A large proportion of Australian companies are assessing how the Internet of Things (IOT) could affect their businesses, a survey by iTnews.com.au and cloud solutions distributor rhipe has found.

More than 40 percent of the 261 survey respondents indicated they are already considering the implications of IOT. Almost a third recognised that IOT could cause disruption, although they hadn’t developed IOT strategies.

About 20 percent of respondents have commenced IOT projects and believe IOT would be highly disruptive – not a large proportion, but enough to show IOT is far from a niche technology.

Another response – a mere five percent rating IOT as “a lot of hot air and hype” – supports the notion that IOT is more than a buzzword.

The survey was completed by 261 people, from industries including IT, banking, insurance and financial services.

Scope for growth

The results indicate plenty of scope for growth in IOT projects. And with major carriers ramping up marketing for their 5G networks and vendors such as Microsoft increasing their investment in IOT, we’ll be surprised if IOT adoption doesn’t increase this year.

That’s a big opportunity for IT providers, if they’re ready. A 2018 rhipe survey found that IOT-readiness among managed services providers (MSPs) was similar to the end-user organisations mentioned above.

Rhipe found that 58 percent of MSPs were in the IOT planning phase and trying to assess the opportunity. Another 20 percent said clients had asked about IOT, but those MSPs didn’t have IOT strategies.

About 19 percent were actively involved in IOT projects – almost the same as the proportion of end-user organisations in the survey above.

Clearly, MSPs and end-user organisations who plan IOT strategies soon will have a headstart on many competitors.