The following article comes from DTinsight, a research on the development of digital intelligence, by Shu Xiaozhi
At present, the trend of globalization is intensifying, with the rapid development of China's economy and the accelerated implementation of digital technology, going overseas has become the choice of more and more Chinese enterprises to seek broader development, and "going out" has also become the development strategy of many enterprises. However, while Chinese enterprises enjoy the opportunities of globalization in the process of going global, they are also facing many challenges such as global geo-culture, diversified economic and regulatory systems, complex market environment, and localized operations.
As a listed company, CITIC Telecom International is one of the largest international telecommunications hubs in the Asia-Pacific region with four business segments: international telecommunications business, enterprise communications business, regional integrated telecommunications business and Southeast Asia business. ICT CPC, a subsidiary of China Entercom, continues to enhance its integrated platform capabilities of "Cloud, Network, Intelligence and Security", and is a trusted ICT partner for multinational enterprises and business customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the face of the complex international situation and the ever-changing needs of enterprises going overseas, Zhang Tao, Vice President of CITIC Telecom CPC's European Business, and his team realized that with the continuous advancement of the "Belt and Road" and the rapid development of globalization, enterprises going overseas has become the trend of the times. In the era of digital going global, only through continuous technological change and innovation can we maintain a leading position in the fierce and complex market competition. Therefore, they use digital technology to build an ICT foundation, promote the security and compliance of enterprises going global, and help enterprises open up a new journey of global layout.
During the CxO Digital Intelligence Exploration Camp into NIO, Zhang Tao, Vice President of CITIC Telecom CPC's European Business, was interviewed by DTinsight's "Digital Intelligence Talk" column. Wang Xuena, Executive Chairman of DTinsight China Digital Intelligence Development Research Center, and Mr. Zhang Tao had an in-depth dialogue to discuss the trend of ICT capacity building of overseas enterprises and empower enterprises to go global in a new chapter.
Globalization is intensifying, and there are multiple challenges for enterprises to go overseas
Xuena Wang
At present, China is stepping up its efforts to open up, and is promoting the deepening of the "dual circulation" and "Belt and Road" strategies, and "going out" and "welcoming in" have shown new changes. Driven by policy support and the trend of globalization, Chinese enterprises have also moved from "going out" to "going far". In this context, what are the new demand trends for enterprises to go overseas?
Zhang Tao
Indeed, whether from the perspective of policy or the development of the entire Chinese economy, it is the general trend for Chinese enterprises to go overseas. From the perspective of the new demand situation, with the further opening up of the mainland, the development strength of many industries is getting stronger and stronger. With the strengthening of mainland products, services and technological innovation, our enterprises have the conditions to expand overseas markets. From a policy point of view, the state has been insisting on opening up to the outside world, not only to introduce investment, but also to vigorously encourage enterprises in various industries to innovate and develop overseas. Moreover, the state has formulated relevant agreements with many countries, established national mutual trust, and created a good platform for the business environment.
Xuena Wang
Under the trend of the new era of navigation, new energy vehicles have set off a wave of leading energy transformation in Europe. What are the development advantages of Chinese enterprises in the process of going overseas?
Zhang Tao
At present, China has a lot of specific industries that are very leading in the global economy. For example, electric vehicles and related supporting industries, including batteries, wheels, windows, etc., have formed a strong electric vehicle industry chain. In addition, creating energy in a green, solar energy way is also an international goal. In the digital era, both the electric vehicle industry and the photovoltaic inverter industry have strong advantages, reflecting the high level of our intelligent manufacturing. In the medical industry, China has also invested a lot, and emphasized independent innovation and intellectual property protection, and promoted the overseas expansion of the pharmaceutical industry, which has also achieved milestone results in the past year. In addition, China's Internet enterprises are developing rapidly, and they have been able to serve local customers in the global market layout, and the pace of globalization is very fast.
Xuena Wang
Although there are many advantages for Chinese enterprises to go overseas in some industries, the journey of Chinese enterprises going overseas is not all smooth sailing. So, what are the challenges faced by enterprises going overseas in terms of digitalization, intelligence, and compliance?
Zhang Tao
I think Chinese companies are facing the following three challenges when going overseas: First, the global situation has led to the obvious development of trade barriers. Due to the high efficiency, low cost and excellent price, Chinese enterprises have a strong competitive advantage, and are relatively easy to face more investigation and audit. It is necessary for Chinese enterprises to integrate well into the local cultural, legal, political and economic systems, do a good job in localized operations, and serve local customers well; third, to adapt to sound and strict laws and regulations, and establish a compliance operation system. Especially in the face of the development of intelligent AI large models, it ensures data security, compliance management and operation.
Xuena Wang
In the process of helping enterprises go global, what have CITIC Telecom CPC and China Entercom, as global technology service providers, done for enterprises going overseas?
Zhang Tao
CITIC Telecom CPC and its subsidiary, China Entercom, pay more attention to technological development, and have built an intelligent DICT foundation to help customers do a good job in planning, construction and maintenance, and play an enabling role in business. Customers in industries such as automobile, medical, Internet, e-commerce and retail only need to focus on operation and improve products, we not only help customers do digital and intelligent construction, but also help customers do technology construction and solve customer problems.
Lay a solid foundation for ICT and consolidate the globalization strategy of enterprises
Xuena Wang
In the digital era, the success of enterprises going overseas depends on the capabilities of digital technology.
Zhang Tao
Once the ICT foundation is laid, the platform and application level will be very smooth. First of all, the needs of overseas enterprises are both universal and the characteristic needs of vertical industries. Universal needs require communication, communicating data, and passing data, and delivering data requires network connectivity. Second, the development of digital technology has made the value of data more and more important, and data can help enterprises make decisions. In particular, with the development of technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence, the amount of data has increased exponentially, and the regulation and laws of cross-border data flow in various countries have become increasingly important. Therefore, all of this requires a strong ICT technology base to support it.
Xuena Wang
Obviously, digital technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence are deeply integrated with the real economy, ICT technology is promoting the industrial transformation and upgrading of overseas enterprises, and cloud-network intelligent security has also become a new demand for the development of the industry. What do you think about this?
Zhang Tao
CITIC Telecom CPC and China Entercom are helping enterprises build an ICT technology foundation, emphasizing the four lines of cloud, network, and intelligent security. Among them, intelligence is the future development direction, that is, the trend of geometric data management through digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things. Now, CITIC Telecom CPC and China Entercom are actively responding to the call of national policies, emphasizing independent innovation and strengthening independent intellectual property research and development. Intensify efforts to carry out intelligence and serve the Chinese market, including Chinese customers overseas. According to the specific needs of the industry, we provide customers with basic networks and security clouds based on cloud-network intelligent security, so that the application layer is closer to the market and customers.
Xuena Wang
What is the key support and importance of ICT base for going global?
Zhang Tao
The ICT base is important because it is the foundation for customers to expand their business overseas with confidence. From the perspective of risk control and efficiency improvement, with the guarantee of ICT foundation and digital solutions, customers can not only further reduce costs, but also further improve user experience.
Global vision, local operation wisdom
Xuena Wang
As digital transformation accelerates, new demands are placed on cloud and security. How do you think ICT technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence can be used to help enterprises better adapt to overseas market environments and achieve localized operations?
Zhang Tao
It is very important to clarify the customer base of enterprises going overseas to serve customers. For BToC customer groups, companies such as the Internet, electric vehicles, e-commerce and logistics must integrate into the local market when they deploy overseas. This is due to the characteristics of the customer group, and localized operation will bring better feelings to customers.
Xuena Wang
Based on your overseas observations, how is the localized operation performance of mainland enterprises going overseas?
Zhang Tao
At present, enterprises with an increasing degree of internationalization pay more attention to localized operations. The international headquarters of many excellent Chinese companies are located abroad, and the degree of localization is very high. Chinese companies have a more global mindset, for example, the acquisition of R&D centers in Germany, the acquisition of design centers in Italy, and other actions show that our companies have made further progress in local operations. I think this is also the trend of our Chinese companies going overseas. Localization is also a technical challenge, and our European team's network services also work with local service providers to actively provide local service support.
The development direction of new technology leads the future of going overseas
Xuena Wang
In terms of the future trend of going global, what problems do you think will be solved by combining the foundation of ICT construction and new technologies such as artificial intelligence?
Zhang Tao
From the perspective of ICT, the foundation of cloud and network is very standard and standardized. In the last two or three years, security has become one of the most important things and one of the risk issues that customers particularly want to solve. Chinese customers also have security needs when going overseas, and in the face of an unfamiliar environment and little understanding of overseas laws and regulations, Chinese enterprises have a more urgent need for information security. China Entercom's security solutions are relatively mature in China, and it also pays more attention to helping customers solve data security problems overseas. For example, we use our newly launched TrustCSI 3.0 "Cloud Network Aegis" service to help customers conduct simulated attack and defense drills, assume malicious attacks, help customers find vulnerabilities, and further improve protection.
Xuena Wang
According to the development and technical support of the overseas trend, what do you think is the trend and direction of ICT base support for customers?
Zhang Tao
Data is a direction in the future, especially after artificial intelligence comes out, data has shown exponential growth, and the speed is very fast, which puts forward new requirements for data storage, security, and computing power. For example, large AI models need to be supported by strong computing power, which is difficult for ordinary enterprises to bear. As data becomes more and more complex, the application of computing power in various industries requires the support of artificial intelligence platforms and foundations. With the ICT foundation, data can be shared, shared, and integrated, and the value of data can be better exerted, unleashing the capabilities of AI products and services.
In the future, ICT base + data + artificial intelligence is the general trend. Based on technology and service, CITIC Telecom CPC and its subsidiary, China Entercom, provide comprehensive methodology, system and tool support for overseas enterprises, solve customer problems through products + services, provide customers with good services, and better promote the development of overseas enterprises.
Source: DTinsight China Digital Intelligence Development Research Center