Don’t forget to train the rest of the IoT value chain

If Malaysia’s Asean Data Analytics Exchange (ADAX) aims to produce 20,000 data professionals (10% of them data scientists) by 2020, having already produced 1,000 data professionals and 200 data scientists last year, how many IoT professionals must Malaysia produce to support that number?

If we look at the IoT value chain, we must consider the people working in the areas of the chipset, devices, middleware (cloud), system integration and applications and if assume one professional per area, we need 5 people (minimum) to support 1 data professional. That will add up to 100K IoT professionals to be trained by 2020. It looks like a realistic figure, but how many of them will be from the University. Let’s assume 10 local universities in Malaysia are focusing on training this 100K, it will be around 10K for the next 3 years?

Thus, while we are so hyped up with the number of data professionals, we shouldn’t forget the rest of the value chain that’s responsible for developing new products, connecting the devices, collecting data and build IoT applications. Without them, we simply can’t turn Malaysia into an IoT hub for the Region.

However, Universities can’t be the only ones that shoulder the responsibilities of producing IoT professionals. We must also train the professionals that are already working now.

About the Author

Dr. Mazlan Abbas is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of FAVORIOT Sdn Bhd. He is an IOT Evangelist and a Thought Leader. He received an award as 50 Most Impactful Smart Cities Leaders by World CSR 2017. He is ranked No. 20th Thought Leader in IOT by 2014 Onalytics Report – “The Internet of Things – Top 100 Thought Leaders”, ranked Top 10 in IoT Top 100 Influencers by Postscapes 2016/2017, ranked Top 100 in Smart Cities Top Experts by Agilience Authority Index May 2016. You can reach him on LinkedIn or Twitter. Check all his presentation slides HERE.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said the Industry 4.0 was critical to boost the industrial and economic growth and for Malaysia’s economy to reach RM2 trillion target within the next eight years as announced recently by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Will this be another hype? Will it face similar skepticism as Smart Cities development in Malaysia? Will it go beyond than just Strategies, Blueprints and Frameworks?

How do you jumpstart IoT?  One thing that you can do is by getting a company as big as Siemens AG to announce that it will be providing some €100 million (RM468.85 million) worth of software grants to local universities and colleges to boost re-skilling and increase training capabilities in preparation for the next industrial age in Malaysia.

“We offered to the (Malaysian) Prime Minister yesterday that Siemens can provide first-class help in establishing software tools for the industrial Internet to be applied to areas of manufacturing like Industrie 4.0, and will willingly grant the sum of €100 million worth of software to universities and colleges so that the young generation can learn to simulate in the virtual world of manufacturing,” its president and chief executive officer (CEO) Joe Kaeser said in a statement on April 14, 2017 recently.

This is a welcoming news to the whole IoT industry. Nothing moves without proper investment. The industry needs a boost, need to get its feet off the ground, need to act fast – and that amount of €100 million is a real “energy pill.”

There is 3 key success factors Industry 4.0 can realize IoT in Malaysia faster than Smart Cities:

1. Survivability – If SMEs in Malaysia want to compete and remain relevant, there is no other way but to introduce cyber-physical technology such IoT, Big Data Analytics, and automation. With the rising costs of resources and challenging economic situation, the only way to ensure sustainability is to reduce operational costs and increase productivity.
2. Stakeholders – Unlike smart cities deployment that needs to go through multiple stakeholders, the introduction of Industry 4.0 to their manufacturing facilities are made by the smaller individual companies. The criticality and urgency of their situation far surpass the life of a city.
3. Scale – SMEs are far smaller than a city. Thus, any implementation is less risky and have better control. Build small but think big.

When Siemens AG plan to introduce Industry 4.0 to the Universities and Colleges, it shows that education is essential and must start at the very early stage to produce a new generation of engineers and software developers.

About the Author

Dr. Mazlan Abbas is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of FAVORIOT Sdn Bhd. He is an IOT Evangelist and a Thought Leader. He received an award as 50 Most Impactful Smart Cities Leaders by World CSR 2017. He is ranked No. 20th Thought Leader in IOT by 2014 Onalytics Report – “The Internet of Things – Top 100 Thought Leaders”, ranked Top 10 in IoT Top 100 Influencers by Postscapes 2016/2017, ranked Top 100 in Smart Cities Top Experts by Agilience Authority Index May 2016. You can reach him on LinkedIn or Twitter. Check all his presentation slides HERE.