Analytics, services and security are top money makers as IoT use increases

Big data analytics will play a pivotal role in driving IoT revenue in the next 18months, says a new market report from Strategy Analytics. It concludes that the four most immediate applications of IoT will help companies cut costs, but that corporations need better intelligence before they can use IoT to create new services.

According to the Who Will Make Money in IoT? report the communication between devices will only add value to organizations if they can sift the data deluge and make intelligent responses to the business issues raised. If they can be helped with this mission the IoT will help them to go beyond conserving resources, manpower and money and create opportunities for new services.

The Strategy Analytics report profiles the major IoT vendors, comparing the products, strategy and positioning of companies such as AT&T, Cisco, General Electric, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, PTC, SAP, Verizon and Vodafone.

According to vendor feedback, at present the IoT and Big Data are proving to be most useful in four main areas: office security and video Surveillance, controlling smart buildings, creating billable services and healthcare analytics. These are currently the top revenue generators, says the report, because the related services have the most immediate and tangible bottom line impact on daily corporate operations.

While individual use cases vary, the main four applications can help businesses cut costs by up to 35 per cent, said Laura DiDio, Strategy Analytics’ Director of Enterprise Research and Consulting. The amount varies, according to DiDio, depending how much help they get to reap the full business from their data assets.

However, the analysts’ end-user research indicated that corporations can use IoT for more than just cost cutting, according to Andrew Brown, Strategy Analytics’s Executive Director of Enterprise and IoT Research. “Analytics applied to the Big Data on IoT devices will them to deliver value added services to their customers,” said Brown.

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