Four in five companies worldwide have adopted the Internet of Things in some way, and companies in the APAC region are investing an average of $63.1 million on IoT technologies, new research shows.
A survey by Tata Consultancy Services shows that around 39% of companies in the APAC region use IoT technologies to track their customers through their mobile devices.
Even more (42%) are using IoT in their production or distribution operations, while APAC is leading the way in terms of adoption of the IoT in service businesses (55%).
Companies in APAC are also more likely to monitor customers using wearable devices or install sensors and other connected devices in locations where they do business with customers.
APAC companies plan to spend an average of 0.34% of their revenue on the IoT, ahead of Latin America (0.23%) but behind Europe (0.40%) and North America (0.45%).
Globally, the average increase in revenue as a result of IoT initiatives is 15.6%. In addition, 12% of companies are planning to spend over $100 million on the IoT in 2015 and 3% are looking to invest at least $1 billion. IoT budgets are meanwhile projected to grow by 10% by 2018.
In terms of the gains accumulated through the IoT, the top 8% of respondents based on ROI reported an average revenue gain of an impressive 64% as a direct result of their IoT investments.
The main factors holding back further investment in the IoT include a corporate culture that is resistant to change, leadership that doesn’t see the value in IoT as well as technological complications.
The industries reaping the largest awards from the IoT include industrial manufacturing, financial services and media/entertainment. The sector with the lowest revenue gain is the automotive industry.