UKTechnologylive: Steve, you were involved in the organisation of the missions to China during July.  What did you find most interesting during the week-long trip?

Steve Williams: I was pleased with the warm welcome that the UK group received from Chinese companies and the government organisations that we met. There is a genuine interest from the Chinese in engaging with UK companies on technology partnership opportunities. There was also a good understanding of UK capability in the sector, which demonstrated that UKTI’s Enabling Innovation initiative has been making traction over the past year and a half.

UKTL: In which areas do you think collaboration is most likely?

SW: The feedback that we have received from the three simultaneous missions (Communications & M2M; Consumer Electronics & Electronic Design; eHealth and telemedicine) has been very encouraging. Delegates are reporting on an increased understanding of the Chinese market and business culture, with some indicating substantial potential future business as a result of the access that was provided. One of the key themes throughout our visit was the Chinese enthusiasm for The Internet of Things (IOT) – intelligent infrastructure connecting machines to remotely monitor and manage over the internet. The Chinese indicated areas of technology where they where seeking support, such as sensor and RFID technologies and embedded software. They also highlighted areas of challenge to IOT such as standardisation, security and cost.

UKTL: What opportunities did the UK companies have to engage directly with Chinese companies?

SW: The platform created by the mission provided delegates with an opportunity to engage directly with Chinese government and industry.  This included through seminar events, where we had participation from dignitaries such as Vice Mayor Tan, Wuxi Municipal Government and Deputy Director General Li, Jiangsu Economy & Information Department. Chinese company speakers included representatives from the three mobile operators, Mobile, Telecom and Unicom. The highlight of the seminar session in Wuxi was the opportunity to meet and listen to the influential Madam Qi, Deputy Manager, Jiangsu Mobile. The delegates also had a one-to-one meeting programme; as well as visits to some major Chinese companies such as Huawei, Haier and Hisense; and a visit to the China Academy of Telecommunications Research (CATR), which was hosted by President Yang Zemin and covered China’s development and challenges on the Internet of Things. The programme also covered an extensive marketing campaign to help support UK delegates in their company promotion in China, which included being featured through the UK pavilion site for Shanghai World Expo.

UKTL: What is the outlook for companies wanting to do business in China?

SW: There is considerable potential for companies to be successful in the China.  Companies must do their research into the market and fully understand the business culture. They must also have the commitment and resource to follow up and support any potential business.  UKTI’s China Team, who were excellent in support of this mission and pulled together a high-level programme, are on hand to support individual companies in helping them to further develop opportunities derived from the July activity and in general offer support to companies looking to develop China business.  The UK already has many successful companies operating in China, with UKTI’s Enabling Innovation partners providing a good example of our strengths – ARM; BT; Sony Ericsson; Vodafone; Symbian; NDS; Picochip; 4energy & Sondrel. 

UKTL: Any immediate opportunities for companies to do business in China?

SW: The early feedback that we have received from UK delegates indicates potential business, as a result of the missions, worth millions of pounds.  Delegates also have an extensive contacts base for follow up and an understanding on how to do business in China.

A major part of UKTI’s China strategy this year is the Enabling Innovation Leadership Forum, which will be held on Monday 13^th September. The Leadership Forum covers “Responsible Low Energy Design in the Communications Value Chain” and includes senior level speakers from Chinese and UK industry and academia.  The event is sponsored by Huawei and will be held at their new R&D centre in Pudong.

The importance that UKTI is placing on this event is underlined with the key note address by Mark Prisk, Minister for Business and Enterprise.

UKTI’s China Team has also added an extended visit programme for UK companies attending the Leadership Forum. This programme will focus on opportunities around TD-LTE and will visit Chinese organisations in Shanghai and Beijing heavily involved in developments.

UKTechnologylive asked several of the delegates to provide their feedback on the missions to China and the opportunities to do business in the region.

George Mackintosh, CEO of TestPlant, felt that the missions to China represented “an excellent starting point with local Chinese trade and economic bodies.”  Mackintosh felt that the mission delivered “contact with senior staff of possible customers as an introduction – the first step in any relationship.”

The mission provided a first taste of China for Michael Richardson, Sales & Marketing Director of Unipart Technology Logistics:  “It was a very useful trip, exhausting, but useful.  UKTI did an excellent job in gaining access to people of a high enough level to have influence on any decision making process.”

For Nigel Chadwick CEO of Stream Communications, the mission came at exactly the right time.  “The interest in machine to machine communications was extraordinary,” commented Chadwick.  “I have a desk covered with business cards, many of which offer real opportunities for Stream to do business in the country.”

Rupert Baines, VP Marketing of PicoChip felt that the missions offered an unexpected benefit.  “The interaction with other members of the mission was very valuable.  There were strong benefits in networking and sharing information.”

Several delegates felt the meetings with large companies in China proved particularly useful.  Rupert Baines cited the meetings with Huawei and Hisense as highlights of the mission and Denis Ubhi, Managing Director of Rel-Net felt “the visit to Huawei was the highlight for me as I was able to meet some of the key people and develop opportunities to work with them.”

The delegates were keen to highlight that the missions mark the start of a relationship with China.  Several now plan to return with Michael Richardson concluding: “It’s now down to the individuals to ensure that they make the best use of the contacts we have developed.”

UKTechnologyLive spoke with Denis as the mission concluded about how British innovation can help to deliver continuity to China’s technology-reliant businesses, regardless of external impacts…

UKTechnologyLive: How can companies more reliably protect themselves against unexpected events that impact the daily running of the business?

Denis Ubhi: There is plenty of evidence of the havoc created by unexpected events, such as floods and fire, especially, within the telecommunications and IT sectors. A solid plan to expect the unexpected and deliver business continuity requires action across the entire technology process, from systems design to implementation.

UKTL: Surely businesses today are putting teams in place and making greater efforts to protect themselves from this sort of eventuality?

DU: Absolutely, but the truth is that with today’s increasingly complicated telecommunications and internet infrastructures, many companies still need to bring in professional help deliver the most reliable and cost effective solutions. That is going to drive their business growth in the longer term.

UKTL: So continuity is king?

DU: Business continuity and disaster recovery planning are now accepted as basic requirement for every business and organisation. A detailed business continuity or disaster recovery plan should not only exist, but be up to date. It should reflect the actual on-going needs of the business activity or function.

UKTL: Is there a piece of advice you can give that all businesses should keep in mind?

DU: Have your strategy in place to facilitate a pro-active rather than reactive approach, since the best way to prepare for a disaster is to avoid the disaster in the first place.

UKTL: Do you have experience consulting with Chinese businesses already?

DU: Rel-Net has contracted with Huawei in Sweden and had dealings with the parent company in China. But we welcomed the opportunities UKTI presented in terms of meeting new potential business to business (B2B) customers that will enable us to grow through export and overseas representations.

UKTL: Joining the UKTI trade mission to China was a high value undertaking for Rel-Net?

DU: Completely. Last year Rel-Net received a scholarship from UKTI to join the Indian Marketing Strategy programme for the top managers in small to medium enterprises (SMEs). That was a rich opportunity for a consultancy like ours to develop international business growth and the visit to China has also turned out to be equally excellent. With a focus on operators, communications and M2M, we visited a number of companies and attended seminars including one-to-one meetings with potential partners in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuxi and Shanghai. For me, the visit to Huawei Technologies was the highlight. I was able to meet some of the key people from Huawei and develop further opportunities to work with them.

www.rel-net.co.uk

Watching the developments around privacy and censorship is Dr Janko Mrsic-Flogel, CEO and founder of Private Planet, a company which has developed a private ‘digital lifestyle’ in the cloud, and who joined the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) mission to China.

“Whenever anybody starts talking about the cloud, it is generally terms of a business application,” says Mrsic-Flogel. “However, imagine owning your own personal cloud computer, where all your devices, instantly recognise each other and share resources and applications.  What sets this approach apart from the likes of Google, and the issues it faces working in China, is that a local or national telecom operator can be the host. The information saved within the personal cloud is retained within the borders of a country and is not going to be shared with others, unless the user specifically allows this. This means that operators and device manufacturers looking to integrate cloud into commercial consumer offerings need not be so concerned by the issues of data location and privacy.”

Private Planet is a new company created directly as a result of the Technology Strategy Board, a UK Government body, which helped fund the company’s initial research and development into mobility in cyberspace. Mrsic-Flogel joined the trade mission with some prior knowledge of the Chinese market, but observes, “It is such a rapidly moving economy, especially when it comes to the internet. The market changes and develops as fast as the cities do, and within a few years can become unrecognisable, so it was a brilliant opportunity to meet businesses and operators across the country, especially in Shanghai which was a new experience for me.”

In China, Private Planet showcased how cloud computing can connect devices together, termed device-to-device or ‘D2D’. In the near future expect to be using a mobile phone as a remote control for PC, or control a phone’s capabilities from the PC!

www.privateplanet.co.uk

Friday…it must be Shanghai

The head of commercial at Vodafone China set the scene before a panel session which focused on ‘collaboration in the global value chain – opportunities & challenges’. This saw lively debate and discussion regarding SME’s and giant companies, and how each might improve collaboration, ensuring optimisation of the opportunities facing Chinese and UK companies.

Stream was invited to a press conference where journalists from National Business Daily, 21st Century Business Herald, China Business News and China Economic Weekly were keen to hear more and understand the machine to machine (M2M) perspective.

Two further panel sessions included insight into the evolution and success of ARM.  The afternoon concluded with further one-to-one meetings with significant interest in Stream from one of China’s three telecom operators.

Finally we are to visit the UK pavilion at the World Expo…

http://www.stream-communications.com/streamblog

At the end of the UK Trade & Investment missions to China, Paul Greenfield, Chief Executive of Aspex Semiconductor, takes one minute to explain what the company does and why the Chinese market is critical to the future of his company

Kempinski Hotel, 9 am. 

150 people were attending presentations and panel discussions today.  Today’s event covered aspects of the meaning of machine to machine (M2M) and increasingly focussed on issues of security within the M2M environment and the importance of the user experience, including the graphical user interface (GUI).

After a round of one-to-one discussions, the mission went onward to Shanghai by coach – a journey of two and a half hours.  If you have never been to this city, get out here as soon as possible.  Never has a city impressed me as much as this on first sight – jaw dropping skyscrapers and unique design. 

Tomorrow in Shanghai all three missions meet up – it is shaping up to be a big final day.

http://www.stream-communications.com/streamblog

Wednesday must mean Shenzen…

Huawei's offices in Shenzen

This morning we took a coach trip to China Unicom’s 3G experience centre, for demonstrations of the latest developments and offerings on its 3G network and in particular iPhone applications.  The delegation then moved on to meet Huawei in Shenzen.  Shenzen has grown from a minimal population to 20 million in around 10 years, and the development continues at a hectic pace. Huawei is one of the world’s largest and most successful technology companies, and with its multiple R&D centres, it continues to lead the way in providing mobile network technologies.

Following a short tour of the visitor centre, where we had the most current technology explained to us, the mission met with Senior Vice President, Mr Deng – who not only gave us an insight into Huawei, but engaged with all on the mission to see how his and our companies could collaborate. The meeting put in foundations for substantial business and follow up to take place after the trip.  We each left with a framed photograph of the mission participants at Huawei’s visitor centre.

Tuesday in Guangzhou…

Guangzhou skyline

The temperature is around 37 degrees, the hottest day of the year so far here in this area.  The day kicked off at 9.30 with around 100 registrations to the keynote speeches, presentations and Q&A session.  Of particular interest was what the three Chinese telecommunications operators (both fixed line and mobile) have to say about the internet of things (TIoT) and machine to machine (M2M). 

 China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom were followed by presentations from the UK companies: PicoChip and Stream Communications.  The presentations focused on opportunities and challenges in M2M. My presentation highlighted the opportunities surrounding internationalisation, convergence of web based platforms, embedded SIM cards, end-to-end security and resilience.  

 In the afternoon companies on the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) mission attended one to one meetings, supported by interpreters.  I cannot comment on the other companies’ experiences, but Stream had ten approaches for collaboration and project development work in the M2M space during the course of the morning and afternoon. 

 The evening was taken up by a banquet, courtesy of the Guangzhou Institute of Information Technology. The hosts’ hospitality was incredible, the food was wonderful and everyone had a fantastic feast and discussion of trade opportunities for the best part of three hours. 

http://www.stream-communications.com/streamblog

Mervyn Levin of Levering recounts what he has learnt from his first day on the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) mission to China.

This sobering figure was cited by the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Director for China, Alistair Morgan, at a warm welcoming dinner hosted at the Embassy in Beijing last night.

To put this massive lag in another context, the UK exports roughly the same to Belgium as it does to China.

This figure puts into context the point of the three UKTI  missions to China – to boost UK exports to the world’s largest, fastest growing market. The nearly 50 UK companies certainly seem galvanised at the end of Day 1 as they move to the country’s provinces.

China’s Dash for innovation with the internet of things

The key learning point today from the Chinese is the clarity and joined up thinking between top policymakers, research and industry on the internet of things (M2M or machine to machine).

This is one of the catalysts for innovation across society and the economy under the banner that smart use of the internet is increasingly mobile based and linked to all devices and ubiquitous networks.

China’s strong focus in this area is accompanied by a deep understanding of the barriers that need to be overcome, such as  standards, value chain co-ordination, business models, security and privacy.  

China’s convincing strategy on ‘the internet of things’ spanning a wide range of sectors, combined with the allocation of significant resources, represents both a challenge and opportunity for the UK as globalisation accelerates.