Dive Brief:

• A new study by CRM provider Salesforce found that wearable technology in the enterprise is strategic to business success when it comes to performance. 

• In the survey, 79% of wearables adopters agree that wearables are or will be strategic to their company's future success, and 76% report improvements in business performance since deploying wearables in the enterprise. 

•  Also, 86% of adopters plan to increase their wearables spending over the next 12 months, while use of wearables across the enterprise is expected to triple in the next two years.

Dive Insight:

The research report, titled, "Putting Wearables to Work: Insights on Wearable Technology in Business," notes that as one of tech’s hottest segments, wearables now are seen as a strategic platform for improving business performance and are an expanding area of investment by employers.

According to Salesforce Research, the study also demonstrates how adopters of wearables are planning to incorporate wearables into day-to-day business processes to improve productivity and connectivity among employees and customers alike.

Smartwatches will have the biggest impact and the quickest adoption rate in the enterprise among those surveyed, as 62% are "using, piloting or planning to use smartwatches in the enterprise in the next two years." Other wearable tech includes digital lanyards and smart glasses, to transact payments or provide real-time field service data respectively.

For example, smartwatches can help sale professionals do a better job. If a sales team works remotely or on-the-go, the reps can use natural language speech input to send information directly from the smartwatch to a CRM system. Or, customer service reps with smartwatches in a retail setting can be alerted for key customer preferences, allowing them to deliver a "high-touch, highly personalized experience."