Here’s some bad news for organizations contemplating projects that have something to do with the Internet of Things.
Research firm Gartner, predicts that by 2020 more than half of major new business process and systems will incorporate some element of IoT. However, despite the growing prevalence of connected systems in the private and public sectors, Gartner foresees many of IoT-focused or connected projects taking longer than expected to complete.
The research company believes that through 2018, as many as 75 per cent of IoT projects will take twice as long to finish than originally planned.
In fact, Gartner said, the more ambitious and complicated the project, the greater the schedule overruns.
Three out of four IoT projects to face schedule extensions of up to 100 per cent with the consequent cost overruns.
Compromises will be made to keep some projects on-schedule. However, such moves will lead to significant weaknesses in performance, security or integration into existing processes.
These compromises will also require that IoT projects be re-factored, recalled or ever re-deployed.
“Uses of the IoT that were previously impractical will increasingly become practical,” said W. Roy Schulte, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The IoT is relevant in virtually every industry, although not in every application. There will be no purely ‘IoT applications.’ Rather, there will be many applications that leverage the IoT in some small or large aspect of their work.”
Business analysts and developers of information-centric processes need to have the expertise and the tools to implement IoT aspects that play a role in their system, said Schulte.
“Product-centered enterprises will be the worst affected,” said Alfonso Velosa, research vice president at Gartner. “They will seek to launch smarter, connected products, although this will often be a reactive, tactical approach that seeks to address their competition’s IoT product.”
Even for organizations conducting internally centered projects that may focus on cost reductions, there will be people issues, he said.
“Most of these issues will center on the normal introduction of a new technology model. It will be complicated by emerging business models that will require process and cultural change,” Velosa said. “Addressing both of these will lead to projects going over schedule.”
