Enterprises in China: What kind of IT services do they need?

Jin Qinnian, general manager of strategy and alliance in Greater China of IBM Global Service Department, has changed from the integration of infrastructure and the construction of application platform to the innovation of management and business. The significance of information technology and e-commerce is no longer limited to cost saving, and the appeal point of enterprise informatization is changing from "cost" to "value". "IT service" has therefore become a hot word in the IT market in recent two years. While traditional enterprises accept the new round of "service economy" offensive in the IT industry, their understanding of the importance of IT services is also constantly improving. In many large-scale enterprise informatization projects, the proportion of IT services in the total IT expenditure has exceeded that of software. More enterprise information executives have begun to realize that IT service is the key to the success or failure of the whole information project. China enterprises' demand for IT services has become increasingly clear from ignorance, which makes IT service providers face real opportunities and challenges. The degree of specialization of IT service providers is becoming a key factor in the informatization benefits of traditional enterprises. When the management of many China enterprises pay more attention to risk control and return on investment in the face of the proposition of informationization, these enterprises begin to upgrade their IT investment decisions to the level of business decisions. Enterprise IT strategy and business strategy will also get rid of the decoupling state of "two layers of skin" and realize real interaction and promotion. While enterprises are more aware of the return on IT investment, the requirements for the specialization and overall strength of IT service providers are becoming clear. Specialization means the subdivision of IT services. IBM divides the service department into three parts: integrated technical services, business innovation services and strategic outsourcing services. When providing services to customers, the business process of IBM Global Services (IGS) includes six parts: understanding business, formulating strategy, designing scheme, implementing scheme, operation, maintenance and management. IT can be said that China enterprises' demand for IT services has become increasingly clear from ignorance, which makes IT service providers face real opportunities and challenges. The degree of specialization of IT service providers is becoming a key factor in the informatization benefits of traditional enterprises. Charles Agee, director of Asia-Pacific Strategy, Marketing and New Business Department of IBM Global Service Department, once said that the technology and products provided by manufacturers are not the most important for users, and the key lies in whether the application can play a role in the user's specific environment, and the value can not be played without the services provided by manufacturers. Life-and-death choice of service For enterprises, the difference between IT services cannot be described by life-and-death choice, but IT is often more hidden than the difference between IT products. For example, compare the service differences of Eskimo dog teams for Arctic explorers ... those dog teams that fail to reach their destinations are either short of endurance or lack of "leading dogs". This difference is difficult to find when choosing a dog team, but it is often life-threatening. For enterprises, IT is not too much to describe the differences between IT services with life-and-death choices, but they are often more hidden than the differences between IT products. I think this difference is based on a profound understanding of three characteristics of IT services: the backing of services is that experience services are intangible and cannot be "rewarded" compared with products, and the only way to make mistakes in services is to "apologize", which will be an unforgettable lesson for service provider managers. For e-commerce transformation involving enterprise strategy, management mode, personnel organization, business process and information technology, the best way to avoid apologizing is to personally practice various services required by enterprises such as complex management consulting, application integration, business transformation and e-commerce operation and maintenance. The essence of service is to believe that the sales of IT services are different from ordinary product sales, and salespeople should be full of confidence in the services they promote on the basis of full understanding. The foundation of this confidence needs to be based on countless successful cases, otherwise it will lead to the failure to fulfill the promise to customers. The fulcrum of service is that the service that needs to meet the IT needs of enterprises should meet the following three conditions: knowing the customer's business, having confidence in the value of the service that can be provided, and being able to give the most "thirst-quenching" solution when the customer needs it most. This ability of IT service providers is supported by the comprehensive operational ability centered on customers. Using the matrix management structure, IBM Global Service Department can fully understand customer needs, mobilize global solution experts and resources, and ensure the smooth implementation of local customer solutions. The most conservative view of the three horizons of service is that IT services will still be in a race in the next 15 years. IBM is not an international enterprise, but a multinational enterprise? Multinational enterprises, we should take root in China market. I think in the next few years, IT services, as a sunrise industry, will experience three horizons in stages. The second horizon is the strategy of service providers to quickly enter the market and occupy a dominant share. One of the key concepts is "Everything is mobile". In fact, IBM is more accustomed to using wireless to refer to the concept of mobile internet, because mobile always seems to remind people of wireless devices related to mobile phones, and the scope of wireless coverage is much wider. The market of wireless coverage can be divided into three types from the inside out: enterprise interior, enterprise supply chain and commercial consumption network. IBM believes that wireless applications within enterprises, especially B2E (company-to-employee) and SFA (salesperson automation), are the best entry points for enterprises to initiate wireless changes. The charm of wireless e-commerce lies in the leap-forward improvement of communication means, which greatly improves the customer response rate and accelerates the processing speed of enterprise business processes and decisions. The third horizon is e-sourcing, which means that the computing power in the future will be as demanding as tap water. At the same time, the scattered and idle computing power of computing terminals is aggregated into cheap supercomputing power to meet the needs of high-end computing in enterprises. IBM has invested a lot of resources in this research. The "IBM Forum 2002" held not long ago further explained the concept of e-procurement-IBM's "ready-to-use e-commerce" covers many e-commerce services today. As the future public energy, "e-commerce is ready to use" is the natural evolution of e-commerce, making e-commerce simpler, more economical and more applicable. When enterprises need e-commerce solutions, "e-commerce is ready to use" will deliver standardized e-commerce processes, applications and infrastructure to the demanders through the network. Like the popularity of the traditional four major energy sources, e-commerce based on public energy will become another milestone of human progress.