Zebra Technologies' Study: Number Of Enterprises That Are Truly ‘Intelligent' Doubles Since 2017

Second annual survey reveals increased IoT investment, real-time data sharing

Zebra Technologies Corporation, an innovator at the edge of the enterprise with solutions and partners that enable businesses to gain a performance edge, recently announced 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 defined as an “intelligent enterprise” doubled to 10 percent in 2018. 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 Internet of Things (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 organizations.

“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 optimize actions and outcomes,” said Tom Bianculli, Chief Technology Officer, Zebra Technologies. “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 Index 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 percent year-over-year. And 86 percent of the companies surveyed expect that number to increase in the next 1-2 years, with nearly half anticipating investment growth of 11-20 percent. 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 percent in 2017 to 64 percent this year.
• Enterprises are driving a performance edge with real-time guidance. 52 percent of respondents globally say information from their IoT solutions is shared with employees in real or near-real time. This is up 37 percent from last year’s Index, underscoring the increased need for collaborative mobile workflows. In addition, two-thirds of those surveyed have established a plan on how to organize and analyze their data. This is up 10 percent from last year. Real-time analytics (66 percent) and security (63 percent) were reported as the most prevalent elements of a company’s data management plan.
• 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 percent increase in the number of companies that are constantly – versus routinely – monitoring their IoT security to ensure privacy and integrity.
• Companies are demonstrating a greater reliance on a solution ecosystem. 40 percent of the companies surveyed report using a strategic partner to manage their entire IoT solution, up from 21 percent in 2017. 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.

Survey Background And Methodology

• The online survey was fielded from Aug. 6 - Sept. 14, 2018 across a wide range of segments, including healthcare, manufacturing, retail and transportation and logistics.
• In total, 918 IT decision makers from nine countries were interviewed, including the U.S., U.K./Great Britain, France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, and Japan.
• Eleven metrics were used to understand where companies are on the path to becoming an Intelligent Enterprise, including: IoT Vision, Business Engagement, Technology Solution Partner, Adoption Plan, Change Management Plan, Point of use Application, Security & Standards, Lifetime Plan, Architecture/Infrastructure, Data Plan and Intelligent Analysis.
• The criteria were identified by executives, industry experts and policymakers across different industries at the 2016 Strategic Innovation Symposium: The Intelligent Enterprise, hosted by Zebra in collaboration with the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH).
• The framework of an Intelligent Enterprise is based on technology solutions that integrate cloud computing, mobility, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to automatically “sense” information from enterprise assets. Operational data from these assets, including status, location, utilization, or preferences, is then “analyzed” to provide actionable insights, which can then be mobilized to the right person at the right time, so they can be “acted” upon to drive better, more-timely decisions by users anywhere, at any time.

About Zebra
Zebra empowers the front line of business in retail/ecommerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare and other industries to achieve a performance edge. With more than 10,000 partners across 100 countries, we deliver industry-tailored, end-to-end solutions that intelligently connect people, assets and data to help our customers make business-critical decisions. Our market-leading solutions elevate the shopping experience, track and manage inventory as well as improve supply chain efficiency and patient care. Ranked on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers for the last three years, Zebra helps our customers capture their edge. For more information, visit www.zebra.com.