In 2022, Chinese traditional enterprises will blow a storm of "low code"? | Interview with industry CEOs

2021 is the year when low-codes are fully on the capital markets, standing on the cusp of the wind and preparing for a technology storm.

Recently, Mendix released a survey report on the current status of low-code development in the world. According to the report, 77% of the global surveyed companies have begun to use low-code development platforms, while China's low-code market has shown a high-speed development trend, and 85% of IT decision makers said that they are actively embracing low-code technology, believing that low-code is a trend they cannot miss.

The fundamental driving force behind the growing popularity of low code in China lies in the need for digital transformation of enterprises. Between 2009 and 2019, although the domestic management software market doubled in size, the demand for enterprise-level applications, especially personalization, remained unmet.

Therefore, the "low-code platform" that can realize seamless communication between business personnel and IT personnel and jointly develop has reshaped the traditional development and production relationship, improved development efficiency, lowered the threshold of work, and helped enterprises adapt to digital transformation more quickly.

As the industry leader of the "partner cloud", its CEO Dai Zhikang said in an interview with Ebang Power that the current digitalization rate of enterprises is actually very low, and most of the enterprises have less than 2% of employees engaged in the construction of enterprise digital systems, while at least 70% of the business data of future enterprises should be clouded, real-time and visualized.

Company surveyed: Partner Cloud

Interviewee and position: Dai Zhikang, CEO

Industry: Low Code Domain

Ebang Industry: What level do you think the digitalization of this industry is at, what is the development trend, and can you judge from the two dimensions of qualitative and quantitative?

Dai Zhikang: Since the epidemic in 2020, it has greatly deepened the collaboration and interaction within enterprises, between enterprises, and between enterprises and individuals online, which has brought new business thinking and management concepts and promoted the improvement of digital awareness of enterprises. Many companies have recruited a group of young people who understand digital technology to promote digital practices. In the case of partner cloud, the number of paying customers in 2021 has increased by 4 times compared to last year, indicating that the awareness of enterprises to use digital tools to solve collaborative and automated problems is rising significantly.

Ebang Industry: What are the main aspects of the value of your enterprise in industrial digitalization, and what are the specific products and services?

Dai Zhikang: Partner Cloud is a low-code/zero-code digital application construction platform, allowing business personnel to wirelessly program digital applications that meet their business needs, so that the application launch speed is increased by 10 times, the application development cost is reduced by 10 times, and low code has become an effective way for large and medium-sized enterprises to improve the digital level of enterprises. In terms of data analysis, Partner Cloud provides a zero-code data warehouse engine, allowing enterprises to enjoy the convenience of real-time data analysis while collaborating efficiently, so that managers at all levels can have a clear idea and make various business decisions in a targeted manner.

Ebang Industry: What is your entry point for digital transformation/empowerment of factories or other industrial chain partners? The more specific the better, for Dai Zhikang: what to do these transformations, why are partners willing to accept your digital transformation? Can you talk about it in conjunction with one or a few cases?

Dai Zhikang: None of the changes will be made in the absence of endogenous motivation, we have served the retail industry, service industry, manufacturing, schools, government and other industries, and we will find that various industries are making corresponding digital attempts, some from existing business pain points, and some from changes to business models and organizations. For example, bydy, the customer we serve, first applied the partner cloud to collaborate on the site selection of electric vehicle 4S stores, and later extended to customer management, project management, business collaboration and data analysis in all directly operated stores, and the improvement of the level of store digitalization has also promoted BYD's continuous achievements in electric vehicles.

Ebang Industry: How do you understand the application of data, algorithms and AI in the digitalization of the industry? What are the specific applications and benefits in your business?

Dai Zhikang: Data is productivity, but we often let data lose it before it is formed. The right decision-making is based on data analysis based on end-to-end processes, so that everyone has a clear understanding of what the goals are, what the gaps are, what the process is, what the results are, and how to improve the PDCA based on the data, which is an essential skill for every business.

Ebang Industry: Can you describe the industrial ecology connected by your company with digital systems, what are the roles, and how to drive cooperation between ecological partners?

Dai Zhikang: Partner Cloud links 200,000+ enterprises, 2.4 million+ employees, and 400,000 application builders who have created millions of digital applications in different industries and scenarios. At the same time, Partner Cloud is also one of the top ten excellent service providers of enterprise WeChat in 2021, and it is also the only low-code service provider among them. Through the co-construction of ecology, we provide various solutions from enterprises to schools and governments.

Ebang Industry: Can you describe your company's positioning, describe your company's industrial digital value, and describe the imagination space of the enterprise capital market in one or two sentences?

Dai Zhikang: We look forward to becoming a new generation of managers of digital tide play, stimulating the imagination and hands-on ability of front-line business personnel, making boring digital shine, and making development no longer the patent of programmers. In 2021, Partner Cloud has received $17 million in Series B financing and $40 million in Series B+ financing from sequoia Capital, Five Source Capital and other institutions, and is the star head player of the low-code track.

Ebang Industry: Can you imagine the highly digital industrial operation scenario of this industry, and what role will your company play in it?

Dai Zhikang: The current enterprise digitalization rate is actually very low, and most enterprises have less than 2% of employees engaged in the construction of enterprise digital systems. At least 70% of the business data of future enterprises should be cloud-based, real-time and visualized, and it is still far from this goal. Partner Cloud helps enterprises achieve a higher proportion of online, digital and intelligent business by reducing the difficulty of digital application construction, thereby increasing the number of people engaged in digital application construction.