The Economist Intelligence Unit's IoT Business Index 2020 shows a significant increase in how companies are using IoT technology to assist with internal operations since 2017. The typical company's IoT initiatives have moved from "planning" to "early implementation" phase. The most widely adopted applications of IoT data are monitoring and optimizing product or internal operations and using IoT data to inform operational decision-making. This shift towards using network-connected instrumentation to monitor, manage, and predict the future state of physical equipment and environment is finally coming to pass. The experience of two pioneering organizations, with some of the largest and most complex operations in the world, offers insight into how companies can ensure that IoT functionality delivers operational benefits.
