According to the UOB International Bank’s 2024 Business Prospects Research Survey, almost 9 out of 10 businesses in Vietnam have implemented digital transformation (DX) for one or more departments, with 41% of leaders affirming that the process has taken place across the entire enterprise. The sectors with the highest digitization rates are technology, media, and telecommunications at 95%, followed by industry and oil and gas at 91%.
Although 3/5 of Vietnamese businesses have achieved successes from their DX efforts, the number of successful companies in 2023 decreased compared to 2022: 63% vs 73%. The areas that have been prioritized for digitization include electronic invoicing, human resource management, cost management, warehouse management, and customer care.
In 2024, 4/5 of businesses are expected to increase their investment in DX, with most companies increasing their budgets by 10% to 25%. The DX efforts will continue across internal departments at a relatively similar pace, but are expected to accelerate for customer-facing departments.
On the other hand, there are five main barriers that prevent many businesses from successfully undergoing DX or from fully committing to it: a lack of specialized human resources, the unsuitability of existing platforms and solutions, concerns about cybersecurity, the high cost of maintaining digital solutions, and the misalignment of adopted digital solutions with actual needs.
Cybersecurity should be a priority in digital transformation, especially in the financial sector
Mr. Lim Hock Guan, Director of Information Technology and Operations, UOB Vietnam
“Compared to many economies in the ASEAN region, the digital transformation achievements of Vietnamese businesses are quite impressive. However, it is clear that the digital transformation process of Vietnamese businesses still faces challenges and risks related to cybersecurity and cost control.
In my opinion, we should not consider digital transformation investments as expenses but rather as investments. Indeed, the transformation process should involve investing in what is necessary for the current business and a little bit of what we want for the future, rather than taking on too much; because of the complexity of technology and its rapid evolution, which can be costly.
To invest in a solid infrastructure for digital transformation – for example, hardware – we need to spend a lot of money. It’s a long journey! But to be able to use it quickly and not spend too much, we should buy a few software programs, first of all, to prevent illegal network intrusion – especially for businesses in the financial sector like ours. We have to be able to control our employees’ computers to prevent hacker risks.
In cases where our customers don’t know where to start or what else they need, we usually advise them to look at what their competitors have.” shared Mr. Lim Hock Guan, Director of Information Technology and Operations at UOB Vietnam, regarding his experience.
Mr. Lim Hock Guan further described that, in addition to the need for seriousness and commitment to proper work processes to ensure cybersecurity, businesses need to continuously educate and raise awareness so that employees can recognize and respond to risks.
Phishing Email is a form of email attack where hackers typically impersonate a reputable company to carry out deceptive plans in users’ emails.
“Controlling office and employee devices is something businesses need to do to monitor all employee activities, starting with knowing what emails and files they send or receive. In addition, businesses need to encourage employees about what they should and should not do and must supervise them to warn them not to access risky websites or links.
At UOB, to test the effectiveness of regularly educating employees about cybersecurity, we secretly sent a phishing email to all employees in different countries, and indeed, some people clicked on it. Among them, the rate of falling for the phishing email among UOB Vietnam’s employees was the lowest,” continued Mr. Lim Hock Guan.
According to Mr. Lim, UOB’s customer files have also changed significantly, with people now preferring applications over all else as building an app has become quite simple.
Indeed, technology has brought great benefits to businesses and consumers. For businesses, the information and customer data they collect through online channels is a valuable resource for future business endeavors. This is truly a ‘gold mine’ if businesses know how to exploit it. For consumers, they can now communicate with anyone despite language differences, for example, customers can message in English on the Vietnamese Grab app, and it will automatically translate the message into Vietnamese for the driver.
Betrimex is the first company in Vietnam’s coconut industry to use an automatic coconut counting system
For her part, Ms. Dang Huynh Uc My, Chairman of Betrimex and TTC AgriS, stated that with over 85% of Betrimex’s output being exported to 70 countries, digital transformation is a must for the company.
“In this day and age, agriculture must embrace digitization to be globally competitive and to lead the industry domestically. Currently, one of the advantages helping Vietnamese agricultural businesses to boldly transform digitally is that most management or application systems have been localized, whereas in the past, they were 100% in English. As we know, human resources in the agricultural sector often have weaker language skills than in other sectors.
Currently, Betrimex is using five technology applications and systems for managing various departments and divisions: the DigiFarm, DigiFactory, ERP, supply chain management, and data analysis systems from the farm to the factory/from the factory to the station,” said Ms. Uc My.
The DigiFarm application is where farmers record their daily farming activities, such as planting and fertilizing, to help the company better plan production and order fulfillment. The DigiFactory application helps link the company with raw material and sales partners, allowing for real-time data interaction between the parties.
In 2024, Betrimex officially launched the Farmer Relationship Management (FRM) system to manage its coconut raw material region. According to Betrimex, FRM is a crucial link in the comprehensive technology system they are aiming for to optimize the supply chain and enhance the value chain of Vietnam’s coconut industry.
“All of the above applications and systems help the stakeholders in Betrimex’s supply chain understand each other, supporting our active, proactive, and professional participation in the global supply chain. Afterward, Betrimex’s digitalization experiences will be applied not only to coconuts but also to sugarcane, bananas, rice…” revealed the Chairman of TTC AgriS.
Betrimex has not only digitized the management and administration of individual departments and the company as a whole, along with the supply chain, but also specific tasks.
Betrimex’s automatic coconut counting system.
Recently, the company has manufactured and put into use an automatic coconut counting system using recycled machinery parts from the company. They are the first company in Vietnam’s coconut industry to do so. The system mainly uses conveyors and AI to count each coconut, inspired by the item sorting systems used by e-commerce logistics companies.
Previously, coconut counting at Betrimex was primarily done manually, occasionally leading to errors that caused obstacles in the company’s business dealings with partners. With the ability to count tens of thousands of coconuts in an hour, this automatic counting system helps turn trucks around faster, and the company no longer needs to assign people to recount…
With this system, Betrimex now has accurate, specific, and transparent data to work with raw material suppliers and preprocessing facilities, knowing the recovery rate to easily calculate costs. Thanks to the counting system, Betrimex’s input productivity has increased two to threefold, and employees can focus more on coconut quality and size sorting.
The most extensive bribery case ever in Thanh Hoa: Numerous suspects prosecuted for “Giving and Receiving Bribes”
The Provincial Security Investigation Agency (PSIA) of Thanh Hoa province announced on January 31st that it has made the decision to initiate a prosecution against 23 individuals in connection with the offenses of “Accepting bribes” and “Giving bribes” as stipulated in Article 354(3) and Article 364(2) of the Criminal Code.
Accelerating disbursement of the 120 trillion VND credit package for social housing
Deputy Prime Minister Trần Hồng Hà has recently issued directives regarding the implementation of the 120,000 billion VND credit package for investors and buyers of social housing, workers’ housing, and projects for the renovation and construction of apartment buildings.
“Prosecution of government officials, land registration officers, and tax department employees in the largest bribery case ever”
The Thanh Hoa Police Investigative Agency has initiated legal proceedings against 23 individuals involved in the crimes of “Bribery” and “Receiving bribes”. This is the largest bribery case in terms of the number of suspects ever discovered and apprehended by the Thanh Hoa Police.
Mobile World achieves revenue of VND118,000 trillion: TVs, tablets, and phones all decrease by 10% – 50%, while one product grows in both quantity and revenue.
Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) has recently announced its 2023 business results. According to the report, the company’s consolidated revenue reached over 118 trillion Vietnamese dong, equivalent to 89% of the revenue in 2022.
