When it comes to IoT, the survey found the greatest opportunity with the technology in tracking business processes. Do most mid-market companies see IoT as a way to wring out more costs rather than drive revenue by tracking customer behavior?

It started out being more customer product-oriented, but now we're starting to see companies really start to think about how [to] use this internally to drive operational efficiencies. An example I ran across [recently] was a hotel … that has small RFID chips in their linens, and they track how many times [a] linen [has been used]. For example, a sheet has been slept on and washed, and after a certain amount of times they retire it and replace it rather than wait for it to get frayed and [wait for] somebody to notice it. … They claim that their total cost of managing, washing [and] replacing … was decreased by 15 percent.

What I think the last couple of years has demonstrated is that IoT is not really a thing of the future anymore. It actually is here.