offers we’ve sent in the area, how is that
going to impact inventory? Right now it’s a very
manual process. . . . We’ll start implementing
features that make all of that [insight analysis] more
automated. The efficiencies created on the back
end will ultimately create customer satisfaction and
loyalty.”
— Digital marketing director, leading US grocery
retailer
IoT is the most important initiative we are undertaking in
the context of digital business transformation
IoT is one of a few key initiatives supporting my
organization’s digital business transformation
IoT is important in its own right, but not closely tied to
digital business initiatives
10%
45%
45%
“Machines could be enabled to tell us that they’ve
now run for long enough and they think parts A, B,
and C are starting to wear out. We could deliver
spare parts direct to the customer before he knows
the machine needs them.”
– CFO, high-tech manufacturing company
Base: 364 IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are using or
planning to use IoT solutions
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of SAP, April 2016
“With our retailer customers, [our IoT-enabled
product provides] the opportunity to make their
store run more efficiently. Using less energy,
downtime, and unscheduled maintenance, they can
protect the food supply, better serve their shoppers,
and better protect them. And ultimately, if they [the
retailer] can make the trip more enjoyable for their
customers, they can steal trips from other retailers
by creating better experiences.”
— Innovation director, retail equipment and
services company
FIGURE 3
IoT Outcomes Extend Across The Enterprise
“What are the primary business outcomes your
organization is hoping to achieve from
IoT deployments?”
(No. 1 ranked option)
Operational
excellence
Product/
service
innovation
31%
Customer
experience
transformation
28%
Business
model
transformation
23%
18%
Base: 364 IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are using or
planning to use IoT solutions
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of SAP, April 2016
›
Across industries, firms have deployed a variety of
IoT use cases. Inventory and warehouse management
and customer order and delivery tracking are the top IoT
use cases currently in play — 38% of the firms we
surveyed have deployed these solutions. Inventory
management is particularly relevant for logistics and
manufacturing firms, while customer order and delivery
tracking is most relevant for transportation and retail.
4
Energy, utilities, and natural resources firms use IoT
primarily for facility management, supply chain
management, and public safety monitoring. Meanwhile,
niche use cases with lower adoption include smart home
management and connected car services (see Figure 4).
FIGURE 4
Enterprises Have Adopted Many IoT Use Cases That Address The Dynamics Of Their Respective Industries
“What is your firm’s timeline for adopting the following internet-of-things applications?”
Discrete
manufacturing
Energy, utilities,
and natural
resources
Retail
Transportation
and logistics
Overall
adoption
Inventory management or warehouse management
Customer order and delivery tracking
Security and public safety monitoring/surveillance
Supply chain management
38%
30%
35%
31%
35%
31%
39%
44%
41%
44%
43%
37%
45%
47%
30%
36%
38%
38%
35%
35%
Facility management
Industrial asset management
Energy management
Smart, connected products
Fleet management
22%
28%
24%
25%
26%
43%
33%
37%
33%
31%
41%
32%
45%
36%
39%
40%
38%
25%
40%
36%
35%
33%
32%
31%
31%
Environmental monitoring
Quality/cold chain monitoring
Predictive maintenance
Intelligent customer services
Connected car services
Smart home management
21%
25%
25%
20%
19%
19%
31%
35%
28%
22%
20%
26%
35%
37%
36%
33%
35%
29%
29%
22%
22%
30%
26%
23%
29%
28%
27%
27%
24%
24%
Average number of use cases currently adopted
3.9
4.9
5.6
4.9
4.6
N = 96
N = 54
N = 75
N = 73
N = 364
Adopted
Base: variable IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are using or planning to use IoT solutions
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, April 2016
5
IoT’s Value Depends On Immediate
Insights — And Most Firms Need To
Enhance These Capabilities
Deploying IoT-enabled equipment, assets, and products will
produce an explosion of data — capturing the location,
status, and presence of these connected assets. Successful
IoT deployments depend on a firm’s ability to turn captured
data into immediate insights that guide business decisions
and process automation activities. According to Forrester,
enterprise systems and applications must handle IoT data in
two main ways: 1) analyze large volumes of data to identify
patterns and insights that can be valuable in the future and
2) perform streaming analytics to glean immediate,
2
actionable insights. Most enterprises will need to evolve
their capabilities and skillsets to meet the unique demands
of IoT analytics and insight. For example, the head of
procurement at a UK merchant bank described how his firm
must move from point-in-time analytics and decision-making
to continuous data analysis and process change, which
requires “a behavioral change, and a skillsets change as
well.”
Not only do firms need to turn massive volumes of IoTenabled connected asset data into relevant insights, but
they must also ensure the security of the devices, networks,
and systems that process and exchange this data. To reap
the business benefits from IoT solutions, some enterprises
must overcome challenges with integration, analytics, and
security. Our survey revealed that:
›
›
IoT poses some implementation challenges — but
lack of a business case is not one of them. The top
three challenges firms face when implementing IoT
solutions are security concerns (41%), privacy concerns
(38%), and data integration challenges (30%). Meanwhile,
only 15% of respondents said they lack a business case
to justify investment. With a solid business case in hand,
some firms have shifted their focus to develop the ability
to generate valuable IoT insights while minimizing security
and risk exposure.
Firms must rise to the challenge of turning massive
amounts of data into immediate, relevant insights. IoT
data is useless without robust analytics to support it. Most
enterprises we surveyed recognize the importance of
leveraging advanced analytics to generate timely,
transformative IoT insights. More than 70% of
respondents believe a broad range of IoT analytics
capabilities are important, but most of them also feel
these analytics capabilities are challenging for their
organization to address (see Figure 5). In addition, two
out of three IoT decision-makers believe IoT success
hinges on real-time analytics. Most firms will need to up
their analytics capabilities to capture the full value of their
IoT solution deployments.
FIGURE 5
Advanced Analytics Capabilities Are Critical To IoT
Success — Yet Challenging To Address
“In considering the analytics insights you seek from
IoT devices and sensors, how important are the
following capabilities to your organization?”
“How challenging is it for your firm to address the
following big data and analytics issues?”
Very or extremely important
Very or extremely challenging
Analyzing large volumes of IoT
data to find patterns and
insights that can be valuable for
future business decisions
Connecting IoT data to
business processes in real time
to provide contextual insights
for workflows
Connecting IoT data to
customer engagement systems
in real time to create contextual
customer experiences
Seamlessly combining multiple
disparate data sources into a
single stream of analyticsready data
Performing streaming analytics
to glean immediate, actionable
insights from IoT data
Creating contextual data about
IoT devices to aid in analytic
insights (e.g., details about the
location of the device)
79%
63%
78%
56%
77%
57%
76%
65%
73%
57%
73%
56%
Base: 364 IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are using or
planning to use IoT solutions
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of SAP, April 2016
Nearly two out of three of respondents (65%)
said that real-time analytics are critical or
important to the success of their IoT initiatives.
6
“We need analytics tools to take a
huge amount of data, process it very,
very quickly, and then don’t just come
out with a yes or a no answer, but
come out with automated prompts
into other systems to execute an
activity.”
— Head of procurement, UK merchant bank
›
FIGURE 5
6
Firms Seek Partners With Reliable, Scalable
Solutions And Expertise In Security And Analytics
What characteristics
characteristics are
“What
areyou
youlooking
lookingfor
forininyour
yourIoT
IoT
big data and
analytics
partners?
(Select
all
that
big data and analytics partners?” apply.)
(Top
8 responses
(Select all that
apply;
top eightshown)
responses shown)
Security expertise
Reliable solutions
Reliable solutions
“Before we understand [IoT] well,
we’d be better off with vendor
partners or outside help.”
— Innovation director, retail equipment and services
company
40%
40%
Data modeling expertise
37%
Scalable solutions
36%
Solution integration expertise
36%
Data modeling expertise
Scalable solutions
Solution integration expertise
Many enterprises turn to partners with relevant
solutions and expertise to close gaps. Implementing
IoT solutions and supporting analytics capabilities
requires sophisticated, secure data integration across a
wide range of back-end systems and applications. IoT
solution deployment is often complex — leading many
enterprises to seek assistance from partners to help solve
their analytics and security challenges. Security expertise
is a key area for which many firms (46%) seek assistance.
In addition, nearly two-thirds of enterprises (65%) seek
partners with expertise in at least one area of advanced
analytics, including data modeling, predictive analytics, or
streaming analytics (see Figure 6). Firms also seek
partners that can help them deploy reliable and scalable
IoT solutions.
46%46%
Security expertise
Predictive analytics expertise
Predictive analytics expertise
Streaming analytics expertise
Streaming analytics expertise
End-to-end turnkey solutions
37%
36%
33%
36%
33%
32%
32%
32%
End-to-end turnkey solutions
32%
65% of respondents seek partners with expertise
in65%
oneoforrespondents
more of these
advanced
analytics
areas
seek
partners
with expertise
in one or more of these advanced analytics areas.
Base: 364 IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are using or
planning to use IoT solutions
Base: 364
IoT decision-makers
at global enterprises
thatConsulting
are using on
or
Source:
A commissioned
study conducted
by Forrester
planning
useApril
IoT solutions
behalf
of to
SAP,
2016
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of SAP, April 2016
7
Many Areas Of Your Business Stand
To Benefit From IoT Initiatives
Enterprises are evolving their IoT initiatives and strategies to
enable digital transformation. Gaining executive buy-in is
not identified as a major hurdle, so business, operations,
and IT leaders can focus on overcoming analytics
challenges in order to drive immediate insights from IoT
deployments. Key questions to consider include: How can
IoT insights benefit global enterprises? How have
perceptions of the value of IoT evolved?
As enterprises increasingly participate in the IoT revolution
and success stories emerge across a variety of industries
and use cases, the types of benefits IoT solutions can
achieve are expanding. Comparing results between this
study and the 2015 Forrester Consulting study
commissioned by SAP showed that enterprises believe IoT
can achieve a range of operational, customer service, and
business model transformation benefits — and in nearly all
cases, this belief is stronger today than in the 2015 study.
Our 2016 survey respondents believe that by implementing
IoT solutions (see Figure 7):
›
›
›
Operations will benefit from immediate decisionmaking and safer, more collaborative workplaces.
About half of respondents (52%) believe leveraging IoT
solutions and big data analytics together will benefit their
firm’s operations through improved real-time decisionmaking. Additionally, over 40% believe they can use IoT
to help improve worker safety or to help employees,
suppliers, and partners better collaborate.
Customers will benefit from better service and more
engaging, personalized experiences. Real-time insights
captured from IoT-enabled connected devices can
provide service representatives with up-to-date data at
their fingertips to improve overall service capabilities and
issue resolution. About half of firms (48% and 51%,
respectively) believe IoT solutions can improve customer
service in these ways. In addition, 42% to 45% of
enterprises see opportunities to provide interactive,
continuously personalized experiences to their customers
using IoT solutions.
Business transformation benefits will focus on netnew revenue streams and product innovations. IoTenabled devices and sensors allow companies to remain
connected to customers after the transaction is complete.
Nearly half of firms (48%) expect to capitalize on these
FIGURE 7
Business Leaders Recognize The Benefits Of IoT
“What are the operational, customer, and business
model innovation benefits your firm could realize
by implementing IoT solutions?”
2016 study
2015 study*
Operational benefits
Improved real-time decisionmaking with insight from
IoT data
Improved safety through
surveillance, monitoring, and
tracking capabilities
Improved collaboration across
employees, suppliers,
partners, etc.
52%
40%
45%
39%
42%
33%
Energy efficiency
40%
37%
Automation of information
collection and flows across
business processes
39%
37%
Customer benefits
Improved customer service
capabilities
51%
41%
Improved service levels by
detecting issues early, before
they cause bigger problems
Increased customer
engagement through
interactive experiences
Continuous personalization
of product and service
experiences
Automatic product integration
so that multiple products work
together as a set
48%
39%
45%
43%
42%
34%
41%
31%
Business model innovations
New revenue streams from
48%
value-added services after
42%
the sale of the product
New products that your firm
47%
has never been able to
31%
offer before
New revenue streams from
44%
insights captured from IoTconnected devices (Not asked in 2015 study)
New revenue streams from
value-added product software
New service offerings
44%
30%
44%
54%
Base: 364 IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are using or
planning to use IoT solutions
*Base: 366 IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are using or
planning to use IoT solutions
Source: Commissioned studies conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of SAP, May 2015 and April 2016
8
customer interactions by providing value-added services
to generate incremental revenue. By embedding sensors
into equipment, assets, and end products, a similar
number (47%) expect to create new products that were
not possible prior to IoT initiatives.
Firms That Proactively Deploy IoT
Are More Likely To Drive
Transformative Business Results
Our 2016 survey results showed IoT solutions successfully
achieve expected corporate objectives. In fact, 41% of firms
that have implemented IoT solutions indicated their initial
IoT deployments have met objectives very well, and nearly
all the remaining respondents (52%) said their IoT solutions
have met objectives somewhat well.
Some early IoT adopters have fully committed to deploying
IoT solutions. Fifteen percent of respondents reported that
their firms have deployed 10 or more of 15 distinct IoT use
cases, and 20% reported deploying five or more of nine
distinct analytics technologies to support IoT deployments.
Compared with firms that are not as far along in their IoT
journeys, these proactive enterprises stand out as top
business performers, reporting greater revenue growth,
greater likelihood to be in a market-leading competitive
position, and greater likelihood of meeting most or all of their
firm’s IoT objectives. Specifically, this comparison revealed
that (see Figure 8):
›
Enterprises that deploy a broad range of IoT use
cases outperform others. Those enterprises that have
adopted 10 or more types of IoT deployments — such as
inventory management, customer order and delivery
tracking, security monitoring, and IoT-connected end
products — are approximately two times more likely to
achieve key business metrics than firms that have only
rolled out IoT in up to four use cases.
›
Comprehensive IoT analytics capabilities correlate
with achieving business results. We asked survey
respondents about adoption of various analytics
technologies, including process analytics, location
analytics, predictive analytics, and streaming analytics.
Results showed that respondents with more
comprehensive IoT analytics technologies are
approximately two to three times more likely to drive
business results than those that have not yet aligned their
analytics environments to support their IoT initiatives.
FIGURE 8
Enterprises That Combine Expansive IoT Deployments With Advanced Analytics Capabilities Are More Likely
To Drive Business Results
“How would you describe your company’s revenue growth as compared with others in your industry?”
“Which statement most closely describes your company’s market share relative to your closest competitors?”*
“To what extent have initial IoT deployments met objectives?”†
By number of analytics technologies supporting
IoT deployments
By number of IoT deployments
1 to 4 types of
deployments
(N = 95)
5 to 9 types of
deployments
(N = 105)
10 or more types
of deployments
(N = 51)
None specific to IoT
(N = 98)
1 to 4 analytics
technologies
(N = 138)
5 or more analytics
technologies
(N = 68)
63%
45%
37%
24%
25%
28%
17%
Our revenue is
growing much faster
than the industry
average
62%
45%
32%
28%
13%
*We command the
leadership position
with a higher share
than any competitor
43%
38%
19%
†
Our revenue is
Very well — we
have met most or all growing much faster
than the industry
of our objectives
average
26%
19%
*We command the
leadership position
with a higher share
than any competitor
Base: variable IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are currently piloting, using, or expanding their use of IoT solutions
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, April 2016
41%
†
Very well — we
have met most or all
of our objectives
9
Key Recommendations
Global enterprises are prioritizing the deployment of IoT solutions to strengthen their shift to modernize core business
initiatives and to support digital transformation. These IoT solutions enable firms to use internet-connected sensors on
products or assets to capture data about their condition, analyze that data in context, and respond appropriately via
automated or human action. Results from our global study illustrate the need for decision-makers seeking to unlock the
full potential of IoT to:
›
Evaluate the business value benefits for IoT solutions across your organization. In creating a road map for
IoT at your organization, consider the different value propositions and benefits of various IoT use cases and
applications and how they will work across your lines of business. For example, product engineering embraces
connected experiences and continuous improvement, while operations integrates connected assets and
connected business processes. Other roles, such as marketing and sales, use IoT solutions to analyze customer
behavior and personalize customer experiences. The needs and requirements of line-of-business and operations
stakeholders must be incorporated into the overall architecture and technologies used to deploy IoT solutions.
›
Use business-led use cases to determine integration and analytics requirements. Due to both the
complexity and diversity of IoT use cases as well as the IoT-specific analytics requirements, decision-makers
may be tempted to plan for a generalized IoT architectural infrastructure to try to prepare for any situation in the
same way that they did for cloud and mobile. However, IoT solutions are driven by specific business use cases,
and there is no common IoT infrastructure or analytics framework to cover all use cases. Each IoT use case will
drive the appropriate network architecture, integration, and analytics requirements to address the needs of IoT
stakeholders.
›
Seek third-party partners with analytics and integration experience. Stakeholders in many enterprises
recognize that they do not have the internal skillsets and expertise necessary to seamlessly integrate IoT
solutions and address comprehensive IoT analytics requirements. It is important to assess your firm’s current
capabilities to identify gaps in IoT deployment, integration, and analytics skillsets. Seek third-party partners with
IoT analytics solutions that can help you gain immediate insight into your firm’s connected products, assets, and
processes. This will help you transform IoT-enabled data into actionable insights.
10
Appendix A: Methodology
In this study, Forrester conducted an online survey of 364 respondents at enterprises with 500 or more employees in the US,
the UK, Germany, Brazil, and India to evaluate internet-of-things use cases and business outcomes. Survey participants
included decision-makers in IT, operations, and business roles with responsibility for IoT decisions at their firms. As a
requirement of the survey, all firms needed to either have made plans to implement or have already implemented IoT
solutions. Questions provided to the participants asked about adoption of IoT use cases, how IoT fits into broader business
priorities, analytics challenges and requirements, and benefits/outcomes from IoT deployments. Respondents were offered a
small incentive as a thank you for time spent on the survey. The study was completed in April 2016.
Appendix B: Supplemental Material
RELATED FORRESTER RESEARCH
“The Internet Of Things Heat Map, 2016,” Forrester Research, Inc., January 14, 2016
Appendix C: Demographics/Data
FIGURE 9
Respondent And Company Details
Geographies
Respondent position/department
India
15%
IT
Operations
Finance/accounting
Product management or
engineering
Marketing
Sales
United
States
35%
United
Kingdom
15%
Brazil
15%
12%
Germany
21%
37%
Company sizes
63%
45%
500 to 999
employees
(Medium
to Large)
1,000 to
4,999
employees
(Large)
18%
5,000 to
20,000
19,999
or more
employees
employees
(Very Large) (Global 2,000)
Retail
21%
Transportation and logistics
20%
High-tech manufacturing*
Industrial machinery and
components*
Consumer product
manufacturing*
Financial services or
insurance
64% of respondents
hold director, VP, or
C-level titles.
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, April 2016
6%
6%
5%
5%
Software
4%
Chemicals and metals†
4%
Agriculture†
4%
Aerospace and defense*
2%
Mill (e.g., paper, textiles) †
2%
Others
10%
*Grouped as Discrete Manufacturing
†
Grouped as Energy, Utilities, and Natural Resources
Base: 364 IoT decision-makers at global enterprises that are currently piloting, using, or expanding their use of IoT solutions
(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)
11%
Energy and utilities†
7%
4%
4%
21%
16%
10%
Industries
11
Appendix D: Endnotes
1
2
Source: “IoT Success Requires A DevOps Mindset,” Forrester Research, Inc., April 27, 2016.
Source: “Internet Of Things Applications Hunger For Hadoop And Real-Time Analytics In The Cloud,” Forrester Research,
Inc., March 3, 2015.