IoT Readiness, Part II: More companies can benefit from the Internet of Things, across more verticals

By 2020, 21 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be in use, up from the 6.4 billion estimated to deployed worldwide this year, according to Gartner Inc. The analyst firm expects enterprises will spend the most on IoT versus other technologies, connecting such things as HVAC, building management systems, lights, and devices to support transport logistics as well as networks to send and receive data.

In part one of this story, we explored how companies successfully begin their IoT journeys - typically by starting small, proving the concept on one piece of key equipment, for example. Still, some companies remain intimidated about deploying and managing IoT technologies, while others embrace it and achieve high operational efficiencies.

Some of those companies understand its benefits to manufacturing and supply chain, but are unclear how it can help them. Still others are connected, but not yet taking full advantage of IoT.

Where there are assets, IoT provides visibility, predictability

"Most of the companies that have a lot of equipment, a lot of devices, are very good candidates to connect those devices and equipment to a centralized system like cloud so they can send the data to people across the world on their mobile devices or laptops," says Anubhav Dwivedi, CEO, founder, Microsoft Azure partner Saviant Consulting.

Internet of Things technologies are best suited for asset-intensive companies, which includes manufacturing and distribution companies, plus rental equipment companies, oil and gas companies, even healthcare (consider crash carts in a hospital)-all ...