Transport companies lack skills to get the most out of IoT data

Many transport businesses lack the skills and data-sharing processes required to extract maximum value from IoT data , according to a new survey.

In the research, carried out by Vanson Bourne, respondents from 100 large transport companies across the world were interviewed for satellite comms specialist Inmarsat’s The Future of IoT in Enterprise 2017 report.

The study found that while the transportation sector has high hopes for the data generated by IoT solutions, there are a number of challenges to overcome, in order to unlock its full value, with many organizations lacking the skills and processes needed to do so.

According to the research, over half will use IoT to monitor environmental changes (54 percent) and speed up time to market (48 percent). Forty-four percent will use it to better manage their assets, and 28 percent will use it to monitor and improve health and safety.

But, at the same time, one in four respondents stated that they would need additional analytical/data science skills to successfully deliver IoT, and in over half (55 per cent) of cases, data gathered through IoT solutions was not shared throughout the organisation, being instead restricted to departments directly related to IoT development and deployment.

Data windfall

Mike Holdsworth, director of transport at Inmarsat Enterprise, said that the transport sector stands to be one of the primary beneficiaries from the windfall of data coming its way from IoT.

“Data generated by sensors placed on cargo, vehicles, employees and places, has the potential to fuel a revolution in the sector. But while the industry has long leveraged passenger data to dynamically manage routing and calculate fuel requirements, many of our transport respondents haven’t yet mastered their approach to the data generated by connected things,” he said.

Holdsworth added that experimentation and innovation with IoT can only ignite when the right people can see the data generated by sensors and apply it to their specific challenges.

“However, in half of cases in the transport sector, access to IoT data is restricted to departments directly related to the deployment. This is a missed opportunity and suggests that many transport companies may be limiting the scope of their transformations,” he added.