Looking back on 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic has swept the world, and many companies cannot operate normally, forcing many Chinese companies to speed up their digitalization process. Facing the new normal in the post-epidemic era, the chief information officer (CIO) of an enterprise is playing an increasingly important role.
According to the latest report on China's CIOs in 2021 released by IT consulting company Gartner, China's CIOs have gained higher credibility because of China's successful and rapid response to the epidemic, and the investment direction of Chinese CIOs is shifting from traditional technology to digital technology.
China is the first country in the world to be severely hit by the new crown epidemic. However, due to the effective prevention and control of the epidemic, many companies have successfully turned the "crisis" brought about by the epidemic into an "opportunity."
The survey shows that 48% Chinese enterprises have reached the stage of digital maturity, and more enterprises are accelerating digital transformation. The digital business of Chinese enterprises is about two years ahead of the global trend, and an average of 32% of enterprise revenue comes from digital sales.
stages of digital maturity
In the past, there was such a phenomenon in Chinese enterprises: CIO is a good executor, not necessarily a decision maker. The survey shows that some corporate CIOs are not part of the company's decision-making hierarchy. With the accelerated development of digitalization, the status of CIOs in Chinese enterprises has also increased, and the CIOs of 77% have strengthened their relationship with CEOs. In 2021, CIOs of Chinese companies should take on the important task of corporate development, assist companies in making business decisions, and promote digital innovation.
Relationship
Affected by the epidemic, more companies have also changed their digital marketing methods, from offline to online, using digital channels such as new media to find customers and business opportunities. At the same time, the relationship between enterprises and customers is deeper than the traditional transactional relationship, and 70% enterprises are willing to continue to increase interaction with customers in 2021.
The Internet is more suitable for industrial integration and global business development. Now that the Internet has become an important memory carrier for human beings, online marketing has a more lasting influence than offline marketing. It is believed that this transformation of marketing models will continue in the post-epidemic era.
The survey also pointed out that Chinese companies are significantly adjusting IT investment, increasing IT personnel training, and investing more funds in the field of digital innovation. Among them, the three most important areas areArtificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud services, data center and business intelligence. It is worth noting that the investment of Chinese enterprises in data center construction has decreased for the third consecutive year, reflecting that more and more enterprises are choosing to "go to the cloud" and replace the traditional data center maintenance mode with the strategy of managing data on the cloud, so as to better cope with the digital transformation and upgrading under the new normal.
Under the interweaving and mutual promotion of technology and management, social infrastructure and industrial support, the business innovation of Chinese enterprises is advancing step by step. According to the analysis of Yonyou Research Institute, China's commercial innovation enterprises in the next ten years should have the following characteristics:
- In terms of products, production equipment, workplaces, and production environments, a large number of artificial intelligence technologies, intelligent hardware technologies, and Internet of Things technologies are applied;
- In terms of business operations, it mainly focuses on online business operations, online and offline integration, and global business operations;
- In terms of industrial management, it mainly builds the network and connects everything, and uses AI+ big data to drive the best matching and scheduling of industrial resources and social resources;
- In terms of capital management, it mainly focuses on industrial chain investment, mergers and acquisitions, and independent listing of industrial ecology;
- In terms of management, it mainly focuses on resource integration and operation management of the global industrial chain (socialization), quality management of the entire industrial chain, and product life cycle management.
Under the new wave of digitalization, Chinese CIOs should seize the opportunity to improve the digital construction of channels, products, and services, deal with customers online, and strengthen decision-making management capabilities. At the same time, increase investment in key areas of IT, adopt cloud services, and take the road of digital innovation and development of enterprises.
