Selling to Banks in China: A Guide to Market Entry for Solution Providers

Globalization and market reform are changing the Chinese banking industry, creating substantial demand for IT solutions and opportunities for foreign and international vendors.

Foreign investment, mergers and acquisitions, and expansion by various players have created greater technology requirements for Chinese banks. International software vendors are increasingly focusing on China as a source of great demand for their products. International vendors have several advantages in the Chinese banking market, according to a new report from Celent, .

"International vendors' advantages include product maturity and ability to satisfy the future requirements of banks, while their disadvantages lie in lack of familiarity with the China market, high pricing, high cost of implementation, and lack of local customer support," says Wenli Yuan, senior analyst and author of the report. "The advantages of domestic vendors lie in their familiarity with the requirements of the China market, low pricing, and low cost of human resources, while their disadvantages include lack of foresight with regard to future customer requirements, inability to rapidly satisfy customer expectations, and inability to align with international standards."

Establishing relationships with domestic firms is a win-win strategy for international firms, according to the report. International firms and domestic firms can leverage complementary strengths to meet mutual interests. State-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks, and large and midsize commercial banks will pay greater attention to international vendors products' when selecting large systems such as core business, risk management, and treasury systems.

In this report, Celent provides advice on how international firms can cooperate with local firms in China and other international firms and highlights areas that require particular attention during project implementation. Firms that successfully implement a large project will have a strong reference for subsequent projects.

The report is 26 pages long and contains three tables. A table of contents is available online. Members of Celent's Retail Banking and Wholesale Banking research services can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left. Non-members should contact info@celent.com for more information.