Survey shows that more than half of British companies want to set up IoT

Some companies are beginning to plan to set up a Chief IoT Officer (CIoTO) to promote the development of the Internet of Things (IoT). According to the latest UK survey, more than half of the companies in the UK plan to hire their first Chief IoT Officer in 2017.

The survey was conducted by network security software company Webroot and data center organization IO, and targeted 500 CEOs and senior decision makers of companies of different sizes in the UK to investigate their latest trends in IoT investment in 2016.

According to the survey results, more than 50% (55%) of the interviewed British corporate executives intend to recruit their first IoT director next year to be responsible for the company's IoT strategy layout. Among them, the majority are in the education, retail and telecommunications-related industries, accounting for as high as 60%.

More than half of the UK companies surveyed plan to set up IoT

The survey also pointed out that the purpose of these British companies setting up IoT chiefs is to have talents who can clearly master various IoT professional knowledge, so as to lead the company to solve various IoT issues ranging from electronic products to information security ethics, and then formulate the best strategic model for the company to develop IoT.

This trend also reflects that as more and more IoT applications enter the commercial market, companies not only need to have enough IoT professionals to manage these IoT devices and services, but even need to set up dedicated IoT positions to plan strategies in order to bring new value to the company.

The British companies surveyed not only plan to appoint IoT chief executives, but also plan to invest heavily in IoT in 2016. The survey found that more than 90% (94%) of British business owners have made various investment preparations for the development of IoT this year, including relevant investment plans in network infrastructure, security and R&D technical talents. In fact, half (60%) of the companies have increased their investment in IoT projects by as much as 42%.

Among these IoT investment projects, the deployment of network infrastructure is the most valued by British CEOs. More than 70% (71%) of the executives interviewed regard improving network infrastructure and carrying capacity as the primary focus of IoT development. Most of these companies regard infrastructure investment as an investment to create services rather than to increase hardware costs. Even about 20% (25%) of companies regard this type of ICT infrastructure investment as the key to whether the company can successfully enter the IoT.

The survey results also show that British companies still mostly focus on launching new IoT devices and apps when they look at the benefits brought by the early stages of IoT development. However, nearly 40% of corporate executives believe that IoT can bring more intelligent operating logic and processes in its early stages, which can change the company's existing model for conducting daily business.

John Sirianni, Webroot vice president and IoT strategic partner, said that British companies are not only promoting IoT as a purchase of IoT underlying technology, but are also looking for ways to increase their business advantages through IoT, such as analyzing the large amount of device sensor data collected to discover more value-added services and applications.

Although most British companies are optimistic about IoT and are expanding their investments, nearly 60% (57%) of senior executives interviewed have concerns about the security of IoT, fearing that the rapid development of IoT will lead to threats to internal corporate security, such as data leakage.