Deloitte at Apsara Conference

Four trends in enterprise digitization

More than just a hot topic at this year's Apsara Conference, enterprise digital transformation undoubtedly is an important trend over the next decade. More and more business executives regard digital transformation as the top priority, and governments of mainstream countries around the world also strongly support enterprises in various industries in promoting traditional industries to optimize resource allocation, adjust industrial structure and achieve transformation and upgrading through technology.

At the 2021 Apsara Conference, Deloitte China shared its insights and observations about enterprise digitization.

National Managing Partner of Deloitte China Consulting Stanley Dai said, based on a series of digital transformation projects where Deloitte assisted global leading enterprises, diversified groups and innovative companies with implementation over the past decade, Deloitte China believes that enterprise digital transformation is increasingly focused on the following four major areas:

National Managing Partner of Deloitte China Consulting Stanley Dai delivered a keynote speech (Source: Alibaba Cloud)

The first is technology-driven strategy.

With the deepening of digital construction for enterprises, digital technology is not just limited to an enabling or supporting role, but rather is now an important part of enterprise strategy. Therefore, enterprises should strengthen the integration of strategy, technology and business.

Deloitte Consulting's "Tech Trends 2021" report predicts that visionary enterprises are taking the lead in strategy engineered, that is, to better develop and execute corporate strategy by introducing technologies and platforms such as automation and artificial intelligence.

The second is disintermediation.  

"It's time for digital transformation of enterprise channels and value chains by using digital technology to simplify intermediate links and serve downstream customers directly for higher value. This trend is already happening in consumer and retail, and we think we will see increasing industry-disruptive changes from disintermediation in traditional industries and To B enterprises in the future," Stanley Dai said.

The third is capacity and operation model.

Traditional enterprises' resources and capabilities are generally arranged according to functions and value chains, while the establishment of digitization in enterprises is not only to enable various emerging technologies, but also to implement supporting measures for mechanism, organization, and talent, create digital capabilities and cultivate digital talent, in order to truly realize new organizational structures and operation models.

The fourth is industrial chain and ecosystem.

Industrial networks are linked and trust mechanisms are built to enhance the efficiency of transactions in the supply-demand relationship throughout the industrial chain and improve ecosystem cooperation.

Cloud computing brought disruptive value to enterprises while giving birth to a new digital ecosystem. During the roundtable session of "Digital Ecosystem Innovation Forum", Woolf Huang, Deloitte Consulting China Clients, Industries and Markets Leader, said that the winner-takes-all era is gone. Openness, cooperation and innovation have become the main theme. 

Deloitte Consulting China Clients, Industries and Markets Leader Woolf Huang (left 1) at the roundtable session (Source: Alibaba Cloud)

"The most important thing for the digital ecosystem construction in the cloud era is to build an open platform. Every player should also have an open mind, so that we can find our own positioning on the open platform and maximize our value in order to jointly serve the digital transformation of all industries," Woolf Huang said. 

Deepen Cooperation and Establish Alliance with AntChain

Deloitte and Alibaba Cloud started cooperating in the first large central enterprise cloud transformation project in 2016, formed a global strategic partnership in 2018, and established Deloitte-Alibaba Cloud Global Practice in 2020. To date, both parties have completed digital transformation projects for many large enterprises. Now, Deloitte and Alibaba Cloud are once again expanding and deepening their cooperation.

On the afternoon of 20 October, Deloitte and AntChain announced strategic cooperation at Alibaba Cloud's Digital Ecosystem Innovation Forum to provide cutting-edge digital transformation solutions for enterprises and promote digital upgrading in industry collaboration.

Deloitte and AntChain Announced Strategic Cooperation (National Managing Partner of Deloitte China Consulting Stanley Dai (left) and Ant Group Vice President and President of the Intelligent Technology Business Group Guofei Jiang (right)) (Source: Alibaba Cloud)

AntChain is the technology brand of Ant Group. According to the cooperation agreement, both parties will integrate their respective advantages and jointly explore realization of innovative application scenarios (including development of joint industry solutions, joint market and customer expansion, and innovative industry service models) based on technologies such as blockchain, privacy computing, AIOT, artificial intelligence, and big data.

"AntChain is committed to using technology to build a trusted digital network for industrial collaboration. We are very pleased to cooperate with Deloitte. Both sides will explore more innovative application scenarios and industry digitization solutions to jointly promote the digital upgrading of industrial collaboration so that more enterprises could enjoy the dividends of the digital wave," Guofei Jiang, Ant Group Vice President and President of the Intelligent Technology Business Group, said.

Sam Balaji, Deloitte Global Consulting Leader, expressed his anticipation for Deloitte's cooperation with AntChain, saying, "As a leading technology company, Alibaba Cloud is commended for its ability to serve clients on multiple fronts, including intelligence, innovation, and automation. Deloitte's leading capabilities in complex and large-scale cloud-enabled transformation design and delivery are recognized by clients, ecosystem partners and industry analysts. Today we broaden our eco-relationship by entering into strategic cooperation with AntChain, and look forward to working with Alibaba Cloud and AntChain to help our customers on their digital journey."