Cisco keeps close watch on Asean as Internet of Things gains prominence

“We had some workshops with some companies in the Asean region, for example Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, about three months ago on trial solutions. We wanted to look into those companies and see who wanted to take the next step,” Wim Elfrink, executive vice president for industry solutions and chief globalisation officer of Cisco, told The Nation last week in Chicago. 

Among Asean governments, Malaysia appears to be the most keen on the adoption of IoT to create and accelerate smart cities connected with this technology. 

“We are exploring an opportunity in Thailand, particularly after the military-led government announced that the future of the country is going to be driven by the digital economy,” Elfrink said.  

The Thai government aims to convert this vision into reality through a Digital Economy Act that will be proposed to the National Legislative Assembly by the end of the year. 

Elfrink acknowledged that government leadership was very crucial for IoT adoption in the country. 

To make IoT application possible, five elements must be put in place. They are thought leadership, a well-prepared information-technology ecosystem, IT partners, smart regulation, and public-private partnerships.

“Apart from government [plans] to build smart-city projects, we see a huge potential in manufacturing, oil and gas, as there are many rapid developments in those areas,” Elfrink added.

Cisco Systems is working very closely with Thai companies but he said he could not reveal details.

According to a recent survey conducted by the company, about 95 per cent of 230 top executives polled were planning to deploy IoT within three years, while 63 per cent said they would fall behind competitively without the technology. Additionally, 58 per cent of those respondents said they needed government to further adoption of this technology.

IoT investments in manufacturing, the public sector, transport, retail, oil and gas, utilities, and metals and mining are expected to grow in the next couple of years to improve business performance. 

The talent development to meet this new demand driven by IoT adoption is considerable for industry and the public sector, said Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, vice president and general manager for Cisco Services. 

She said that to respond to this increasing demand, an Industry Talent Consortium had been introduced to address this major skills gap along with an IoT reference model to help provide developers and the community with a standardised procedure for bringing new technologies on board.

Cisco says it has more than 10,000 online students globally in its network academy related to this technology, including some in Thailand.