While much of the discussion around 5G has centered on consumer devices, enterprises are looking towards the tremendous impact the technology can have on their ability to serve customers and the bottom line. Not only are most companies (97 percent) aware of the benefits of 5G, but 95 percent are already strategically planning how they will take advantage of this next generation of wireless connectivity to power core business initiatives from new services, to IoT and smart ecosystems.

The Oracle Communications study, "5G Smart Ecosystems Are Transforming the Enterprise - Are You Ready?," surveyed 265 enterprise IT and business decision makers at medium and large enterprises globally in December, 2018 to find out how businesses are thinking about 5G today and its potential significance moving forward.

"Enterprises clearly want to capitalize on the promise of 5G, however, to be successful, IT and business leaders must avoid thinking of 5G as just another ‘G,' and should instead consider it as an enabler to the smart ecosystem we have long talked about," said Doug Suriano, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications. "This means asking the right questions at the outset, and considering how 5G can help enable upcoming solutions, what timeframe should be considered and how will they will procure and use 5G capabilities as part of their business evolution."

Born in the cloud, 5G will have the ability to enable enterprises to provision or "slice" core pieces of their networks to power mission-critical new offerings and smart ecosystems. This can range from anything to providing the highest speed connections for life-saving 911 services, to enabling autonomous vehicles to communicate with each other quickly; to ensuring IoT devices in smart factories are providing real-time information on the health of machines and assets. 

Outside specific initiatives, respondents believe 5G will have a wide-spread impact across their business, including increasing employee productivity (86 percent), reducing costs (84 percent), enhancing customer experience (83 percent), and improving agility (83 percent). Business decision makers are most focused on quality of experience the technology will bring, while IT is concerned with network speed and resiliency.

Unleashing the Promise of 5G Ecosystems in the Enterprise

When it comes to 5G, enterprise are most focused on:

• Unlocking the potential of IoT: Beyond initial benefits such as speed and quality of experience, 84 percent of respondents feel that 5G networks will be transformative and have a lasting impact on the way their companies do business. Another 73 percent agree the IoT will be revolutionized by 5G networks and 68 percent feel it will be transformative to their customers.
• Monetizing new services: Eighty-percent expect 5G to generate new revenue streams for their business. Forty-one percent of the respondents would deploy new monetization solutions specifically for 5G services alongside existing systems, while thirty-four percent say they would replace their existing systems with a single, converged solution for all services. Just about one in five (22 percent) said they will utilize and extend existing monetization solutions with 5G.
• Experience and efficiencies: Eighty-four percent of respondents agree that 5G networks will be transformative and have a lasting impact on the way their companies do business. While business respondents are focused on the quality of experience improvements made possible by 5G, IT respondents care more about the network technologies and the internal efficiencies 5G may enable.
• Security: While excited about the potential of 5G, both business and IT respondents cited security as a top priority. 51% of respondents ranked security as their highest concern.

Oracle's survey also explored 5G's potential role in solutions as varied as live streaming, industrial automation, smart homes and buildings, connected vehicles, immersive gaming, augmented and virtual reality. To learn more, click here to access the report or infographic.