U.S. Firms Push for Scalable IoT Projects With Rapid ROI

U.S. enterprises are beginning a shift from discrete IoT projects to broader initiatives that tackle major objectives such as sustainability, according to a new research report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2023 ISG Provider Lens Internet of Things — Services and Solutions report for the U.S. finds that enterprises and service providers have realized the granular data collected by IoT can create unexpected capabilities and help to enable digital transformation. While chip shortages impeded IoT implementation in 2022, the U.S. continues to see healthy demand for IoT services and solutions.

“Solving one problem isn’t enough. Rapid scalability is essential,” said Matteo Gallina, digital engineering solutions lead, Americas, at ISG. “Companies investing in IoT expect fast ROI, speed to market and accelerated benefits.”

In addition to deploying IoT for purposes such as predictive maintenance, proactive interventions and more efficient operations, enterprises are using IoT-generated data and analytics power to improve customer engagement and create new revenue sources, ISG says.

Supply chains have become a major focus of IoT efforts since the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, the report says. IoT systems can track and trace shipments, giving companies more visibility into the process, and inform predictive models for anticipating and preventing bottlenecks.

As U.S. companies place ever-greater priority on sustainability, IoT is beginning to enable broader and deeper solutions to the problem, ISG says. So far, most enterprises have focused on reducing internal carbon emissions for immediate cost benefits. In the longer term, they will need to ensure sustainability across the whole supply chain, including suppliers and customers at every point, to comply with looming regulations and maintain a good reputation. IoT can help organizations pull together and analyze the huge amounts of data required to carry this out.

Leading providers that recognize these emerging possibilities are positioning IoT services and solutions as part of larger digital transformation capabilities rather as standalone offerings, the report says.

“Increasingly, IoT will be the digital thread that makes connected global enterprises possible,” said Jan Erik Aase, partner and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research.

The report also explores other enterprise IoT trends in the U.S., including the increasing use of zero-trust frameworks for IoT security and the continued growth of edge computing, in which the U.S. is the leading market.