IDC says New Zealand buyers of IoT technology are making their purchasing decisions primarily on the basis of on their existing trusted commercial relationships or partnerships rather than the merits of the technology itself, while a separate study from the analyst group suggests CIOs having little involvement in IoT.
IDC associate market analyst Liam Landon said New Zealand organisations preferred to select vendors they knew.
“This creates opportunities for vendors that are able to put themselves in front of customers and begin to develop a continuing relationship,” Landon said.
The conclusion comes from IDC’s 2019/2020 Global IoT Decision Maker Survey: Australia and New Zealand Insights report.
According to Landon: “Vendors that have strong relationships with customers in adjacent fields may find benefit in offering IoT. Conversely, IoT vendors may gain from partnerships with adjacent vendors that already have strong customer relationships.”
IDC’s announcement made no mention of who within an organisation IoT vendors should seek to develop strong relationship with — although a recent IDC survey suggests CIOs are not necessarily the most appropriate.
IDC earlier this month released its (global) 2020 State of the CIO Research. IoT did not make much of a showing in the responses of the 679 heads of IT IDC canvassed, and mostly it showed up in the specific use case of industrial IoT.
IDC said the research “helps define the CIO agenda for the upcoming year and outlines the responsibilities and challenges facing senior IT leaders.”
In the executive summary of that report there were just two mentions of IoT, both specifically on industrial IoT:
- “Of all industry segments, manufacturers were hungry for talent versed in IoT skills like connected devices and sensors.”
- “The emerging world of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) was a factor [in driving the need for IT/OT convergence] for eight percent of respondents, primarily those in the manufacturing (16 percent) and government/non- profit/education (10 percent) sectors.”
Landon also suggested that NZ organisations were primarily seeking incremental improvements through IoT. “When implementing IoT, New Zealand organisations are driven to invest to improve business productivity, improve product quality, and reduce operational costs.
Last August, commenting on its Seventh Annual Global IoT Decision Maker Survey, IDC classified IoT was a leading digital transformation initiative.