To analysts, digital transformation is an irreversible trend, if standing outside, businesses will sooner or later fail. According to IDC's 2018 survey, digital transformation is becoming a strategy for businesses and organizations in the fourth industrial revolution. Nearly 90% of businesses have started digital transformation with different steps from learn, research, to start to implement. More than 30% of business leaders surveyed consider digital transformation as a vital issue, confirming efficiency in many aspects such as customer understanding, increasing productivity, accelerating creativity ... So, how to start a business in Vietnam in the digital era? Let's have a quick look:
READ MORE: Digital Economy Transformation in Vietnam
Overview of Digital Transformation in Vietnam
In Vietnam, digital transformation has begun to take place, especially in industries such as finance, transportation, and tourism ... The Government and governments at all levels are making efforts to build e-Government towards Government number. More than 30 cities are also planning to build Smart City with new technology platforms ... Or FPT said it is also implementing digital transformation for FPT itself with nearly 36,000 people and is committed to achieving results within 12 months. next.
However, Vietnamese enterprises in general, especially small and medium enterprises are still not fully aware of the role of digital transformation in the fourth industrial networks. Specifically, according to VCCI, currently Vietnam's small and medium enterprises account for about 97% of the total number of enterprises, the level of science, technology and innovation is low, with 80% to 90% of the machines used in the enterprises. Vietnamese enterprises are imported, nearly 80% of which are old technologies from 1980-1990.
In April, Cisco released the report "Digital development index of small and medium enterprises in Asia - Pacific", which implemented over 1,340 businesses in the region in general and 50 Vietnamese enterprises. in particular. In Vietnam, SMEs are facing barriers in digital transformation such as lack of digital skills and human resources (17%), lack of an information technology platform strong enough to allow for digital transformation (16.7%), lack of digital thinking or challenges of digital culture within the business (15.7%), ...
However, the report also pointed out that Vietnamese small and medium enterprises are investing in cloud technology (18%), network security (12.7%), and upgrading software and hardware to move forward. change number (10.7%).
What businesses should do when starting a business in Vietnam?
In June 2020, the Prime Minister officially approved the "National Digital Transformation Program to 2025, with a vision to 2030" with a vision of making Vietnam a digital, stable and prosperous country. room to test new technologies and models. This awakens businesses from finance and banking, to healthcare, to education and, of course, indispensable manufacturing businesses - the cornerstone of all industries.
However, it is an easy fact that, despite the consensus with the goal of building Vietnamese digital enterprises capable of going global, many manufacturing enterprises do not know where to start.
It can be seen the challenges facing Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises, as technology is changing every day, and the competition is getting fiercer.
Make the most of the Government supporting policies in the digital transformation process
For business in Vietnam, the State pays special attention to the digital transformation process, especially in the blossoming trend of the 4.0 revolution. Specifically, many policies have been issued by the State to support businesses in the digital transformation and application of open source software into corporate governance, including:
- Decision No. 235/2004 of the Prime Minister on the overall project on Application and Development of Open Source Software in Vietnam, period 04-08.
- Decisions 169 and 223 of the Prime Minister on the investment and procurement of information technology products by agencies and organizations using the State budget capital.
- Decision 50/2009 of the Prime Minister promulgating the Regulation on the management of the software technology and NDS program has created a great change for open source software and enterprises using open source software in digital transformation.
The policy of using open source has also been confirmed in documents such as Resolution 36 of MOIT and Resolution 26 of the Government.
Revise the 2006 Law on IT to embrace the new development trend of the Industry 4.0 revolution and the digital economy, correct inadequacies in IT application and development of the IT industry, towards development goals. strengthen the IT industry, increase the application of IT in organizations and enterprises, increase the competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises in the digital transformation trend.
Building a set of benchmarks for application of open source software: expected to be completed in 2017 and issued in 2018. This benchmark includes implementation norms of nearly 20 types of open source software products. issued according to Circular 20/2014 / TT-BTTTT. Study international regulations on open source software, open standards, and open data to incorporate into legal documents on IT in the process of amending the IT Law. Enterprises should learn about the State's preferential policies and make good use of their advantages, creating a spectacular transformation in the 4.0 revolution.
Comply with the digital conversion roadmap of your business in Vietnam
Mr. Tran Kiem Dung - Director of FDS Company affirmed that in order to successfully convert digital, businesses cannot take shortcuts but must comply with the roadmap. Accordingly, the roadmap for digital transformation in enterprises includes the following basic steps:
- Restructuring the business
- Standardization of technology
- Core optimization
Enterprise entities (specific specific applications, enterprise systems, data, technology infrastructure)
In which, operating process and technology are two important steps and need to be analyzed methodically and strictly.
Make plan and goals very clear and detailed for your business in Vietnam
Since digital transformation is a new trend and affects the entire company, the stakeholders of the project itself do not understand many of the definitions and objectives of digital transformation. This leads to projects that are inappropriate, goals left open, and teams lead in the wrong direction.
It also takes time to properly prepare the business aspect of digital transformation, before implementing IT projects from there.
Most stakeholders are not grounded in IT and can feel dreaded by technical aspects. This fear is not necessary because they have the business aspect or the technical department carried out by the IT team. However, it's important to make sure they accept the terms, goals, and planning, and don't turn down the entire project from the get-go.
These are our typical strategic digital transformation layout:
- Define a clear business strategy: existing strategy and target strategy.
- Test your current IT environment
- Set up a target IT environment
- Conceive ideas based on different priorities to achieve goals (distance analysis).
- Choose one and detail specific projects to get there
- Select a time period: 2 to 4 years to reach your goal
