The Case for Reshaping Traditional Industries with Tech

Digitalization is everywhere. Be it in the energy industry, e-government services, manufacturing, or logistics, the fourth industrial revolution is having a profound impact. Thanks to AI, 5G-A, cloud, and other technologies, the physical world is merging with the digital world. The rapid adoption of these technologies is contributing to driving efficiency, reducing operational costs and improving end-user experiences across vertical industries, all contributing to measurable economic improvements. According to Forrester, the global digital economy will reach $16.5 trillion and capture 17% of global GDP by 2028. Similarly, PWC projects that with the broader spillover effect of technology, the digital economy can reach up to 25% of GDP globally.

This is something that Huawei has been focused on for some time. The new Global Digitalization Index or GDI jointly created with IDC measures the maturity of a country’s ICT industry by factoring in multiple indicators for digital infrastructure, including computing, storage, cloud, and green energy. This research found that a one-US-dollar investment in digital transformation results in an 8.3-US-dollar return in a country’s digital economy. “Our hope is that the GDI will give every country a clearer vision of and plan for its digital and intelligent transformation,” said Leo Chen, Senior Vice President, President of Enterprise Sales, Huawei.

When it comes to turning industry digitalization from a buzzword into a reality, it takes a village – and a highly skilled, expert one at that. Put simply, it involves combining the depth of industry expertise, with the breadth of the most advanced technological offerings. The challenge is, however, that very few people who have spent their lives understanding the ins and out of how the energy system works, have also spent the same amount of time immersed in the rapid twists and turns of advanced technology. This makes partnership between and across industries essential.

There are numerous examples of leveraging seemingly disparate expertise to unlock new synergies. In the early 2000s, Google made headlines for its PhD army – essentially highly skilled experts, ranging from a former rocket science to a former brain surgeon, who were dispersed throughout the business to support its innovation. At the time, they were effectively charged to “boldly go where no one has gone before”.

A few years ago, global ICT leader Huawei introduced its concept of Integrated Teams. Drawing from its over 207,000 employee-workforce, of which around 55% are in R&D, Huawei established dedicated teams who would spend months if not years, climbing 40 meters up in the air on cranes at the ports, nearly 1km underground in mines, to the far reaches of the most remote places to understand their energy needs, and more. True to its name, the integrated teams are just that – integrated.

With the concept, a team devoted to a particular industry will include functions such as R&D, product development and delivery, sales and marketing and more. As every industry has different requirements, and, even where there can be some overlap, the company takes a tailored approach to working with the customer to first understand the industry and then to develop a solution that is directed at addressing their particular pain points.

As a result of their work, Huawei and its partners around the world able to provide differentiated digitalization solutions helping its clients to accelerate the overall “intelligentization” of the industry and achieve business success. In sum, the results of these integrated teams are a key component of Huawei’s GITEX presence. Over the course of the event, the company will demonstrate the use cases across its industry-specific integrated teams, demonstrating the value of this model to both existing and potential clients.

Industries, especially legacy industries with hundreds of years of history, are not transformed overnight. As a result of long-established norms and codified process, numerous largescale challenges remain. Currently, less than 50% of devices are connected and computing is unaffordable, energy intensive and in short supply. Furthermore, AI penetration in industries and industry scenarios is just 12%. Finally, gaps in ecosystem maturity, talent readiness and policy establishment and implementation are also difficult to overcome. This is not to mention more granular issues such as data siloes and complexity in integration of various processes within an industry, retraining a workforce used to heavy lifting and onerous labor, to be able to perform more agile tasks, and inevitable cybersecurity concerns related with uploading industry information to cloud-based services.

If these complexities can be managed, however, through multiple parties working together to develop tailored, agile and secure solutions, then this approach can deliver cost reduction, efficiency improvement and new business models. This is already emerging across multiple industries such as the energy industry and e-government services, where AI and IoT-driven insights can optimize resource allocation and utilization, minimize waste and streamline processes.

In one example, State Grid Shaanxi partnered with Huawei to build intelligent distribution networks strengthening the last mile of power supply. State Grid Shaanxi aimed to enhance power supply assurance, tackle challenges posed by the large-scale grid connection of distributed new energy, and promote a clean, low-carbon, secure, cost-effective, collaborative, flexible, and intelligent power system. State Grid Shaanxi partnered with Huawei to establish a joint innovation lab, where they worked with 28 other partners to develop a variety of innovative solutions. Significant advancements have been made thanks to improved IoT management and flexible IoT app development platforms as well as widely-applied edge computing units (ECUs). These technologies address the increasing demand for digital and intelligent transformation in power distribution and consumption. Some breakthroughs include distribution network operation status monitoring, real-time sensing of 10 kV line status, and intelligent management of low-voltage distributed new energy.

All around the world, cities are eager to digitize government services and enhance overall digital access for its citizens. Working with Huawei, they are able to either upgrade legacy systems or establish new ones. For example, the integration of technology is supporting farming, education and daily life. The government of Sarawak, a state in Malaysia has partnered with Huawei to provide digital connectivity to all of its residents, with the goal of doubling the state’s GDP by 2030. In another project, the Smart City Governance for Quick Public Opinion Handling platform, launched in Futian District, Shenzhen, China employs AI to act as a brain for intelligent urban governance. To date the platform has helped improve incident response efficiency from four minutes to 50 seconds per inquiry. Finally, Hebi, a historic city in China’s Henan province implemented a Huawei “Intelligent Road” solution to address challenges concerning growing car ownership and traffic congestion. By using high-frequency radar and intelligent devices to analyze traffic conditions in real-time, the solution calculates traffic flow, congestion and incidents optimizing traffic light duration and facilitating energy-efficient improvements to traffic efficiency.

To fully realize the benefits of digitalization of industry, more players need to be involved. This is why it is essential to develop an ecosystem which leverages the unique strengths of ICT industry experts, vertical industry experts, and more, unlocking more synergies, across industry and geography.