Dubai, UAE: In its latest report, titled ‘The Role of the CIO in Integrating IIoT for Industrial Companies’, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has referred to studies that show that by 2020, companies will likely spend USD 1.7 trillion a year on the combined industrial and consumer Internet of Things (IoT). The report will be launched at the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit, which will be held at the Paris-Sorbonne Abu Dhabi, UAE, from March 27 to 30, 2017.

A press release in the PwC website has said that another report – PwC Industry 4.0 Survey – has found that industrial companies are planning to commit approximately USD 907 billion annually to their Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) initiatives. Those companies, it added, expect USD 421 billion in cost reductions and USD 493 billion in increased revenues annually from the implementation of IIoT, with 55% expecting a payback within two years.

With such massive investments, the Chief Information Officer’s (CIO’s) role in defining a company’s strategy has become more important than ever, said the auditing company.

The sheer size of the IIOT opportunity, which PwC says far outweighs all expectations of the consumer oriented IoT, means that CIOs will have to take centre stage in leading a digital transformation that aligns strategy and technology with the manufacturing environment and the manufactured product.

Commenting on the report, Dr Anil Khurana, Partner, Strategy & Innovation at PwC Middle East and the report’s lead author, said: “The IIoT will place huge demands on the CIO. It is indeed an opportunity that few will want to miss. First-mover status is critical to gaining a competitive edge as companies begin moving en masse to reap the benefit of digitization. Our research into the IIoT domain suggests that CIOs take six important steps towards their companies’ future digital transformation, which has been outlined at length in the report. These steps include key elements such as the development of a digital strategy, building capabilities and eventually, initiating pilot programmes.”

To read the entire press release, click here. To read ‘The Role of the CIO in Integrating IIoT for Industrial Companies’, visit this link.