Interview with Zhongdi Digital Zhang Hui: Secondary development enhances user value
How to better serve customers is one of the standards for measuring software enterprises. As a well-known GIS platform and solution provider in China, Zhongdi Digital Group launched the "MapGIS Express - Enhancing the Value of Secondary Development Services" market activity this year, committed to establishing a service system around secondary development. Since its launch in May 2013, Zhongdi Digital Group has completed training and seminars in five cities including Changchun, Wuhan, Lanzhou, Chengdu, and Beijing, covering the five major regions of Northeast, Central, Northwest, Southwest, and North China. In the coming months, the "MapGIS Express" will continue to enter Xi'an, Nanjing, and Shenzhen. During the event held in Beijing, the reporter interviewed Zhang Hui, the manager of the platform's secondary development support department, who is in charge of the "MapGIS Express - Enhancing the Value of Secondary Development Services" event organized by Zhongdi Digital Group, and provided a comprehensive understanding of the event.
3SNews: When did Zhongdi Digital Group launch the "MapGIS Express" campaign?
Zhang Hui: Zhongdi Digital Group has always been committed to serving users. We have been holding events like "MapGIS Express", but the products targeted are different. Last year's activity mainly focused on MapGISIGServer's Internet oriented products and applications. This year's activity is more extensive. It not only retains the Internet direction, but also includes desktop applications, 3D applications and mobile applications, which are all around the secondary development of MapGIS platform.
3sNews: Zhongdi Digital positions itself as a GIS platform and solution provider. What features do you think a good GIS platform should have?
Zhang Hui: GIS platform is ultimately a software product. Evaluating the quality of a software product requires consideration of interface adaptability, professionalism, openness, and service quality.
Interface adaptability can be summarized as the need for platform software to provide a stable and high-performance system architecture, as well as a set of development frameworks that are as simple as possible, allowing users to quickly get started and develop software products, shorten development cycles, and save product development costs.
In addition, platform software also needs to have openness, reduce dependence on the environment, and be able to easily integrate third-party resources. This requires platform software to support the vast majority of development languages, frameworks, or technologies, meeting the different needs of different developers.
Professionalism refers to the ability of platform software to inherit the original product functions and business well. Therefore, whether it has rich industry application experience and can guide users to complete industry application development are also important indicators for assessing platform software.
Finally, a good software must have a comprehensive service support system that can meet the technical needs of developers and provide excellent services.
3sNews: You mentioned the concept of secondary development, so how can we better understand this concept?
Zhang Hui: From the perspective of secondary development, we can divide the groups that use GIS platforms into three types: those who can directly use the general functions provided by the GIS platform to meet their needs; Develop a customized product or project that meets specific needs; By freely customizing through secondary development to meet user needs, it is generally necessary to expand and develop on the basis of the GIS platform.
Most GIS platforms contain a large number of general functions that can meet the needs of some users. The number of universal functions provided and their usability are closely related to the accumulated experience of GIS platforms. Therefore, the ability of different GIS platforms to meet the needs of different user groups varies.
The best way to solve the problem of general functions not meeting personalized needs is to open interfaces that allow users to meet their needs through secondary development. Almost all GIS platforms have the ability for secondary development, mainly reflected in the direction of applied geographic information systems, that is, industry applications. The entire process from requirement analysis, design, development to deployment of the project may be related to secondary development and require support.
In short, the scope of secondary development is very broad, not only referring to software development content, but also possibly running through the entire production line of the project, involving various customer groups such as system integrators, software developers, application system deployment providers, software testing providers, GIS vendors, etc. Therefore, the quality of a GIS platform's secondary development capability will become an important criterion for judging the quality of a GIS platform.
3sNews: You have been working in the field of technical support for secondary development. What experiences can you share during your work process?
Zhang Hui: In different stages of secondary development, different problems will be encountered, including issues with the software itself and issues between users and the software. Therefore, technical support is the bridge and link between software and users.
During the process of providing technical support services, there will be many problems, especially in secondary development.
Firstly, when GIS first entered the field of secondary development, the main problem faced was that users did not have a good understanding of GIS, and technical support personnel often played the role of GIS enlightenment teachers at the same time, so the requirements for technical support personnel were also high.
Secondly, the issue of differences in user levels between new and old users is a problem that most GIS platform providers encounter. Due to differences in programming ability, business level, etc. among user groups, and the fact that these individuals may coexist in a project team, they all belong to the category that needs to be supported. If unified support is implemented, the effect will not be very good. The best way is to develop corresponding training plans based on the different levels of users before the project starts, and conduct training in batches. At the beginning of the project, overall support can be provided, and relatively few technical support personnel are needed. When encountering problems, project members can communicate and discuss conveniently, which is more conducive to the healthy development of the project; In regular secondary development support, dividing users into different levels, developing various help resources according to user levels, and designating specialized support personnel can achieve twice the result with half the effort; Secondary development support can also be divided into three categories based on whether the product is purchased or not: pre-sales, in sales, and after-sales, providing targeted support according to the user's category.
Thirdly, the contradiction between limited support personnel for secondary development and unlimited problems in secondary development is also a common issue in the software field. The speed of user development in secondary development far exceeds the growth rate of technical support personnel in secondary development. Personnel who are capable of supporting secondary development not only need to have extensive programming experience and familiarity with multiple programming languages, but also need rich industry experience to quickly identify and solve problems, and guide users in developing personalized products. In order to solve the problem of multiple and highly specialized secondary development issues for users, while enhancing the comprehensive quality of secondary development technical support personnel, it is also necessary to improve various secondary development resources, provide users with one-stop secondary development support, and enhance the capabilities of secondary development users.
Fourthly, providing high-quality services throughout the entire process, being patient and enthusiastic, and evaluating user satisfaction with the services are crucial and important references for us to improve service quality.
3sNews: What are the unique features and advantages of the "MapGIS Express" service system launched by Zhongdi Digital?
Zhang Hui: The concept of "MapGIS Express" is "smart sharing, service accompanying", which is committed to building a service platform that integrates resource sharing, customer service, and technical exchange. Aim to provide efficient, fast, and direct services to various users, and become a service expert around users.
Since it is a "direct train", our brand features are resource direct, service direct, and communication direct. Firstly, we will build a resource sharing platform where users can access various resources such as documents, videos, typical cases, and classic projects; Secondly, we aim to provide "professional, sincere, convenient, and efficient" service support for various types of users, combining multiple service channels to ensure that users can obtain high-quality MapGIS services in a timely manner. At the same time, we also adopt a regional and one-on-one service support strategy, combining regional characteristics and service personnel strengths to form different service teams to provide targeted support, in order to ensure the direct service to regional users; Thirdly, we provide users with a smooth communication platform, including various methods such as on-site communication, online communication, telephone communication, etc., involving on-site communication, video communication, forums, etc Service Online、QQ、 Multiple communication channels such as phone and Weibo provide access to various services including troubleshooting, requirement analysis, project guidance, product recommendations, and shared resources.
3sNews: What benefits does Zhongdi Digital hope to bring to users and partners through such activities?
Zhang Hui: Zhongdi Digital positions itself as a GIS platform and solution provider, providing suitable GIS platform support for more secondary development users, and can develop multi terminal application systems for desktop, mobile, network, and other applications. At the same time, in order to meet the needs of different industry applications, combined with years of industry accumulation in China, we have launched multiple industry application solutions for users, including 3D GIS, remote sensing applications, smart cities, taxation, urban geology, meteorology, real estate, public safety, disaster informationization, water conservancy, etc.
Our philosophy is "Sharing Geographic Information, Enhancing Service Value", which means sharing industry experience and resources, providing high-quality secondary development services, enhancing secondary development value, bringing higher business value to users or partners, and ultimately achieving a win-win goal. We hope to leverage the product, market, channel, and service advantages of MapGIS to develop more value-added industries through secondary development.
3sNews: How is the progress of the "MapGIS Express - Enhancing the Value of Secondary Development Services" activity currently? How is the customer's feedback?
Zhang Hui: In May 2013, the nationwide direct train campaign officially began, involving seven major regions and eight major cities. From May to August, the through train activity has traveled to five cities including Changchun, Wuhan, Lanzhou, Chengdu, and Beijing, covering the five major regions of Northeast, Central, Northwest, Southwest, and North China, achieving good results. Next, the through train activity will also enter Xi'an, Nanjing, and Shenzhen.
For cities that have already hosted, the effect is very good, supporting a large number of users. In order to maximize the effectiveness of this activity, a large number of local users' needs will be collected before developing the specific activity agenda for each station, and then universal and representative functions will be selected as the activity topics. At the same time, based on the direction of local GIS development and the demand for GIS in the region, selectively promote new products to keep users at "zero distance" from the company.
In order to fully support users in various regions, each station has also arranged a user follow-up segment, which includes the major region where the event is held. We go to the user site to solve practical problems, combine user follow-up with activities, timely understand user trends, evaluate the value of activities, and collect more functional resources. After collecting user needs from the first five sites, the response was good. Many users actively contacted us after the activity training to obtain trial versions and started using the software, achieving the expected results.
