In China, the key to successful digital transformations is strong partnerships

Over the course of 2019, we here at IBM began to notice a pattern in the types of client success stories that we were seeing come out of China. In particular, an increasing number of the more successful engagements featured our ecosystem of IBM Business Partners playing key roles in providing value-added services and solutions that simplified the digital transformation of our clients.

And for 2020, we expect that trend to continue. That’s why we’ve developed the GCG Ecosystem Strategy to Win. This new, three-fold strategy is designed to grow and nurture a thriving and effective ecosystem where you, our Business Partners, can work with us to more easily provide services and value-added skills to help clients succeed in their digital transformation.

The three pillars of this strategy are enabling new technologies, expanding into new markets and empowering new business models.

Enable new technology

IBM is making tremendous progress in cloud, AI and systems. And we are currently seeing unprecedented opportunities for IBM Business Partners to take advantage of these advances to build cutting-edge technology skillsets and drive meaningful transformation for customers.

Consider the work being done by IBM Business Partner 6789 Group’s Alpha Zone (Chongqing) Technology Co., Ltd. This partner is currently working with the Yuzhong District — the seat of the Chongqing local government — to accelerate the development of the digital economy within local industries.

Currently, 6789 Group’s Alpha Zone is building a digital innovation platform using IBM® Cloud Pak™, IBM Watson™ Assistant and IBM Watson IoT™ solutions alongside IBM Garage™ services. The firm is making full use of IBM’s global vision and experience in AI and blockchain, combining this work with government resources and a focus on specific industries to create a smart industry cluster, increase implementations of AI and blockchain and empower businesses to use big data more intelligently.

In 2020, IBM will continue to work with 6789 Group’s Alpha Zone to jointly create an AI center for the Yuzhong District that can extend the impact of new technology to the entire city and throughout Western China.

Expand into new markets

Shenzhen Idea Technology Co., Ltd. has the stated mission of making real estate operations and management smarter. And taking advantage of its position as an IBM Business Partner as well as an IBM Embedded Solution Agreement (ESA), Idea Technology embeds IBM Planning Analytics software within its offerings to provide real estate companies with digital operation management systems. These solutions empower users to pursue lean management strategies and develop intelligent, actionable plans to pursue corporate business goals.

It is proven business cases like the work being done by Idea Technology that demonstrate the deep industry insight offered by our Business Partners. Without their ongoing work to explore and reach out to new markets, we’d have far fewer businesses benefit from successful digital transformations in 2019.

Empower new business models

Next generation technologies demand next generation partnerships. And in China, the ESA has enabled many of our Business Partners to create and sell solutions and services that feature their brand but that incorporate IBM offerings.

Given access to these technologies — cloud, AI, advanced hardware — our partners can more easily innovate and pursue transformational business models. For instance, IBM Business Partner LinuxTREND Tech Co. Ltd., operating under an ESA, developed a cloud management platform built with IBM LinuxONE along with its own proprietary technology.

And this level of cooperation helps LinuxTREND accelerate the localization and customization of its solutions while opening up advanced IBM technologies to the market and encouraging client acceptance.

IBM is also cooperating with our partners to build up new innovation hubs. In October 2019, IBM and IBM Business Partner Zhangjiang Group established a Watson Build AI Innovation Center in Shanghai — the first of its kind in China.

The new facility resides in the Zhangjiang AIsland — a new hub for the AI industry developed and operated by Zhangjiang Group — and is expected to serve about 500 firms in the technology sector. In particular, the center will act as a research and development lab focused on exploring smart future applications and Watson-based technologies, such as speech recognition, cognitive image detection and deep learning.

In 2020, we will continue our dedication to the success of our partner ecosystem and will focus on accelerating the hybrid cloud journey for our clients, creating skilled industry channels, expanding growth in strategic segments and delivering differentiated partner value. To learn more about our strategy to win and the next generation ecosystem, check out these assets on Seismic. Or register for Think and check out the Business Partner channel during the digital conference.