SG IoT Projects Get COVID-19 Boost
Eighty-six percent of Singapore companies are accelerating IoT projects because of the pandemic, while the percentage saw IoT rising in their list of priorities. The average Asia Pacific adoption rate was 38%.
These were the conclusions of the Vodafone Business’ IoT Spotlight 2020 report that surveyed more than 1,600 respondents across 13 markets, including Singapore, China, South Korea, Japan, and India.
The report showed that business leaders see the value in IoT projects during the pandemic to drive innovation and build a competitive advantage.
Within Singapore, the top benefits experienced by companies that have already implemented IoT products/solutions are:
- Improved productivity (60%);
- Reduced operating costs (52%);
- Improvement of existing revenue streams (35%); and
- The creation of new revenue streams (25%)
Those who adopted IoT are now reaping its economic rewards.
Among Asia-Pacific companies that have reduced costs thanks to IoT, almost three quarters (73%) reported savings of at least 30%.
IoT also helped 74% of IoT adopters in Singapore decrease their operational cost by nearly a third.
Not every country in the region shares the same appetite for IoT.
Nearly half (49%) of companies in Singapore and India have already deployed some form of IoT. But less than a third (31%) of companies in Japan are doing so.
In terms of use cases, 92% of South Korean adopters say their IoT projects are mission-critical, compared to 54% in Japan.
Despite the increased uptake, IoT adoption also faces significant challenges.
According to the report, the critical barriers to IoT adoption in Asia-Pacific were operational factors such as budgets and financial constraints and a lack of certainty about how it can help the organization.
To overcome this, 63% of businesses in the region (compared to 56% globally) consider working with communication service providers to create a stronger business case for IoT projects.
On the other hand, few were concerned about technical issues, such as the complexity of solutions and lack of relevant ‘off the shelf’ products.
Less than one in five (19%) of Asia-Pacific respondents noted cybersecurity among the potential barriers to adopting IoT solutions, compared to just a year ago, when cybersecurity was one of the main obstacles to business’ willingness to adopt IoT.
“The promise of IoT hasn’t dimmed in Asia-Pacific amid the COVID-19 outbreak. In fact, it’s been accelerated. Thanks to 5G, IoT as a technology has evolved from simple monitoring and sensing to being able to take active control in real-time. This opens up a new world of possibilities and benefits that businesses here are just as eager, if not more so than their global peers, to realize. We are excited to see organizations in APAC kickstarting their IoT journey and gaining the means to create a future-ready business,” said Justin Nelson, head of IoT consulting at Vodafone Asia-Pacific.
Image credit: iStockphoto/structuresxx
