According to new data, skills shortages are putting the brakes on industrial IoT adoption, inhibiting the effectiveness of IoT deployments across businesses.

Communication firm Inmarsat‘s report – Industrial IoT in the Time of Covid – claims that organisations need to do more to upskill, bring in new talent or work with outsourcers with the requisite skills.

According to the research, based on interviews with 450 global respondents across the agriculture, electrical utilities, mining, oil and gas, and transport and logistics sectors, organisations don’t always have the skills they need to fully utilise their IoT projects.

A lack of in-house skills remains the top barrier to IoT deployment for well over a third (37%) of all respondents in the study. In terms of the specific skill sets businesses need, half (50%) of all respondents stated that they lacked cyber-security talent, closely followed by a need for additional staff with experience and skills in data science and analytics (49%), technical support (48%) and connectivity technology (47%).

Many businesses also lack the strategic IoT skills needed in the C-suite or senior leadership team to fully integrate IoT into their overall business strategies, with less than a third (32%) of respondents claiming to have all the skills needed at this level.

Underlining the importance of having a strategic approach to IoT at leadership level and the right policies in place to support this, the research shows those organisations with a formal IoT strategy have far more support for IoT at board level (47%, compared to only 19% of those without one).

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Commenting on the findings, Mike Carter, President of Inmarsat Enterprise said: “Our latest research shows, despite strong levels of IoT adoption across the board, skills shortages continue to be the top barrier to industrial IoT adoption.

“It is particularly concerning to note that, amongst those organisations lacking specific skills, almost half are missing security, data science and connectivity technology skills. To help plug these fundamental IoT skills gaps, more businesses need to develop formal IoT strategies, to prioritise IoT at the boardroom level and to develop better relationships with IoT service providers.”

Carter added: “For IoT to be a sustained success, access to the relevant skill sets is needed at all levels. Without all these skill sets in place, businesses will continue to struggle to make the best use of the data they gather, to integrate IoT projects into the wider organisation and benefit from the transformative role that IoT can play in the global supply chain.

“If organisations do not have the resources to plug these skills gaps internally, they must look to external partners to provide the necessary skills.

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