South African businesses have embraced IOT but adoption is hindered by a lack of clarity among stakeholders on digital transformation plans.

This is according to Hitachi Vantara MD Alexander Jenewein, who adds that IOT is actually prioritised above other focus areas such as robotics and artificial intelligence.

Speaking at a roundtable event held recently in Johannesburg, Jenewein said, "In South Africa, the appetite for IOT is growing, and many businesses have established a transformation charter. Yet the adoption of IOT is still fairly slow because stakeholders aren't clear on the outcomes of their digital transformation plan."

According to the company 33% of global business executives list IOT as a technological priority, but businesses remain frustrated by how to benefit from this technology.

"We still often find that businesses feel the need to implement an IOT system without first establishing the business value," said Jenewein.

He added that businesses should start implementing technology solutions with actual business outcomes in mind. "Hitachi Vantara's recent rebrand is uniquely positioned to take businesses on their digital transformation journeys."

Hitachi Vantara offers analytics, industrial expertise, and technology it claims helps businesses to find the hidden value in data that reveals the path to intelligent innovation.

This new company unifies the operations of Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and Pentaho into a single integrated business aimed at capitalising on Hitachi's social innovation capability in both operational technologies (OT) and information technologies (IT).

In October 2017 at the Hitachi Group's Social Innovation Forum 2017 in Milan, Toshiaki Higashihara, President and CEO of the Hitachi Group, explained the relevance of Vantara, the rebrand initiative as well as Lumada, a software platform developed with the Insight Group and focused on IOT.

"Hitachi is striving to become an innovation partner in the IOT era, through the global rollout of Lumada, using our expertise in OT and IT. We believe that it is possible to create and provide digital solutions that will resolve the issues faced by customers," said Higashihara.

At the same time Hitachi Vantara said it would focus initially on IOT solution and service delivery to South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.

"The strategy is to help customers unlock the value of data to improve profits, gain better customer insight and loyalty, and provide new insights enabling them to develop new revenue streams," said Jenewein at the time.