Forrester Consulting conducted the commissioned November 2014 study on behalf of Zebra Technologies, and surveyed IT and business decision makers in nearly 600 global firms in the retail, consumer products, manufacturing, transportation, government, oil/gas, healthcare, and hospitality industries. Zebra’s expertise in many of these verticals has expanded with its acquisition of Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise business in October 2014.

Zebra piloted an initial investigation into the understanding and adoption rate of IoT in enterprises in a 2012 study entitled "Building Value from Visibility,” which established a baseline for global IoT adoption in business. One of the data points showing the increase in IoT adoption over the past two years indicates that only 15 percent of surveyed firms had an IoT solution in place in 2012 - this number has increased to 25 percent in 2014.

Key findings within the report demonstrate that global firms recognise the transformational role of IoT solutions. Over 80 percent of surveyed firms believe that IoT solutions will be the most strategic technology initiative for their organisation in a decade. These firms look to IoT solutions as a way to address a variety of strategic, operational, and business challenges.

The report also shows that there is a strong IoT solution deployment momentum among global firms. Nearly 65 percent of firms surveyed have deployed or are in the process of implementing IoT solutions. There is also strong IoT deployment momentum across the globe, with over 70 percent of Asia Pacific firms having an IoT solution in place, or being in the process of implementing an IoT solution. New cities, buildings, and infrastructure in many Asia Pacific countries have enabled this strong adoption rate. In comparison, 60 percent of North American, 52 percent of European and 71 percent of Latin American firms are in these same stages of IoT solution deployment.

In addition Wifi, real-time location tracking, and security sensors are important elements of IoT solutions. Of firms surveyed, 83 percent identify Wifi infrastructure and real-time location tracking technologies as important or very important building blocks of IoT solutions. Sensor technologies to monitor assets and the surrounding environment were also pointed to as important or very important technology elements by over 80 percent of global firms.

Within the survey details improved customer experience was identified as a top business benefit that IoT can help achieve. Nearly half of the surveyed firms identified improved customer experience as one of the top five benefits of deploying IoT solutions. Supply chain optimisation, visibility, loss prevention and cost efficiencies also were identified as top five benefits by between 44 percent and 46 percent of firms.

Anders Gustafsson, Chief Executive Officer, Zebra Technologies commented on the subject. "Over the last two years, there has been a growing need for organisations to obtain a full picture of their business operations. I believe that with these survey results, 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.”