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To put it directly, I think the concept of "middle platform" does not reflect the essence of this matter. I hope to name it "commander system". What enterprises need is a commander system. The nature of the middle office that everyone is hotly discussing is actually a commander system that enterprises really need. Starting today, forget "China" and remember "Commander system"These five words.
In 2019, the discussion of middle platform in the IT circle is definitely one of the hottest topics. For various companies, what is the middle platform that other people discuss is so good? Do you want to do it yourself? Is it suitable for you? What is your value to yourself? Are there any risks? Together, these problems have caused considerable trouble for CIOs/CTOs of various companies. The following content is not directed at any company or person, so please do not take it personally.
I hope this short article will answer the following three most critical questions:。
1 What is Zhongtai;
2. How to decide whether the platform is suitable for you?
3 Construction rhythm.
Before starting the main text, you can know the current situation of China-Taiwan construction by reading a funny story on the Internet.
What lies behind this story is that everyone has different opinions on the understanding of China and Taiwan. Even if they are all lumped together, they are called China and Taiwan. I summarize it asOne flower, one world, one person, one center,. The following PPT I made can give you an overview of several formulations of Zhongtai and several related sources.
Let’s get straight to the point and answer these three questions simply and directly.
1 What is Zhongtai?
The middle platform is the enterprise’s combat command system.The middle office is the "commander system" of the enterprise.
How did China and Taiwan become popular? It was put forward by enterprises when they encountered a deteriorating general environment, fierce competition, and hoped that new technologies would help them win the market. You have seen many articles saying thatWe are now in a VUCA era, VUCA means that the organization will be in a state of "Volatile", "Uncertain", "Complex", and "Ambiguous".
The concept of VUCA was first used by the US military in the 1990s to describe the increasingly unstable, uncertain, complex, ambiguous and multilateral world after the end of the Cold War. The concept and acronym were truly established after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Subsequently, “VUCA” was used by strategic business leaders to describe the chaotic and rapidly changing business environment that had become the “new normal.”
Based on the VUCA environment faced when the concept of middle platform was proposed,First of all, I want to completely exclude the middle platform defined from the perspective of technology and architecture.Why is this so? It depends on what you use the middle platform for: Do you need a structure? technology? Or do you want the company to be successful? My answer is clear: to help enterprises succeed, to win the market in the VUCA era.
In China, the first company to implement China Taiwan from the perspective of architecture technology is Suning. The starting point of Suning's construction of the middle platform was to solve the problem of poor performance of back-end SAP and front-end WCS, which could not support the rapid development of business. The goal was clear. Driven by this purpose, functions are decoupled from SAP and WCS, and the integration of online and offline architecture and reuse of services are considered during the construction process.
Suning started the construction of the central platform in 2012 and completed the preliminary construction in the first half of 2013. This process has invested a lot of money. Not many companies in China have such determination, or they may not have the financial strength to do so. What is the role of this successfully constructed center? To give an example: Alibaba and Suning became shareholders in each other in 2015, and the process of connecting Suning's middle platform system to Tmall only took 7 working days. At that time, the friends at Suning Zhongtai R&D Center worked for 7 consecutive days and completed the work of connecting with Tmall. From here we can see the value of the middle platform in terms of architecture and technology. If you are interested, you can refer to the article I shared at QCon in 2016: How do traditional companies transform into the Internet? Summary of the evolution of Suning’s six-year technical architecture
Therefore, China and Taiwan must be built into a combat command system that is oriented to market competition and connects and coordinates the internal capabilities of enterprises, that is,commander system,This helps companies quickly respond to market changes and win the market.。If you are concerned, you can learn about the US military's C4ISR system (https://url.cn/5C2ivT3?sf=uri).
The core capabilities of the commander system include two points:
1 Continuous improvement of internal operations and management driven by user experience;
2 Continuous improvement of internal operations management driven by data.
Under the management of this commander system, enterprises will increasingly reflect these two characteristics:Collaboration and evolution.
After clearly defining what the middle platform is, we move on to the next question.
2. How to decide whether China Platform is suitable for you?
First of all, the middle platform is used to open up resources, not to save money. All needs for saving money should not build the middle platform. Compared with the US military's C4ISR system, its purpose is to win the war, not to save costs.For the purpose of open source, my point of view is: when an enterprise reaches a certain scale, it still needs to invest in the future and build a middle platform, but it does not need to integrate services from an architectural perspective right from the start. Moreover, for most companies, this must not be the case.Because this is not the fundamental purpose of building China.
Some keywords we often hear: elimination of chimneys, architectural decoupling, unified middle platform, and service reuse are only from the perspective of architects and technicians and have no direct relationship with winning the market. For example, the picture below shows the middle stage from the perspective of an architect. There is nothing wrong from an architectural perspective, but it cannot achieve our fundamental purpose of building a middle platform.
Q: Does the chimney need to be eliminated in the construction of Zhongtai?
A: Not necessarily. The purpose of the middle platform construction is to build a commander system that can quickly respond to the market from a business perspective. If the elimination of chimneys from an architectural perspective matches the above goals, it can be done; if it does not match, there is no need to do it.
Q：Can the middle office be completely left to Party B?？
A: No. Have you ever heard of mercenaries leading an imperial campaign? The construction of China-Taiwan is destined to be led by Party A. If Party A has not thought clearly about it himself, it must not be started, otherwise it will be a waste of people and money. The specific platforms and tools can be left to Party B's company, provided that they are suitable for your company. The U.S. military does not build everything on its own and still wins wars around the world.
3 Construction rhythm
The pace of construction is a crucial decision. If the pace is right, the middle platform will be a platform to help enterprises develop and take them to a higher level;No, it is a big trap that drags down the company.
As mentioned above, the middle platform is the commander system of the enterprise. This is a system that is driven by user experience and data to continuously improve internal operation management, so the specific construction rhythm should start here.
First, we need to build a data system that focuses on user experience., this is very important. If managers cannot see the user experience data in all aspects of corporate operation and management activities, how can they make decisions? With this data, internal management can be upgraded to not only control, but also guide business decisions in real time, and drive continuous improvement of internal management based on user experience data.
Then, within a single business unit (division), user experience data drives the internal business system to become more complete, making collaboration smoother. This isEstablish a division-level commander system.This can be compared to the more complete combat command system of a branch of the military (such as the Army).
Finally, if the business has upgraded to the next stage, start buildingEnterprise-level commander system. Just like the current level of the US military, it has a C4ISR system that can support real-time collaborative operations among multiple services. At this stage, enterprise-level architectural decoupling and service reuse can be considered in parallel. But don’t put the cart before the horse and do it entirely for architecture optimization. In the end, you will definitely end up with nothing.
One more reminder: you must find the sponsor of China-Taiwan Construction. Calculate the financial accounts clearly: How much to invest? How much is the return? How long is the payback period?The investment in enterprise-level middle platform construction will definitely not be small., don’t have unrealistic ideas of spending small money to do big things.A better way isoverall planning,Invest in the long term, start small, and invest heavily when you clearly see the value of the output.。
From a business development perspective:There is no "middle platform" in the world, only a "commander system"; From an architectural technology perspective:Architectural decoupling and service reuse need to be discussed in detail.I hope this article can help you distinguish between these two perspectives when facing specific problems and choose the correct perspective to solve the problem. Use an architecture technology perspective to build a professional technology platform to support the commander system;Build a "commander system" from a business perspective,Help businessesRespond quickly to market changes and win in the fierce market competition!
The best articles from the past, I hope it will be helpful to you
How do traditional companies transform into the Internet? Summary of the evolution of Suning’s six-year technical architecture
Qiao Xinliang: The correct understanding and path of enterprise digital transformation
Qiao Xinliang: Ten experiences of the best R&D management in the world
Qiao Xinliang: System is the real culture and the core competitiveness of an enterprise
Qiao Xinliang: What is the only indicator to measure the value of an enterprise’s IT team?
Machine-translated from the Chinese original 大道至简：企业需要的中台是什么？答案是：指挥官体系 (published 2020-03-02). WeChat original ↗