研華物聯網商機下的經營與轉型

Abstract

工業4.0、智慧製造、數位轉型等詞彙與口號在現今產業疆界被打破、國際貿易興盛、供應鏈脆弱以及疫情之下產業轉型成為剛需的背景下頻繁出現。物聯網作為當中核心，許多顧問單位與科技大廠早已嗅到商機，各自佈局，具有一定規模的企業方有機會建立屬於自己的平台，並作為生態系推動者引領產業價值鏈。 而當中研華作為工業電腦全球市佔超過3成，台灣唯一投入硬體轉型軟硬整合平台服務的工業物聯網生態系的廠商，值得就其優良的表現與物聯網商機下的部署做更進一步的研究。故本研究分為兩大時期，一為工業電腦發展、二是以物聯網為中心的經營，以探討研華長期的經營策略與物聯網商機下新商業模式的建立，以及當中關鍵成功因素，包含：「研華如何在工業電腦破碎化且競爭激烈的市場中成功滲透、取得市占第一的地位」並且 「能夠掌握先機、在其他廠商投入物聯網硬體領域時，提出應對策略，率先推出工業物聯網平台」。 在經過五力分析、資源與能力、商業模式等分析後發現，對外而言，研華擁有相較於同類型產業廠商更具價值的品牌與行銷上的投入，並且透過完整的銷售架構將潛在商機一網打盡；對內來看，研華內部從A到A+、阿米巴的文化及組織，完善的產品及策略提案管道、還有持續運作的數位轉型。這些要素成為研華建立物聯網生態系時的最佳基礎，再加上研華並持「利他」，以「共創、讓利」形式招募生態圈夥伴，雖市場端與夥伴端的意願及成長性較難預測，但已成為全球工業物聯網平台前十大的研華WISE-PaaS服務，未來仍有很大的機會搶佔軟硬整合服務市場，亦能為自身的硬體產品提高價值，來面對削價競爭帶來的威脅。 本研究建議，若期待加深物聯網商機的掌握與生態系的健全，研華可從三面向著手 (1) 根據「終端使用者需求階段」，與夥伴共同推出階段性物聯網方案；(2) 整合內部業務資源，對內合作、對外一致；(3) 從中小型產業專業夥伴與新創輔導，打造生態系航空母艦，內外整合，突破市場大廠競爭與成長緩慢的挑戰。

Today, Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing and digital transformation become hot issues. Vague boundaries between industries, prosperous international trade and fragile supply chains that has made industrial transformation essential under the pandemic. Major technology companies have already sensed business opportunities of IoT to deal with the challenges above. Enterprises with large scale have the opportunity to establish their own platforms and lead the industry value chain as ecosystem owner. Among them, Advantech, which accounts for more than 30% of the industrial computer market, is the only hardware manufacturer in Taiwan's building up its own industrial IoT ecosystem for software and hardware integration services. It’s worth further research on its excellent performance and IoT market deployment. Therefore, analysis of Advantech is divided into two periods, one is the development of industrial computers, the other is the Internet of Things. Also, Advantech's long-term business strategy and the establishment of new business models under the Internet of Things business opportunities will be discussed, aiming to define the success factors, which includes : 'How Advantech successfully penetrated into the fragmented and highly competitive market of industrial computers and achieved the first place in the market' and 'How Advantech could be able to seize the opportunity and take the lead in launching an industrial IoT platform while other manufacturers are still investing in the IoT hardware field. '. After analysis of five forces, resources and capabilities, business model, it is found that externally, Advantech has more valuable brand and marketing investment than the competitors. And through an aggregated sales structure, they took good advantage of potential business opportunities. Advantech's corporate culture and organization “from A to A+” and “amoeba” concept, perfect new proposal pipeline and continual digital transformation have become the best foundation for Advantech to establish an IoT ecosystem. In addition, Advantech has generously recruited ecosystem partners in the form of 'co-creation” and other benefits. Although the willingness and growth of the market and partners are not quite predictable, Advantech's WISE-PaaS service is still promising. Now, WISE-PaaS has already become the top ten industrial IoT platforms in the world, dedicated to seizing the software and hardware integration service market in the future, and can also increase the value of its own hardware products to deal with the threat of price war. In conclusion, this research suggests that if Advantech is meant to deepen the grasp of IoT business opportunities and improve the ecosystem, it can get started from three aspects (1) Jointly launchs different phased IoT solutions with partners based on the end-user demand stage; (2) Integrate internal sales team and business resources, making it consistent for external stakeholders; (3) Nurture domain partners and new startups of small- and medium-sized to break through the barrier of fierce competition from large technology companies.