​Internet of Things is a good investment, claims a TCS study

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​Internet of Things is a good investment, claims a TCS study
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About 80% companies witnessed a growth in revenue through investments in Internet Of Things (IoT) technology, says a study by Tata Consultancy Service.

The average increase in revenue as a result of investments in IoT is 15.6%, said the biggest software exporter in the country, quoting a study conducted among 795 executives working at large multinationals.

IoT refers to a network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors and connectivity to enable objects to exchange data.

While 9% of respondents said that they saw a revenue push of over 30 % because of IoT, some market leaders reported a revenue jump of as much as 64 % as well.

12% executives surveyed said they would spend $100 million on IoT in 2015 and 3% said that their investments would be over $1 billion.
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"Leaders in using IoT technologies are using it to completely re-imagine their businesses by changing every aspect of them from business models and products to business processes and workplaces," TCS Managing Director and Chief Executive N Chandrasekaran said.

The study found that presently, nearly half of the companies use IoT technologies to track customers through mobile applications, adding that the industrial manufacturing sector led the way, ahead of the healthcare sector.

On the geographical front, Europe and North America are leaders in adoption of IoT technologies, the study said.

North American companies will spend 0.45 per cent of revenue this year on IoT initiatives, while European companies will spend 0.40 per cent.

Companies in Asia-Pacific invest only 0.34 per cent of revenue in it, while Latin American firms spend 0.23 per cent of revenue, the TCS study said.
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The Healthcare sector has been hailed as having the greatest potential to benefit from the IoT, but remains one of the most underdeveloped industries due to regulatory restrictions and data security concerns that currently hinder innovation. The sector plans to spend just 0.3 % of revenue in 2015, but will be increasing this investment by at least 30 % by 2018. The healthcare market driven by the IoT is predicted to be worth $117bn by 2020.

In contrast, executives in the Industrial Manufacturing sector are reporting the largest increase in revenue from IoT, with an average 28.5 %, followed by Financial Services (17.7 %) and Media & Entertainment (17.4 %). The Automotive industry has the lowest revenue gain with just a 9.9 % increase.

The report, which looks at trends across 13 key industries, found that large-scale investment in IoT infrastructure and monitoring is not confined to those in manufacturing, however, with the Travel, Transportation and Hospitality sectors planning to spend 0.6 % of revenue this year. Media and Entertainment companies will spend 0.57 % of their revenue on IoT in this year – significantly more than the 0.4 % average and the 0.44 percent spend in Banking and Financial Services.