2017: Evolution of the Connected Industry Revolution
This was a year of steady progress in the Connected Industry. Industrial businesses continue to explore and invest in IoT solutions, but the pace has been more measured than frenzied. The pace of large IoT-related M&A moderated from prior years. In May, Cisco revealed the results of a study that showed that nearly ¾ of IoT projects fail to go beyond the Proof of Concept Phase. GE’s new CEO is downsizing the company as business units come to grips with market challenges. Meanwhile, IDC forecasts that IoT spending will grow by nearly 15% in 2018, and a recent IoT study from Verizon shows accelerating implementation of connected devices is in manufacturing and transportation among other verticals.
The reality of Industrial IoT is that sensor, connectivity, data analytics and machine learning technologies continue to get cheaper and more powerful, but it’s business transformation that’s the most difficult challenge of all. The emergence of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies has opened up extraordinary potential to reshape not just business processes, but to decentralize established industries. We're keeping a close eye on developments in this promising space, and will focus on sorting reality from the hype.
Our Insight Vector interviews in 2017 have highlighted the growing awareness and evolving approaches to generating business value from connected industry. Authors and thinkers like Cisco’s Maciej Kranz, Don DeLoach and Nicolas Windpassinger are helping the industry think systematically how to combine domain expertise with technology to drive true digital transformation. We’re optimistic that 2018 will see many of the Proof of Concept pilots over the past few years convert into production projects. Critical business features like Condition Monitoring are becoming baseline capabilities for industrial firms, which are looking toward Predictive Maintenance, Intelligent Asset Tracking and ultimately business process optimization through connected strategies.
As a company we are always learning from industry colleagues, many of whom we were able to interview this year. We explored insights ranging from The role of the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) to New Models for IoT Investing in Connected Industry to Customers as a Platform. We hosted webinars on a range of industry topics including Monetizing IoT, Predictive Maintenance, Blockchain and Connected Industry. As always it's the insights and input from the practitioners in our network that lead the field, helping us to co-create best practices with our valued clients and partners.
2017 was filled with new discoveries, insights and expanding relationships, and 2018 will be even better!
