Kenya leads Africa as an early adopter of machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies, with uptake more prevalent than for other enterprise solutions including videoconferencing and cloud computing, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
The IDC’s recent Middle East and Africa (MEA) Enterprise Communications Survey revealed 50 per cent of Kenyan survey respondents had already deployed M2M technologies, while a further 27 per cent intended to within the next three years.
While Kenyan enterprises are using M2M-enabled vending machines, security monitoring and fleet management, advanced M2M applications such as smart metering, pay-as-you-drive insurance and intelligence building are not gaining as much traction due to a number of capacity-related reasons.
“[The lack of uptake of advanced M2M technologies] is due to the numerous inherent complexities involved when attempting to implement and manage such advanced M2M technologies,” said Mervin Miemoukanda, a senior research analyst for telecommunications, software and IT services at IDC South Africa.
“Likewise, the shortage of IT personnel and the limited service capabilities of providers are hampering the deployment of such technologies within enterprise IT environments.”
Service providers’ support offerings as well as their international reach are proving critical factors to the decision to adopt M2M communications in Kenya, the IDC said.
“As there are lots of cross-border trades between Kenya and other East African countries, IDC advises Kenyan service providers to demonstrate that they have strong cross-border communication capabilities,” Miemoukanda said.
“There is no doubt that strong cross-border communication capabilities can be a critical source of competitive advantage for Kenyan service providers.”
The IDC advised both service providers and enterprise customers alike to engage to determine needs and expectations regarding implementation of M2M offerings.
“As Kenyan companies become increasingly comfortable with M2M technologies, service providers need to serve up strong network, device, and application support for their enterprise customers,” Miemoukanda said.
“To achieve this, service providers need to partner with other M2M providers and engage more closely with their enterprise customers in order to better understand their requirements. This will help them provide superior customer service, thereby augmenting their overall customer satisfaction rates.”
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