Business and IT leaders need to incorporate trends into their D&A strategies

Gartner, Inc. has identified the top 10 data and analytics (D&A) trends for 2023 that can enable D&A leaders to unlock new sources of value and capitalize on business opportunities amidst uncertainty. These trends emphasize the need for delivering measurable value at scale, managing AI risks, enhancing observability, embracing data sharing, driving sustainability, and more.

At the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit in Mumbai, Gartner analysts shared insights on these trends, urging business and IT leaders to incorporate them into their D&A strategies.

Trend 1: Value Optimization D&A leaders often struggle to communicate the value they provide in business terms. Value optimization requires building value stories that establish clear connections between D&A initiatives and mission-critical priorities.

Trend 2: Managing AI Risk The increased use of AI introduces new risks that must be managed effectively. This involves mitigating ethical risks, addressing data poisoning or fraud detection circumvention, and implementing AI governance and responsible AI practices to build trust.

Trend 3: Observability enables organizations to understand the behaviour of their D&A systems and answer questions about their performance. By reducing the time to identify performance issues and making data-driven decisions, observability enhances operational efficiency.

Trend 4: Data Sharing Is Essential Data sharing, both internally and externally, creates opportunities for collaboration and value creation. Adopting a data fabric design enables organizations to share and leverage reusable data assets across heterogeneous sources.

Trend 5: D&A Sustainability D&A leaders should not only provide analysis for enterprise ESG projects but also optimize their own processes for sustainability improvement. This includes using renewable energy, energy-efficient hardware, and adopting practices that minimize energy consumption.

Trend 6: Practical Data Fabric Data fabric, a data management design pattern, leverages metadata to analyse and recommend data management solutions. It enables users to consume data confidently and empowers citizen developers with integration and modelling capabilities.

Trend 7: Emergent AI Emergent AI, driven by technologies like ChatGPT and generative AI, will revolutionize scalability, versatility, and adaptability. This next wave of AI will enable its application in new scenarios, making it more pervasive and valuable.

Trend 8: Converged and Composable Ecosystems Converged D&A ecosystems ensure cohesive operation through seamless integrations, governance, and technical interoperability. Composable ecosystems deliver configurable applications and services that enable scalability and flexibility to meet changing business needs.

Trend 9: Consumers Become Creators Predefined dashboards are giving way to conversational and embedded user experiences that address specific content consumers’ needs. Organizations can empower users by providing easy-to-use automated insights and conversational experiences to foster content creation.

Trend 10: Humans Remain the Key Decision Makers While automation plays a vital role in decision-making, human involvement remains crucial. Organizations need to consider the human element in decision support and prioritize data literacy programs that combine data, analytics, and human decision-making.

Gareth Herschel, VP Analyst at Gartner, emphasized the importance of engaging stakeholders and considering human psychology and values in driving D&A adoption. By embracing these trends, organizations can unlock the full potential of their data assets and gain a competitive edge in the evolving landscape.

Tags: D&A leadersGartner

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Key strategies and initiatives for advancing E-Government services in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government has been proactively implementing policy measures to facilitate the integration, application and sharing of data to drive smart city development through a data-driven approach.

In response to questions from Dr. Johnny Ng, Acting Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Lillian Cheong stated that it has been encouraging departments to apply design thinking in designing electronic services to enhance user experience and regularly collecting user feedback on electronic services for continuous service improvement.

Since 2019, relevant B/Ds have collected public feedback on more than 400 commonly used e-government services through the GovHK Portal and have continued to review and improve their e-government services.

The government has made good progress in the implementation of e-government services. Currently, electronic submission options are available for over 1,200 license applications and government services, while nearly 600 payment items and 880 applicable licenses and services have electronic payment of fees and documents pick-up options.

Meanwhile, over 3,250 government forms can be submitted electronically. The government is committed to driving the adoption of technologies by B/Ds to enhance operational efficiency and continuously improve public services. The target is to turn all government services online by 2024.

The government is actively driving the comprehensive upgrade of “iAM Smart” with the objective to provide one-stop digital services by “iAM Smart” in 2025 and realise the goal of “single portal for online government services.”

The government will adopt a more systematic organisation and categorisation approach to integrate the existing online services, simplify the access procedures and the overall operation workflow.

The government will also develop more services that are convenient and beneficial to the public through strengthening the sharing of data among different government services. Citizens can go through one-stop processing or application for various government services with “iAM Smart” anytime, anywhere.

The government is closely monitoring the latest developments in various technology domains, including metaverse, and the latest situation and application of e-government services in different places. It will formulate strategies and implement measures to enhance various e-government services with continuous adoption and introduction of new technologies so as to provide more convenient digital services to the public.

Regarding the “Global Data Barometer” report, which showed that Hong Kong’s overall score in “data governance” was just 37.5, the government is exploring devising open data policies and mechanisms that are more ambitious, with a view to facilitating the data sharing and application among various policy bureaux and government departments and playing well its coordinating and steering roles in the course of developing e-government services.

Finally, the government is considering further strengthening the relevant policy initiatives and expediting the development of digital infrastructure in Hong Kong, with a view to dovetailing with the relevant work of the country following the State Council Institutional Reform Plan proposal to establish a national data bureau.

Tags: E-governmentHong KongiAM Smart

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Increasing investments into data transformation suites shows the new value of banking data

According to a recent IDC survey, Role of Technology in the Banking Industry, 83.2 per cent of banks in Asia/Pacific will increase their technology budgets in 2023, with 14.8 per cent signalling they will increase their budgets by 20 per cent or more. The IDC survey also revealed that security and data transformation will be the key focuses of technology investments in 2023, with 80.4 per cent of banks planning to increase their budgets in security/identity and access management, followed by big data & analytics (68.4 per cent) and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning solutions (64.6 per cent).

These priorities reflect an urgency for banks to address the rapidly escalating landscape now driven by institutionalized threat actors with AI-enhanced tools to combat security risks. Increasing investments into data transformation suites also reflects the new value of banking data as a significant commodity and driver of new revenue, where establishing new analytic frameworks and methodologies can offer banks immense advantages over their competitors.

IDC’s key findings from the survey include:

• The largest pain point for banks when navigating digital transformation is in maintaining stability and minimizing downtime (47.8 per cent), followed by managing operational risks of migration (43.7 per cent).
• In the next 24 months, APeJ banks are prioritizing the enablement of third-party integration (50.0 per cent) and innovating corporate banking products via API (48.1 per cent).
• In the next five years, 70.6 per cent of banks believe that their ESG strategies will positively impact their profits.

“The banking industry is always situated at the forefront of constant innovation, amidst challenges posed by global economic uncertainties, emerging competitors, and ever-changing customer demand”, said Adam Kamarul, Market Analyst at IDC Financial Insights. “The priorities set by the banks in 2023 serve both as a guidance on where banking is headed next, and a signal for the types of technology innovations that will take place.”

The IDC survey, IDC Banking Survey Asia/Pacific 2023: Role of Technology in the Banking Industry — Sentiments, Priorities, and Considerations on Technology Investments, polled 316 banking decision-makers from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand. The survey explores the banking industry’s considerations and priorities for technology investments, product developments, and ESG strategies. It also explores sentiment across key technology adoption, which tracks the “buy/build/partner” considerations when sourcing for technologies.

Tags: Banking industryIDCRole of technology

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Huawei will keep investing in connectivity, computing, storage, and cloud

Huawei kicked off its 20th annual Global Analyst Summit (HAS) today in Shenzhen. The summit was attended by more than 1,000 industry analysts, financial analysts, key opinion leaders, and media representatives from around the world, who gathered to discuss the status of the ICT industry, including development strategies, roadmaps for digital transformation, and future industry trends.

Sabrina Meng, Huawei’s Deputy Chairwoman, Rotating Chairwoman, and CFO, opened with a keynote. “Digitalization is a blue ocean for the whole industry,” she said. “Huawei will keep investing in domains like connectivity, computing, storage, and cloud.”

“We aim to provide our customers with digital infrastructure that has the simplest possible architecture with the highest possible quality – that delivers the best possible experience at the lowest possible costs. Our goal is to help organizations go digital in four stages: digitizing operations, building digital platforms, enabling platform-based intelligence, and putting intelligence to use. The time is ripe to thrive together in this new and exciting digital future.”

Meng went on to share three major takeaways from Huawei’s nearly 10 years of digital transformation experience. “First, strategy is essential. At its essence, digital transformation is about strategic planning and strategic choices. Any successful digital transformation has to be driven by strategy, not technology.”

“Second, data is the foundation,” she continued. “Data only creates value when it flows across an organization, so methodical data governance is key. Integrating data across different dimensions will create even greater value.”

“Third, intelligence is the destination. Data is redefining productivity. Digitizing operations and building digital platforms helps clean, visualize, and aggregate data, laying the foundation for digital transformation. Putting intelligence to use makes data on-demand, easier to understand, and actionable, taking digital transformation to the next level.”

Dr. Zhou Hong, President of Huawei’s Institute of Strategic Research, also spoke at the event. He shared Huawei’s hypotheses and visions for a future intelligent world, detailing how we can transform experience into structured knowledge, and lay the foundation for intelligence.

“Rethinking approaches to networks and computing is critical as we move towards an intelligent world,” said Zhou. “In networking, we have what it takes to move beyond the limits of Shannon’s theorems – as well as applications of his theory – to drive a 100-fold increase in network capabilities over the next decade. In computing, we will move towards new models, architectures, and components, and improve our ability to both understand and control intelligence. We will also continue to explore the use of AI for industry applications, science, and more.”

The two keynotes were followed by a panel discussion on the role that digital productivity plays in driving industry digitalization, the challenges industries face in their digitalization process, recommended actions, as well as expectations for industries in the process of building up their digital productivity. The panelists included Li Peng, Chief Expert of China Southern Power Grid Corporation and Managing Director of its Digital Power Grid Group; Liang Yongji, Executive Director of Engineering & Technology at the Airport Authority Hong Kong; Liu Hong, Head of Technology at GSMA in Greater China; and Charles Ross, Principal of Technology and Society at Economist Impact.

2023 marks the annual Huawei Global Analyst Summit’s 20-year anniversary. This year’s summit, along with a broad range of breakout sessions, takes place from April 19 to 20.

Tags: HuaweiPr Newswire Asia

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The mobile telecoms industry continues to focus significantly on Radio Access Network

The mobile telecoms industry relies heavily on standardization for compatibility and interoperability between networks, devices, countries, and applications. Within The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), multiple companies are competing to influence the standards and capitalize on their leadership in intellectual property. In its new research service, Cellular Standards, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), global technology intelligence firm ABI Research has compiled a thorough and in-depth analysis of 3GPP 5G contribution metrics and 5G Standards Essential Patent (SEP) declarations to act as a first step toward measuring the market influence and technology innovation trend in 5G and mobile networks.

The mobile telecoms industry continues to focus significantly on Radio Access Network (RAN) technologies, which have been the biggest challenge to develop and fundamental to provide high-end user experiences for both consumers and enterprise users. “This is evident in the 3GPP 5G standardization process, where approximately 70 per cent of technical contributions and numerous discussions centre around specifications produced by radio network-related working groups. Furthermore, RAN technologies also dominate the 5G SEPs, with 93 per cent of all 5G SEP declarations targeting RAN WG TS. This means the industry continues to bank on RAN innovation as a dominating foundation to monetize their IPR across all cellular generations. 5G is no exception,” explains Gu Zhang, Cellular Standards & IPR Principal Analyst at ABI Research. “This highlights the critical importance of RAN technologies and their impact on the mobile communication industry but also outlines the one-sided development path 3GPP has been following so far. Therefore, it’s not a shock that the mobile industry cannot move past consumer-oriented business models and has not found success in enterprise use cases.”

Although RAN is crucial for mobile communications, commercializing 5G technology requires significant development beyond RAN. Many new concepts, including end-to-end network orchestration, network slicing, network automation, enterprise applications, advanced positioning, and service-oriented architecture, rely on advanced concepts that the RAN does not necessarily drive. However, the proportion of technical contributions to other parts of the network (i.e., non-RAN) working groups has improved significantly from 26 per cent to 42 per cent during the development of 5G releases from Releases 15 to today, while Release 18 work is still ongoing. This development could indicate that monetization of next-generation SEPs could be more distributed across RAN and other parts of the network, with a broader set of companies becoming more prevalent as standardization continues.

“Our new Cellular Standards & IPR research service identifies and analyses the industry players actively influencing the development of cellular technologies. It provides actional insight into contributions to the 3GPP standards and 5G SEPs across multiple organizations, technical specifications, and regions,” says Dimitris Mavrakis, Sr. Research Director, Cellular Standards & IPR at ABI Research. “Although counting contributions is not enough to recognize leaders in influencing 3GPP standardization processes, it is still a key element in identifying the active contributors to these standards as a first step of identifying innovation. Future work in this area will provide more visibility into quality aspects, but our current work indicates who the active companies are in both 3GPP and the IPR landscape.”

Tags: PrnasiaTelecom industry

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Singapore has been appointed the Deputy Chair of the Global CBPR Forum Assembly

The Global CBPR Forum was co-founded by Singapore and other participants of the APEC CBPR System in April 2022. The Forum seeks to enable the free flow of data and effective data protection and privacy globally through the establishment of the Global CBPR and Privacy Recognition for Processors (PRP) Systems. With the publication of Global CBPR Framework and appointment of its leadership team, the Forum is now welcoming the participation of other jurisdictions.

The Global CBPR Framework complements the Global CBPR Declaration (2022) in setting out the principles and objectives of the Forum. The Framework establishes the core requirements on which the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) and Global Privacy Recognition for Processors (PRP) Systems will be based.

“Our economy is increasingly driven by data. The Global CBPR Forum will boost trust in data flows across borders and unlock the potential for more data driven innovation. Singapore is honoured to be appointed as the Deputy Chair of the Global Forum Assembly. This affirms our digital thought leadership, and commitment to shaping global norms and standards to build a better digital future for all.” Said Lew Chuen Hong, Chief Executive of IMDA.

Tags: Global CBPR Forum AssemblySingapore

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Data-driven everything is increasingly an overarching theme

Asia/Pacific spending on BDA solutions will reach $US42.2 billion in 2023, thus growing by 19.6 per cent from 2022. Investment in enterprise intelligence solutions has witnessed significant growth from the previous year. It is expected to stay the same owing to the incremental demand of organizations to engage in data-driven decision-making, improve customer experience, speed up business innovation activities, and capitalize on cost-saving opportunities.

“Data-driven everything is increasingly an overarching theme to drive Asia/Pacific companies’ DX initiatives, especially for those with higher DX maturity stages. More of them need to modernize their organization’s data platform, to centrally address trust, adaptability, and agility issues associated with highly disparate and diverse data sources and sinks,” said Jessie Cai Danqing, Associate Research Director, Big Data & Analytics, IDC Asia Pacific.

Banking, Telecommunications, and Professional Services are the primary industries contributing to more than 35 per cent revenue share in the BDA market in 2023. They will continue to dominate the market over the forecast period. The ability to churn real-time insights from customer data and enhanced risk management are some use cases driving spending in the banking industry. Spending by Telecommunications industry will grow to $US4.6 billion in 2023. The sector is predicted to experience significant disruption owing to the increasing adoption of “cloud first” with organizations’ “wireless first” multi-access network model and rising emphasis on connectivity resilience. The deployment of BDA solutions offers faster provisioning, network visibility, and traffic analytics. Professional services captured a market share of 10.3 per cent in 2023, which is expected to increase to 10.6 per cent by 2026. 360-degree customer and client management, intelligent building energy management, and asset performance management are the primary use cases driving the adoption of BDA solutions in the region.

“Access to better enterprise intelligence to support business operations is promoting the adoption of BDA solutions,” says Abhik Sarkar, Market Analyst, IT Spending Guides, IDC Asia/Pacific. “External headwinds such as the pandemic, cyber threats, economic instability, supply-chain irregularities, and the need to mitigate these risks; coupled with the rapid influx of digital businesses and changing workforce dynamics act as key drivers for the technology, ” he adds.

Data sovereignty is emerging as an essential factor contributing to the growth of BDA market in Asia/Pacific. This can be credited to the rising need amongst organizations to improve privacy measures & implementation, closely work with ICT suppliers to mitigate 3rd party risk and enhance the risk management process. Additionally, business disruptions due to geopolitical conflicts and global pandemics have established the need to adopt data sovereignty practices to ensure operational and business resilience.

In terms of revenue share, services will capture the largest share at 41.1 per cent in 2023 and will grow at the CAGR of 17.9 per cent (2021-2026) to $US28.4 billion. IT services contributes to nearly 79 per cent of the entire BDA services spending in the region. Services is followed by software which will register a spending of $US13.8 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow by more than 23 per cent in 2024. This can be attributed to the incremental use of AI software platforms, end-user query, reporting, and analysis tools, and relational data warehouses. Software also is the fastest-growing technology group with a CAGR of 22.8 per cent. Hardware segment will capture spending of $US11.1 billion in 2023. Nearly 75 per cent of spending in hardware will be captured by servers in 2023.

The Worldwide Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide is designed to address the needs of organizations assessing the big data and business analytics opportunity by geography, industry, and company size. The Spending Guide provides subscribers with revenue projections for 20 technology and service categories across 19 industries, five company size bands, and 53 countries. Unlike any other research in the industry, the comprehensive Spending Guide was designed to help IT decision-makers to clearly understand the industry-specific scope and direction of big data and business analytics opportunities today and over the next five years.

Tags: Asia PacificIDC

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Mengniu made steady improvement to its core business performance

China Mengniu Dairy Company Limited and its subsidiaries announced its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2022. The Group reported revenue of RMB92,593.3 million in 2022, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.1 per cent. Operating profit increased by 11.6 per cent to RMB5,423.2 million. Notably, sales of room temperature pure milk and high-end brands achieved robust growth, while sales of fresh milk and ice cream outperformed the industry. Furthermore, the Group’s chilled product and cheese businesses-maintained leadership positions in their respective market segments.

In 2022, Mengniu proactively confronted external challenges and remained committed to pursuing high-quality growth driven by the “three engines” of branding, innovation, and digitalization. As a result, Mengniu achieved steady improvement in its core business performance and attained a new high in the global dairy ranking. Mengniu remained steadfast in its commitment to sustainable high-quality development and continued to advance towards its strategic goal of “Creating a new Mengniu.”

Branding: Creating Beloved Products for Consumers

Branding has been the protective moat around Mengniu’s high-quality growth.

2022 was a year filled with major global sporting events, with the Winter Olympics, the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and the FIFA World Cup garnering widespread attention and excitement from fans around the world. Mengniu leveraged its “born to excel” brand philosophy and integrated it with the spirit of sportsmanship to conduct comprehensive brand activities centred around major sporting events. The Group’s efforts to pay tribute to China’s women’s national football team for their victory in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and collaborate with Olympic gold medallist Eileen Gu have generated significant buzz on social media, reinforcing the message that “you can always trust Mengniu’s spokespersons,” which became a hot topic and trending search. Furthermore, the Group strongly supported the inaugural China Youth Football League, contributing to the healthy growth of young athletes. During the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Mengniu joined with spokespersons Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe to form the M³ team, which was a shining success. As Mengniu continued to strengthen its brand, through its expansion into e-commerce platforms to drive user growth, the Group has achieved both significant brand enhancement and increased sales. Mengniu also advanced its youth-oriented brand strategy, released its global employer value proposition (EVP) “Join us! Let’s be awesome together” and launched “Nice”, the first-ever virtual digital employee in China’s dairy industry, to strengthen its communication with Generation-Z consumers.

Over the years, Mengniu has leveraged the synergy between its parent and subsidiary brands to create a comprehensive brand matrix consisting of over 400 products across six major categories. Among these, Milk Deluxe achieved a record high market share in the high-end market in 2022, further widening the gap with the second-tier brands and consolidating its position as the world’s No. 1 dairy product. Mengniu’s high-end fresh milk benchmark product, Shiny Meadow, achieved a significant lead in brand awareness and brand strength. Yoyi C and the Champion Jianzihao product also seized new market opportunities, leading the trend of healthy consumption among Chinese consumers. The ice cream business not only cultivated long-standing and beloved brands such as Suibian and Mood for Green, but also created the crossover product “Moutai Ice Cream”, which went viral. Reeborne Enzhi and Reeborne Jingzhi were among the first batch of products to pass the New National Standards registration for infant milk formula. Milkground made steady advances and fully consolidated its position as the No. 1 cheese brand.

In 2022, Mengniu achieved an MSCI ESG rating of “A”, the highest rating in the Chinese dairy industry. Over the past year, the Group took a leadership role in sustainability by releasing its “GREEN” sustainable development strategy and committing to achieving carbon neutrality throughout the entire industry chain in 2050. These initiatives allowed the Group to demonstrate its ESG leadership and collaborate actively with global partners on platforms such as the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), contributing significantly to addressing international and domestic ESG issues such as climate change, biodiversity, ecological environmental protection, rural revitalization and common prosperity, as well as building its reputation as the leading green and sustainable brand in the Chinese dairy industry.

According to Kantar BrandZ’s data, in 2022, Mengniu experienced a 15 per cent year-on-year increase in brand value, exhibiting the highest growth rate in China’s dairy industry. The Group also ranked among the top 10 preferred brands of Chinese consumers. Additionally, Mengniu climbed two places to rank a record-high 7th in the “Global Dairy Top 20” published by ABN AMRO Bank in 2022.

Innovation: Leading the High-Quality Revitalization of the Dairy Industry

Innovation has been the driving force for Mengniu’s high-quality growth.

As a leading player in the dairy industry, the Group’s unwavering commitment to independent research and development has paved the way for technological advancements in grass cultivation, cattle breeding, and milk production, addressing industry challenges and prioritizing consumer safety.

In terms of grass cultivation, to address the issue of high-quality forage being monopolized by foreign companies, Mengniu formed a strategic partnership with the Institute of Grassland Research of CAAS to conduct research on six grass varieties, with the aim of developing high-protein forage. In terms of cattle breeding, the Group continued to strengthen its independent innovation in high-quality cattle breeding and further the development of advanced embryo transplantation technology, enabling the expansion of pastures. Thanks to continuous breakthroughs in upstream innovation, in 2022, Mengniu continued to advance its milk source strategy of “one million dairy cows, one million mu of pasture, and one million tons of milk” and promote the construction of “planting, breeding and processing” industrial parks, which resulted in the planting of over 6 million mu and over 12 million tons of high-quality forage and the breeding of over 1.7 million dairy cattle. Regarding milk production, in October 2022, Mengniu partnered with the China Space Foundation to release two aerospace bacteria strains, marking the beginning of a new era of collaborative innovation between the food industry and the aerospace research community. Furthermore, Mengniu’s ongoing “European Union benchmark products” project achieved new breakthroughs, ensuring that all nine major product categories, including pasteurized milk, sterilized milk, infant formula, and cheese, meet the standards set by the European Union, and setting the bar for “world-class quality.”

In addition, Mengniu continued to increase its research and development investment in the fields of dairy and nutritional health. Through the dual driving forces of “capital + scientific research,” the Group has constantly driven the commercialization of scientific research results and actively explored the second and third growth curves in areas such as special foods. Mengniu’s aim is to create a global innovation hub for the dairy industry.

Mengniu’s industry-leading innovation has received recognition and acclaim from authoritative sources. During the year, Mengniu’s 60 factories secured certifications in seven systems standards including ISO9001, HACCP and BRC, with a 100 per cent passing rate. Last year, Mengniu was honored with five innovation awards, including the “First Prize for Technological Invention” and the “Special Prize for Technological Advancement”.

Digitalization: Driving Quality and Efficiency Improvement across the Industry

Digitalization has been the accelerator for Mengniu’s high-quality growth.

2022 was a critical year for Mengniu’s digital transformation efforts. Mengniu actively promoted its digitalization strategy by focusing on four aspects, namely “Consumers Going Online, Channels Going Online, Supply Chain Going Online and Management Going Online.” By establishing a fully integrated digitalized system that covers the entire chain from the pasture to the table, Mengniu is injecting new digital energy into its high-quality development efforts.

On the consumer end, Mengniu established a consumer-centric digitalized operating system, launching 23 front-end applications such as “YingyangShenghuoJia” and “Shiny Meadow.” The “one product, one code” technology provided reliable traceability for consumers, generating more than 2 billion consumer interactions throughout the year. In terms of channel digitalization, Mengniu continued to improve its closed-loop digital capabilities from order management to delivery to support channels’ RTM transformation and upgrade. For the supply chain, Mengniu accelerated the digital transformation and upgrade of factories in five of its business segments, with its Ningxia factory, which produces room temperature products, establishing a pilot project to fulfill the World Economic forum’s “Lighthouse Factory” standards and setting a new benchmark for smart production in the industry. Leveraging digital technologies to enable refined management, Mengniu further improved efficiency in human resources, legal, finance and internal management, with five self-developed internal systems receiving invention patents during the year.

While strengthening its own digital transformation, Mengniu also actively promoted the digitalization of the industry ecosystem. The Group organized the second “Mengniu Hackathon”, attracting nearly 150 participating companies and linking multiple scenarios online and offline to build a digital innovation ecosystem. With its exploration and practice of “smart quality” digital management for the entire industry chain, Mengniu achieved the unique distinction of being the only enterprise in the dairy industry to be awarded the title of “National Quality Benchmark” in 2022.

“We will always be optimistic about China’s economy and firmly advance our strategy to achieve the goal of ‘Creating a new Mengniu’ in the Chinese market,” said Lu Minfang, Mengniu’s Chief Executive Officer. In the future, Mengniu will continue to be driven by its branding, innovation, and digitalization, playing an important role as the “national team” in the dairy industry. The Group will strive for high-quality development across the entire industry chain, working towards the strategic goal of ‘Creating a new Mengniu’ at an accelerated pace. Mengniu aims to become a world-class, globally competitive dairy enterprise, promoting the revitalization of the dairy industry and making significant contributions to China’s modernization.

Tags: ChinaMengniu

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Less than of data and analytics teams provide value to the organization

Less than half of data and analytics (D&A) leaders (44 per cent) reported that their team is effective in providing value to their organization, according to a new Gartner, Inc. survey. Chief data and analytics officers (CDAOs) must focus on presence, persistence, and performance to succeed in their role and deliver measurable business results.

“D&A is in the business of driving stakeholder value,” said Donna Medeiros, Senior Director Analyst, at Gartner. “The most successful CDAOs are outperforming their peers by projecting an executive presence and building an agile and strategic D&A function that shapes data-driven business performance and operational excellence.”

The survey was conducted online from September through November 2022 among 566 D&A leaders globally. Gartner analysts are discussing the survey findings and how CDAOs can drive business value during the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit, taking place in Orlando through Wednesday.

Successful CDAOs Project Executive Presence

The survey found that D&A leaders who rated themselves as “effective” or “very effective” across 17 different executive leadership traits correlated with those reporting high organizational and team performance. For example, 43 per cent of top-performing D&A leaders reported effectiveness in committing time to their own professional development, compared with 19 per cent of low performers.

“Successful CDAOs must be elite leaders,” said Alan Duncan, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner. “Top-performing CDAOs invest in their success by developing skills to thrive in ambiguous circumstances, articulate compelling value stories and identify D&A products and services that can drive business impact.”

CDAOs Must be Persistent to Meet New Demands

The survey found that CDAOs are tasked with a broad range of responsibilities, including defining and implementing D&A strategy (60 per cent), oversight of D&A strategy (59 per cent), creating and implementing D&A governance (55 per cent) and managing data-driven culture change (54 per cent).

Furthermore, many D&A functions are receiving increased investment, including data management (65 per cent), data governance (63 per cent) and advanced analytics (60 per cent). The mean reported D&A budget is $US5.41 million, and 44 per cent of D&A teams increased in size in the last year.

“The demands being placed upon D&A, as well as increased investment, reflect a growing confidence in CDAOs’ abilities and recognition of the data office as an indispensable business function,” said Medeiros. “However, this leads to more work as pressure grows for D&A to achieve tangible business results.”

Given the scope and complexity of demands being placed on D&A teams, the lack of available talent has quickly become a top impediment to D&A success, as reported by 39 per cent of respondents. The top six roadblocks to D&A reported in the survey are all human-related challenges.

To build an effective D&A team, CDAOs must have a robust talent management strategy that goes beyond hiring ready-made talent. This should include education, training and coaching for data-driven culture and data literacy, both within the core D&A team and the broader business and technology communities.

D&A Performance Must Tie to Business Strategy

The survey found that 78 per cent of respondents rank corporate or organizational strategy and vision as one of the top three inputs to the D&A strategy. Additionally, 68 per cent are prioritizing D&A initiatives based on alignment to strategic goals.

“CDAOs who prioritize strategy over tactics are the most successful,” said Duncan. “Because the CDAO serves multiple stakeholders across the business, they must align with organizational strategic priorities and focus on selling the D&A vision to the CEO, CIO and CFO as key influencers.”

Tags: Data and analyticsGartner

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Adoption of as-a-service or consumption-based models is increasing rapidly

International Data Corporation ’s (IDC) new report finds that “Anything as a Service”, or XaaS, is quickly becoming the preferred delivery model for several products, tools, and technologies. As per IDC Future of Digital Infrastructure 2022 Global Sentiment Survey (India, n=100), almost 40 per cent of Indian enterprises consider availability of consumption-based models as the most crucial factor when determining where to deploy their workloads.

With the increasing acceptance of cloud and SaaS delivery models among tech buyers, many tech suppliers are transitioning towards offering anything and everything as a service, with billing based on usage and consumption. This trend is further corroborated by the IDC Future of Digital Infrastructure 2022 survey (India, n=80), which found that more than 50 per cent of Indian enterprises track digital infrastructure and cloud service costs as their top KPIs, regularly monitored by senior-level management.

The adoption of as-a-service or consumption-based models is increasing rapidly, especially among organizations that aim to reduce costs, mitigate risks, enhance operational efficiency, alleviate IT staff workloads, and improve growth strategies. Moreover, the ongoing macroeconomic headwinds, such as recessionary fears, inflation, and geopolitical uncertainties, are likely to drive further adoption of XaaS. According to the IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Digital Infrastructure 2023 Predictions — India Implications report, by 2026, 80 per cent of tech buyers in India will prioritize as-a-service consumption models for infrastructure purchases, to help restrain IT spending growth and address ITOps talent gaps.

Neha Gupta, Senior Research Manager at IDC India, said, “The future of digital infrastructure in India is evolving rapidly, and the as-a-service consumption model is a critical part of this transformation. As XaaS continues to gain popularity among Indian enterprises, it is evident that this delivery model will play a crucial role in shaping the future of digital infrastructure in the country.”

The benefits of the as-a-service model are significant for both tech suppliers and tech buyers. Tech suppliers need to promote their as-a-service offerings that are well-rounded, skill-driven, services-driven, and with strong partner relations. Being a trusted partner is also critical to differentiate services. On the other hand, tech buyers need to evaluate the relevance of a consumption model to their digital infrastructure based on their growth strategies and change in appetite. The as-a-service model provides a flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solution that addresses the unique needs of Indian enterprises. As such, it is poised to play an increasingly critical role in shaping the future of digital infrastructure in India.

IDC’s Market Presentation, Everything as a Service: Changing the Priorities of India Enterprises — The Rise of the As-A-Service Model, February 2023, Doc # AP49620322 explores the factors driving organizations in India to switch to an as-a-service or a consumption-based procurement model for their IT infrastructure in contrast to a traditional licensing model. The document also examines the relevance of a consumption-based model during a period when headwinds are strong, and organizations are reevaluating their budgets and priorities (business and digital infrastructure).

Tags: IDCIndia

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