A survey by Honeywell found that the majority of medium-to-large organisations in the UAE (68%) and Saudi Arabia (66%) believe that Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies are critical to business operations, or will become critical in the next five years.
The study, “IIoT Market Spotlight-UAE & Saudi Arabia,” in partnership with YouGov and IDC, analysed the views of approximately 250 C-level executives at companies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia across the buildings and cities, transport and logistics and industrial sectors. The report gauged their perceptions, degree of implementation and investment outlook on IIoT-enabled technologies and digitalisation initiatives within their organisations.
“Digitalisation initiatives and Industrial Internet of Things technologies are revolutionising the way companies across the Middle East operate, by connecting disparate systems across industrial operations to derive previously untapped information that can drive new growth,” said Norm Gilsdorf, president for Honeywell, High Growth Regions, Middle East, Russia and Customs Union.
“Our survey reflects a strong and growing appetite to embrace digitalization across UAE and Saudi Arabia. Our customers are generating more data from increasingly connected operations, and are asking for technologies to aggregate this data and convert it into insights that drive profitability,” added Gilsdorf. “Through the right combination of hardware, software, analytics and cybersecurity, these companies are poised to realize the gains Industry 4.0 has to offer.”
Increasing the performance of operations was highlighted as a main benefit by survey respondents currently leveraging IIoT solutions in both countries (UAE 50% and Saudi Arabia 51%). Time savings came in second as a key benefit (UAE 48% and Saudi Arabia 50%) and increased revenues came third (UAE 28% and Saudi Arabia 38%).
Almost half of companies are already investing in IIoT today: In the UAE, 46% of decision-makers surveyed say their companies are already investing either moderately or heavily in IIoT, with 40% of organizations in Saudi Arabia reporting similar investment.
A majority of companies surveyed plan to increase IIoT investments in the next five years: In the UAE, 72% of the decision-makers say their companies will increase investments in IIoT, with 64% of organizations in Saudi Arabia reporting a similar outlook.
Cybersecurity will become more critical: Executives also report a growing appetite for investments in cybersecurity solutions in the next five years in both the UAE (75%) and Saudi Arabia (68%).
Fears over data security, budget issues and staff training are holding firms back: Data protection (39%) and a lack of funding (37%) are deemed to be the main challenges to IIoT adoption in the UAE. While a lack of digital culture (50%) and a lack of qualified staff and training (46%) are cited as key hurdles in Saudi Arabia.
