Background introduction: You may not know that Ali launched a group-buying platform - Juhuasuan in only one and a half months. The R&D resources invested by similar group-buying platforms may be dozens of times that of Ali, and even the preparation time may be several times that of Ali. Why is Ali so efficient? The data center may have played an important role in it! Since then, major Internet companies have quickly perceived the charm of China and Taiwan, and intensively implemented the China and Taiwan strategy from the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2019. So far, the construction of Zhongtai seems to have become the standard configuration of Internet companies.
1. What is Zhongtai
The middle office is a packaged module. Most of these modules are the so-called cost centers in traditional organizations. They are responsible for integrating the background resources into the "middleware" required for front-end warfare, which is convenient for calling on demand.
To use an analogy: sweet and sour pork ribs, fish-flavored shredded pork, and squirrel mandarin fish all need sweet and sour sauce made with seasonings such as sugar, vinegar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, starch, etc. Chefs can prepare sweet and sour sauce in advance and add it directly when cooking a certain dish .
In this way, some frequently used organizational modules become common "middleware", that is, the middle platform, as shown in Figure 1. In fact, since the 1960s, the idea of modularization has become popular in product design, organizational design, and inter-enterprise relationship design.
Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the middle platform
2. Classification of middle and Taiwan
1) The business center provides reusable services , such as out-of-the-box reusable capabilities such as user centers and order centers , providing air force support capabilities for the battlefield, on-call, and powerful;
2) The data center provides data analysis capabilities , helps learn from data, adjusts direction, and provides naval support capabilities for the battlefield;
3) The algorithm platform provides algorithm capabilities , helps provide more personalized services, enhances user experience, and provides army support capabilities for the battlefield, adapting to changing situations, and invincible;
4) The technology center provides technical support capabilities for self-built systems, helps solve underlying technical problems such as infrastructure and distributed databases , and provides sophisticated weapons and equipment for front-end special forces;
5) The research and development center provides the management and technical practice support capabilities of the self-built system, helping to quickly build projects, manage progress, test, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. It is the training base for front-end special forces;
6) Organize the middle office to provide investment management, risk management, resource scheduling, etc. for the project. It is the headquarters of the battlefield, the brain of the war, commanding the front line and dispatching the rear.
PS: Taiwan is relatively common in data, and we often hear it, but you may not know what it is before.
3. The characteristics of China and Taiwan and the timing of its development
It is not difficult to analyze the characteristics of Zhongtai. Here it can be analyzed from two angles: flexibility and economy.
In many cases, flexibility needs to be weighed against economy and standardization. However, the two sides are always in two levels of contradiction, and if one pursues one, one must give up the other. Therefore, the enterprise will fall into a cycle of splitting and merging: Whenever flexibility is needed, it will delegate power, assign various functions to the front office, and let it respond to the market in the form of an "independent team"; whenever economy and regulation are needed, it will take power, extract the scattered functions in the front office, merge them into large functional departments, and manage them in a unified and standardized manner at the headquarters.
The emergence of Zhongtai obviously focuses on the latter. Facing the ever-changing market in the Internet age, it is impossible for enterprises to individually configure functions for many small front desks. Taking an e-commerce company as an example, when the online, offline, ToB, and ToC business teams all need to develop the "order function", it is not necessary to develop it once in each business separately, but put it in the central platform for unified development and reuse in large quantities. In this way, on the one hand, it is more economical, and on the other hand, it paves the way for later access to data.
In addition, Zhongtai does not seem to have sacrificed flexibility. When the extracted functions achieve "loose coupling", they can be called by the front desk as needed. The small front desk is pervasive in the market, flexibly detects customer needs, and then calls the functional modules of the powerful middle desk to achieve delivery. What a beautiful picture!
In addition, the Internet era has put forward new requirements for organizational design flexibility - experience. The transparency of information in the Internet age has led to fierce competition among products, and pampered users have unprecedented requirements for experience. In the past, it was enough for enterprises to achieve 60 points for their products, but now they must achieve 90 points. They need "flexible in-depth delivery."
When it comes to the development of China-Taiwan, since Ali began to practice China-Taiwan in 2015 , two upsurges of practice have formed:
1) Big Internet companies have entered the market one after another. This trend reached its peak between the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 , and it has not subsided now. I have broken down the construction time of the middle platform, as shown in Figure 2.
2) Professional service providers have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, but after experiencing the collapse of several large orders such as Moutai in 2019 (delayed delivery, project losses), the applicability of China and Taiwan has been challenged. As a result, the industry loves and hates China and Taiwan, and there are different opinions.
Figure 2 Timeline of the development of major Internet companies in China and Taiwan
Fourth, the last thing to say
So far, the construction of China-Taiwan seems to have become a standard configuration, but when China-Taiwan is in full swing, we can still hear endless voices of opposition. The reason for the mixed praise and criticism lies in the word "suitable". Zhongtai is good for some companies, and it will naturally bring results and be appreciated. But it is not suitable for some companies. So, what kind of business is suitable?
First of all, the enterprise ecology is complex. For example, the software company just now faces various businesses.
Second, there is indeed a lot of redundant construction and development .
Third, the front-end business and requirements are highly variable and uncertain, so they need to be continuously developed.
Therefore, if there are these three basic problem points, the pain faced is self-evident. That being the case, in order to reduce redundant construction, to achieve faster delivery, to better accumulate practice, to prevent personnel turmoil from causing experience loss, let those who are good at technology go to the middle office, and let those who are good at communication and business needs connect with the front desk. For these, you can use the middle office method.
Reposted from: What exactly is "Zhongtai"? - Know almost