Zebra finds 10x increase in intelligent APAC enterprises

Zebra Technologies has released the results of its second annual "Intelligent Enterprise Index.

The Index is a global survey that measures where companies are on the journey to becoming an "intelligent enterprise" - one that connects the physical and digital worlds to drive innovation through real-time guidance, data-powered environments and collaborative mobile workflows.

By scoring more than 75 points on the overall Index, the number of companies globally defined as an "intelligent enterprise" doubled to 10% in 2018.

In Asia-Pacific, there was a spike in the number of companies that were rated as truly "intelligent" - moving up 20 percentage points to 22% this year.

The average Asia-Pacific score increased from 49 points in 2017 to 63 points in 2018, underscoring the rapid adoption of internet of things (IoT) solutions in the region.

The Index measures to what extent companies today are meeting the criteria that define today's Intelligent Enterprise.

Overall, the Index reveals year-over-year growth of IoT deployment and investment, highlighting new momentum as enterprises expect less resistance to adoption and increasingly acknowledge IoT solutions as a core component for driving future growth across their organisations.

"As new technologies continue to transform the front line of business, real-time data-driven signals at the edge of operations are empowering front-line workers with the right information to optimise actions and outcomes," says Zebra Technologies chief technology officer Tom Bianculli.

"Based on our second annual Index, it's clear that more companies acknowledge the value of leveraging IoT strategies, and they will continue to propel adoption and investment in the future.

Key findings:

• IoT investment is up, and resistance to adoption is down.

The Index reveals for those companies surveyed, their average annual spend on IoT is up 4% year-over-year globally, while it was a 12% increase in Asia-Pacific.

86% of the companies surveyed globally expect that number to increase in the next 1-2 years, with nearly half anticipating investment growth of 11-20%.

As employees become more receptive to new technologies, the number of companies that expect resistance to their IoT plans moving forward has dropped from 75% in 2017 to 64% this year.

• Enterprises are driving a performance edge with real-time guidance.

52% of respondents globally say information from their IoT solutions is shared with employees in real or near-real time.

This is up 37% from last year's Index, underscoring the increased need for collaborative mobile workflows.

Asia-Pacific companies are more advanced in this area, with 58% of companies sharing data with employees in such frequency.

In addition, two-thirds of those surveyed globally have established a plan on how to organise and analyse their data. This is up 10% from last year.

Real-time analytics (66%) and security (63%) were reported as the most prevalent elements of a company's data management plan.

• Empowering the front-line.

Notably, organisations are empowering their front-line with actionable data as 32% of the respondents say they provide insights to the front-line workers.

This reflects the need for innovations, technologies and real-time data at the edge of the enterprise. In Asia-Pacific, this stands at 41%, up 7 percentage points from last year's index.

• Security is a top priority across the enterprise.

Companies are taking a more proactive, thorough approach when it comes to employing security standards within their IoT solutions.

The Index revealed an 18%age point increase in the number of companies that are constantly - versus routinely - monitoring their IoT security to ensure privacy and integrity.  In Asia-Pacific, the increase was 20 percentage points from a year ago.

• Companies are demonstrating a greater reliance on a solution ecosystem.

40% of the companies surveyed globally report using a strategic partner to manage their entire IoT solution, up from 21% from 2017. This was higher in Asia-Pacific at 54%.

This dependence on third-party expertise and management of IoT processes, similar to Zebra's Savanna platform empowering its customers and partners, is a key indicator that an enterprise is committed to accelerating data intelligence and adopting IoT.