The term Internet of Things was coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton, cofounder of the Auto-ID Center, an RFID research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. IoT is about intelligent devices talking to enterprise apps. Its important to focus on the basic building blocks as the success of an IOT initiative depends on them. However, you must overcome  challenges before the IoT can be fully realized. A lack of unified standards , Complexity are some of the challenges. If you're starting from scratch, it's important to ask, "What's the No. 1 business problem you want to solve?" Once that's answered, it's time to look at the systems you need to connect and the capabilities you must put in place. The most important point is to bring your structures and unstructured data together in a meaningful way. 

Read more here- http://www.cmswire.com/internet-of-things/get-ready-for-the-iot/