21st century business herald 24-7-26 16: 4: 53
Tim Hilbert, Vice President of CSC Asia Pacific and Chairman of China Company
Our reporter Qiu Wei Sun Ming reports from Beijing
"It is a pity for anyone to miss the opportunity. However, this leaves a gap for us to work harder and urges us to work harder to catch up and seize opportunities. It's like playing baseball. We didn't play the base well, so we had to play the next few bases well. "
Market Debate
21st Century: In the past few years, China has ushered in a huge wave of IT construction, including the financial industry, which has spent a lot of money to build IT systems. But CSC was absent during this period. Why? Does CSC regret missing this golden period? What does CSC take to catch up after missing it?
Tim Hilbert (Vice President of CSC Asia Pacific and Chairman of China Company): It is a pity for anyone to miss the opportunity. However, this leaves a gap for us to work harder and urges us to work harder to catch up and seize opportunities. It's like playing baseball. We didn't play the base well, so we have to play the next few bases well.
That's why the center of financial services in the Asia-Pacific region is now moved from Singapore to Beijing, and I'm here in Beijing.
regarding the future situation, I feel that judging from the trend of IT development in China, the future IT market in China is very huge. China's GDP has always been ahead of other countries. Then, for enterprises in China, there is a question: Why do I invest in IT? Is it to reduce costs and improve efficiency, or more importantly, to serve customers? CSC believes that China has great potential in this area.
21st Century: How big is this potential now? I noticed that there is a company EDS very similar to yours, but according to my observation, EDS is not very aggressive in China. However, other hardware companies, such as IBM and HP, occupy a strong position in IT services in China. Can I draw the conclusion that under the current market environment in China, IT is difficult for manufacturers who simply provide IT services instead of hardware to survive?
Tim Hilbert: Let me compare us with EDS first. EDS is a fast-growing company in the world. In China, EDS has its expansion experience, but compared with EDS, CSC came late, but we adopted a cautious attitude. We are not the "ups and downs" type, and we are more cautious and steady. Different from EDS' personality may also lead to different results of our development.
CSC is not a hardware provider, but we also do some hardware-related work such as integration, consulting and BPR. In addition, our strong part lies in the application software, which we have a large number of products with self-intellectual property rights, and we think this piece is incomparable to other hardware manufacturers.
Moreover, we also believe that the market demand for IT services will be great for China.
21st Century: On the surface, IT seems that China companies are not so interested in IT services. Take outsourcing business as an example. Many China companies prefer to do their own work instead of outsourcing. In their view, the labor cost in China is so low that it is not worth outsourcing.
Tim Hilbert: otherwise. In the IT industry, there is still a shortage of real IT talents, and IT technology is also constantly developing. For a non-IT enterprise, IT is difficult for IT to use IT alone, and it is also difficult to keep up with the continuous development and evolution of IT.
another feature of the p>IT industry is the high mobility of personnel, and technicians like to jump ship from one enterprise to another, which is also a great blow to ordinary enterprises. Therefore, they still need outsourcing. We are very competitive in this area.
Debate on Development 21st Century: Does CSC China Company have any development goals after its establishment? For example, how much turnover or profit can be achieved in a few years?
Tim Hilbert: I've been thinking about this problem. One thing is certain, we are ranked first in global financial services, so I hope we can reach this position in China through our efforts. Since we can get such a position abroad, why not in China?
21st Century: Is the goal achieved mainly through export or for customers in China?
Tim Hilbert: It needs a balance.
On the one hand, it is the development of China's financial industry. China's financial industry has their needs for CSC, a company that has accumulated so much experience abroad. I hope CSC can bring in foreign experience.
At the same time, for us, in terms of optimizing internal resources, we also hope that local employees can export their professional knowledge and skills abroad.
For example, if we only have 2 employees in China, I will allocate 1 employees to develop application software and improve the customization process, and the other 1 employees will be used in business process outsourcing (BPO). Then, in BPO, China's financial market has not yet reached this stage, and at the same time, there is a lot of experience and knowledge in this area.
21st Century: In the financial industry, I know that the new IT service orders still come from the banking industry, but why should CSC start from the insurance industry when it enters China? Now that you are pushing the insurance system first, can you think that insurance companies in China are easy to contact while banks are hard to contact? Has CSC been in contact with banks in China? Tim Hilbert: This is mainly because of the insurance industry. We have 11 customers in China, so it is incumbent on us to continue to provide services to these customers and then explore new customers.
As for banks, of course, we haven't started our business in China, but in the whole Asia-Pacific region, like Australia, most banks are using our system, and here we have our own intellectual property rights. The business of banks is developing very fast, and the requirements for new systems are increasing. As new products come out, new demands are constantly emerging.
In fact, CSC also has rich experience in banking. For example, last year, the Malaysian bank Maybank outsourced $3 billion of IT to CSC. In this order, IBM and other competitors competed fiercely, but customers chose CSC.
We also had contact with banks in China and talked with them. Banks in China have really developed very fast in the past few years, and their IT investment is also very large. I believe you also know that there are not many IT companies that are really very professional and have strong banking knowledge in China, and banks often encounter many problems. I believe that CSC will play a certain role in the future after its contact.
Opportunities from Banks
21st Century: Do banks in China have the opportunity to place such a big order of $3 billion?
Tim Hilbert: yes. We think there are great opportunities in China's banking industry, especially in the credit card sector. Credit card institutions all over the world come to China, and credit cards in China's banking industry are also developing vigorously. In fact, there are many problems in the credit card business in China, including bad debts and credit evaluation. In this area, CSC has very strong business ability and support, and there should be many opportunities. In addition, we have made great achievements in the core business system and peripheral business system of the bank.
21st Century: I know that CSC's credit card system is the strength of CSC, which is very strong all over the world and occupies a leading position in the market. However, as far as I know, your credit card system generally supports more than 1 million cards, which belongs to the high-end file. However, there are only more than 1 million real credit cards in China at present. How can such an order become CSC customers? Moreover, the attitude of the four major state-owned commercial banks is very clear, and their credit card systems will not be outsourced, but built by themselves, so only some small banks can outsource. What CSC will encounter in China may be: the big ones are not outsourced, and the small ones are so small. How do you face this contradiction?
Tim Hilbert: We not only consider the credit card system, but also the debit card system. In fact, the two systems are connected. We believe that with such a large population base in China, including debit cards, the future ownership will be very large.
There are many small banks, whose strength is not enough to support them to own a system, so they will join forces, like China UnionPay. Then, we think that small and medium-sized banks in China, such as some city commercial banks, will also join forces. Of course, they may join forces with UnionPay or join forces themselves. What kind of joint way to adopt depends on their reaction and choice to market development. But after the alliance, it is necessary to build such a large credit card system.
21st Century: At present, the situation of credit card outsourcing in China is that the outsourcing orders of UnionPay are given to UNISYS, and some joint-stock banks are outsourced to FDC, while the four major state-owned commercial banks have to build their own. It seems that the whole market has been carved up. Do you still have a chance?
Tim Hilbert: Actually, for the banking system, it refers not only to the credit card system, but also to the core business system, peripheral business system and so on. Everyone has heard more about who bought who's home, but this process is a long process, followed by a service process.
Perhaps, in terms of service, banks want a company with more experience and stronger service ability to help them, because many systems are not implemented successfully, and there are such cases. CSC's overseas experience will make it possible for banks to find us in the process.
what's the challenge to IBM?
21st Century: I have to talk about your competitors in China. If CSC's customers in China are financial enterprises, then you'd better go to those financial enterprises and have a look at their computer rooms first. You will be surprised to find that almost all IBM servers are displayed in large numbers. The relationship between IBM and China's financial enterprises seems to be so impregnable. Due to the use of IBM's hardware, almost all the software and services of China's financial enterprises are provided by IBM. How can CSC face such a tough opponent?
Tim Hilbert: In terms of income, IBM has more than 4 billion dollars a year, while CSC only has more than 16 billion dollars. He is indeed bigger than us, and we can't compare it in scale. But CSC is not a hardware manufacturer. We own and implement our own products with intellectual property rights, which is our unique place.
in many cases, we are competing with IBM, but there are also many cases where we are partners with IBM, CSC subcontracts IBM, or IBM subcontracts CSC.
unlike other IT service companies, we have a partnership relationship with our customers. We listen to their needs and know them well. Measuring our success is based on measuring their success. In addition, there are our knowledge and experience in the financial industry, etc. These things are not "challenging IBM", but they are all different from our competitors.
21st Century: Who do you think CSC will compete with, IBM or EDS?
Tim Hilbert: IT's IBM, because it is the leader of IT service industry.