Nov 13, 2018—Zebra Technologies has released the results of its second annualIntelligent Enterprise Index survey, which finds an uptick in Internet of Things (IoT) technology investment by companies, a broadening of the deployments on which they embark, and greater reliance by IoT users on partners and third-party suppliers to provide the necessary technology integration and management. Overall, the study found that the number of IoT adopters—what Zebra calls "intelligent enterprises"—has doubled from 5 percent last year to 10 percent in 2018. That, according to the firm, indicates significant momentum in the IoT market.

The annual survey originated in September 2016, when the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) hosted the 2016 Strategic Innovation Symposium. At that event, industry leaders compiled a list of criteria that would define an intelligent enterprise. As part of that effort, Zebra conducted an end-user survey to understand companies' status with IoT deployment across such vertical markets as health care, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and retail, and thereby quantify the level of IoT adoption companies had reached, based on those criteria (see Zebra Survey Finds IoT Plans in the Works at Most Companies).

The IoT includes data captured from technologies such as passive andactive RFID, as well as Near Field Communication (NFC), mobile phones, bar codes, sensors, blockchain and location solutions. The 11 criteria evaluated in the survey were the respondents' IoT vision, business engagement (with initiatives under way), technology partners, adoption, change management (to oversee how it will be used by end users), point-of-use application (for context and situational awareness), security, deployment, infrastructure, data management plan and intelligent analysis.

As in 2017, this year's survey included 1,000 company decision-makers, according to Scott Drobner, Zebra's senior director of business and market intelligence. The participants represented companies similar to those polled a year ago, and were located around the world. In fact, with the global focus, only about 10 percent of respondents were in the United States.

One key finding was how much IoT investment and planning had taken place within the past year, Drobner reports. This year, 85 percent of those surveyed indicated they expect their company to increase its investment in the IoT and mobility solutions within the next two years. Fifty-five percent said they have an IoT vision and are currently executing their IoT plans.

The deployments presently under way have broadened as well, the survey found, to serve entire companies or to reach across multiple regions. Of those using the Internet of Things, 73 percent said they share the collected data with their employees in real- or near-real time. In addition, the use of IoT data for analytics grew from 40 percent to 66 percent this year.