Aussie businesses see 5G as key to their future strategy

More than two in three (68%) Australian IT and business leaders already see 5G mobile technology as crucial for their business strategy going forward, research from technology analyst Telsyte shows.

The research firm predicts that the enterprise 5G market in Australia will grow rapidly to around $45 billion per year by the mid-2020s.

Revenue from this market will be generated from next-generation application development, IT services, platforms and 5G connectivity.

Half of respondents to the survey indicated that the improved characteristics of 5G — including fast data speeds, more reliable connectivity and lower latency — will be critical for future application development.

But respondents also face barriers to 5G investment, including challenges integrating with current systems (34%), a shortage of application development skills (25%), the lack of a current business case for investing in the technology (23%) and security concerns (17%).

Meanwhile, IoT is also continuing to gain traction in the enterprise, and this is expected to continue in parallel with 5G adoption. The research found that nearly half (46%) of companies expect there to be five times or more connected devices within their organisation within the next five years, with 6% expecting there to be at least 50 times more.

The main expected enterprise IoT applications among companies responding to the survey include maintenance (32%), customer service applications (32%), manufacturing (31%) and sales (30%).

Prior investments in IoT are also showing signs of bearing fruit. Of the one in three businesses that have measured the returns on their IoT investments, 65% state it increased revenues, half saw an increase in productivity, half saw improved customer satisfaction and 39% achieved operational cost savings.

But the rise of IoT in the enterprise is also posing problems for IT, in the form of a wave of ‘shadow IoT’ adoption, often involving the unsanctioned or experimental use of connected devices.

Telsyte said its research found that one in four companies have IoT capable devices, but no formal strategy around them, and that 81% of companies reported facing shadow IoT issues are experiencing stalled projects.

"Critical to the success of implementing IoT strategies seems to be taking a scalable and holistic approach, with security considered upfront," Telsyte Managing Director Foad Fadaghi said.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/beebright

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