Under the outbreak of the COVID-19, enterprises have come to realise the urgency of digital transformation. Many large retail franchises are also actively studying how to leverage digital transformation to make their presence and gain a foothold in the retail market in China. In view of this, HKT held a seminar entitled “Tap into the Greater China Market and a new era of cross-border retail” on 23 July 2021. Representatives from VMware and Value Exchange Int’l (Hong Kong) were invited to share their views. We also invited experts from Chow Tai Fook, the world-renowned jeweler, and Deloitte, for discussion on how enterprises can respond to crisis and turn them into opportunities under the COVID-19 pandemic, so as to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and firmly grasp opportunities in the China retail market.

Mr. Cheong, Chung-Meng, Head of China Commercial Business HKT Limited, expressed a warm welcome to the guests and kicked off the event. The first speaker was Mr. Tim Lam, Assistant Vice President, Product Management & Projects, China Business HKT Limited, who provided a number of success stories on how the advantages of HKT’s SD-WAN solution could help enterprises quickly deploy and take the lead in the vast China market. He demonstrated to the guests how HKT could help companies centrally manage branches in different cities, improving network performance and stability. With the HKT solution, companies can increase efficiency, reduce costs and seamlessly connect businesses across the country. During his speech, he demonstrated how a mobile phone could enable comprehensive and real-time technical support. Customers just need to open HKT's after-sale mobile apps, and then they can have real-time s on the maintenance progress, saving the trouble of related arrangements and monitoring. Accordingly, store operation becomes smoother and worry-free. Customers no longer have to worry about time-consuming maintenance affecting store operation and customer service experience.

(Mr. Tim Lam, Assistant Vice President of Product Management & Projects, China Business of HKT Limited, expounds how HKT’s solution helps retail enterprises reduce costs, increase efficiency and seamlessly connect businesses across the country.)

Next, Mr. Eric Choi, Director, Solution Engineering, SD-WAN and SASE, Asia Pacific from VMware, introduced in detail how VMware, as a world-class SD-WAN manufacturer, could help retail enterprises accelerate network connections and improve customer service experience. He also explained how stores installed with VMware products could avoid poor network performance, and the subsequent data packet loss, lag and delay. Mr. Choi emphasised the importance of network stability. Only a good network can cope with increasing demands and empower other applications, such as cloud services and network security. Finally, he demonstrated how VeloCloud’s SD-WAN equipment and cloud security could be combined in a good network environment, so as to ensure secure, high-performance and reliable network connections for employees and customers, no matter where they are.

(Mr. Eric Choi, Director, Solution Engineering, SD-WAN and SASE, Asia Pacific of VMware, demonstrates how HKT’s outstanding network combined with VeloCloud’s SD-WAN can accelerate network connections and enhance service experience.)

Afterwards, Mr. Kenneth Tan, Sales Director of Value Exchange Int’l (Hong Kong) Limited, explained operational problems that retailers would generally encounter in their rapid expansion in the China market. He detailed upon approaches to improve management efficiency and avoid flaws, for enterprises with a large number of branches. As an expert in store operations, Mr. Tan shared many elements of store operation and management at the summit, hopefully to help franchises manage their stores more efficiently and avoid detours.

(Mr. Kenneth TAN, Sales Director of Value Exchange Int’l Limited, explains how retailers can operate stores efficiently during their rapid expansion in the China market.)

The final part was hosted by Mr. Gilbert Mak, Vice President of China Engineering & Solutions Consultants, Commercial Group of HKT Limited, with the participation of Mr. Patrick Tsangas General Manager of Information and Communication Centre of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, Mr. Leo Fan as Partner of IT & Specialised Assurance Practice (Risk Advisory) of Deloitte China, and Mr. Tim Lam as Assistant Vice President of Product Management & Projects, China Business of HKT Limited. They had a panel discussion on how to promote retail business in China by tapping into the opportunity of digital transformation under the pandemic. At the panel discussion, Mr. Tsang shared  blueprint for retail development in China, and affirmed the vital role of HKT’s SD-WAN solution in Chow Tai Fook’s expansion of its retail footprint in the country, providing valuable inspirations to the guests. Leo Fan, on his part, shared ideas on how to formulate a strategy for retail business in China in the context of global instability, so that companies can do a good job of compliance and risk control when entering the China market.