When British technologist Kevin Ashton coined the phrase "internet of things" (IoT) in 1999, the world was only just getting acquainted with the nascent network of networks and how to access and use its many applications. In the more than two decades since, it has grown increasingly difficult to imagine a world in which our economies and communities were not supported and connected via the World Wide Web and the devices we use to access it. The number of firms that have incorporated IoT technologies into their businesses grew from 13% in 2014 to about 25% globally in 2019. In countries such as the United States, Germany, France and China, the rate of IoT adoption among enterprise-size commercial organizations exceeded 85%, according to a 2019 survey by Microsoft. And recent analyses from IDC predicted there will be 41.6 billion internet-connected devices by 2025, as worldwide commercial and consumer spending on IoT will exceed $1 trillion within the next three years.

Manufacturing and processing plants might not be at the front of anyone's minds when it comes to tech adoption, but as illustrated by a recent IDC report, The Worldwide Internet of Things Spending Guide, the manufacturing industry is transforming into industry 4.0 and spearheading the adoption of IoT. Industry 4.0 is the newest industrial revolution, bringing automation, big data and AI into plants and factories around the world. One of the building blocks of industry 4.0 is the internet of things, or IoT. A recent report forecast that spending on IoT platforms would see a 40% CAGR between 2019 and 2024, resulting in spending that exceeds $12.4 billion. In 2019, leading industry corporations were expected to invest almost $200 billion in IoT solutions.

We are just about at the end of the year and readying ourselves to make predictions for the new decade, but before I start to do that, I thought we should look at what's been happening in procurement, supply chain, and how the IoT (Internet of Things) is making an impact on business processes. This past weekend was pretty remarkable for the retail industry. Black Friday sales topped a whopping, $7.4 billion. It's not surprising almost $3 billion of those sales were conducted digitally using a computers, tablets, and smartphones. So just how important is technology in this race to capture consumers and businesses?

Our latest enterprise survey revealed that more than 40 percent of large enterprises have already implemented IoT and another 25 percent have piloted IoT use cases and will likely make meaningful investments in the technology in near future. All these enterprises have invariably invested in building an ecosystem of partners, made technological and business process changes, and trained their talent to sustain the investment. However, 75 percent of these enterprises are realizing benefits limited to cost reduction, better visibility at the operational level, and access to more data for better decision making. This, unfortunately, is a massive underestimation and under-utilization of the potential of connected ecosystems. On the other hand, the other 25 percent of the enterprises, we call them "Innovators," are realizing IoT-driven outcomes with substantially greater business impact, such as identifying alternate revenue sources, offering new products and services, and increasing customer intimacy.