After undergoing a variety of changes, Apple Pay finally come online in Chinese electronic payment market on February 18, 2016. Yesterday Apple officially announced that Apple Pay payments service was available to Chinese customers, and China has been added to the list of supported Apple Pay countries alongside the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Now Chinese iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch users can make purchases within this app using both China UnionPay credit and debit cards.

As a mobile payment service and digital wallet service released by Apple Inc. in December 2014, Apple Pay allows users to make payments for goods and services with their iPhones in retail stores using a near field communication (NFC) chip built into their iPhones. Though Apple has announced its preparations to launch Apple Pay payments service in China in December of the last year, this payment service did take a quite long time to get the access to China market. Since more and more Chinese users are using smartphones, digital wallet become a popular way to pay for online and offline goods or services. Though Apple owns a large amount of users who can be the potential customers of Apple Pay, it also faces the challenge of formidable China-based competitors, namely Alibaba’s AliPay and Tencent’s WeChat Payment.

Alibaba and Tencent payment systems have been used for many years, and they have garnered considerable user base. Both Alipay and WeChat Wallet can be used for more things, like money transfers, and their electronic paying methods (like using QR code) can reach a wider market, while Apple can only be used for retail point-of-sale and possibly App Store transactions so far, and its NFC payment method are not suitable for those retail points who have not NFC-compatible machines. But Apple Pay seems to be more convenient for users to make payments, comparing with Alipay and WeChat Wallet. Apple Pay users can double-click on the Home button to pop up default bank card, close to the payment terminals and input password or Touch ID.

Steve Phillips, the CIO of $28 billion technology wholesaler Avnet, kicked off his 2016 planning cycle last week with an eye toward making IT more nimble and responsive to the company’s evolving requirements. He plans to test a software-defined network (SDN) and a predictive analytics solution that leverages the Internet of Things (IoT) for a company that delivers anything from electronic components to enterprise IT services for 100,000 customers.

As CIO.com noted recently, CIOs in 2016 are refining digital transformations they started last year or earlier to press their competitive advantage. Others are playing catch-up or defense against nimble rivals. Whatever the case, CIOs are entering the New Year with laser focuses on cloud, mobile, analytics and security, among other solutions.

Software defined networking

In SDNs, a centralized software controller directs network policies and resources customarily managed by networking switches and routers. SDNs can drive more operational efficiency by optimizing the management of corporate data traffic, which is increasing in size and velocity due to the proliferation of streaming video, cloud software, analytics, sensors and other information-intensive activities.

Internet of Things (IoT)

In 2016, Phillip plans to add sensors which monitor the performance of machines that pick, pack and route products around its fulfillment centers. The sensors will alert employees to potential mechanical breakdowns, enabling the company to pull a machine and fix it, thus preventing unnecessary downtime from occurring.

Agile and bimodal

Like most other large companies, Avnet has operated in he waterfall methodology, in which the business delivered detailed documentation about technology requirements to IT and waited several months or years for projects to be completed. Last year the IT mean realized that its growing job jar to build capabilities fo the businesss was getting full and by the time IT solutions were delievered, the businesses requirements had changed Phillips says.

Cybersecurity

Phillips a month ago promoted Sean Valcamp to the newly created position of CISO, where he is responsible for Avnets global IT security in addition to his previous responsibilities of managing enterprise IT architecture and strategic planning.

These drills, which include technical and management tracks, cover communication in the event of a breach, protocols for disclosing and containing the breach, and damage assessment. “You can’t prepare 100 percent in advance for a real breach, but you can familiarize people with the way that you communicate,” he says. “Most importantly, it drives home to everybody the seriousness of cybersecurity and tees up the discussion with the executive board.”

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