By Kymberly Martin

Slow take-up from global retailers.

Retailers are building IoT services to enhance the customer experience and boost business efficiency. But just under half of global retailers have deployed IoT technology, while over half are allowing personal mobile devices to access the network in order to create new and engaging retail experiences. All of this is making its mark on consumers, at a time when the customer experience is increasingly a winning differentiator

According to a global study, The Internet of Things: Today and Tomorrow, carried out by the Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, Aruba, a leading application of IoT is to create store location services that deliver personalised offers and product information to shoppers as well as remotely control environmental factors, such as heating and lighting.

The study showed 53% of Australian businesses have implemented IoT technology to enhance business decision making and add commercial value to their processes but still lags behind global IoT adoption which is predicted to reach 89% by 2019. Other relevant statistics found only half of Australian businesses, that have already adopted IoT, are capitalising on the data to improve business decisions and add commercial value, while one in two more savvy Australian businesses are reaping the rewards of IoT adoption, experiencing a 20-40% return on investment.

It predicted that by 2019, 77% of organisations in Australia will have some form of IoT in place. However, while organisations adopt IoT to leverage the business benefits of enhanced efficiency and innovation,  the study has found that just one in two Australian IoT connected businesses are using this data to improve business processes and decision making.

The study also warned that connecting thousands of things to existing business networks will open up new security challenges, evident with 42% of Australian businesses currently leveraging IoT admitting to a malware security breach. Also, 40% of retailers ranked surveillance in their top three uses of IoT technology.

In Australia, 13% of business leaders and employees have not yet inquired about an IoT strategy, with over half, reporting not thinking about IoT in the workplace and 67% of them unsure about the concept.

The study also uncovered a number of obstacles that IT leaders feel are preventing IoT from delivering greater business impact. Organisations in Australia cited the cost of implementation, security concerns and difficulty integrating with legacy technologies as key issues, a sentiment echoed across the globe.

The ability to capture and effectively use data appears to be another clear challenge for Australian organisations. While nearly all of organisations that have adopted IoT claim to be able to analyse data, 43% admit to challenges in creating value from this data. Only one in two of Australian organisations extracted and analysed data within corporate networks that provide valuable insights to improved business decisions.

Technology pioneer Kevin Ashton, who coined the term ‘Internet of Things’ said when examining the business benefits of IoT, gains from adopting the technology exceeded initial expectations on all fronts. In the Asia Pacific region, this was most evident in two key performance areas, profitability and security, whereas business efficiency and profitability stood out among organisations globally.

Ashton concluded: Since its inception in 1999, the IoT has been ridiculed, criticised, and misunderstood. And yet here we are, less than two decades later, in a world where tens of thousands of organisations are saving and making hundreds of millions of dollars from the technology using cars that drive themselves, subway stations that sense passengers, algorithms that diagnose deadly diseases using phones, and many other once apparently-impossible technologies. The future promises far more amazing things. The most important decision you can make now is how to be a part of it.”