Highly granular data collected from more than 200 users of IoT products and services indicate a new-found maturity among those that are adopting the technology, both in terms of their objectives and their organisational roles.

The IoT M2M Council (IMC) has published a white paper, written by the analyst firm Beecham Research, summarising the aggregate survey data collected by their online survey tool, the IoT Readiness Calculator. The results: larger technology deployments are being contemplated, more sophisticated applications are coming, and the IoT is being given a more visible role within organisations.

“Some of our IMC sustaining member companies have deployed the IoT Readiness Calculator as a lead generation tool, so as a group we look only at the aggregate data, and it is very interesting,” said IMC chairman Sam Colley, CEO of the Pod Group, a Giesecke+Devrient company. “The calculator violates several generally accepted rules of online surveying – it’s too long, it’s too technical – but it provides very deep data.”

While most respondents were in a proof-of-concept stage for their own technology deployments, a majority indicated that they planned to connect more than 10,000 devices at project maturity, and 15% planned to connect more than 100,000 devices.

“The IoT sector has been noted for its lack of scale, so this data point is worthy of note,” said Colley. “This is more nuanced data than we collect regularly, and it certainly bodes well for the IoT sector.”

Another point that would seem to indicate maturity: it’s long been assumed that early-stage IoT adopters were primarily looking to reduce costs by connecting devices in the field, but the survey data indicate that a majority (52%) are looking to add value by adding new revenue streams, improving quality or scaling operations. And 38% of respondents indicated that their corporate role is formally known as “IoT/digital transformation”, with 27% leading the project teams that are making IoT happen.

The IMC is the largest trade group dedicated to the global IoT and M2M sector, with more than 25,000 IoT enterprise users, product makers, designers and apps developers that buy IoT products and services as members.

Board companies include 1NCE, A1 Digital, Aeris, Airgain, Astrocast, BICS, Blues Wireless, Digi International, eSAT Global, Fibocom, FloLive, Ground Control, Gurtam, GXC, Hologram, iBasis, Ignion, IoT Launch, Keyfactor, KORE, KYOCERA AVX, Losant, MultiTech, Pelion, Pod Group, Quectel, Sateliot, Somos, Tata Communications, Telit, Utimaco and Vodafone.