It’s Official – M2M Is Taking Over The Business World

Businesses are embracing Machine to Machine (M2M) connected technology faster than ever before in an attempt to charge their work into the Internet of Things, new figures have shown.

That’s according to the third annual M2M Barometer survey from Vodafone, which has found that over a quarter (27 percent) of all companies worldwide are now using connected technology to help their business grow and develop, a major increase from previous years.

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The study, which quizzed 659 C-level executives and IT professionals in 16 countries across seven different verticals, also found that some sectors were embracing M2M technology significantly more than others.

The retail sector, for instance, saw an 88 percent growth in the level of M2M technology being used, thanks to new initiatives such as digital signage and contactless payments. The healthcare, utilities and automotive industries also showed strong growth however, as companies look to maximise the potential of technologies.

The technology is also showing a very quick and effective return on investment for those companies employing it, the study showed. Overall 59 percent of early adopters reported a significant return on their investment in M2M, with a 28 percent year-on-year increase in the proportion of companies reporting a sizeable ROI impact.

81 percent of those surveyed have expanded their use of M2M technologies over the last year, and those that have managed to integrate it with other areas such as cloud computing and big data analytics reporting the biggest benefits. Overall 69 percent of ‘advanced’ M2M users said their companies had been fundamentally transformed by using the Internet of Things.

“The Internet of Things is transforming more businesses faster than ever before,” said Vodafone Group director of Machine-to-Machine Erik Brenneis. “Machine-to-Machine technologies have as big an impact on how companies operate as the arrival of the desktop computer a generation ago, greatly enhancing productivity and competitiveness while opening up whole new fields of engineering innovation.”

The survey was revealed the week after Vodafone was declared the world’s top M2M provider by analyst firm Analysys Mason, coming out on top in areas including scale and execution, technological enablement as well as customer support and aftersales support.

And the survey also revealed that awareness of M2M and the Internet of Things increased over the course of the last year, as 78 percent of all companies surveyed – both adopters and non-adopters – told researchers that they were familiar with it.

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