Manufacturers in the Middle East and Africa will increase their spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) by 16 per cent year-on-year from this year running up to a total of more than $1.2 billion, a report says.

International Data Corporation (IDC), a market research, analysis and advisory firm, said a major factor to this growth is the continuous demand for fast moving consumer goods in the region, which has encouraged manufacturers to invest largely on smart technologies to increase productivity and enhance efficiency.

In the context of the findings, the Sharjah Tatweer Forum (STF) highlighted the significance of IoT which it said played an important role in the move to help advance and promote entrepreneurial innovation in the emirate.

The increased IoT spending will cover key processes like food traceability, maintenance and field services, manufacturing operations, and production asset management, the IDC report said. 

Meanwhile, another related report from KPMG entitled the “2016 Global Transformation Study” shows that business leaders understand the importance of investing in continual business transformation. It reveals that a large number of businesses are now in the midst of business transformation planning or execution or have already implemented a transformation programme in the past two years. 

“The emergence of IoT has ushered us further into the future where computing devices, mechanical and digital machines can now be interrelated no matter how remotely distant they are from one another,” said Jassem Albloushi, chairman, STF. “The Sharjah Tatweer Forum understands the significance of IoT and the important role it will play in the move to drive in more growth and development for Sharjah. We remain steadfast in our commitment to actively promote entrepreneurial leadership and innovation by utilising IoT and leveraging its advantages and benefits to our members and their businesses.”

The STF arranges several opportunities for its members to interact with pioneers in the technology sector and learn more about best practices that can help accelerate adoption of this advanced technology, further utilising it as an effective tool towards the smart transformation. The young leaders continuously meet senior officials from leading IT companies like Twitter, Netflix, UC Berkeley, 500 Startups, Silicon Valley, Nordic Innovation, SAP Innovation Centre, etc.