A majority of medium-to-large organisations in the UAE (68 percent) and Saudi Arabia (66 percent) believe that Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies are critical to business operations, or will become critical in the next five years, according to the recent industry report.
The study conducted by Honeywell in partnership with YouGov and IDC titled, “IIoT Market Spotlight – UAE & Saudi Arabia”, analyses 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 features insights from interviews with executives to gauge their perceptions, degree of implementation and investment outlook on IIoT-enabled technologies and digitalisation initiatives within their organisations.
Norm Gilsdorf, president for Honeywell, High Growth Regions, Middle East, Russia and Customs Union, commented: “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.
“Our survey reflects a strong and growing appetite to embrace digitalisation 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. Through the right combination of hardware, software, analytics and cybersecurity, these companies are poised to realise the gains Industry 4.0 has to offer,” added Gilsdorf.
Increasing the performance of operations was highlighted as a main benefit by survey respondents currently leveraging IIoT solutions in both countries (UAE 50 percent and Saudi Arabia 51 percent).
Time savings came in second as a key benefit (UAE 48 percent and Saudi Arabia 50 percent) and increased revenues came third (UAE 28 percent and Saudi Arabia 38 percent).
The report also found that almost half of companies are already investing in IIoT today: in the UAE, 46 percent of decision-makers surveyed say their companies are already investing either moderately or heavily in IIoT, with 40 percent of organisations 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 percent of the decision-makers say their companies will increase investments in IIoT, with 64 percent of organisations in Saudi Arabia reporting a similar outlook.
The Honeywell study also highlighted that executives report a growing appetite for investments in cybersecurity solutions in the next five years in both the UAE (75 percent) and Saudi Arabia (68 percent).
As part of its commitment to advancing digital transformation in the region, Honeywell has launched two innovation and knowledge-exchange hubs in the UAE in the past year. The Company will also open a new training and knowledge-sharing hub for IIoT technologies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, representing continued significant investment and commitment to digitalisation efforts.
The Company also established the Honeywell Industrial Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Dubai last year.
