The advent and demand of IoT had led to a number of enterprises taking up IoT projects and investing money in them. But, all IoT projects are not successful. Experts say that around two-thirds of IoT projects meet with failure. Implementing IoT possesses a huge amount of risk for any organization, large or small.
That is when Sneha Jha, a journalist with the Economic Times, asked, “IoT projects are sprouting like mushrooms after the fresh spring rain. But will these projects go down the rabbit hole?”
The question was asked to Ganesh Ramamoorthy, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner. He opined that many enterprises start off on the wrong foot with IoT implementations. Enterprises that implement and develop IoT projects should deploy them as solutions for an identified business problem. However, there are situations where IoT solutions are being built first and are then being enforced against a business problem, which may not even exist in the first place!
Enterprises are enthused by the fact that a IoT technology will be a game changer for their business. But, many of them face deployment issues as they tend to ignore project management and architectural development while implementing IoT.
Key issues faced by companies during deployment of IoT
Image source: Jessica Scarpati @ techtarget.com
1. Security
One of the top concerns in IoT projects are poor cyber security implementations in applications, networks, data and equipment. Lack of consistency in planning, design, implementation and operations can result into security concerns. This, in turn, leads to problems in accessing data, communication and overall protection of the user/ organization’s data. This results in failed IoT implementations.
2. Communications
Connectivity is the base to any IoT solution. Choosing the correct type of connectivity is important as it significantly affects the cost structure. If connectivity is chosen incorrectly, it hampers productivity. The most important determinant in choosing a connectivity service is to identify your devices’ bandwidth requirements. These requirements may vary from bits per second to megabits per second. Also, it depends on how much interaction is two-way. You also have to focus on local-area and wide-area networks and the costs, performance, and availability of those networks.
3. Analytics and visualization
IoT systems generate a huge amount of data. This data is useless if it is not properly integrated into your business unit’s existing work processes. Thus, IT organizations and business unit representatives must collaborate on how to add greater visibility and visualization capabilities to the IoT data. They must work on how to effectively present the data and leverage visualization tools. This will help employees to absorb the data and transform it into actionable information. In this way, management can make appropriate decisions as and when needed.
IoT projects tend to span the entire spectrum of business. Hence, organizations need to ensure that all key project issues are solved. Ultimately, IoT projects must benefit business users and/or enhance customer experience.
