• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, September 22, 2015

Connected things lead to masses of data and that’s where the black hole resides.

Adding sensors into things and then distributing those things throughout the consumer marketplace is a lot more straightforward than capturing, analyzing and putting into practical, real-time use, the flood of data that the connected objects can generate.

While most IoT projects involve data collection, it turns out that only a very small portion of those involved are making good use of it, based on a recent study.

While the vast majority (83%) of those involved in IoT are collecting data, only a small number (8%) are making the most of it by fully capturing and analyzing it in a timely fashion, according to the study IoT Meets Big Data and Analytics.

The study, conducted by Dimensional Research for ParStream, comprised an online survey of 200 businesspeople who have professional responsibility for IoT projects.

About a third (34%) of those involved in IoT either doesn’t store or analyze any IoT data, according to the study.

Granted, it is still relatively early for many organizations getting involved in the Internet of Things.

However, most (77%) see data collection and analysis as important in their IoT projects, even though many don’t do it.

And the data that is collected tends to stick around for quite a bit, with almost half (47%) of companies keeping it for more than a year.

I was with a CEO of a data analytics and platform company recently who told me that the company was recently approached by a company that had been collecting data for a long period of time but had not figured what to do with it.

The point is that the data collection is only one segment of the data puzzle and there are many challenges around various aspects of data. Here are the main challenges that those involved in IoT projects say they face:

• 44% -- Too much data to analyze effectively
• 36% -- Difficult to capture useful data
• 30% -- Analysis capabilities not flexible enough
• 27% -- Not sure what questions to ask
• 26% -- Data is analyzed too slowly to be actionable
• 25% -- Data is not captured reliably
• 24% -- Business processes are too rigid to allow us to act on the analysis

Solving these issues is important, since most (76%) of those involved would collect and store more data if it was easier.

Even more significantly, if they were able to capture and store data faster and more cost effectively, 70% of those involved in IoT projects say they would make better and more meaningful decision.

And that is the business case for better handling of IoT data.