Forrester IoT Whitepaper Final PDF
Forrester IoT Whitepaper Final PDF
Forrester IoT Whitepaper Final PDF
July 2019
Figure 1
“What value do you believe your company could gain from embedding IoT capabilities into the following business
applications/systems?”
81% Operations
79% Marketing
Base: 521 IoT decision makers from companies in the US, EMEA, APAC, and Brazil
Note: Percentage indicates “high value” responses.
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, March 2019
Figure 2
“What are your company’s plans to deploy the following IoT-enabled digital transformation use cases?”
Already deploying/currently in use Planning to deploy within the next 12 months No current plans to deploy
Base: 521 IoT decision makers from companies in the US, EMEA, APAC, and Brazil
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, March 2019
Figure 3
Top IoT business priorities
Base: 521 IoT decision makers from companies in the US, EMEA, APAC, and
Brazil
Note: Percentages indicate total rank as top 5 priority
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of
SAP, March 2019
Figure 5
Top three desired outcomes from implementing IoT technology and solutions
Base: 521 IoT decision makers from companies in the US, EMEA, APAC, and Brazil
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, March 2019
Figure 6
“How important are the following innovation technologies in helping your company optimize the value of its IoT solutions
and data?”
Very important Absolutely necessary
Base: 521 IoT decision makers from companies in the US, EMEA, APAC, and Brazil
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, March 2019
6
Key Recommendations
Enterprises in various industries are proactively deploying a variety of IoT
use cases and embedding IoT functionality into key business applications
as part of their digital transformation initiatives. These IoT solutions enable
enterprises to achieve efficient operations, enhance processes, and
differentiate customer relationships. Benefits from these IoT solutions
are often enhanced with intelligent technologies such as advanced
analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and augmented or virtual
reality solutions.
Forrester’s in-depth survey of IoT decision makers in global enterprises
yielded the following recommendations:
Identify digital transformation initiatives to address your firm’s
strategic goals. Stakeholders in each enterprise must evaluate relevant
digital transformation initiatives relative to individual operational processes,
industry-specific priorities, and strategic goals. Areas to consider include
enabling new business models, delivering personalized customer
experiences, generating new revenues, and enhancing operations.
Align your IoT initiatives with identified digital transformation
goals. Consider opportunities to use combinations of IoT solutions and
other intelligent technologies (e.g., machine learning, robotic process
automation) to address critical use cases. As your IoT initiatives expand, so
too will scalability and analytics requirements to extend deployments and
transform captured information into actionable insight.
Assess requirements for hybrid edge and cloud IoT use cases.
Most firms will deploy both edge and cloud-enabled IoT solutions.
Mission-critical IoT applications (e.g., factory automation, self-optimized
production) often have performance and reliability requirements demanding
edge computing to process data closer to the data source. Enterprise
stakeholders must evaluate their firms’ requirements for both types of IoT
use cases to ensure they have the necessary network architecture, security,
and management capabilities.
Seek assistance from third-party partners to fill in IoT technology
and skill set gaps. Many enterprises that are deploying IoT solutions
struggle with a variety of technical, analytic, and operational issues. These
firms often proactively seek help from third-party partners to provide
supplemental IoT operational process training, advanced analytics tools,
and data insights solutions to transform captured data into actionable
insight. Many firms also need assistance integrating IoT data streams with
their ERP, CRM, and supply chain management systems.
Appendix B: Demographics/Data
RESPONDENT LEVEL
43%
UK/FR/DE 30% 32%
US 30% CN/JP 30%
17%
8%
BR 10%
Base: 521 IoT decision makers from companies in the US, EMEA, APAC, and Brazil
Note: Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding.
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, March 2019