Asset monitoring has develop into an integral a part of enterprise operations, with massive companies monitoring over 166,000 property day by day, in response to IoT Analytics’ IoT Asset Monitoring & Visibility Adoption Report 2025.
Briefly
Asset monitoring has develop into an integral a part of enterprise operations, with massive companies monitoring over 166,000 property day by day, in response to IoT Analytics’ IoT Asset Monitoring & Visibility Adoption Report 2025.
Enterprise IoT asset monitoring has advanced throughout 7 dimensions: 1) asset sort, 2) attributes tracked, 3) applied sciences used, 4) enterprise software integration, 5) intelligence offered, 6) vendor options, and seven) resolution flexibility.
Regardless of technological progress and rising adoption, the market stays fragmented, with persistent challenges—significantly round system integration and reaching true end-to-end provide chain visibility.
Why it issues
For IoT asset-tracking options suppliers: Because the market additional matures, distributors have to give attention to interoperability, integration with enterprise techniques, and versatile pricing fashions to seize rising demand.
For IoT asset-tracking adopters: With options maturing and new choices launched, adopters ought to reassess the place asset monitoring delivers measurable returns, establish alternatives to improve current techniques, and guarantee alignment with broader digital transformation objectives.
Asset monitoring has develop into an integral a part of enterprise operations. The typical massive enterprise tracks over 166,000 property on any given day, in response to IoT Analytics’ IoT Asset Monitoring & Visibility Adoption Report 2025 (printed April 2025). The report exhibits that enterprise asset monitoring has matured during the last 3 many years and is not restricted to GPS trackers on a couple of high-value gadgets. It has advanced over a number of dimensions to develop into a core know-how, in lots of instances an essential aspect of key operational processes. IoT Analytics estimates that in the present day, 3.7 billion (20%) of the 18.8 billion globally linked IoT gadgets could be categorised as IoT asset monitoring.*
*Be aware: The 166,000 property for enterprises will not be totally similar to the three.7 billion world property being tracked, as definitions barely differ. The IoT asset monitoring report 2025 does embrace barcodes and RFID in its quantity, whereas the worldwide variety of IoT connections excludes these 2 applied sciences.
Adoption of IoT asset monitoring lately has been pushed by 4 key elements:
Provide chain disruptions (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic and Center East conflicts)
The need for greater operational effectivity (e.g., enhancing scheduling and gas effectivity of automobiles)
Danger administration issues (e.g., rising asset values and safety dangers, resembling theft and information breaches)
Corporations increasing current monitoring operations as they scale their enterprise (e.g., greater manufacturing or getting into new markets)
IoT asset monitoring has seen widespread adoption throughout the worth chain for various items, loading tools (e.g., delivery containers), automobiles, and even folks. It performs a key position not solely in delivery and warehousing but additionally inside amenities (particularly in manufacturing).
Key quote from an IoT asset monitoring adopter
“We continue to increase our spending on enhanced asset monitoring capabilities via GPS and telematics. These technologies help us optimize routes, schedule maintenance, and improve fuel efficiency, ultimately boosting operational efficiency and achieving cost savings.” – Chief X officer (CxO) of a equipment & tools producer in EMEA
With a lot to trace, it’s no shock that IoT Analytics analysis into IoT use case adoption in 2024 discovered that 3 asset monitoring use instances seem within the prime 10 most adoption IoT use instances: 1) provide chain observe and hint at 54% of tasks, 2) on-site facility observe and hint at 50%, and site monitoring at 45%.
IoT asset monitoring definition: The method of monitoring the situation, standing, and/or motion of cellular bodily property—resembling moveable tools, stock, instruments, or automobiles—inside indoor (e.g., warehouses, workplaces, or crops) or out of doors (e.g., in-transit) environments utilizing applied sciences like GPS, RFID, barcodes, or IoT sensors.
The evolution of enterprise IoT asset monitoring
The report—based mostly on an intensive survey of 100 enterprises that use IoT-based asset-tracking options of their operations (e.g., manufacturing, retail, or building)—shares essentially the most tracked property, the use instances enabled by asset-tracking options, essentially the most used applied sciences, and the way corporations strategy the choice to purchase or construct their options—with a take a look at essentially the most used distributors and their satisfaction scores from finish customers.
Insights from the report present an evolving business alongside 7 dimensions:
Kinds of property being tracked
Asset monitoring attributes
Asset monitoring applied sciences
Asset monitoring integration
Asset monitoring intelligence
Asset monitoring resolution distributors
Asset monitoring resolution flexibility
Kinds of property: From monitoring solely high-value property to mass monitoring
Almost 90% of organizations now observe completed items; over half observe workers. Traditionally, asset-tracking techniques concentrated solely on costly or cellular gadgets like long-range automobiles and digital gadgets. Through the years, asset monitoring has shifted to embody a variety of asset sorts, together with completed items within the warehouse (89% of corporations), short-range automobiles (74%), and even workers (54%).
Instance: Monitoring employees in a facility
Salco, a tailored door options firm based mostly within the Netherlands, applied an indoor real-time location system utilizing ultra-wideband (UWB) know-how and 22 mounted sensors to trace merchandise, tools, and workers on the manufacturing unit flooring with 10cm precision. Operators decide up unassigned tags at the beginning of every shift, enabling the system to trace labor inputs to merchandise with out amassing private information. The related software program offers visualization instruments, buffer warnings, idle station alerts, and detailed value reporting functionalities. Salco experiences that the system led to a 20% enchancment in value calculation accuracy and decreased supervisor flooring time by greater than 50%.
Asset monitoring attributes: From solely monitoring location to monitoring situation and extra
Temperature monitoring has develop into widespread. Within the late Nineteen Nineties, asset monitoring was thought-about considerably of a revolutionary growth. In 1996, US President Invoice Clinton issued a coverage directive to make GPS a dual-use system, benefiting each army and civilian customers. Later, in 2000, Clinton directed the US authorities to finish using Selective Availability, making GPS extra conscious of civil and industrial customers.
These coverage directives paved the best way for the event of GPS-based asset-tracking options for industrial functions. The primary asset-tracking options that might merely observe location value upwards of $1,000. Immediately, location monitoring is commonly a low-cost, subscription-based baseline function, with asset-tracking corporations providing further companies at varied, comparatively reasonably priced value factors. Whereas the IoT Asset Monitoring & Visibility Adoption Report 2025 breaks down median asset-tracking spending per asset by area, business, and firm measurement, the general median spending globally for asset monitoring is $110 per asset per yr throughout totally different applied sciences and property.
Additional, the report exhibits that whereas 98% of corporations observe location as a main asset attribute for not less than one asset, temperature (69%) and humidity (58%) are the second and third mostly tracked attributes. This shift has been significantly essential in sectors like prescription drugs and meals logistics, the place environmental situations straight influence product integrity.
Asset monitoring applied sciences: From easy tech to a know-how mesh
Greater than half of corporations use passive RFID and Wi-Fi to trace property, whereas barcodes and GPS stay hottest. Asset monitoring has advanced from counting on primary barcode techniques and GPS to leveraging a broad vary of monitoring applied sciences, together with IoT gadgets and sensors. Whereas 86% and 77% of respondents nonetheless use barcodes/QR codes and GPS, respectively, to trace not less than one asset sort, passive RFID (59%) and Wi-Fi (53%) have develop into the third and fourth commonest applied sciences.
For many years, GPS was the go-to resolution for monitoring long-range property like automobiles, whereas barcodes facilitated primary stock administration. Nevertheless, as companies sought extra precision and suppleness, applied sciences like RFID, Bluetooth Low Power (BLE), and Wi-Fi grew to become more and more widespread. RFID, for instance, permits contactless scanning, whereas BLE presents low-power monitoring for property in confined areas. Different applied sciences used embrace mobile, low-power wide-area (or LPWA), or UWB connectivity. Immediately, these applied sciences are sometimes mixed, permitting organizations to trace property in numerous environments. This convergence of applied sciences has led to extra correct, real-time visibility, serving to companies make smarter, data-driven selections.
Asset monitoring integration: From an remoted resolution to enterprise integration
Almost 3/4 of corporations combine their IoT asset-tracking options with ERP software program. Initially, many asset-tracking techniques operated in silos, focusing solely on monitoring property with out interacting with different enterprise functions. IoT Analytics analysis for the IoT asset monitoring and visibility report discovered that, in the present day, 74% of corporations use ERP software program to help their asset-tracking implementations for not less than one asset. Germany-based enterprise software program firm SAP’s ERP software program is essentially the most used ERP software, with 39% of respondents reporting utilizing the corporate’s options as a part of their asset-tracking tasks.
IoT asset monitoring and ERP integration occur on a number of layers. The desk under exhibits 7 typical SAP modules that get built-in with asset monitoring.
SAP module
Key causes to integration
Typical person
SAP MM (supplies administration)
To replace stock data with real-time information
Procurement/logistics
SAP EWM/WM (prolonged warehouse administration)
To trace property in massive yards or amenities
Logistics/warehouse operations
SAP TM (transportation administration)
To offer real-time GPS monitoring, supply ETAs, and route efficiency monitoring
Logistics/transportation
SAP EAM (enterprise asset administration)
To help enterprise-wide asset visibility, lifecycle monitoring, and efficiency benchmarking
Operations/upkeep
SAP PM (plant upkeep)
To set off work orders based mostly on utilization, schedule preventive upkeep, and scale back unplanned downtime
Upkeep
SAP FSM (discipline service administration)
To offer real-time asset location information to optimize technician dispatch, automate service triggers, and validate execution
Area/customer support
SAP FI-AA (monetary accounting–asset accounting)
To help selections on asset reallocation, retirement, or impairment based mostly on operational standing
Finance/accounting
Asset monitoring intelligence: From easy dashboards to AI-enabled predictions
AI-powered predictions are including the following layer of worth to IoT asset-tracking options. Asset monitoring is evolving past static dashboards and reactive monitoring into dynamic techniques pushed by AI. Immediately, AI algorithms course of real-time information from linked property to ship predictive insights—resembling estimated instances of arrival (ETA), potential delays, and upkeep wants—throughout multi-modal transportation networks. These predictions are constantly up to date as situations change, permitting companies to proactively modify logistics plans, scale back downtime, and enhance buyer communication. The shift towards AI-enabled forecasting is remodeling asset monitoring from a visibility device right into a strategic functionality for provide chain optimization.
Instance: Hapag-Lloyd rolls out AI-powered ETA monitoring throughout its container fleet
Hapag-Lloyd, a Germany-based transport and delivery firm, geared up over 1.5 million containers—90% of its world fleet—with sensible monitoring gadgets built-in into Netherlands-based location information, mapping, and navigation firm HERE Applied sciences’ AI-powered asset visibility platform. These gadgets present Hapag-Lloyd clients with real-time location information and predictive inland ETAs throughout rail, truck, and barge networks. Along with real-time monitoring, the platform contains adjustable geofencing for event-based alerts, helps post-trip analytics, and integrates with enterprise techniques by means of a standardized API. Hapag-Lloyd experiences that the system is designed to considerably enhance world provide chain visibility and allow extra proactive logistics planning.
Asset monitoring resolution distributors: From legacy suppliers to new innovators
Cloud-first gamers reshaping the IoT asset-tracking panorama. Asset monitoring has introduced up a brand new class of distributors that supply superior, versatile options, usually with a cloud-first software program providing. Outstanding hardware-centric choices within the early asset-tracking days included options from US-based asset intelligence options supplier Zebra Applied sciences and US-based diversified know-how and manufacturing firm Honeywell.
Immediately, whereas many of those legacy corporations are nonetheless in enterprise with a wider vary of monitoring options, the evolution of asset monitoring (by way of integration and the know-how used) has caused quite a few new distributors which have carved out market management of their respective segments. The report identifies a complete of 115 distributors which can be in use with the 100 enterprises surveyed for the report. One instance is US-based IoT options firm Samsara, which was based in 2015. When vendor utilization within the IoT Asset Monitoring & Visibility Adoption Report 2025, 5% of corporations have used Samsara monitoring options, which embrace conventional GPS trackers able to together with varied sensor information and Samsara Operations Platform, a cloud-based platform aimed to assist companies handle and optimize operations utilizing IoT information and real-time insights. There are dozens of different corporations which have come up lately, together with: Nexxiot, a Switzerland-based asset intelligence firm targeted on rail and intermodal logistics, based in 2015; Kinexon, a Germany-based asset monitoring options supplier targeted on industrial indoor monitoring, based in 2012; and Wiliot, an Israel-based asset-management firm that focuses on ambient IoT (battery-free IoT sensing tags), based in 2017.
Asset monitoring resolution flexibility: From inflexible to versatile, scalable techniques
Versatile pricing fashions are making enterprise asset monitoring extra scalable. Historically, excessive upfront {hardware} prices and sophisticated monolithic software program deployments restricted adoption to large-scale, high-value property. Nevertheless, lots of in the present day’s choices are extremely modular, permitting corporations so as to add or subtract property being tracked. The character of subscription-based choices lowers the barrier to entry and permits corporations to pay for what they find yourself utilizing. Based on the report, almost one-third (30%) of asset-tracking tasks at the moment are thought-about “freely scalable” with out further infrastructure prices, whereas one other 35% require solely marginal funding to scale additional. This shift permits organizations to regularly broaden their monitoring footprint—from preliminary pilots to enterprise-wide deployments—with out overhauling their techniques or breaking their budgets.
Analyst take: Enterprise IoT asset monitoring has develop into a dynamic house, however challenges stay
Through the years, IoT asset monitoring has gone from being a singular, remoted, unscalable software based mostly on one know-how to a mesh of applied sciences, many attributes, and deep enterprise integration. Using this wave of evolution are tons of of recent distributors which have cropped up over the previous few many years—a few of which have seen spectacular income progress.
That stated, the business remains to be fairly fragmented, and challenges persist. Based on the IoT Asset Monitoring & Visibility Adoption Report 2025, enterprise integration is the highest problem for adopters, and for some, the enterprise case for IoT asset monitoring adoption stays unclear.
On prime of those challenges, true end-to-end provide chain visibility remains to be uncommon. Nevertheless, within the final 3–5 years, corporations have gained traction in addressing this want, aiming to make full visibility throughout varied kinds of property and totally different distributors a actuality. One instance is US-based provide chain visibility platform supplier project44—whereas not an IoT firm, project44’s platform helps mixture information from throughout provide chains, leveraging IoT and different information to offer customers fuller insights. Nonetheless, right now, even options resembling these are restricted to particular information factors and don’t essentially enable for full provide chain visibility of a given firm, together with uncooked supplies, manufacturing logistics, and completed items.
Will we see a real know-how convergence within the coming years—the place totally different indoor and out of doors asset monitoring options throughout totally different applied sciences (e.g., barcodes, BLE, and UWB) are managed on one platform for true end-to-end visibility? Or will the business proceed to separate car options from indoor asset monitoring and warehouse options? And would be the true impact of AI?
