数字化转型对企业的IT系统提出了更高的要求：业务与技术深度交互，适应互联网时代，实现企业运营模式的重构，加快传统业态下的业务变革。如何通过IT演进支撑企业业务变革，成为包括运营商在内的数字化转型企业需要思考的问题。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
一、中台战略是企业数字化转型的必经之路
在信息化时代，企业通过将客户、产品、规则和业务流程以数据形式录入系统，实现企业信息化。传统烟囱式IT架构以平台化架构承载业务逻辑和功能实现。传统烟囱式IT架构（如图1所示）导致数据“孤岛”，数据关联价值、融合价值无法发挥。从功能架构上看，烟囱式IT架构会导致承载相似业务的平台出现低水平重复建设的问题，且各个业务系统间互联互通难度高。中台思维应运而生，其本质是通过数据贯通融合和功能开放共享，实现面向前台的敏捷响应，降低研发成本，加速创新业务孵化。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
在数据层面上，中台通过打破不同项目的数据“藩篱”[1]，实现数据的汇总、融合，推动业务数据化；在解决数据一致性问题的基础上，依托大数据、人工智能等新技术，形成面向不同场景的数据视图，支撑企业营销、生产等业务决策，实现数据业务化。
在IT层面上，企业抽象、沉淀相似业务流程、逻辑，下沉可被不同项目复用的能力，以接口的方式向多业务系统开放。能力下沉后，项目系统间的通信变为不同业务模块的接口通信，互联互通不再是难题。不仅如此，可复用功能的共享能加速企业新业务的上线，降低试错成本，提升业务响应速度。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
中台是企业应对宏观环境转变、用户需求转变的IT治理升级形式，通过IT架构的升级，满足用户多样化需求，实现运营精细化。中台是业务发展催生IT升级的演进结果。
二、互联网企业实践证明中台效应数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
2015年，阿里巴巴提出大中台战略，依托共享事业部建设企业级中台架构，实现一套中台体系，支撑天猫、淘宝、一淘等多个项目。阿里巴巴中台有效降低了存储资源和计算资源，数据存储量提升了 6 倍，直接节约约 6 亿元，并且极大地缩短了新业务的上线时间。2018 年起互联网头部企业逐步推出自己的中台战略：腾讯调整七大事业群，成立技术委员会，并推行“All in 产业互联网”战略；京东按照前、中、后台进行组织架构调整，并规划中台建设。
除了互联网企业，快消、餐饮、传统制造业和房地产等多行业已经开始关注中台，逐步推出自己的中台架构，同时国内也涌现出一批独立的中台软件服务商。中台市场规模预测结果[3]如图2 所示，预计2022年中国中台市场规模有望达到179.4亿元。
1、中台的含义与常见类型数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
中台是将企业的共性需求进行抽象，打造成平台化、组件化的系统能力，以接口、组件的形式共享给不同的业务前台使用。中台通过综合调度、指挥企业IT资源，以统一的标准和流程规范，帮助企业实现业务互联互通、资源协调和信息共享。其作为敏捷响应用户需求、业务需求的前台和稳定的后台的柔性连接，促进了IT集约化。
2、企业战略和业务方向决定了中台类型
当前业界中台分类繁多，常见的类型包括数据中台、业务中台、技术中台、组织中台和算法中台等。最早提出中台战略的阿里巴巴，为支撑其多条线的电子商务业务，规划了业务中台、数据中台和移动中台，智能语音、图像和文本等机器学习、深度学习的相关组件有时也被称为AI中台。百度深耕其搜索领域，打造技术中台，在中台框架下构建搜索中台，面向多垂直领域，孵化垂直行业搜索业务和产品。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
腾讯以社交业务为核心，构建以数据中台和技术中台为主的中台架构，数据中台划分为用户中台、内容中台和应用中台，技术中台划分为通信中台、AI中台和安全中台。房地产业的万科集团规划了数据中台和服务中台，医疗行业提出了业务中台和数据中台规划，不同行业、企业的中台规划不尽相同，但中台构建皆以企业战略为导向，以主营业务为支撑核心。
3、最常见的中台类型数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
中台在各行业中虽无固定的分类，但有两类中台最为常见——数据中台与业务中台。与客户有直接交互的近C端企业，必然沉淀了大量的客户数据，发挥沉淀的数据价值以反哺营销、提升客户感知成为此类企业的共性需求，因此，催生了实现数据汇总、萃取和场景化分析的数据中台。研发、生产、供应和销售为一体的企业，无论是在生产环节还是在销售环节，都沉淀了大量数据，且当前柔性供应链的业务升级需求，对数据分析和指导性预测提出了更高的IT要求，数据中台正是通过数据归集、融合，依托新技术，面向场景实现数据业务化的第一步。
企业战略和业务方向决定了其以主营业务方向为核心、纵向布局的多业务形态。在降本提效的导向下，各企业都迫切地希望通过归集共通的生产流程，避免重复建设，降低成本。纵向业务之间，相似的业务逻辑、共同的IT承载和实现逻辑成为业务中台的构建基础；集约化IT、提升IT研发效率、实现业务驱动IT变革和IT推动业务创新成为业务中台的构建驱动。
因此，共通的数据融合归集需求、业务流程共享需求，使得数据中台和业务中台成为各大企业中台规划中最常见的身影。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
三、需建设中台的企业画像
在各行各业都在畅谈中台的今天，是不是所有的企业都需要建设中台？答案是否定的。中台的本质是归集融合数据、归集共通的生产流程，因此，有必要建设中台的企业应具备以下特点。
（1）业务规模大、业务条线多，且具备相似性数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
企业业务规模大，则会沉淀大量数据；业务条线多且业务逻辑相似性高，区隔的系统建设必然存在重复“造轮子”的问题，从而导致人力成本和时间成本的浪费。
（2）IT系统多，且已经实现了系统化和平台化
企业系统化是指企业的每项业务都已经具备信息化系统，如企业的数据管理采集有专门的数据管理系统，企业的合作有专业的合作伙伴管理系统支撑。此类企业已经实现了基础业务的信息化，但是系统间交互难。
（3）扩张需求强，有内生创新力
企业内生的扩张需求强烈，希望能加速创新业务的孵化，并实现业务的快速上线，通过IT能力加速业务变现速度。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
（4）内部协同难度大
企业内部部门繁多且结构复杂，部门间互通成本高，业务流程交错但并不畅通，急需行政层面和IT层面双向发力贯通流程。
四、不同类型企业典型中台案例
当前行业中，从业务链长短的维度看，有两类企业：一是短业务链企业；二是长业务链企业。本文将选取几家具备代表性的企业进行分析。短业务链企业的典型代表为阿里巴巴。阿里巴巴电商聚焦于售卖环节，通过整合供应方和购买方，构建以运营为核心的商业模式。长业务链企业的典型代表为华为、小米和易派客（中国石化），其产业链包括研发、生产、供应、销售和服务全环节。
1、短业务链的纯售卖型企业数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
短业务链的阿里巴巴是一家纯售卖的企业，其在业务链条中所处环节为销售和服务环节，换句话说，阿里巴巴对IT架构的重塑需求集中在对运营的支撑。阿里巴巴的IT架构经历了4个阶段的变化：IOE 阶段、分布式阶段、平台化阶段和中台化阶段，如图3所示。平台化阶段信息获取成本高、互联互通成本高、低水平重复建设和服务的不确定性等，导致了新业务需求研发速度缓慢、新业务服务效率低下，而阿里巴巴业务全面扩张，从线上逐步走到线下，布局新零售，业务发展速度已经快于IT升级的速度。
阿里巴巴以成熟的企业级分布式应用PaaS平台作为技术底座，通过制定业务的基础协议、构建中心化控制单元、分离业务逻辑和IT实现逻辑并完成映射，从而完成了数据和平台的升级改造。对于业务基础协议来说，核心在于定义不同业务的概念、边界和与其他业务互通。比如清算业务，清算包含清分和结算，清分和结算对数据的需求是日交易数据和汇总的交易数据、交易金额，以日和结算周期为时间要求。通过制定基础的协议，标定每块业务的边界以及业务和业务之间的标准通信流程，形成IT层面固化的通信标准。打造全局的能力一点看全，实现能力互相调用的标准链接流程，基于需求的解构形成前端业务逻辑和中台的IT实现逻辑。阿里巴巴的中台架构如图4所示。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
阿里巴巴数据中台的内核是中台产品服务化，通过采集数据、智能化构建数据、管理数据资产并提供数据调用、监控数据、分析数据与展现数据来实现。数据中台的大数据技术、中台方法论，助力实现了中台产品化服务输出。而中台战略衍生的协同作战思维、特色大数据有力地保障了技术、人才、方法论融入产品化服务并落地。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
阿里巴巴的业务中台的核心在于把用户服务的核心链路——会员、商品、交易、营销、店铺、商户结算，当作一个整体的平台产品，IT开发在企业内部不是承载研发需求的被动角色，而是通过全环节贯通打造一个大的中台产品，为前端业务提供整体的解决方案。
阿里巴巴的中台建设，不仅是IT层面的技术演进，而且是技术、业务和组织的全面升级。阿里巴巴中台破除了IT系统层面上的部门墙，组织层面通过垂直化的事业部，实现以业务条线规划团队，而不是从管理者的角度思考问题。不仅如此，阿里巴巴构建了组织中台，专项支撑中台建设，保障中台的顺利升级和后期的运营维护。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
阿里巴巴中台的建设经验是：技术的升级最终目标一定是促进业务的发展，因此，建设中台应首先从业务层面确定战略，统一目标，以企业级力量构筑中台。
2、“研产供销服”一体的长业务链企业
“研产供销服”一体的企业也可以分为两类：一类是传统的制造、销售为一体的企业；另一类是随着技术发展和创新，较为新兴的制造型企业。两类企业有着一个共同点：生产和运营解耦。生产包括研发、生产制造和供应环节，运营包括销售和服务环节。对于传统企业中石化来说，产品类型、标准相对固化，其产品更新升级低频响应市场需求，因此生产和运营环节天然解耦。本文中的另一类长业务链企业——华为和小米，其产品竞争压力大，技术升级发展速度快，因此产品高度响应市场需求。但是，长业务链条面临两个问题，一是串行式业务单纯以销量推动生产，导致企业效率的降低，也不符合当前柔性制造的发展趋势[7]；二是忽略了技术驱动产品创新带来的业务提升。因此为实现产品侧创新驱动和销售侧的供应链柔性拉动，长业务链企业一般会通过组织和战略，解耦运营和生产，具体如图5 所示。两类企业的中台建设也聚焦于面向不同生产环节的能力支撑。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
从建设中台的路径来看，小米规划了 3 年的信息化战略，IT规划与业务发展并行推进，以流程驱动IT应用，促进自建系统和采购系统的融合。在战略上实现产销分离，规划了包括泛零件、新零售和互联网的“铁人三项”战略；在组织结构上裂变成硬件产品、互联网、IoT平台和电商 4 个方向、10 个部门；在 IT 层面运营环节，中台重在支撑用户和经销商，生产层面侧重于数字化供应链，以项目或订单的方式推动生产，以供应规划拉动生产，实现柔性供应链支撑。
因此小米建设了数据中台、业务中台和技术中台。业务中台划分为14个中心，面向线上商城、第三方电商网站（如京东、淘宝等）、门店系统和直销分析系统，提供产品交易全环节、客户运营全环节的共享能力，实现面向不同的线上下渠道共享IT能力，通过IT集约化降低企业成本。数据中台通过xDATA数据平台进行统一采集，配备xDATA数据团队，在清洗后的数据上进行面向不同业务场景的分析。通过日常经营指标的分析、经营管理分析和战略风险分析，打造坚实的业务数据化基础。小米的技术中台将底层资源和开发组件进行技术下沉，为系统建设提供高度模块化的零件。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
小米的业务较为复杂，因此在中台面向前台支撑业务中，要考虑自有线上商场，如国内的小米官网、优品商城和海外的电子商城，也要考虑到如何对接第三方电商平台。面向各门店的营业系统，如小米之家、授权店、直销点和各种第三方门店，小米需要通过中台服务，为门店提供进销存能力，为直销和分销方提供客户协同、分销网络和营销的风险分析管控能力，并面向渠道提供完备的客服、售后平台能力。因此，中台战略和架构，对于全生态覆盖的企业来说，最重要的就是将不同业务线、不同业务App的共同流程提炼和沉淀，形成可复用的完整IT能力，降低业务间流程互相调用的时间成本，通过敏捷响应提高消费者和合作伙伴的感知。
华为在业务层面上，一直强调运营作战和能力建设的分离，本质也是通过解耦长业务链条的各环节，缩短流程提升效率。华为的“让听到炮声的人能呼唤到炮火”战略正是华为中台战略的形象化比喻，中台是为一线业务人员提供炮火的作战平台，而炮火正是中台能提供的能力。华为以组织为核心，以中台为承载，实现了企业的双V发展模型（如图7 所示）——“业务和数字技术双轮驱动”，以客户体验为驱动提升运营，技术发展催生产品创新，运营与生产双线发力，增强企业竞争力。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
五、运营商的中台思考
在当前建设网络强国、构建数字经济的大趋势下，国内 3 家运营商都在发力向着数字化、互联网化转型。运营商作为大型的近C端、近B端企业，业务规模大，沉淀了海量的数据，公众业务、政企业务、创新业务条线多，但却存在协同难度大、部门壁垒高的问题。运营商的系统交互难、数据价值无法最大化的现状，正是中台旨在解决的问题，因此，运营商可通过建设中台提升IT能力、加速转型。
运营商应从企业级视角出发，归集企业级的共通需求，锚定业务链长度相似的的企业，模仿其中台建设。建议运营商模仿华为和小米，解耦运营生产，规划中台建设需求，厘清各个中台的业务边界，构建适合运营商的中台体系。
（1）解耦生产
面向内、外部产品研发团队，利用自有的网络、大数据、云、物联网等基础资源和能力，研发面向公众客户、政企客户的优质产品。生产的职责止于产品的上架。
业务侧中台通过能力开放，引入外部的产品研发团队，构建内外合力的研发体系，基于基础能力，开发具有操作界面的小型 IT 工具，“能力+小IT工具”将能力变为可出售的产品。数据侧中台可提供两类支撑：一是作为数据报表、场景化数据服务类产品的基础生产资料；二是分析优质产品的画像，指导研发团队提高产品质量。
（2）解耦运营数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
面向外部客户，以销售为起点，包括后续的服务和维系环节。运营的职责始于产品上架，贯穿交付、运维全流程。
业务侧中台提供不同触点接入技术适配，实现全触点的统一视图呈现，支撑产品、客户和合作商的服务和管理，让“卖产品”更容易、更快捷；数据中台在数据融合的基础上，构建三层视图，底层是源数据采集层，包含运营商B域、M域、O域和E域等多域数据，并在公共数据中心完成明细数据的汇总，典型结构如图8所示。最顶层围绕数据对象，打造以客户、产品和合作伙伴为主体的萃取数据中心。基于数据中心，提供以客户运营为核心的能力支撑：用户画像、订购行为分析，分析用户产品和服务的偏好；产品的竞争力、收入贡献、销售情况分析，为是否持续售卖产品提供数据支撑；用户与产品的适配度分析，为用户推荐符合其喜好的产品。
因此，建议运营商从战略上确定中台的建设构想，规划企业级数据中台与业务中台，两中台的支撑关系如图9 所示。技术中台建设与否，可根据当前的各条线的技术组件现状进行决策。如当前已形成相对统一的技术体系，则可构建技术中台。若当前技术组件差异化较大，建议构建平台研发的“工具箱”，各条线可从工具箱中自行选取所需组件，逐渐收敛后再建设技术中台。
另外，对于运营商来说，中台建设的路径和程度是不一致的[10]，对于已经做到了数据集约化、IT 集约化的运营商，其中台建设如本文所述，从省公司和集团考虑各个业务条线、公众和政企市场的能力共用。而对于省公司、集团尚未实现集约化的企业，由于省分公司平台、数据结构差异较大，近期中台建设应更注重集团级共用能力的建设，逐步推进省分数据汇集、结构统一和业务功能共用。
在推进中台建设地过程中，建议实现垂直化组织架构，组织与IT匹配，并配备专项的人、财、物，保障中台的有序建设。为避免中台建设完成后公共功能无人负责、代码质量下降的问题，应打造专项团队或部门，持续进行平台迭代升级，切勿期望一劳永逸。另外，在中台建设中应避免出现“泛中台”的问题，不能为了加快建设速度而以简单集成现有平台、开放接口的方式构建中台。
六、结束语
中台对于企业的数字化转型、提质增效至关重要，因此，对于大中型的近C端企业和沉淀了大量IT资产的近B端企业来说，企业中台建设是必要的。但是中台不是一个项目，而是变革落地的方案，是需要从战略层面规划，确定业务方向，协全企业之力完成的联动变革。
再者，中台只是解决现阶段业务、技术和组织升级发展的特定方案，不是“万能灵药”，且需要投入一定的时间和人力成本，持续迭代优化，企业决策需要放平期待，不能期冀一劳永逸。
总之，中台对于大中型企业的数字化转型的作用是正向的，但是中台建设在国内存在概念泛化的问题，尚未有成熟的通用方法和工具，仍需要企业、厂商根据自身业务方向进行探索和实践。如何借助中台体系，在公众市场饱和、政企市场产品创新有待提高的现状下，以IT助力业务破局，是运营商值得深思的问题。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
翻译：
Digital transformation puts forward higher requirements for the IT system of enterprises: in-depth interaction between business and technology, adaptation to the Internet era, reconfiguration of enterprise operation mode, and acceleration of business transformation under the traditional business mode. How to support enterprise business change through IT evolution has become a problem that digital transformation enterprises including operators need to think about.
First, the middle Taiwan strategy is the only way to digital transformation of enterprises
In the information age, enterprises realize enterprise informatization by inputting customers, products, rules and business processes into the system in the form of data. The traditional stovepipe IT architecture hosts business logic and functional implementation in a platformized architecture. Traditional smokestack IT architecture (as shown in Figure 1) leads to data “island”, and the value of data association and fusion cannot be brought into play. From the perspective of functional architecture, stovepipe IT architecture will lead to the problem of low-level repeated construction of platforms bearing similar services, and it is difficult to interconnect various business systems. Mid-taiwan thinking emerged at the right time. Its essence is to achieve a front-facing agile response, reduce research and development costs, and accelerate the incubation of innovative businesses through data penetration and integration and open sharing of functions.
On the data level, by breaking the data barriers of different projects [1], Zhongtai realizes data summary and integration, and promotes business datalization.
On the basis of solving the problem of data consistency and relying on new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, data views facing different scenarios are formed to support business decisions such as marketing and production of enterprises and realize data business.数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
At the IT level, enterprises abstract and precipitate similar business processes and logic, sinking the ability to be reused by different projects, in the way of interfaces open to multi-business systems. After the capability sinks, the communication between project systems becomes the interface communication of different business modules, and interconnection is no longer a problem. Moreover, the sharing of reusable functions can accelerate the launch of new business, reduce the cost of trial and error, and improve business response speed.
Middle Taiwan is an upgrade form of IT governance for enterprises to cope with the changes of macro environment and user needs. Through the upgrade of IT architecture, it can meet the diversified needs of users and realize the refinement of operations. Middle desk is an evolutionary result of IT upgrade driven by business development.
Second, the practice of Internet enterprises has proved the middle-Taiwan effect
In 2015, Alibaba put forward the strategy of Big and Middle Taiwan, relying on the sharing business unit to build an enterprise-level middle Taiwan structure and realize a set of middle Taiwan system to support Tmall, Taobao, Etao and other projects. Alibaba middle Desk effectively reduces storage resources and computing resources, increases data storage by 6 times, directly saves about 600 million yuan, and greatly shortens the online time of new business. Since 2018, Internet leading enterprises have gradually launched their own strategy in Taiwan: Tencent has adjusted seven business groups, set up a technical committee, and implemented the strategy of “All in Industrial Internet”; Jingdong adjusts its organizational structure according to the front, middle and back stages, and plans the middle stage construction.
In addition to Internet enterprises, many industries such as fast moving consumer goods, catering, traditional manufacturing and real estate have begun to pay attention to mid-Taiwan and gradually launched their own mid-Taiwan architecture. Meanwhile, a number of independent mid-Taiwan software service providers have emerged in China. As shown in Figure 2, the market size of China’s middle Taiwan is expected to reach 17.94 billion yuan in 2022.
The meaning and common types of middle platform
The middle desk abstracts the common requirements of enterprises to create platform-based and componentized system capabilities. Which are shared to different business receptionists in the form of interfaces and components. By comprehensively dispatching and commanding enterprise IT resources and using unified standards and process specifications, Zhongtai helps enterprises realize business interconnection, resource coordination, and information sharing. As a flexible connection between the foreground and the stable background that respond to user needs and business needs in an agile manner, IT promotes IT intensification.
Corporate strategy and business direction determine the type of middle desk
At present, there are many types of middle desk in the industry. Common types include data middle desk, business middle desk, technology middle desk, organization middle desk and algorithm middle desk. In order to support its multi-line e-commerce business, Alibaba. Which first proposed the strategy of middle platform, has planned business middle platform, data middle platform and mobile middle platform. The relevant components of machine learning and deep learning. Such as intelligent voice, image and text, are sometimes called AI middle platform. Baidu deeply cultivates its search field, builds technology middle platform, builds search middle platform under the middle platform framework, faces multiple vertical fields, incubates vertical industry search business and products.
With social services as the core, Tencent has built an architecture of data center and technology center. Data center is divided into user center, content center and application center. And technology center is divided into communication center, AI center and security center. Vanke Group in the real estate industry has made plans for data center and service center, and the medical industry has put forward plans for business center and data center. The plans for business center and data center are different in different industries and enterprises, but the construction of middle business center is oriented by enterprise strategy and supported by the main business.
The most common type of mid-range
Although there is no fixed classification of middle desk in various industries, two types of middle desk are most common — data middle desk and business middle desk. C-terminal enterprises that have direct interaction with customers inevitably accumulate a large amount of customer data. It has become a common demand of such enterprises to give full play to the value of the precipitated data to feed marketing and improve customer perception. Therefore, a data center platform that realizes data summary, extraction and scenario-based analysis is spawned. Enterprises integrating research and development, production, supply and sales have deposited a large amount of data in both production and sales links, and the current business upgrade demand of flexible supply chain puts forward higher IT requirements for data analysis and guidance forecast. Data center is the first step to realize scenario-oriented data business through data collection and integration, relying on new technologies.
The enterprise strategy and business direction determine its multi-business form with the main business direction as the core and vertical layout. Under the guidance of cost reduction and efficiency improvement, enterprises are eager to avoid duplication and reduce costs by integrating common production processes. Among vertical businesses, similar business logic, common IT bearing and implementation logic become the foundation for the construction of business middle desk. Intensive IT, improve the efficiency of IT research and development, realize business-driven IT reform and IT-driven business innovation become the construction drivers of business middle desk.
Therefore, the common requirements of data integration and collection and business process sharing make the data center desk and business center desk the most common figure in the middle desk planning of major enterprises.数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
Third, need to build the enterprise portrait of Taiwan
In all walks of life are talking about the middle of Taiwan today. Is not all enterprises need to build the middle of Taiwan? The answer is no. The essence of middle Taiwan is to collect and integrate data and common production process. Therefore, it is necessary to build enterprises in Middle Taiwan with the following characteristics.
(1) Large business scale, many business lines, and similar
Large scale business will precipitate a large amount of data. There are many business lines and the business logic is highly similar. So the system construction of the separation is bound to have the problem of repeating “wheel building”. Which leads to the waste of labor cost and time cost.
(2) There are many IT systems, and the system and platform have been realized
Enterprise systematization means that every business of an enterprise has an information system. For example, an enterprise has a special data management system for data management and collection. And its cooperation is supported by a professional partner management system. Such enterprises have realized the informationization of basic business, but the interaction between systems is difficult.
(3) Strong expansion demand and endogenous innovation
The enterprise has a strong internal expansion demand, hoping to accelerate the incubation of innovative business, realize the rapid on-line of business. And accelerate the speed of business realization through IT capability.
(4) Internal coordination is difficult
The internal departments of the enterprise are numerous and complex in structure. The interworking cost between departments is high, and the business process is staggered but not smooth. IT is urgent for the administrative level and the IT level to work bidirectional through the process.
Fourth, typical cases of different types of enterprises in Taiwan
In the current industry, from the perspective of the length of business chain, there are two types of enterprises:. One is short business chain enterprises. Second, enterprises with long business chains. This paper will select several representative enterprises for analysis. The typical representative of short business chain enterprises is Alibaba. Alibaba E-commerce focuses on the selling link and builds a business model with operation as the core by integrating suppliers and buyers. The typical representatives of long business chain enterprises are Huawei, Xiaomi and Eepai (Sinopec). Whose industrial chain includes the whole link of research and development, production, supply, sales and service.
Pure selling enterprises with short business chains
In short business chain, Alibaba is a pure selling enterprise. And its links in the business chain are sales and service links. In other words, Alibaba’s demand for reshaping IT architecture focuses on operation support. Alibaba’s IT architecture has undergone changes in four stages:. IOE stage, distributed stage, platform stage and mid-platform stage, as shown in Figure 3. In the platform stage, the high cost of information acquisition, high cost of connectivity, low level of repetitive construction and service uncertainty have led to the slow research and development speed of new business requirements and low efficiency of new business services. However, Alibaba has expanded its business in an all-round way, gradually moving from online to offline, laying out new retail, and the speed of business development has been faster than the speed of IT upgrading.数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
Taking the mature enterprise-level distributed application PaaS platform as the technical base
Taking the mature enterprise-level distributed application PaaS platform as the technical base, Alibaba has completed the upgrading and transformation of data and platform by formulating the basic protocol of business, building the centralized control unit, separating business logic and IT to realize logic and complete mapping. For business base protocols, the core is to define the concepts, boundaries, and interconnections of different businesses.
For example, clearing business includes clearing and settlement. The data requirements for clearing and settlement are daily trading data, summarized trading data and transaction amount, and the time requirements are daily and settlement cycle. Through the formulation of basic protocols, demarcate the boundary of each business and the standard communication process between business and business, to form a solidified communication standard at the IT level. Create a global ability to see all, realize the ability to call each other standard link process, based on the deconstruction of requirements to form front-end business logic and middle IT implementation logic. Alibaba’s middle desk architecture is shown in Figure 4.
The core of Alibaba data center is the servitization of middle Desk products
The core of Alibaba data center is the servitization of middle Desk products. Which is realized by collecting data, intelligently constructing data, managing data assets and providing data call, monitoring data, analyzing data and displaying data. The big data technology and methodology of data center help realize the productized service output of data center. The strategy derived collaborative thinking and characteristic big data effectively ensure that technology, talent and methodology are integrated into productized services and landing.
The core of Alibaba’s business center is to take the core links of user service –. Membership, commodities, transactions, marketing, stores and merchant settlement as an integral platform product. IT development is not a passive role in the enterprise to carry research and development needs. But through the whole links to build a large middle product, to provide an overall solution for front-end business.
Alibaba’s construction of middle Taiwan is not only the technological evolution of IT level. But also the comprehensive upgrade of technology, business and organization. Alibaba Middle Desk has broken down the department wall at the level of IT system. At the organizational level, through the vertical division. The team can be planned by business lines rather than thinking from the perspective of managers. Moreover, Alibaba has set up an organization to support the construction of Middle Taiwan. And ensure the smooth upgrade and later operation and maintenance of Middle Taiwan.
The construction experience of Alibaba Middle Taiwan is that the ultimate goal of technology upgrading must be to promote the development of business. Therefore, the construction of middle Taiwan should first determine the strategy from the business level, unify the goal, and build middle Taiwan with enterprise strength.
“Research, production, supply, marketing and service” integrated long business chain enterprises
“Research, production, supply, marketing and service” integrated enterprises can also be divided into two categories:. One is the traditional manufacturing, sales as a whole. The other is the relatively emerging manufacturing enterprises with technological development and innovation. Both types of firms have one thing in common: decoupling of production and operations. Production includes research and development, manufacturing and supply links, and operations include sales and service links. For Sinopec, a traditional enterprise, product types and standards are relatively fixed. And its product updates and upgrades respond to market demand at low frequencies. So production and operation links are naturally decoupled. Huawei and Xiaomi, another kind of long business chain enterprises mentioned in this paper, have great competitive pressure and rapid technological upgrading and development. So their products are highly responsive to market demands.
However, the long business chain faces two problems. First, the serial business simply promotes production by sales volume. Which leads to the reduction of enterprise efficiency and is not in line with the current development trend of flexible manufacturing [7]. Second, it ignores the business improvement brought by technology-driven product innovation. Therefore, in order to achieve innovation-driven production on the product side and flexible supply chain pull on the sales side, enterprises with long business chains generally decoupled operation and production through organization and strategy, as shown in Figure 5. The middle Taiwan construction of the two types of enterprises also focuses on capacity support for different production links.
From the perspective of the path of building Middle Taiwan, Xiaomi has planned a 3-year informatization strategy,
IT planning and business development are promoted in parallel, IT application is driven by process. And integration of self-built system and procurement system is promoted. Strategically separate production and marketing, and plan an “Ironman triathlon” strategy that includes pan-parts, new retail and Internet; In terms of organizational structure. It is divided into 4 directions and 10 departments, including hardware products, Internet, IoT platform and e-commerce. In terms of IT operation, middle Taiwan focuses on supporting users and dealers. In terms of production, Middle Taiwan focuses on digital supply chain, promoting production through projects or orders, driving production through supply planning, and realizing flexible supply chain support.数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
Therefore, Xiaomi has built a data center, a business center and a technology center. The business center is divided into 14 centers, which are oriented to online shopping malls, third-party e-commerce websites (such as Jingdong, Taobao, etc.), store system and direct selling analysis system, providing sharing ability of all links of product trading and customer operation, realizing sharing IT ability of different online and online channels, and reducing enterprise costs through IT intensification. The data center collects data through the xDATA data platform and is equipped with an xDATA team to analyze the cleaned data in different business scenarios. Through the analysis of daily business indicators, operation management analysis and strategic risk analysis, to build a solid foundation for business data. Xiaomi’s technology center will be the bottom resources and development components of the technical sinking, providing highly modular parts for the system construction.
Xiaomi’s business is relatively complicated.
Therefore, in the middle platform to support the business facing the front desk. We should consider our own online shopping malls, such as Xiaomi’s official website, Youpin Mall and overseas e-mall. And also consider how to connect with third-party e-commerce platforms. For the business system for each store, such as Mi Home, authorized stores, outlet points and various third-party stores, Xiaomi needs to provide the purchase-sales-inventory capability for the store through the middle Taiwan service, provide the direct sellers and distributors with the ability of customer coordination, distribution network and marketing risk analysis and control. And provide the channels with complete customer service and after-sales platform capabilities.
Therefore, for enterprises with full ecological coverage. The most important thing for middle-Taiwan strategy and architecture is to refine and precipitate the common processes of different business lines and different business apps to form reusable complete IT capabilities, reduce the time cost of inter-business process invocation. And improve the perception of consumers and partners through agile response.
At the business level, Huawei has always emphasized the separation of operational operations and capacity building
At the business level, Huawei has always emphasized the separation of operational operations and capacity building. Which is essentially to shorten the process and improve efficiency by decoupling all links of the long business chain. Huawei’s strategy of “letting those who hear the sound of artillery call for artillery fire” is a visual metaphor for Huawei’s strategy in Middle Taiwan. Middle Taiwan is an operational platform to provide artillery fire for frontline business personnel. And artillery is the capability that Middle Taiwan can provide. With the organization as the core and the middle platform as the bearer. Huawei has realized the two-V development model (as shown in Figure 7) –. “Two-wheel drive of business and digital technology”. Customer experience as the driving force to improve operations, technology development to promote product innovation, operation and production to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.
Fifth, operators in the middle of the thinking
Under the current trend of building network power and digital economy. The three domestic operators are all making efforts to transform to digitalization and Internet. Operators, as large enterprises near C-end and B-end, have a large business scale and accumulate massive data. There are many lines of public business, government-enterprise business and innovation business. But there are problems such as difficult collaboration and high departmental barriers. The current situation that operators’ system interaction is difficult and data value cannot be maximized is exactly the problem that Zhongtai aims to solve. Therefore, operators can improve their IT capabilities and accelerate their transformation through the construction of Zhongtai.
Operators should start from the enterprise-level perspective, gather the common needs of enterprise-level, anchor enterprises with similar business chain length, and imitate the construction of middle platform. It is suggested that operators imitate Huawei and Xiaomi, decouple operation and production, plan the construction needs of middle and Taiwan, clarify the business boundaries of each middle and Taiwan, and build a middle and Taiwan system suitable for operators.
(1) Decoupling production
Internal and external product R&D team, using its own network, big data, cloud, Internet of things and other basic resources and capabilities, to develop high-quality products for public customers, government and enterprise customers. The responsibility of production stops at the shelf.
Through capacity opening, the business side brings in external product R&D teams to build a R&D system of internal and external joint efforts. Based on basic capabilities, small IT tools with operational interfaces are developed. “Capability + small IT tools” turn capabilities into marketable products. The data center can provide two kinds of support:. One is as the basic production materials of data reports and scenario-based data service products. Second, analyze the portraits of high-quality products and guide the R & D team to improve product quality.
(2) Decoupling operation
For external customers, sales as a starting point, including subsequent service and maintenance links. The responsibility of operation starts from product launch and runs through the whole process of delivery, operation and maintenance.
The middle desk on the business side provides different contact access technology adaptation to achieve a unified view of all contacts, support the service and management of products, customers and partners, and make “selling products” easier and faster. On the basis of data fusion, the data center builds a three-layer view. The bottom layer is the source data acquisition layer, which contains the multi-domain data of the carrier such as domain B, domain M, domain O and domain E, and summarizes the detailed data in the public data center. 数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
The typical structure is shown in Figure 8. The top layer revolves around data objects to create an extraction data center with customers, products and partners as the main body. Based on the data center, provide customer operation as the core capability support: user portrait, ordering behavior analysis, analysis of user preferences for products and services. Product competitiveness, revenue contribution, sales analysis, to provide data support for whether to continue to sell products. Analyze the compatibility between users and products, and recommend products that meet their preferences.
Therefore, it is suggested that operators determine the construction concept of middle desk strategically and plan enterprise-level data middle desk and business middle desk.
The supporting relationship between the two middle desks is shown in Figure 9. Whether the technology center is built or not can be decided according to the current status of the technical components of each line. If a relatively unified technical system has been formed at present, the technology center can be constructed. If the current technical components are highly differentiated, it is suggested to build a “toolbox” for the platform development. Each line can select required components from the toolbox, and then build a technical middle platform after gradually converging.
In addition, for operators, the path and degree of middle Taiwan construction are inconsistent
In addition, for operators, the path and degree of middle Taiwan construction are inconsistent [10]. For operators that have achieved data intensification and IT intensification, their middle Taiwan construction, as described in this paper, considers the capacity sharing of various business lines, public and government-enterprise markets from the perspective of provincial companies and groups. For provincial companies and groups that have not yet realized the intensification, due to the large differences in the platform and data structure of provincial branches. The recent construction of central Taiwan should pay more attention to the construction of group-level sharing capacity. And gradually promote the collection of provincial data, structure unification and business function sharing.
In the process of promoting the construction of Middle Taiwan, IT is suggested to realize the vertical organizational structure, matching the organization with IT, and equipping with special personnel, financial resources and materials, So as to ensure the orderly construction of Middle Taiwan. In order to avoid the problem that no one is responsible for the public functions and the code quality deteriorates after the completion of the construction of the middle platform, special teams or departments should be built to continue the platform iteration and upgrading. Do not expect to do it once and for all. In addition, the problem of “pan-middle Taiwan” should be avoided in the construction of Middle Taiwan. And the way of simple integration of existing platforms and open interfaces should not be constructed in order to speed up the construction.
Sixth, concluding Remarks
Middle Taiwan is very important for the digital transformation, quality and efficiency improvement of enterprises. Therefore, for large and medium-sized enterprises near the C-end and B-end enterprises with a lot of IT assets. The construction of middle Taiwan is necessary. However, the Middle Taiwan project is not a project, but a reform implementation plan. It is a linkage reform that needs to be planned from the strategic level, determined the business direction. And completed with the full effort of the enterprise.
Moreover, Middle Taiwan is only a specific solution to the current business, technology and organizational upgrading and development, not a “panacea”, and needs to invest a certain amount of time and labor costs, continuous iterative optimization, enterprise decision-making needs to be flat expectations, can not be expected once and for all.
In short, the role of middle Taiwan in the digital transformation of large and medium-sized enterprises is positive. However, the concept generalization problem exists in the middle Taiwan construction in China. And there is no mature general methods and tools. Enterprises and manufacturers still need to explore and practice according to their own business direction. How to borrow.数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
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