UK “Leading The Way On IoT Adoption In Europe”

The UK is surging ahead of many other major European nations when it comes to embracing the Internet of Things (IoT), a survey has discovered.

Research by Zebra Technologies found that 60 per cent of UK firms surveyed have deployed some form of IoT solutions, with a further 30 percent planning to deploy in the coming year.

This is some way ahead of the likes of France and Germany, which can only record 42 and 44 percent of respondents respectively that are planning to implement IoT solutions.

Prevalent

IT governance issues were reported as the main barrier to IoT adoption in the UK, as companies sought to implement connected technologies across a range of areas.

The survey, carried out with analyst firm Forrester Research amongst 600 companies across the globe, found that the impact of the IoT will be felt in a wide variety of industries.

The most popular use cases of IoT-enabled technologies were Wi-Fi infrastructure and real-time location tracking technologies, as cited by 83 percent of respondents, just ahead of sensor technologies to monitor assets and the surrounding environment, which was highlighted by over 80 percent of firms.

The ability to provide improved customer experience was identified as the top business benefit that the IoT can help achieve, cited by nearly half of the surveyed firms as one of the top five benefits of deploying IoT solutions. Supply chain optimization, visibility, loss prevention and cost efficiencies were also identified as top benefits by between 44 percent and 46 percent of respondents.

“Over the last two years, there has been a growing need for organizations to obtain a full picture of their business operations,” said Anders Gustafsson, chief executive officer at Zebra Technologies.

“It is clear that enterprises in key industries globally are adopting Internet of Things solutions to arm themselves with the real-time data and intelligence to become smarter and more connected. At Zebra, we believe that IoT and visibility solutions can help businesses reach new levels of efficiency and deliver greater value for customers.”

The report’s findings contrast with those from a recent KPMG survey, which showed that British consumers are increasingly worried about the pace of which technology, particularly the IoT, is beginning to take over their lives.

More than half of those surveyed said they resented the idea that computers seem to run their lives “wherever I go”, with 70 percent suggest that with the marketplace flooded by inter-connected devices, it’s too easy for things to go wrong.

Recent Gartner predictions forecast that the number of connected ‘things’ across the world has nearly reached parity with the global population, and will hit 25 billion by 2020. The economic impact of the IoT is also set to grow as industries looks to exploit and benefit from the technology, amounting to total services spending of $69.5 billion in 2015 and $263 billion by 2020.

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