2021Annual China ICT Sustainable Value Innovation Award
Winner — China Enterprise Network Communication Technology Co., Ltd.
I. Market Overview
Since the 1970s and 1980s, the development of traditional IT technology has significantly improved corporate efficiency. The large-scale application of computers and traditional software has marked the beginning of corporate digitization. However, as the business world gradually prospered and the complexity of business and management increased, traditional IT technology could no longer effectively solve new business problems. Therefore, more advanced information technology services emerged. With technological progress, in the new economic environment, the development of information technologies such as cloud computing, big data, 5G and the Internet of Things, blockchain, the internet, and artificial intelligence continues to drive business innovation. Simple digitization can no longer meet the diverse strategic layouts of enterprises, and more intelligent and efficient technologies have become the key force in helping enterprises develop rapidly.
The combination of digitization and intelligence has given rise to the concept of digital intelligence. Traditional digitization refers to the ability of a system to perceive states and analyze in real time through data and programming design, adding human intelligence to big data and enhancing the utility of data; intelligence, on the other hand, utilizes big data, cloud computing, and other digital technologies to improve the system's self-learning capabilities, manage human intelligence, and apply it to system decision-making and operations research, achieving a leap from manual to intelligent operations. Digital intelligence integrates the advantages of both, using intelligence as the connecting link to form a new deep learning ecosystem that is human-machine integrated.
The pandemic in 2020 put the market in a chaotic situation where both difficulties and hopes coexisted. However, it also promoted the popularization of the concept of digital intelligence. Business models driven by technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, such as online healthcare and online meetings, have welcomed new development opportunities. The complex market characteristics, new business concepts, and technological demands have inspired enterprises to evolve from traditional "digitization" to "digital intelligence." From the demand side, enterprises face an increasingly uncertain, fragmented, and personalized market demand. Therefore, they need to consider how to build a digital intelligence service system centered around consumer operations. At the technical level, digital intelligence transformation is based on new technology architectures such as cloud + AIoT. Enterprises need to participate in system development, logical migration, tool method evolution, and business model reconstruction. In terms of product delivery, in the traditional IT era, the technology provider delivered hardware, software, and product solutions to achieve business digitization. In the digital intelligence era, enterprises need to add a new set of full lifecycle service operation plans for customers on this basis to realize data businessization.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has thus become the core of enterprises on their digital and intelligent transformation journey. Currently, ICT has been applied in various fields such as computers, enterprise software, social networks, fintech, the Internet of Things (IoT), wearable devices, etc. Under policy guidance and support, such as the '13th Five-Year Development Plan for the IoT' and 'Information and Communication Industry Development Plan (2016-2020)', China will accelerate the development of strategic emerging industries, form an internationally competitive IoT industry system, further expand the overall scale of the information and communication industry, and increase the proportion of intelligent information services. The ICT value chain will also continue to expand and penetrate into industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, service sectors, and public affairs during this process, becoming an important driving force for the development of new economies represented by the digital economy. Frost & Sullivan predicts that in 2021, China's ICT market size will exceed $700 billion, nearly a 10% increase from 2020. The total expenditure on digital and intelligent transformation from 2021 to 2024 will reach $1.5 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of 17%, presenting broad development prospects.
However, under the backdrop of the new economy, enterprises seeking digital transformation also face many challenges. One is intensified competition; the wave of digitalization has allowed emerging forces to rise rapidly, restructuring the original business landscape and redefining product forms and competition rules. Traditional enterprises face significant reform pressure. The second is a slowdown in growth; currently, China's economic growth rate is entering a new stage of normalized growth. Enterprises need to embrace new technologies and trends, accelerate digital transformation, and continuously stimulate their own creative vitality to seize market opportunities in the new environment.
II. Award Description
1. Research Methods
To determine the final winners, the research team conducted surveys and interviews with industry experts on the market overview of China's ICT solutions market and analyzed the survey results in depth. Based on this, the team evaluated Chinese ICT solution providers and thus decided to award the '2021 China ICT Sustainable Value Innovation Award' to China Enterprise Network Communication Technology Co., Ltd.
2. Evaluation Indicators
Frost & Sullivan selects the best performers in each category through a rigorous screening process. Based on the company's actual market performance, we conduct detailed research using the following measurement criteria. In specific categories, relevant adjustments will be made to the standards. Award-winning companies should excel in the following indicators:
- innovation potential
- Product features
- competitive advantage
III. Award-winning Enterprises and Reasons for Their Selection
Frost & Sullivan has awarded the '2021 China ICT Sustainable Value Innovation Award' to China Entercom (CEC), in recognition of the company's continuous progress and efforts in ICT solution innovation. The award also highly recognizes and commends CEC's R&D contributions, technological innovation strengths, as well as its contribution to promoting the overall development of the industry.
1. Company Introduction
Zhongqi Communication, officially known as Zhongqi Network Communication Technology Co., Ltd., is a member enterprise of CITIC Group. It was established in August 2000, with its headquarters located in Beijing, and has branch offices or representative offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dongguan, and other places.
Over the past 20-plus years, Zhongqi Communication has focused on the ICT field, providing enterprises with reliable and comprehensive diversified information and communication services and solutions. As a digital pioneer driven by intelligent technology, it has a wide range of ICT resources, a large customer base, and mature customer service capabilities. Its customer base covers various industries such as high-end manufacturing, retail, finance, real estate, energy, healthcare, education, catering, logistics, luxury goods, etc.
In addition to rich experience in the ICT industry and abundant ICT resources, China Enterprise Communications adheres to the value of 'continuous innovation'. By leveraging intelligent ICT services, it provides sustainable empowerment for customers: 'innovation' keeps pace with the new era, and through outstanding solutions and services in the field of information and communication technology, it 'constantly' provides strong support and impetus for enterprises' digital and intelligent transformation.
Based on an innovative business philosophy, China Enterprise Communications continuously improves its service capabilities through innovative technologies. It integrates technologies such as big data, AI, AR, and blockchain into one-stop ICT services including networks, information security, cloud computing, and data centers. It constructs an ICT service ecosystem connected by intelligence to empower enterprises in digital transformation. From consulting, design, deployment to operation and maintenance, China Enterprise Communications helps enterprises explore industry frontiers, develops customizable one-stop solutions, and enables enterprises to keep up with the ever-evolving internet market. Whether it is the normal operation of the vast and complex teaching management system at New York University Shanghai, the digital transformation of the Chinese fast-food leader Zhenkung Fu stores, or the improvement of Fujitsu's IT system architecture and network architecture, there are always China Enterprise Communications' innovative and high-quality one-stop solutions and services behind them.
2. Product and Service Advantages
The products and services of China Enterprise Communications cover key ICT areas, mainly including China Enterprise Connect CeOne-CONNECT dedicated network services, TrustCSI information security management services, China Enterprise Cloud Era SmartCLOUD cloud computing services, DataHOUSE cloud data centers, as well as compliance and other assurance solutions. In addition, China Enterprise Communications continuously evolves its ICT service capabilities, constructing a more forward-looking ICT-MiiND strategy to support the evolving needs of customers for digital intelligence development.
In the field of enterprise private network services, in the highly competitive business world, a company's success depends on its flexible response to market changes. Information and communication are among the core needs of enterprises in every sector. In its early days of establishment, China Enterprise Communications began providing private network and management services for enterprises, and has now provided extensive network coverage nationwide for customers. As a typical representative of private network services, China Enterprise Communications CeOne-CONNECT private network service is a powerful network connection solution that enables enterprises to deploy and manage high-quality network services conveniently, quickly, securely, flexibly, and economically.
In recent years, China Enterprise Communications has continuously made efforts in the SD-WAN field. By integrating with China Enterprise Communications' backbone network, it provides flexible, simple, and secure enterprise-level network communication solutions for enterprise users. These solutions are not only suitable for traditional office and data center scenarios but also flexibly support various cloud computing scenarios. By continuously improving the SD-WAN service system, it aims to meet the diverse needs of different environments and enterprises of different scales.
In terms of information security management services, the increase in malicious web attack activities has made online application security issues increasingly serious. Coupled with various compliance requirements, information security has become a matter of particular concern for enterprises. On one hand, China Enterprise Communications has established an active, global, and dynamic end-to-end security operation center (SOC) based on the strong background and rich resources of its parent company; on the other hand, China Enterprise Communications has developed the TrustCSI managed information security service, which covers information assessment, advanced threat protection, WEB application firewall management, unified threat management, and other network security services. It is also managed and serviced 24/7 by senior project managers, providing enterprises with a one-stop full-process service including assessment, detection, protection, and monitoring.
In terms of cloud computing services, in recent years, the rise of cloud computing has begun to become an important driving force for enhancing enterprise productivity and efficiency. China Enterprise Communications has fully integrated domestic and international resources, and based on hardware facilities, has independently developed a series of SmartCLOUD products for the Cloud Era. These products cover public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds, dedicated clouds, multi-cloud connectivity, local/remote disaster recovery and backup, desktop clouds, cloud storage, cloud-based enterprise email, and cloud video conferencing services. By supporting the deployment of various medium to large enterprise-level applications through a flexible computing resource pool foundation, the professional service system is also a key factor in the company's innovation of cloud computing services. China Enterprise Communications not only has a cloud computing product team centered around product managers, pre-sales consultants, cloud computing and network experts, but also has an implementation team, an operation and maintenance management center, and a 7*24 customer service hotline, meeting the needs of cross-regional companies to manage and remotely control the business systems and IT resource pools of branches anytime and anywhere using a unified cloud resource platform.
In terms of cloud data centers, the national 'Belt and Road' initiative and 'new infrastructure' wave have brought new opportunities to many enterprises. Facing the explosive growth in information and data demand, enterprises also require multi-faceted management service support for their data and infrastructure. CCN has deployed a series of new cloud-network integrated data centers in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and is uniquely innovative, dedicated to creating the DataHOUSE 'AR Thousand-Mile Eye' remote operation and maintenance service. By using wearable AR devices, CCN helps customers overcome distance and time constraints today, when the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging. It enables remote system operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting with ease, achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement in enterprise operations and maintenance. Relying on its comprehensive cloud-network integration capabilities, CCN not only provides high-level cabinet hosting solutions but also leverages the advantages brought by its high-quality network services to extend IT resources for customers and assist in enterprise growth.
In addition, relying on its continuously innovative business philosophy, China Enterprise Communications has extended capabilities such as AI to the level of ICT service management, successfully embarking on a journey of innovative intelligence and promoting intelligent innovation with smart thinking. China Enterprise Communications' ICT-MiiND (ICT-Intelligent Empowerment) strategy integrates technological and service innovation development, becoming the brain that assists enterprises in successful digital transformation. ICT-MiiND adopts cutting-edge container technology, combining network, information security, cloud computing, data center products and services, connecting with innovative technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, Internet of Things, blockchain, etc. Coupled with years of practical experience in building digital transformation for industry clients and rich global technical partner resources, through ICT-MiiND's intelligent thinking, innovative intelligent modules and customized industry service scenarios different from ordinary intelligent operation and maintenance are constructed. It creates a more intelligent IT service management platform for clients and becomes the driver of business digital development.
The ICT-MiiND strategy of China Enterprise Communications has four prominent capabilities:
1) Artificial intelligence application capabilities. ICT-MiiND can utilize various innovative tools and algorithms to learn from existing data, detect data integrity, identify conventional IT operation models through machine learning and deep learning capabilities, and optimize resource allocation based on business priorities.
2) Simplify complexity. ICT-MiiND can collect massive data in real time, perform precise analysis of enterprise applications and IT operations through intelligent algorithms, quickly identify abnormal situations and root causes of problems, and reduce redundant alarms.
3) Proactive learning and comprehensive monitoring. ICT-MiiND can learn the entire process of operation and maintenance scenarios, optimize IT resource allocation through intelligent analysis, proactively monitor quality performance, and improve the level of operation and maintenance services as well as user experience.
4) Integrating rich scenarios and knowledge. ICT-MiiND can evolve into an intelligent operation and maintenance algorithm that perceives and drives business intentions, leveraging its experience in managing different networks and IT applications, as well as its understanding of business processes, application architecture, infrastructure, and security policies, thereby enriching application scenarios.
At the same time, China Enterprise Communications has launched a series of innovative solutions by combining ICT-MiiND strategies with traditional services. For example: 1) CeOne-CONNECT 'AI+SD-WAN' intelligent network service, which uses artificial intelligence and big data analysis to build an intelligent SD-WAN. Based on AI and big data analysis, it utilizes intelligent algorithms to achieve feature modeling and analysis from wide area networks, links, applications to the business layer, intelligently learns data across the entire link, and optimizes network configurations; 2) TrustCSI 2.0 information security threat detection and security incident response service, featuring professional intelligent security technology and efficient Security Operation Centers (SOCs), capable of providing real-time security guarantees, rapid detection and response, and effectively defending against network intrusions; 3) DataHOUSE 'AR Thousand Mile Eye' remote operation and maintenance service, creating an augmented reality (AR) service platform. By wearing AR devices, it remotely promotes system operations, maintenance, and troubleshooting, without distance limitations and reducing operational costs; 4) As well as China Enterprise Cloud Era SmartCLOUD DT (Data Technology) analytics-driven data technology services, using cloud platforms to promote the dataization and intelligence of applications, upgrading cloud services from computing resources to data services, and combining innovative SmartCLOUD DT technology to build a data intelligence technology cloud, realizing data collection, machine perception, serial analysis, and mining data value.
3. Competitive Advantage Analysis
Compared with other Chinese ICT solution service providers, the core competitiveness and competitive advantages of ChinaCOM mainly lie in the following aspects:
GlobalizationSince entering the 21st century, with the rapid development of productivity and continuous progress in high technology, international trade and investment have become increasingly liberalized. The operations of many domestic enterprises have gradually become internationalized. Through foreign trade, capital flows, technology transfer, and provision of services, their interdependent connections have become an organic whole of globalization. Against the backdrop of rapid globalization development, China Enterprise Communications has keenly captured the demand for interconnected enterprise information and made unremitting efforts in resource globalization and service globalization. China Enterprise Communications has joined hands with its parent company CITIC International Telecom (CPC) and the group to achieve global service implementation capabilities. Its resources are distributed across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the United States, South Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, covering the countries along the "Belt and Road" and the "RCEP" member states. It also provides service hubs for multiple countries along the "Digital Silk Road," enabling multiple important regions along the "Digital Silk Road" to have faster and shorter network paths directly connected to the Greater China region. At the same time, in terms of services, China Enterprise Communications has globally enhanced its service capabilities, equipped with high-quality infrastructure, one-stop service solutions, and local technical support. It also has a professional team providing 7*24-hour local multi-language support to escort the global and intelligent transformation of enterprises. Currently, China Enterprise Communications, in conjunction with its parent company CITIC International Telecom (CPC) and the group, has more than 160 network service hubs in 160 countries around the world, independently established and managed nearly 60 SD-WAN service nodes, 20 cloud service platforms, 30 data centers, and 2 all-weather security operation centers (SOCs), providing services for more than 15,000 customer sites, including over 200 "Fortune Global 500" customers.
Digital IntelligenceThe advancement of digital intelligence technology has had a disruptive impact on the decision-making, production, and working methods of traditional enterprises. By actively promoting the development of digital intelligence, reshaping management models for digital transformation and development, and enhancing competitive advantages in digital transformation strategies, enterprises can stay ahead of the trend. Under the trend of integrated development of new-generation information technologies such as AI, big data, cloud computing, and 5G, as a digital promoter driven by intelligent technology, China Enterprise Communications keeps up with the trend. Its network, information security, cloud computing, data center products and services, combined with innovative technologies such as big data, AI, AR, Internet of Things, and blockchain, assist enterprises in digital transformation. Based on the ICT-MiiND strategy, China Enterprise Communications has launched the "AI+SD-WAN network service," which can provide stronger network perception capabilities on the premise of speed, simplicity, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement. Through intelligent thinking and tools, it can optimize network architecture for customers and provide reference decision-making suggestions and solutions. At the same time, this service not only constructs learning and optimization intelligent operation and maintenance capabilities throughout the entire operation and maintenance process but also deepens IT resource planning for customers through intelligent analysis, transforming passive monitoring into active monitoring to enhance customer experience. China Enterprise Communications combines a series of products with the ICT-MiiND (ICT-Intelligent Empowerment) development strategy, bringing broader development space for enterprises' digital transformation in the 5G era.
Compliance:With the increasingly development of the internet, countries are paying more and more attention to standardization issues related to the internet sector. For example, the European Union has enacted what is known as the strictest data protection law in history—The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). China has also launched special campaigns against illegal and criminal activities involving data. Therefore, when Chinese enterprises enter regions such as the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Africa, they need to fully consider local compliance issues and deeply understand local laws and regulations. In the process of globalization in resources, networks, and services, China Enterprise Communications relies on its many years of global development foundation to help customers going global or entering China with business compliance. For instance, China Enterprise Communications provides planning experience and key solutions for enterprises on ensuring compliance with the China Insurance Regulatory Commission's Class 0 or the European GDPR, ensuring that customers' business operations follow local laws and regulations. In terms of its own qualification certifications, China Enterprise Communications has taken the lead by passing the "SD-WAN Ready Certification," Trusted Cloud Certification, and the Cybersecurity Level Protection 2.0 Certification issued by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. It also holds international certifications such as ISO9001, ISO20000, ISO27001, ISO27017, and TL9000, possessing domestic and international compliance capabilities.
Comprehensive one-stop service:Zhongqi Communication has built a one-stop product and service matrix, integrating services such as network, cloud computing, data center, information security, as well as a series of value-added management services. It is complemented by network operation centers, security operation centers, and cloud operation centers, thus becoming a strong backing for enterprises. The so-called 'one-stop service' refers to the integration of services and resources, which is a systematic service that starts from beginning to end. As a subsidiary of CITIC Group and with the sense of responsibility brought by its central enterprise background, Zhongqi Communication has always been committed to providing customers with comprehensive and innovative all-day 'one-stop' ICT services, which are far more convenient and efficient than those of ordinary data centers.
Innovation concept:CSC Communication adheres to the service philosophy of 'continuous innovation' and uses innovation to empower digital transformation. The ICT-MiiND strategy plays a central role in CSC Communication's transformation from an ICT solution provider to a digital transformation enabler driven by intelligent technology, fully demonstrating CSC Communication's commitment to strengthening its professional knowledge in technology and its relentless pursuit of innovation.
IV. About the Frost & Sullivan Best Practice Award
The Frost & Sullivan Best Practice Award recognizes outstanding performance and achievements in leadership, technological innovation, customer service, strategic product development, and other areas. The awards established by Frost & Sullivan each year are presented to companies that have demonstrated exceptional performance in various industries. The winning companies have not only shown strategic advantages in product innovation but also gradually increased net profits through effective marketing strategies over the past three years.
