Digital-real fusion is the main theme of the current digital economy, and the core of digital-real fusion is industrial digitization. At present, various industries in China have taken the initiative to integrate into the wave of digital and real integration. The adaptation of industry and digital technology has triggered the deconstruction and reorganization of the original industry, brought about leapfrog development of the industry, and promoted high-quality economic development.
Different from the previous two waves of digital-real integration: in the 1960s and 1970s, computers began to be applied to enterprise management; by the 1980s and 1990s, enterprise information systems had made great progress; today's digital-real fusion is not only a matter of digital transformation of enterprises , and more importantly, enterprises apply digital technology to reshape all walks of life, society and even the national economy.
Ali Research Institute's "The Third Wave of Digital Reality Integration" report believes that we are currently experiencing the third wave of digital reality integration: the in-depth integration of all things and intelligence into industries such as big transportation, big energy, big manufacturing, big health, and big finance. Experts believe that, unlike the digital-real integration in Europe, America, Japan and other countries, the digitalization of Chinese-style industries will form a unique business combination model, and finally create a digital-real integration with Chinese characteristics.
After Alibaba Cloud put forward the strategic goal of "adhering to partners first" in 2022, it began to create a partner system with Chinese characteristics for industrial digitalization. At the Alibaba Cloud Partner Conference on April 26, 2023, a complete answer sheet was handed over.
Digitization of Chinese-style industries
Why is it said that 2023 is a watershed in the digitalization of Chinese-style industries? Let’s first look at the digitalization of Chinese-style industries. Chen Guo, managing director of Boston Consulting Platinion, believes that the application of enterprise information technology in China began in the late 1990s, and enterprise software began to appear around 2000. Self-developed IT system, low degree of standardization), is also different from the capital-driven rapid replication model of Europe and the United States (resulting in high standardization of enterprise software), so the standardization degree of Chinese enterprise software is between Europe, America and Japan, to a large extent Driven by policy.
(Three waves of digital and real integration. Source: Ali Research Institute)
The government-led industry standards have become a distinctive feature of the digitalization of Chinese-style industries: they can concentrate their efforts on major tasks, especially they can break through various barriers in the industry, especially interest barriers, and directly break through various blocking points in the industrial chain through administrative means , Forming the digital-real integration of the whole industry, not just the digital-real fusion of a single enterprise. For example, the medical alliance advocated by the state and various new policies in the medical and health industry directly break through the data and business barriers between medical institutions in various regions, thereby accelerating the digitalization of the medical and health industry. In the 40 years of reform and opening up, China has gone through the road of industrialization that Western developed countries have completed for more than 100 years. An important reason is the acceleration brought about by policy promotion and government-led industry standards.
According to the "2022 China Industrial Digitalization Policy Analysis Report", in 2022 the national ministries and provincial governments will issue as many as 117 policies related to industrial digitalization, "The 14th Five-Year Plan for Digital Economy Development Plan", "Guidelines for the Digital Transformation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" " and other programmatic documents coordinate the advancement of industrial digitalization, "Digitalization Implementation of Manufacturing Quality Management", "Guiding Opinions on Digital Transformation of the Banking and Insurance Industry", "Digitalization Boosts the "Three Products" Action Plan of the Consumer Goods Industry", etc. cover. It is expected that local governments will introduce more special policies for industrial digitalization in the future to speed up the integration of data and reality.
Marked by the "Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China" and the establishment of the National Data Bureau in February 2023, the standardization and standardization of China's industrial digitalization is getting higher and higher, which means that the digitalization of Chinese-style industries has entered an acceleration stage, and a watershed has arrived. .
Adhere to the productization of cloud computing and insist on being integrated
The industrial digital market is a market that cloud computing manufacturers must enter. It is not only a market that must be successful, but also the challenge of mature European and American enterprise-level software products. So, how will Alibaba Cloud deal with this once-in-a-century challenge, and how will it seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of this generation?
On April 26, at the 2023 Alibaba Cloud Partner Conference, Zhang Yong, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said that the core positioning of Alibaba Cloud is a cloud computing product company, and the ecology is the foundation of Alibaba Cloud. Adhere to "being integrated" is the core of Alibaba Cloud's core. "Being integrated" must take the road of productization. Only "products are integrated" is the sustainable "integrated" road. Just like European and American databases, middleware, virtualization and other enterprise software products, they all adhere to the road of productization before they can finally enter the solutions of thousands of industries and become the cornerstone of enterprise IT.
So, how to realize the productization of cloud computing? As we all know, different cloud computing vendors have their own technical systems and implementation methods. To realize the productization of cloud computing, it must first be fully compatible with various open standards and industry standards.
Zhou Jingren, Chief Technology Officer of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, emphasized that Alibaba Cloud platform products, such as cloud-native database PolarDB, machine learning platform PAI, container service ACK and other products, actively embrace various open source standards and industry standards, and also use more standardized and easily compatible products. The model is provided to partners to help them create more flexible and flexible digital and intelligent products. Alibaba Cloud is also actively open-sourcing its core technologies, establishing an influential open-source community, promoting the formation of industry standards for cloud technology, and improving the standardization of cloud products.
Secondly, Alibaba Cloud further simplifies its product system to facilitate the integration and cooperation of partners from all walks of life. In the face of partners, Alibaba Cloud provides a "1+3+1" product integration structure: the top layer is the MaaS model as a service, and Alibaba Cloud opens up large model capabilities and training bases to the ecology; the middle layer is the integration of three PaaS, Dingding and Lingyang have entered the product matrix, and are integrated with Alibaba Cloud platform products to form the three major PaaS; the base is IaaS cloud infrastructure products to be integrated.
Dingding and Lingyang are two very unique PaaS layer service products. Dingding is an important work platform PaaS, and Lingyang is a data intelligence platform. The combination of these two products and the solutions of partners will further help all walks of life digitization faster. It is worth mentioning that the PaaS of Dingding, Lingyang and Alibaba Cloud platforms are all industrial-level and social-level platforms, which can not only open up the internal processes and data of a single enterprise, but also connect the cross-border processes of the entire industry and industrial chain and data to form the integration of data and reality in the whole industry.
As an independent subsidiary of Alibaba, Lingyang Intelligence is responsible for transforming the digital capabilities accumulated in the consumption and other fields of Alibaba Group into intelligent products and services. Through the construction of leading technical capabilities, it forms a DaaS service for thousands of industries. . Lingyang Intelligence uses data-driven as the growth engine to open up and integrate the business flow, data flow and workflow of the enterprise, so that data intelligence can maximize its value in the production and operation of the enterprise.
As an application development platform for enterprises, DingTalk provides more than 2,400 open interfaces, and provides low-code, cool applications, connectors and other products and capabilities together with ecological partners: customers and partners can develop various enterprise applications on the DingTalk low-code platform Connect various application systems of the enterprise through connectors to realize the connection of data; Cool App breaks up business applications and pushes them to the DingTalk group chat, allowing low-frequency applications in the past to enter the high-frequency scene of group chat.
Third, Alibaba Cloud seizes the large-scale model, an intelligent technology that has the most commercial value in the history of artificial intelligence and can generally improve the productivity of all walks of life, and uses standardized and generalized intelligent technology as the leader of Alibaba Cloud's product matrix to form a pair of cooperation The strong penetration of partners and all walks of life promotes the landing of standardized products and solutions in all walks of life. The large model is one of the most influential inventions in the history of modern human civilization, comparable to engines and steam engines, and its value lies in its versatility and standardization. Using the large model as a breakthrough point, combined with all the AI models already provided by Alibaba Cloud, we can enter the industrial digital market with relatively common and standard intelligent technology, combined with the proprietary knowledge and experience of various industry partners.
Zhang Yong said that the large model allowed all enterprises to stand on the same starting line, and once again activated thousands of industries. Since the announcement of the "Tongyi Qianwen" large-scale model on April 11, more than 200,000 corporate users have applied for access to the "Tongyi Qianwen" test in just two weeks. traditional industries. Zhang Yong revealed that from communications, electronic products, corporate services, financial information, to transportation, electricity, oil and gas, clothing, and even dairy products, many companies have been recruited from almost every industry. This is a huge new smart market.
Fourth, as an upgrading technology of traditional IT, cloud computing itself is also undergoing a replacement and update of traditional IT. Only by breaking through the price point of cloud computing for traditional IT can we truly stimulate the industrial digitalization market based on cloud computing technology. At the 2023 Alibaba Cloud Partner Conference, Alibaba Cloud once again announced the largest price cut in history. The prices of core products were cut by 15% to 50% across the board, and the maximum drop of storage products was 50%. In addition, the "Feitian Free Trial Plan" announced on April 11 , will once again increase the market penetration and share of cloud computing products, and expand the cloud market space.
On the basis of the above main technical strategies, Alibaba Cloud has gradually promoted the productization of cloud computing, and then through the productization of cloud computing, it is integrated into the solutions of partners in various industries to meet various requirements of enterprise digitalization and industrial digitalization. Demand can eventually be connected back to the Alibaba Cloud platform to form an industrial Internet that penetrates industries and industries, and integrates into the third wave of digital-real integration.
The new ecological policy sparked cheers from partners
At the partner conference last year, Alibaba Cloud proposed an ecological strategy of "adhering to partners first". In the past year, Alibaba Cloud and 12,000 partners have served more than 450,000 customers, more than 300 partners have annual sales of over 10 million on Alibaba Cloud, and more than 900 partners have grown by more than 100%. However, in the face of China's digital economy, which is about to cross the 50% mark of GDP and will increase nearly 50 trillion yuan in the next ten years, the number and scale of Alibaba Cloud's partners are far from enough.
While continuing to firmly promote the productization and integration of cloud computing, Cai Yinghua, Chief Commercial Officer of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, released the ecological policy for the new fiscal year at this conference: the market size exclusively for partners will be expanded by 5 times, and partner commissions will be greatly increased Rate. This caused three warm applause from the partners on the scene.
(Alibaba Cloud announced the new ecological policy, and the on-site partners applauded warmly)
This year, Alibaba Cloud’s commission rate increase for all levels of distribution partners is the highest in history. At the same time, the rules are simplified, making it easier for partners to calculate benefits and incentives; for those partners who develop new sinking areas, additional guaranteed commissions will be added , to encourage them to continue to tap market increments. The exclusive market size of distribution partners has increased by 5 times, from 2 billion to 10 billion. As the exclusive customers of waist customers, Alibaba Cloud will be handed over to partners to focus on follow-up. The exclusive market will allow distribution partners and Alibaba Cloud to have a clearer division of labor, closer cooperation, and more lucrative benefits.
ISVs are the core driving force for industrial digitalization. Alibaba Cloud encourages more ISV partners to continue to develop and deploy cloud-native applications on Alibaba Cloud. For ISV partners, Alibaba Cloud provides tens of millions of special funds to support integration and adaptation, and accelerate applications to the cloud. In the process of selling products on the cloud, ISV partners can also have the status of distributors and obtain distribution rebates. In 2023, Alibaba Cloud will focus on 10 tracks, recruit 100 ISV partners, and jointly expand the 10 billion vertical market.
In 2023, Alibaba Cloud will work with consulting, integration, ISV and service partners to jointly expand the 100 billion market space including top customers and waist customers. Facing the 100 billion market space, Alibaba Cloud puts forward the "five priorities" principle of prioritizing business plan, actual contribution, capability matching, business opportunity reporting and customer support, as the key guarantee for partner priority, so that partners can cooperate with confidence.
Alibaba Cloud will provide partners with a more efficient talent empowerment, marketing and service support system. In the past year, Alibaba Cloud’s 100 million-level special marketing fund has invested in targeted marketing support in 61 cities, and the city’s distribution coverage has reached 90%. Special credit control resources and tens of millions of level payment discounts have been set up to further shorten the partner’s account settlement cycle.
In 2023, in addition to continuously increasing the investment in marketing resources, 500 Alibaba Cloud sales experts will also guide new partners to complete 1-3 sales orders, achieve "zero breakthrough" in sales, and gradually achieve product understanding, sales skills, and service capabilities. At the same time, a one-stop operation platform for partners with digitalization of the whole process will be officially launched, and 1 billion business opportunities will be issued online, and commissions will be issued ten days in advance, so that performance and incentives can be 100% visible. Alibaba Cloud's exclusive mailbox for partner feedback will also be opened to respond to partner complaints and suggestions within 24 hours.
Alibaba Cloud also uses the large-scale model as a breakthrough in technology and products, which doubles the confidence and determination of partners. Alibaba Cloud will launch the "Qianwen Partner Program", which will give priority to providing Qianwen partners with technology, service and product support in the field of large-scale models, and jointly promote the application of large-scale models in different industries. Kunlun Digital Intelligence, Langxin Technology, Qianfang Technology, CICC Fortune, Shiji Group, UFIDA, AsiaInfo and other seven industry digital service providers have become the first batch of partners, and will jointly promote oil and gas, electric power, transportation, and finance with Alibaba Cloud. Intelligentization of industries such as tourism, hotel, enterprise service, and communication.
Eco-partners from all walks of life can combine their own industry knowledge and scene needs to retrain and fine-tune the Qianwen large model, create exclusive large models, and integrate them into their own overall industry solutions. Qianwen's exclusive large model has the characteristics of customization, easy integration, fine-tuning, and strong security. Alibaba Cloud will provide a secure and isolated dedicated data storage space, and achieve high-security and high-compliance data protection through server-side encryption mechanisms. Partners and enterprises can upload their own industry data and call Qianwen for retraining. In the future, Alibaba Cloud will also launch a large-scale model of Qianwen with multiple parameter versions, and partners and enterprises can choose training services of different model sizes according to their needs.
At the 2023 Alibaba Cloud Partner Conference, Alibaba Cloud and its partners launched eight more joint industry solutions, including One Netcom Office, One Netcom Management, Urban Security, Cloud Smart Hospital, Smart Park, Semiconductor EDA Cloud, Procurement and Marketing Supply Chain, Digital factory. These solutions are highly integrated with Alibaba Cloud's core products at the PaaS layer, such as cloud native, data intelligence middle platform, DingTalk, and service platform. They optimize the traditional technical architecture, improve business iteration efficiency and user experience, and set a benchmark for partners.
In summary: 2023 is a watershed for industrial digitalization. The scale of the industrial digital market is expanding rapidly, and the standardization of cloud computing products and solutions is getting higher and higher. Inspired by large models, all walks of life will once again set off a new wave of digital intelligence. Faced with the digitalization of industries with Chinese characteristics, Alibaba Cloud's 2023 Partner Conference handed over a complete answer sheet, which also reassured new partners to join the Alibaba Cloud camp. The Alibaba Cloud 2023 Partner Conference told the market that Alibaba Cloud is serious about its partners and has long-term development plans. "Insisting on partner priority" is not empty talk. (Text/Ning Chuan)