Findings from Multipurpose IoT Solution Experimentations in Finnish SMEs: Common Expectations and Challenges

Abstract

The Finnish SMEs are showing increasing interest in modern digital solutions in hopes of streamlining their work processes. At the same time, the companies are struggling with resourcing issues and find it challenging to familiarize themselves with new solutions and how those could be applied in their business environment. To support the technical transition, we provided 10 Finnish SMEs with multipurpose IoT solutions, allowing them to conduct guided experimentations with relevant objectives. The business areas of the target companies varied widely from manufacturing to transportation and accommodation, as did their individual needs and expectations towards IoT. Based on this multifaceted background, we compared the companies’ original expectations with the actualised experimentation outcomes, aiming at identifying commonly occurring challenges linked to multipurpose IoT solutions. As a result, an overview of the generalizable findings was gathered to offer further insight on how the multipurpose IoT devices could better serve the SMEs.