Seven factors inhibiting growth of IoT in Asia

This year at IoT Asia conference I witnessed some interesting discussions around key barriers to the growth and adoption of Internet of Things particularly in Asia.  It is always good to hear about the pain points , where cities and communities need to improve rather than all the good things about a transforming concept like IoT. There were open discussions and forums which involved corporates, government leaders and community representatives who actively voiced out realistic factors inhibiting the adoption of IoT both by businesses and consumers.

My aim of highlighting some of these today is to understand from you whether any of them is particularly critical in your market and what are you doing to overcome it.

Here are some factors in no specific order-

1. Leadership is putting too much emphasis on technology. It's a myth that new technology is the most difficult step in transformation. Business leaders have to lead digital innovation and shift their focus from technology to business and people transformation. IoT brings with it a change in ecosystem and if leaders get it right they will see the improvement in their business and operational processes.
2. A huge gap is seen in people skill sets who can deliver IoT services. It is partially because of lack of investment in building capabilities and collaborating with higher learning institutes to train and recognize talent who can work with government bodies and companies to address problems using IoT. Charles Reed Anderson from IDC Asia Pacific pointed out during his keynote that we especially need more people who can talk to both IT and Operation Technology (OT) to bridge the divide between the two. 
3. Enforcement of well defined privacy policies and security issues still remain a significant concern. When we are sensing a lot of information, consumers and employees are getting worried. According to a recent survey conducted by online authentication provider Auth0, 52% of consumers and 90% of developers say they don’t believe IoT devices – and, by extension, their personal info – are secure enough.
4. Lack of collaborative ecosystem. Government and corporate vendors cannot achieve it alone. Collaboration with other cities, agencies and startups is key.

• Vendors should partner and approach businesses with full stack solutions rather than just addressing a component of it.
• Mike Saunders from DigitLab emphasized on how consumers have become 'play'-sumers. They want to build things together. Thus we should involve citizens in smart city initiatives which in turn will give way to a horizontal approach of doing IoT projects.
• Increase in cooperation between government and private companies is necessary. A win- win model with incentives around grants and research work for companies to participate is one such way.
• I also recently wrote about how IoTSG is bringing a collaborative approach to Asia. A good example to learn from.
• Another one  that stands out is Intel's Innovate 50 event- wherein they partner with key organizations like Ministry of Education in Singapore, SPRING, A*STAR, Infocomm Research and are guiding youth to build IoT projects and participate in such maker's events from a young age.

5. Low infrastructure, poor end to end planning and delivery, budget constraints with no capital expenditure and lack of robust platforms are blocking big IoT vision from turning into practicality.

6. For some cities which are starting from scratch, 'Where to Invest' is a challenge. Should government focus on Smart Environment, Smart Living or Smart Education etc, what should they prioritize with the limited resources ?

7. Lack of Standardization and Interoperability also pose concerns. A June 2015 McKinsey report estimates that 40% to 60% of IoT’s total economic value per year won’t be realized unless interoperability challenges are solved. Vishal Bhardwaj from Tech Mahindra, shared an example of how creating a homogeneous environment with data coming from heterogeneous components for real time command centres was a big challenge in one of the smart electricity project. 

Thus IoT seems to be a far fetched dream especially among consumer adoption. However collaborative approach, unconventional thinking, leadership sponsorship and changed perspectives can accelerate its growth. 

Don't forget to share your thoughts on the above as I want to learn from you on these different aspects. Also if you think its a worthwhile read, share and discuss it with your communities.