Real IOT projects are gaining traction within businesses as market moves from proof of concept to scalable deployments.

Almost one third of companies said they have launched IOT solutions with over 40 percent saying they would do so within 12 months. And increasingly these projects are being led by line of business managers working in collaboration with CIOs.

The survey, conducted by IDC for the 2016 Global IoT Decision Maker report, included a total of 4,500 participants from over 25 countries across the world.

The purpose of the survey, which is now in its third year, was to gain insights from enterprise IT and business decision makers, regarding their perception of IoT along with early plans or deployments of IoT solutions.

The topics identified included: levels of enterprise awareness of IoT, deployment plans, IoT adoption drivers and inhibitors, perceptions of IoT vendors and vendor selection criteria, organisational factors and security, cloud and analytics requirements.

It was also found that 55 percent of respondents see IoT as a strategic factor towards their business, as a means to compete more effectively.

Carrie MacGillivray, Vice President of Mobility and Internet of Things said:

“This year we see confirmation that vendors who lead with an integrated cloud and analytics solution are the ones who will be considered as critical partners in an organisation’s IoT investment.

We also note that network and traditional IT hardware vendors are slipping down the charts, as software and systems integrator makes strides in customers’ minds.”

According to the IDC survey, while security and privacy, along with upfront and ongoing costs are top concerns for decision makers the lack of internal skills is seen to appear as a new, top concern for organisations that may be looking to deploy an IoT solution.

The improvement of productivity, reduction in costs and automating internal processes are seen as the top benefits of an IoT solution.

Vernon Turner, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Systems and IDC Fellow for Internet of Things said: “Setting strategies, finding budgets and supporting IoT solutions have contributed to an ongoing tussle between line of business executives (LOBs) and CIOs.

However, that race may be over, because in many cases LOBs are now both leading the discussions and either paying in full or sharing the costs of IoT initiatives with the CIOs.”