Digital transformation and e-commerce will continue to thrive in 2021 and create a new catalyst for economic growth, according to experts. This is also an opportunity for Vietnamese companies to develop new business strategies.

According to Dr. Bui Quang Tuan, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, digital transformation is now a global trend. It plays an important role in the contactless economy, helping successfully carry out the double goal of fighting the pandemic and reviving economic growth.  It is also a mission of the entire society to grasp opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to develop the digital economy, build e-government, digital society, and digital enterprises to enhance productivity and added value in all economic sectors.

Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Director of the Institute for Brand and Competitiveness Strategy (BCSI), said, digital transformation is a “to be or not to be” issue and challenging story where no easy answers are available. In the last three years, most businesses believed that digital transformation is really beneficial: from management to research and business.

Citing the survey into 152,000 companies during the COVID-19 time conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO), he added that over 30% of Vietnamese enterprises invested in technology and especially digital technology to change business methods at different levels.

Remarking on the role of digital transformation to businesses, Dr. Luong Minh Huan, Director of the Institute of Enterprise Development (VCCI), affirmed that COVID-19 is a hundred-year catalyst for businesses to realize the superiority of the digital economy and the urgency of digital transformation. Assessing the impact of digital transformation on Vietnamese enterprises in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the first six months of 2020, he added that the survey into 400 enterprises conducted by the institute showed quite positive results. More than 50% of respondents applied digital technologies prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; and more than 25% started to apply digital technology when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and intended to employ digital technology more.

Besides, their expectations on digital technology application are very high, especially those related to cost reduction, paper reduction (more than 61% of enterprises), effective administration and product quality improvement (over 50% of enterprises.

From the business perspective, Mr. Pham Nam Long, CEO of Abivin Company, said that digital transformation helps businesses optimize resources, starting by digitizing documents, information and task assignments, enabling them to use digital data to improve operations. Digital transformation ultimately helps reduce costs and increase control. The digitization of reports and two-way reports makes it easy for them to anticipate growth or recession.

Opportunities from digital transformation are easy for them to see, but according to many experts, successful digital transformation requires much effort.

According to Dr. Luong Minh Huan, SMEs face more difficulty because of internal resources, and larger firms fear more about external matters in digitization. High digitization cost, insufficient digital infrastructure, personal/corporate data leakage, insufficient digital information and insufficient personnel are barriers to them. Despite being an aspect of technology, the success or failure of digital transformation does not depend much on technology, but mainly on determination of businesses.

Giving advice to businesses, he emphasized that, to be successful, they must renovate business models, establish a digitally enabled governance model for innovative, sustainable and inclusive development goals. Innovations built on an innovational culture will be a stepping stone for the digital economy: ready to change, ready to give up traditional business models to establish new business models, renovate supply chains and decision-making processes, and eliminate cumbersome intermediary steps.

Sharing this point of view, Dr. Vo Tri Thanh pointed out that digital transformation is a combination of 5 pillars: digital business culture and strategy; customer experience optimization; process optimization; technologization; and data analysis and management. To have a successful digital transformation, businesses need to think big and work the small details.

In addition, businesses must closely combine digital transformation with their business development strategies and leadership must be pioneering in particular, said Dr. Vo Tri Thanh of BCSI.