The market researchers surveyed a total of 444 organizations with more than 100 employees from eight focus industries in Germany. According to the study , 78% of mechanical and plant engineering companies have at least one IoT project in the pipeline. 76% plan to have an IoT budget in 2018. However, across all industries, the complexity of choosing technologies and providers is one of the biggest hurdles. The lack of holistic IoT solutions and the fear of IoT vulnerabilities are further obstacles.

Meanwhile, demand for IoT platforms is steadily increasing: 20% of surveyed companies already have one, while 51% plan to implement one this year. IDC strongly recommends taking into account not only current but also future requirements when selecting a platform. Services range from simple management of networked objects to cluster analysis and machine learning. “IoT is no longer pie in the sky, but rather essential for digital transformation,” say the authors, summing up.

The FWI Group has now published a guidebook summarizing how the mechanical and plant engineering sector can profitably leverage the (industrial) Internet of Things. This does not mean that the company’s entire IT landscape has to be reinvented, says the IT service provider. Existing ERP and CRM systems could also be networked with business intelligence applications and IoT gadgets.