Small and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam
Small and Medium Enterprises play a huge attribution to Vietnamese economy.
According to Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprise Association, before the pandemic of Covid-19, Vietnam has around 800,000 companies, in which SMEs accounts for more than 98%. Through recent years, SMEs have affirmed important role in promoting annual economic growth. Especially in many small provinces, SMEs have created job opportunities for millions of people.
Photo by Vneconomy.vn
Contribution to GDP
SMEs' contribution to Vietnamese economy
We can see how SMEs impact to Vietnamese economy in the above chart.
Photo by Vneconomy.vn
Difficulties of SMEs
Despite the fact that SMEs have created great impact to the economy, they have still many difficulties to face off in their journey.
- Lack of resources including capital, human resources, technology...
- There are not enough support from government's policy
- Lack of experiences in business management
- Limited competitiveness
In recent years, Vietnamese government has many activities to support SMEs in recovering after a difficult period. Among them, Digital transformation (DX) is considered as one of major keys in promoting growth for SMEs. Hundred of seminars, online and offline courses, programs have been held to spread digital transformation knowledge to community of enterprises.
On the other hands, new technology has become more popular and cheaper so that small enterprises can access easily to powerful tools.
The question is How can I choose a solution that best fit to my company?
Digital transformation process
Digital transformation
Firstly, we have to admit that digital transformation is not a tool, not a software. It is a process that is planned and executed step by step. You can jump directly from a cocoon to a butterfly.
This process requires many efforts from your own site as well as your IT partners, who will support you in building the solution that best fit to your business.
We can summarize this process to several main points:
Firstly, as an enterprise leader, you have to understand your business goals, your business process, the target you need. Besides, you ought to clarify what you expect from digital transformation or what DX can bring to your business. That is important to evaluate the efficiency of whole process.
Think about your pain points, problems that you are facing off and list them down.
Audit your business process, is there any step that need to be simplified. Remember, lean first then digitalize.
Look around to your opponents, your peers to know where you are. What is your competitiveness? Applying digital transformation can help you get that point or not?
Plan your DX process with the help of technology. In this plan, don't forget your employees, who will use the system daily. It will be perfect if all of them can get involved in building the process.
One of the most important thing is find out your trusted IT partner who can help you actualize your ideas.
Monitor the process to assure that everything is on the line and every targets can be reached as your expectation.
Report the work regularly to your BOD to make sure all changes can be verified. This process need to be typically reviewed to ensure its feasibility.
Technology solution
Technology plays an important role, but it is not everything you need to make sure your DX project to be successful. But choosing right technology can help you reduce cost and save time. Let's see which technologies are popular at this moment.
SaaS
Software as a service (SaaS) and cloud service have made a revolution in software industry. They have changed what we think about a software since then.
Quick, low price, easy installation, easy to use are main advantages of this technology.
However, if you need some specific business process or you are considering about the privacy of your data, SaaS could not be really suitable for your enterprise.
Private cloud
Private cloud + Customized solutions can be your choice if you have specific business process, that could be unpopular or you need a solution for your industry. Private cloud can help you solve the problem of missing enterprise data thanks to guarantee from cloud service providers, who will take care the cloud for you.
More over, think about the ability of expansion in the future. If possible, imagine how big you will become.
On-Premise
This solution could be a little bit more complicated and expensive with a small and medium enterprise. Imagine that, you need to build a hardware system to install your solution and store you data on it. You ought to have a team to maintain this server. Vice versa, you can assure that all your data is on your hand.
Your IT partner
As mentioned above, choose a good IT partner can help a lot
Save time
A good partner can help you save many time
Save money
Your partner might not provide the best price, but their work help you avoid wasting money
KPI
Clarify your goals and KPI for your partner
Budget
Plan your budget and keep it under control