The slow pace of M2M technology adoption by service management organisations could lead to companies missing out on vital business intelligence, new revenue streams or failure to meet rising customer demands.
The conclusions were today published in a white paper by service management software provider, Advanced Field Service (Advanced).
With M2M technology forecasted to revolutionise the service management industry, only 43% of companies are using M2M, according to the report by Advanced. The same paper exposed that 26% of respondents were considering M2M, but 31% said they had no plans to do so.
M2M, a branch of IoT, can wirelessly connect machines, devices and equipment to collect and transmit data such as location, movement, temperature and environment, crucial data to business monitoring.
Companies that have adopted the concept have become able to remotely track their business’s field-based assets, deploy ‘smart metering’ to monitor and control utilities and use telematics systems to enhance service delivery performance through automated processes.
Greg Ford, Managing Director of Advanced Field Service, said: "There is some confusion as to how M2M interplays with other technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud, big data and mobile. While there is no clarity about what M2M is, and the benefits it offers, adoption rates will be slower than anticipated.
"Many service organisations will need to wait for manufacturers to introduce the capabilities of M2M before they can take full advantage of it. For those who serve multiple manufacturer products, this can make planning and gaining access to data more difficult."
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"M2M technology provides valuable insight into the performance of equipment, vehicles and field engineers. With this crucial business intelligence, organisations can shift from reactive to predictive service, ensuring issues can be identified and resolved more quickly to meet rising customer expectations.
"M2M can also transform efficiency levels and increase profit margins. With rising costs and fierce competition continuing to impact the service industries, organisations who choose to overlook this technology may suffer a detrimental impact to their bottom line."
