COVID-19 Pandemic Increased IoT Adoption, Research Finds

The Internet of Things (IoT) has changed how companies think about analytics, and 87% of them say their core business has evolved after the adoption of these new technologies, according to a new report from Vodafone.

Determining IoT’s impact is often challenging, but many companies agree that IoT has added value to their business. The numbers speak for themselves, as 84 percent of IoT adopters say that this technology was critical in maintaining business continuity. If anything, the opposite happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 73 percent of IoT users accelerated the pace of adoption.

“IoT continues to generate real business value with 95 percent of respondents seeing a positive return on investment,” states the research. “The benefits of IoT fall into two main areas; improving operational efficiency and creating new connected products and services.”

Companies that don’t adopt IoT technologies within the next five years will have a tough time later on, with 73 percent of IoT adopters saying that IoT can create a sustainable, long-term, competitive advantage.

Surprisingly, one of the most significant factors driving quicker adoption of IoT technologies is the COVID-19 pandemic.

“81 percent of adopters say they are prioritizing IoT higher than they did before, and 77% have accelerated the pace of some of their IoT projects as a result of the pandemic. A majority (84%) of IoT adopters – surveyed at the peak of the COVID-19 crisis – felt IoT has ensured business continuity and maintained operations throughout major disruption.”

The ability to monitor operations remotely is an undisputed advantage of IoT, but it’s also useful for another essential aspect — remote working. In such difficult times, many people started to work from home, and the IoT provided the necessary tools for many of them.

Finally, there’s still a category of companies that are following a ‘wait-and-see’ approach, a strategy that affects 42 percent of all businesses. Moreover, 33% of the companies that still hesitate to adopt IoT say they’re not sure how the technology will benefit their business.