26 September 2017

The IoT will give businesses a competitive advantage, but for that to happen they need to have the correct skill sets in place, says Inmarsat’s Paul Gudonis.

The success of Internet of Things deployments and data security are under threat because of a lack of IoT skills at different levels in enterprises, warns Inmarsat.

As part of its The Future of IoT in Enterprise – 2017 report, the global satcoms provider interviewed 500 senior IT decision makers from major organisations across the EMEA, Americas and APAC regions.

Among the results, the report found that 72 per cent of respondents identified a shortage of staff with management-level experience of IoT deployments, and 80 per cent lacked skills in the hands-on delivery of IoT solutions to ensure that they would work as intended.

Inmarsat says these shortages extend to specific technical disciplines: 60 per cent reported that they needed additional staff experienced in cyber security to handle the vast quantities of data that IoT solutions generate; 46 per cent identified a deficit of staff with experience in analytics and data science; and 48 per cent lacked the technical support skills needed to make their IoT projects successful.

“Unless this skills deficit is properly addressed, there’s a risk that IoT projects will fail and that businesses will open themselves up to new security threats, putting an unwelcome brake on innovation.” says Paul Gudonis, president, Inmarsat Enterprise Business Unit.

“Enterprises must therefore move quickly to upskill their existing staff and fill the gaps in their internal skillsets with new hires.”

For the longer term, Gudonis believes the focus needs to be on establishing strategic partnerships with IoT specialists.