Half of Maltese businesses quick to adopt IoT, Tech.mt survey shows

Over the last decade, IoT has evolved from an emerging technology to one of the world’s most in demand tech verticals. IoT as a technology has been maturing over the past few years and seems poised for continued growth in Malta. This growth is expected to be driven by specific sectors such as transportation and logistics, telecommunications, and gaming. However, other sectors such as retail, security, finance, and manufacturing are also responding positively to this increased growth.

The 2021 landmark study commissioned by Tech.mt suggests that locally, advancements have already been made with more than half of the surveyed businesses adopting such technologies. With the expected growth of IoT demand, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), and the imminent roll-out of fifth generation (5G) wireless, the subject matter of the report is critical for change and innovation within the local business community.

The report aims to shed light on how IoT is paving the way for businesses to redefine the way they manufacture or design products, optimise processes, and enable enhanced sales, while at the same time increase awareness of its adoption among Maltese businesses. As part of Tech.mt’s mission in forming Malta’s national objectives for the adoption of emerging technologies such as IoT, the report aims to provide further insight from local businesses on the diverse application of IoT across multiple sectors of the economy.

More particularly, the report investigates areas such as sectoral relevance, willingness to invest, barriers or challenges, effectiveness on business operations, and insights to actual industry applications.

Key findings of the report include:

60% of surveyed companies that use IoT experienced the benefits in less than a year.

83% of surveyed companies who use IoT integrate it with other technologies such as data analytics, AI, and cloud.

21% of surveyed companies that do not use IoT are planning to deploy within 6 to 24 months.

26% of the surveyed companies that use IoT deployed this technology in 2020.

The report highlights multiple benefits to the deployment of IoT but also identifies key roadblocks for IoT. In fact, barriers related to lack of knowledge, costs, security issues, and uncertain returns on investment need to be addressed to capture the true value of IoT. As evidently highlighted in the report, approximately two thirds of companies who do not use IoT said that they need more awareness and funding on such technologies.

While there is anecdotal evidence that Malta has also enjoyed steady growth and industry adoption throughout the years, more work is needed to foster further industry adoption in this sphere.

“By addressing such issues and enticing more investment in IoT, Malta can continue to foster even greater growth and adoption in IoT in the years to come,” Dana Farrugia, CEO of Tech.mt, said.

“This can potentially help in bolstering Malta’s economy and cementing the technology sector as one of the strongest pillars of the Maltese economy.”