#40 - Section: Ticketing System - Reborn to dominate technology

After Ru Haifeng saw Cui Sheng off, he returned to the meeting room with Li Jun and Huang Zhonghua.

Li Jun asked, "President Ru, how should we present this plan?"

Ru Haifeng thought for a moment and said, "How about selling each server for 20,000 and directly selling 20,000 units? What do you think?"

"What about the software? How will we charge for that?" Huang Zhonghua asked.

"The software is free, but we'll charge a technical upgrade fee of ten million per year," Ru Haifeng replied without hesitation.

Li Jun said, "Our server's manufacturing cost is around 10,000, that's a huge profit."

Ru Haifeng retorted, "A huge profit? We're just transferring the software's profit to the hardware. I think only companies like Oracle, which sell a database for hundreds of millions, can be considered a huge profit."

"You have to understand that our Huaxing's cloud database is more than ten times better than Oracle's, maybe even more. Do you still think it's a huge profit?"

Li Jun didn't know how to answer. After all, Oracle had made a lot of money over the past few decades, hundreds of billions. Compared to that, this technical service fee was too conscientious.

"Moreover, you need to know that we also have to design the core business applications and ticketing system for the railway department's cloud servers."

"These aren't being charged for. If we were like some black-hearted entrepreneurs in beautiful countries, we wouldn't be satisfied with less than 1 billion US dollars."

"Do we have enough servers right now?"

Li Jun replied, "We have plenty of servers right now. After all, it will take a long time to build the second-phase data center."

Ru Haifeng began to instruct, "Quickly arrange for someone to write an electronic version of the plan and send it to my email. After I confirm that there are no problems, send it to the Ministry of Railways."

… …

Railway Department Office Building

Cui Sheng, sitting at the head of the table, said, "Today's meeting is to discuss the online ticket purchasing issue."

One of the deputy directors asked in confusion, "Director Cui, haven't we stopped selling them?"

"That's right, it was put on hold before, but now there's a mature technical solution. I believe everyone is aware that our website experienced a series of problems shortly after going online, such as duplicate payments, server crashes, and the website being inaccessible, but they were resolved within an hour."

Another deputy director asked anxiously, "Director Cui, please tell us, how did you solve them?"

Director Cui began to introduce, "I believe everyone here knows about Huaxing Technology. After the crash, we were able to operate normally because we used their cloud computing technology."

"Yesterday, I even took the technical staff to visit their computer room. I have to admit, it was an eye-opener."

"Cloud computing? Director Cui, can you explain it in detail?" the deputy director asked.

Cui Sheng said, "Xiao Li also went there today. Let Xiao Li explain it to you."

Mainly, Cui Sheng also knew that he only had a superficial understanding and couldn't explain it clearly. Xiao Li, sitting at the end, began to explain cloud computing technology to everyone. Those who understood some technology were fine, but those who didn't understand technology were confused. In short, it was awesome.

After Xiao Li finished speaking, Cui Sheng continued, "I have already asked Huaxing Technology to come up with a plan. How much money do you think is appropriate to invest in building this platform?"

The deputy director cautiously suggested, "How about investing 500 million to try it out?"

Cui Sheng decisively refused, "Too little, too little. This amount won't even support the usual traffic of the server. Since we've caught up with a good era, we should let the people enjoy the benefits of the era. Don't you feel sorry for them queuing up all night in such cold weather?"

"Can't you raise your perspective a little? It's not as good as Huaxing Technology, which took the initiative to provide us with traffic support for free, and even volunteered to develop a ticketing system for us for free."

"It's just to give our people another channel for inquiry and ticket purchase. Have you been leaders for so many years and don't even have this level of ideological awareness?" Cui Sheng became more and more excited, and finally even shouted out loud.

The other leaders didn't dare to respond, especially the deputy director who had just suggested a trial run.

Another deputy director said, "Director Cui, I think 1 billion is good. If the effect is good, we can continue to increase investment. In the future, we will set up a small data center in each province."

"This suggestion is good," Cui Sheng nodded.

"Director Cui, how long will it take for this investment to pay off?" the deputy director in charge of sales asked.

"I estimate half a year."

"Too short, our research institute said that it will take at least three years."

"Three years? That's too long."

A group of leaders began to discuss.

Cui Sheng looked at this and said lightly, "Quiet, I'll call President Lu to confirm."

Saying that, he took out his phone and called Lu Haifeng, and turned on the speakerphone. Lu Haifeng said politely on the phone, "Director Cui, hello."

"President Lu, I want to ask, how long will it take for your program to be developed? Does it take a long time?" Cui Sheng asked.

Lu Haifeng asked, "Is it the underlying core application and order system?"

"Yes, how long will it take to put it into use?" Cui Sheng confirmed.

"This is a bit slow, it will take a month," Lu Haifeng replied.

"How, how, how long? A month?"

Cui Sheng said in shock. It would take three years for his own team to develop it, but they thought a month was too slow.

All the leaders in the conference room were shocked and speechless. This efficiency was too high. Suddenly, they felt that the subordinate research institute was raising a bunch of good-for-nothings.

Cui Sheng reacted and said, "Okay, then you submit the plan as soon as possible. We can start development after the review is no problem."

"Okay, I can submit the plan this afternoon," Lu Haifeng said.

"Okay, then you can get busy first, we'll continue the meeting."

"Director Cui, goodbye."

Cui Sheng put down the phone and said to everyone, "Have you all heard clearly? It can be developed in a month. If our technology is one-tenth as good as Huaxing Technology, our people wouldn't still be queuing up now."

The leaders all echoed.

Only the leader of the technology department really couldn't express his suffering. He really wanted to explain that it wasn't that his army was incompetent, but that the allied forces were too strong.

"Do you have anything else to say?" Cui Sheng asked.

Everyone shook their heads. Their technology was already so awesome, what else was there to say?

"Okay, since everyone has no objections, then we'll wait for the plan to arrive this afternoon before continuing the meeting."

"If there are no problems with the review, this time the plan will not adopt the public bidding method, and Huaxing Technology will complete it. How about that?" Cui Sheng asked everyone.

"No problem."

The other leaders agreed.

"Let's adjourn the meeting," Cui Sheng said and got up to leave.