CCID Consulting, a Chinese research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, the first Chinese consulting firm listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has issued some forecasts for trends it expects in China' ICT market in 2008.
As elsewhere in the world, hardware, software, consumer electronics and telecom are projected to be more service-oriented. "SAAS will change the business model of the traditional software industry," company officials find:
"On one hand, SAAS will expand to total product on the basis of renting CRM. Functions such as OA, CRM, financial management, HR management, security management and mobile business are converged into a total product," the report says. "Because of its briefness, moderate price and flexibility, the product is popular among SMEs."
On the other hand, the report finds, the extension of SAAS servers "will expand. In addition to professional CRM servers and traditional software manufacturers, telecom operators and ISPs also join the competition."
CCID sees hardware becoming a service in the future in China. Volkswagen has begun to ask hardware providers to repurchase related products and offer services according to global readiness, the report finds adding "hardware is not only a kind of product, but also a tool of providing related services to users' production and management. The SAAS era is near."
The 2008 Olympic Games are expected to speed up developments in mobile communications, NGN
, wireless access, digital TV, semiconductor lighting and RFID as well.
A "high-tech Olympic Games" will provide great opportunities for Mobile, NGN, wireless access, digital TV, semiconductor lighting and RFID, the CCID reports finds: "These opportunities would include the use of mobile communications based on 3.5G; NGN based on IPv6; WLAN/WiMAX
that realizes seamless and wireless network; bidirectional wired digital TVs; LEDs with energy-saving, environmental protection and long service life characteristics; and RFID, which is widely applied in electronic ticketing, IDs, safety tracing systems, food safety monitoring and assets management."
Also recently Technology Futures has offered a list of what is sees as the trends for the coming year. "These predictions differ from our normal activities where TFI traditionally looks further out into the future," company officials note.
The company thinks China will be even more of a disruptive factor. "China will continue to have its way with other nations' critical information," the firm said, adding that "In 2007, we learned that electronic attacks emanating from the Chinese military had penetrated the German Chancellery, England's Whitehall, and the Pentagon. 2008 will see a continuance of such attacks by China on Western governments and industry."
As a corollary, then, the firm predicts that the worldwide economy will be volatile during the next few years. "Water will become a driver much like oil was in the 20th century. The movement to a cashless society will increase, as digital imaging will progress to the point it will defeat most anti-counterfeiting systems. China will exchange its U.S. currencies for Euros and other currencies, which will cause the dollar to decrease in value and adversely impact the stock market."
CCID is directly affiliated with the China Center for Information Industry Development. Headquartered in Beijing, CCID Consulting has set up branch offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Harbin. The company's business covers over 200 large and medium-sized cities in China.
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David Sims is a contributing editor for ContactCenterSolutions. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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