Possibility of global IoT leadership
Anna Nikitina, head of the STEP LOGIC Innovative Solutions division, shared her opinion about the study called "Internet of Things in Russia: Digital Consumption Funnel" commissioned by Schneider Electric and "Platforma" CSD.
Anna Nikitina, head of the STEP LOGIC Innovative Solutions division
According to this study, the overall volume of the Russian IoT market may exceed 80 billion roubles by 2020. The expected annual growth is about 7 to 8 percent. This study included top management of large Russian companies in oil in gas sector, banking, telecommunications, healthcare, agriculture, housing and utilities and six more key industries of the Russian economic system. The experts believe that Russia may become one of the global leaders in the market of IoT solutions for oil and gas sector, petrochemical industry and metallurgy.
Anna Nikitina believes that it is very difficult to fairly assess the market at the moment. "Undoubtedly, there is a growth trend: we witness our clients grow, and IoT solutions have become one of the primary drivers of the sales. Our company's portfolio of innovative solutions is expanding. The overall cost cutbacks then makes the clients to consider ways to automate and optimise their technological workflows and business process. There are more and more real-life cases. However, the IoT market in our country is still a green field, and since we don't have many real cases, it is hard for the clients to believe that these solutions are economically viable.
Speaking of technologies, our market is rapidly growing, and we often have solutions more adapted for real-use conditions in Russia, at a competitive price. The primary task of an integrator is to offer the optimum solution to the customer based on global expertise and complement Russian and foreign technologies with our own in-house solutions. That's the only way to find the "happy middle ground" in each individual case.
Our country has one of the leading places in extraction and processing of raw materials. However, becoming a global leader in the IoT area would require great efforts and significant investments. I don't think it may happen in near future. Speaking of the industry in general, the overall level of the Russian manufacturing enterprises is significantly lower than in many other countries. On the other hand, the business climate is generally positive, companies are prone to adapt innovations, and the interest is growing. Some solutions that had required long discussions two years ago are now self-evident, and they become a base for complex integration projects.
Russian IoT market has a number of specific traits compared to the Western market: our customers are only concerned about increasing the efficiency while their foreign counterparts have to look through a broader lens and pay more attention to saving human resources and to make the manufacturing environment-friendly. Let me put it this way: so far it is more difficult to sell the IoT solutions."
Source: ComNews