Digital transformation and e-commerce will be the inevitable requirements of businesses and will continue to thrive in the future, creating new impetus for economic growth. Accordingly, enterprises must be willing to change and to abandon traditional business models to establish new business models; reinvent supply chains and decision-making processes, and eliminate intermediaries, or stages that are cumbersome. These are vital in order to take advantage of opportunities from trade agreements and promote exports.

Digital transformation, the digital economy
is now a global trend. Photo: Internet

5 pillars of digital transformation

Digital transformation and the digital economy are global trends. With the emergence of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the push from the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is at a breakthrough point in digital transformation. After the start of the national digital transformation, the year 2021 and the whole 2021-2025 period are identified as the time to accelerate with specific actions and solutions for each ministry, sector and locality.

According to experts' forecasts, digital transformation and e-commerce will continue to thrive in 2021 and create new impetus for economic growth. At the same time, this is also an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to develop new business strategies.

Speaking at the Forum "Digital Economy and E-commerce" held on April 15, Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Quang Tuan, Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute, said that the XII Congress's Resolution raised the issue of the important role of science and technology and that is confirmed more clearly in the Resolution of Congress XIII.

In which, the view is of fast and sustainable development based on science and technology, where innovation and digital transformation is the number one priority. High income by 2045 requires productivity-based growth. Business innovation and digitization are a way for Vietnam to achieve higher productivity growth and greater resilience to external shocks. Thus, the need to grasp the trend of science and technology in general and apply the achievements of Industry 4.0 in particular is an urgent requirement.

According to Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Director of the Institute of Brand Strategy and Competition, in the last three years, most businesses believe that digital transformation needs to be done to be successful. During Covid-19, the General Statistics Office survey with 152,000 enterprises showed that over 30% of Vietnamese enterprises invested in technology and especially digital technology, changing operations and business production in various degrees.

“Digital economics and e-commerce are reshaping production and business as it creates new fields, blurs lines between traditional industries, smartens production processes and optimizes value chains. At the same time, digital economy and e-commerce also create breakthroughs in improving the capacity and quality of value. However, when transforming, businesses also need to pay attention to five pillars that are digital business culture and strategy, connecting and optimizing customer experience, process optimization, technology, analysis and data management,” Dr. Vo Tri Thanh said.

According to the director of the Institute for Brand Strategy and Competition, in order to be successful in digital transformation, enterprises need to pay attention to three lessons including orientation, reality and acts from small, innovative, highly diffuse. In addition, digital transformation must also be deeply attached to the business development strategy, and in particular, leadership must be a pioneer.

Great expectations

According to Dr. Luong Minh Huan, Director of the Institute of Business Development, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Covid-19 is a hundred-year push for businesses to realize the superiority of the digital economy and the urgent need of the transition to numbers.

According to the survey results to assess the impact of Covid-19 on enterprises’ operations and analysis of the trend of digital transformation applications to overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic, enterprises' perception of technology. Over the past few years, more than 50% of businesses have applied digital technologies before Covid-19; more than 25% of enterprises have started to apply digital technology since Covid-19 and intend to continue using digital technology.

In addition, the expectation of businesses in the application of digital technology is also very high, especially those related to cost reduction (more than 71% of enterprises), reduction of paperwork (more than 61%), and effective management for business and product quality improvement (over 50% of enterprises).

However, Mr. Huan also said that enterprises said that the cost of applying digital technology is still high, lack of digital infrastructure, fear of leaking personal or business data and especially lack of digital information, lack of internal manpower to apply, so these are the biggest barriers.

Notably, according to Mr. Huan, in the field of technology, success or failure of digital transformation does not mainly depend on technology; it mainly depends on political determination, national economic institutions and the business. To be successful, it is the responsibility of the business to renew its business model, establish a governance model based on digital technology, towards innovative, sustainable and inclusive development goals.

At the same time, the organizational innovation on the basis of a creative culture will be a step on the way for the digital economy as a willingness to change, ready to abandon traditional business models to establish new business models, reinventing supply chains and decision-making processes, eliminating cumbersome steps.