Internet of Things investment will support Lebanon's IT market growing to LBP 820 billion by 2019, and will transform daily lives and businesses, industry experts announced during the recent SmartEx Lebanon exhibition.
Lebanon's nationwide digital transformation, guided by the Lebanon 2020 Digital Telecom Vision, which is seeing USD 600 million invested in fixed and 5G mobile broadband, is laying the foundation for the Internet of Things era. As a result, BMI Research shows Lebanon's IT market will grow at 10 percent CAGR to LBP 820 billion in 2019.
By connecting people, objects, and devices to the cloud and networks, Lebanon's organizations can analyze data in real-time for new business insights. Energy, agriculture, and healthcare are the three industry verticals that have tremendous potential to transform Lebanon's economy, society, and environment, argues global digital transformation enabler SAP.
"Lebanon has the opportunity to adopt the Internet of Things era as the next Industrial Revolution, with an inter-connected, smart, and communicating world that will transform organizations and daily lives," said Sameer Areff, Chief Operating Officer, SAP Middle East South, on the sidelines of his keynote "Future of the Internet of Things". "Smart solar grids can power Lebanon's energy future, connected farms can help growers to predict crop yields, customer demand, and sign smart leasing contracts, and digital patient records can personalize and enhance patient treatment."
Across the wider Middle East and North Africa, more than 75 percent of organizations ranked the Internet of Things as an investment priority in 2017, according to the recent SAP and Oxford Economics Digital Transformation Executive Study.
In Lebanon, SAP's channel partner ecosystem is playing a key role in implementing these Internet of Things projects. Organizations have the opportunity to integrate emerging innovations such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain.
Supporting the Lebanese workforce of the future, SAP inspires digital skills development in youth with its University Alliances partners: the American University of Beirut and Lebanese American University.
As Silver Sponsor of SmartEx, SAP's visitors can experience Internet of Things innovations running on the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system, SAP S/4HANA real-time business suite, and SAP HANA in-memory platform.
