This is the common opinion of businesses at the Vietnam – Asia Digital Transformation Summit 2022 taking place on May 25.
According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hoang, Vice Chairman of the Committee for Digital Transformation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) under the Vietnam Software and Information Technology Services Association (VINASA), as of December 2020, Vietnam has more than 811,000 enterprises. SMEs account for 98.1% of the total number of enterprises in Vietnam, employ 70% of the labor force and contribute up to 45% of GDP.
Vietnam has been discussing about digital transformation since 2018. So far, digital transformation has become a popular concept, a hot issue from high-level meetings to everyday stories of people and businesses. However, the VINASA survey reveals that 69% of surveyed businesses unable to choose to implement digital transformation, 72% do not know where to start, 92% do not know how to digitally transform.
Digital transformation is considered as one of the key solutions to help SMEs go from surviving to breaking through the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to support businesses in digital transformation, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, VINASA has established an expert council to enhance a Digital Transformation Framework for SMEs, including nearly 40 experts who are senior leaders of various industries. Technology enterprises are leading in digital transformation.
The Council has selected and grouped experts according to practical experience in implementing Digital Transformation for each industry, combining practical experience, current situation and development trends of each sector, and refer to the reference model. 26 fields have been selected to build the digital transformation framework most suitable for Vietnam’s SMEs. Accordingly, all documents are publicly released and completely free on the website www.dx4sme.vn. SMEs can download documents for research and can directly register to connect and request in-depth advice on the website.
Mr. Le Vu Minh, Director of Strategy and Innovation Consulting Division of FPT Digital shared, in the past 2 years, the COVID-19 epidemic has accelerated the speed of digital transformation of businesses. In Vietnam, there several benefits to speeding up digital transformation, especially in a city where 85% of the population uses smartphones – ready to access technology, services and products of businesses in the digital environment.
“We all know that applying information technology (IT) to digital transformation will help businesses optimize, improve productivity, and save costs. However, that is the original approach. In fact, today, large enterprises in the world approach digital transformation as a compulsory strategic direction to be able to maintain sustainable development in the future. Through technology, enterprises will overcome the geographical distance, connecting with partners in the ecosystem is much more convenient. With the participation of IT firms and associations such as VINASA, the development of products and services for digital transformation is also very diverse, suitable for businesses from large to small, expanding access opportunities,” said Mr. Le Vu Minh.
“Even as the digital transformation in FPT has occurred strongly, we have had 72 digital transformation programs at the subsidiaries of the organization, 62 implementation programs have been brought to life, tested by the result is more than 500 billion VND from the program of digital transformation, improving productivity, saving costs, creating new business models that create value for the group,” said Mr. Le Vu Minh.
Sharing about digital transformation, many business representatives wondered how to implement the digital transformation program. From the implementation experience in the past 2 years, experts in this field believe that, first and foremost, businesses have to assess the current state of technology application to identify strengths and weaknesses, then determine the items that need to be focused on short-term and long-term. Above all, to succeed in digital transformation, there must be determination from the leadership team and the head of the unit.
