Only mobile developers can save traditional ISV and SI companies?

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About the author: Liu Xin, founder and CEO of APICloud mobile application cloud service, has witnessed the entire process of China's mobile Internet from SP Dream Network to the era of smart phones. He focuses on the research of mobile application development platforms at home and abroad, and has systematically explained the challenges of Web App and the development of Hybrid App. And with APICloud.com mobile application cloud service, he successfully obtained a US$5 million Series A financing led by Northern Lights. APICloud redefines mobile application development and helps millions of Chinese web developers transform into mobile APP experts.

Traditional ISVs and SIs are extremely anxious in the context of enterprise mobility and enterprise Internetization. The process of mobilizing existing B/S architecture products is slow and full of risks of failure, and innovative products are not commercialized due to inappropriate methods. The changes in the industry are even more dazzling. When it is difficult to set up iOS and Android development teams to develop apps, WeChat disrupts the pace of transformation to mobile. Blind repetitive investment results in repeated project delays or even failures...

It is an indisputable fact that the Chinese enterprise software industry is undergoing a profound revolution. However, this tragic failure is constantly repeated in different traditional companies. If ISVs and SIs do not want to repeat the same mistakes, they must recognize the reasons for others' failure, which can be summed up in three aspects:

1. It’s difficult to build a mobile development team

Traditional ISVs or SIs who want to develop mobile apps face the pressure of team reorganization, because the knowledge level and project management methods of the existing team are incompatible with the development needs of apps. More than 90% of traditional software and enterprise information systems are based on B/S architecture. The knowledge structure of the existing team is mainly based on traditional web technologies such as Java, PHP and HTML5. They do not have the ability to develop apps, and the transformation cost is huge. Reorganizing iOS and Android engineering teams for app development has the problems of "difficult to recruit people" and "high cost"! What's more, the characteristics of mobile app development on different platforms put forward higher requirements for development management. The worst case is that the mobile development teams that these companies have barely formed have just started to operate, and the team members with some experience have jumped jobs in the face of the temptation of various Internet companies, because the culture and treatment of Internet startups are more attractive. Lack of people - lack of people who can achieve results in mobile transformation has become a top priority for ISV and SI managers of large, medium and small sizes. How to make the existing team get rid of the old and bring in the new, and gradually "be able to do" and "do well" mobile transformation is the key to smooth transformation in the field of traditional enterprise software. Standing still or making a big change is not the wisest choice.

2. Successful experiences in the Web era are negative assets in the mobile era

Many newly established vertical software companies facing the mobile era are not bound by the old B/S architecture, but the core team members of these companies are usually based on the backbone of the traditional ISV and SI era. These people have experience, understand the market, and want to show their skills in the innovative direction of enterprise mobility and Internet. However, in many cases, experience in the B/S architecture era has become a burden or even a negative asset. The rise of HTML5 has given some traditional ISV teams the ability to do mobile, and they can also reuse some experience in B/S architecture, but it is precisely experience that has harmed these innovative businesses. In the practice of mobile innovation, many enterprise software companies first develop a mobile website based on HTML5, and then add a native App shell on the outside, which is actually equivalent to writing a simple browser and then nesting a web-based mobile website in it.

Although this practice of continuing the experience of the traditional Web era has brought convenience to business updates, it has also completely sacrificed SOLOMO (Social Local Mobile) related features such as "high-quality user experience", "rich device functions", and "efficient communication capabilities" in the mobile context. Web-shelled apps are never real mobile apps, let alone innovative mobile apps. At present, several innovative SaaS companies in China that have successfully raised funds have fully utilized mobile features in innovation, rather than simply putting old wine in new bottles and pretending to do business with packaging concepts. Therefore, experience is a double-edged sword that can extend value while also obliterating innovation capabilities. Traditional ISVs are particularly prominent in mobile transformation. Experience, especially technical experience, has become a negative asset for mobile innovation to some extent.

3. The “moving-style” mobility approach is completely wrong

The new round of revolution in the enterprise software field is based on the "cloud + terminal" architecture, and the most prominent representative of business innovation is "O2O". "Innovation" runs through the entire context of enterprise Internetization. Many companies have made some innovations in the process of mobileization, but enterprise mobileization is only an intermediate state of enterprise Internetization and should never be regarded as the ultimate goal. For example, we cannot say "Watsons has made an App, even if it has completed the transition to the Internet in the O2O environment, if there is no model innovation and thorough Internetization transformation, Watsons with an App is still the Watsons we are familiar with in the mall."

This is even more true for the traditional enterprise software sector. Just because existing PC-based software can be used on mobile devices, it cannot be said that mobile-based software is the whole of enterprise Internet innovation. On the contrary, this kind of approach of drinking poison to quench thirst will affect real innovation. Looking at the current Internet landscape (because mobile has become the most important carrier of the Internet in the next 10 years, there is no longer a distinction between mobile Internet and Internet), many of the websites that were once popular in the past 10 years have been left in the PC era, such as Renren, Douban, and even QQ, Sina, and NetEase, and have been replaced by mobile innovative businesses such as Momo, WeChat, Zarker, and My Name is MT.

Therefore, whether it is the narrow Internet or enterprise software or traditional enterprises we are talking about today, the future of the Internet is based on innovative technologies, products and innovative models to win the final victory. However, many people and enterprises are still blindly following the "moving" mobile thinking, without distinguishing whether the future development of the business requires "enterprise mobility" or "enterprise Internetization". In essence, these are two different concepts.

The Internet revolution in China's enterprise software sector has reached a breaking point

"De-IOE" has become a recognized trend in the field of enterprise software in China and has gradually become a fashion. However, "de-IOE" is only a manifestation, and its root comes from the demand for "enterprise Internetization" transformation. Enterprise Internetization requires not only "Internet thinking" and "Internet talents", but also "Internet technology". Internet companies rarely use or almost never use highly integrated technology products such as IOE. Similarly, the traditional enterprise software market must embrace Internet technology in the process of moving towards the Internet, which accelerates the pace of "de-IOE".

The transformation dilemma that traditional ISVs and SIs will face next is not a temporary one, but a turning point of "life or death". The urgent need for "cloud + terminal" and "cloud integration" in the process of enterprise Internetization has left traditional ISVs and SIs at a loss. If traditional ISVs and SIs cannot make full use of existing human resources to master mobile development capabilities as soon as possible, then the remaining value is only to maintain the existing B/S architecture enterprise software products and ensure the security of customers' existing businesses. The opportunity to serve the Internet transformation of enterprises and open up new markets is left to many latecomers and innovative Internet companies.

However, during this period, a number of companies have emerged to help traditional ISVs and SIs transform into the Internet sector, giving them the ability to serve the enterprise Internet market. For example, companies like Yunshan Technology, which sells cloud platform products in the SDN field, have helped traditional IDCs shift from hosts to the cloud service market. Another example is the many B2D Internet companies that provide services to developers, such as Getui, Qiniu, Yunzhixun, and Ping++, which open up the core Internet capabilities of a certain field in the form of services to help simplify the development of enterprise Internet apps. There are also cloud-integrated mobile application platforms like APICloud, which give many engineers with web skills the ability to quickly develop high-quality apps, allowing traditional ISVs and SIs to smoothly achieve technical and business transformation. There are countless examples of this, even in China.

Overseas, the transformation of the enterprise software market is even more thorough. Although the rumor that Oracle acquired Salesforce for $44 billion not long ago is just a rumor, it can be seen from the side that traditional ISVs and SIs are indifferent to the Internet transformation of enterprises. The rise of cloud services has led a large number of innovative companies to quickly enter the enterprise Internet market and has made many entrepreneurs successful. In China, this trend has just exploded, and the market will see "a lot of death and a lot of birth" next.

So, you, the traditional ISV and SI friends, will you be the one who is reborn?