Digital transformation is no longer an option but an inevitable trend for enterprises to adapt to the business environment and needs of partners and customers amid the fourth industrial revolution and the worldwide digital economy worldwide.

Digital transformation is a businesses’ important strategy. Photo: Internet

Strategic move

As one of the pioneering enterprises to implement digital transformation in HCM City, Lam Thuy Ai, Chairman of the Board of Members of Mebipha Production and Trade Company, said businesses have been implementing digital transformation as Vietnam is deeply integrating with the world. This saves time and is convenient for businesses to carry out paperwork thanks to faster online procedures.

Tran Phuong Ngoc Thao, Director of Digital Transformation of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ), said digital transformation in management, production and business played an important role. It should be applied firstly in firms established in Vietnam, with Vietnamese legal entities. She believed Vietnamese companies could grow strong and reach out to the world.

HCM City People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong called on businesses and businessmen to proactively implement digital transformation, especially by providing products and services on digital platforms.

At the end of September 2020, the HCM City Business Association announced a digital transformation program to advise and support small and medium enterprises to access digital transformation solution packages at reasonable costs, improving their competitiveness. Under this programme, the HCM City Computer Association spent about VND4 billion to support around 300 small and medium enterprises registered digital transformation in the first year; and organised consultancy and training programs for them to choose suitable digital transformation solutions.

Digital transformation is considered an enterprises’ strategic step amid the pandemic.

Talking about enterprises’ digital transformation, Le Tri Thong, Vice Chairman of the HCM Young Entrepreneurs Association, said that before the pandemic, this issue had been the internal mainstream because we could not stand outside that flow. The pandemic has made the flow push us faster. Those who are slow or not ready to “swim” in that “technological flow” will be hit harder by the Covid wave.

“As a result, technological transformation is increasingly strategic, showing clearly how using technology, not technology, brings success. In fact, there are many firms investing a lot of money in technology; and there are many entrepreneurs focusing on technology but with a lack of market factors. They take a few years to create technologies but those technologies cannot be commercialised,” said Thong.

Success in digital transformation

To succeed in digital transformation and increase business value, business owners must lead operations and approve resources. Most importantly, they will be the architects of change management in digital transformation.

Vu Tuan Anh, Deputy Director of Consulting Company Corporate Restructuring and Enterprise Transformation (DR. SME), said business owners must set up a digital transformation committee consisting of independent consultants to supplement the missing or specialised knowledge and capabilities to ensure the success of the project. They also need to rapidly develop digital transformation capacity, especially human resources, processes, and data.

Analysing the role of digital transformation in the production and supply chain, Vu Tuan Anh, Director of Research Center of Economics and Business Consulting - National Economics University, said enterprises need to think supply chain in strategy, implementation and the operation of digital transformation.

Bui Thu Thuy, Deputy Director of Enterprise Development Department, Ministry of Planning and Investment:

In early 2021, the ministry has approved a programme to support enterprises’ digital transformation in the 2021 - 2025 period. This programme will support digital transformation in businesses through digital integration and application, improving the efficiency of production and business activities, enhancing business’s capacity and competitive advantages, and creating new values for businesses.

By 2025, all businesses will be aware of digital transformation from HR to administration, finance, and data. Simultaneously, they will establish a consultant network to promote digital transformation in each specific field such as agriculture, industry, and trade.

The programme to support enterprises' digital transformation in the 2021-2025 period will focus on building digital tools, platforms, and databases for firms, cooperatives, and business households to improve their production and business efficiency, as well as competitiveness.

Additionally, it also supports State management agencies, associations, research institutes, and universities developing digital technologies and platforms to promote digital transformation.

Nguyen Tuan, Deputy Director of HCM City Investment and Traded Promotion Center (ITPC):

Vietnam launched a national digital transformation program in 2020 with three main pillars: digital government, digital economy, and digital society. 2021 is considered the "golden" time for Vietnam's digital transformation. Therefore, units, organisations, businesses, and individuals need to act immediately to complete Vietnam’s digital transformation soon. This is a globally inevitable trend that Vietnamese businesses cannot go against.

To do this, business owners need to set up a digital transformation committee consisting of independent consultants to supplement the missing or specialised knowledge and capabilities to ensure the success of the project. Further, they need to rapidly develop digital transformation capacity, especially human resources, processes, and data.

Successful digital transformation requires firms to approach their internal digital transformation and integrate the front with customers and the back with suppliers. Digital transformation solutions must focus on openness, integration and operations through the supply chain. Digital transformation solutions in supply chains numbers need to focus on integrated data, processes, technologies, and human resources internally and externally.

Currently, about 90% of small and medium enterprises have participated in digital transformation. According to To Dinh Hieu, CEO of Dinox Consulting, small firms have many advantages in digital transformation, especially their flexibility and change ability.

However, they also face limitations in resources such as finance, human resources, infrastructure, network connections, and policies, making their digital transformation process a difficult journey.

Therefore, small businesses need to study how large enterprises operate organisations, such as enterprise structure, business model and process in a specific context, and then flexibly apply it in real conditions.