To overcome pandemic difficulties, businesses are urged to conduct fast but accurate digital transformation.

Digitalization is now taking place every day, in our daily activities, in the daily operations of businesses, throughout the economy and throughout society, although many people still don’t realize it.

Nguyen Trong Duong, former Deputy Director of the Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Information and Communications, gave the following example:

“Everyone knows that Grab prices change by the hour. Prices at lunch time are different from those in the afternoon. Prices at rush hour are higher than at other times. Grab prices are calculated based on user demand and weather conditions. The calculation isn’t done by humans. It’s done automatically based on data being constantly collected. The Mai Linh group also has an app, but it offers fixed prices because it doesn’t have a constant stream of data for analysis. Grab’s achievements are the result of artificial intelligence. They’re what we call ‘data driven effects’.”

Duong said there are many more examples of digital transformation in daily activities that people might not recognize. The most important thing is that this revolution is the one that, if Vietnam doesn’t keep up with it, will leave it behind quickly and permanently.

Duong’s example demonstrates an important truth: creativity is the key to the success of new business models and innovative businesses can make enormous profits by saving people time and money.

The authority has recently promulgated resolutions to help domestic businesses keep pace with the Fourth Industrial Revolution and speed up the national digital transformation program.

How about those who are already aware of the situation and determined to embrace the unavoidable digital transformation? What should they do?

Nguyen Quang Minh, Director General of the Southeast Asia Information Technology Company (SEATECH), said, “You need to identify the beneficiaries of your company’s digital transformation process. Is it for internal use, for your customers and partners, or for management? A digital transformation project needs to clarify which part of the company’s digital transformation roadmap each app belongs to, because it relates to business data sharing.”

“Once the purposes of the process are determined, the company will know what should be transformed first. For small and medium-sized enterprises, the transformation should prioritize data entry automation. Next they should think about how to use the data and with whom to share the data. Then they need develop a process to update, use, and share the data with specific business operations. Essentially, digital transformation is an iterative process that can’t be completed in one pass. A business needs to determine the priority of the groups that will benefit from each transformation project," said Minh.

An online trade promotion event costs one tenth of a face-to-face program, but results in much higher efficiency.

Many businesses are worried about the cost of digital transformation, especially with the coronavirus pandemic getting worse.

Ngo Thanh Hien, head of technology at IBM's Mobility Solutions Department, says there’s no fixed price for digitalization, adding the price will depend on 6 factors: customer files, data, technology platforms, strategy, operations, and corporate culture.

But Hien said one thing is for sure: the sooner the transformation is completed, the less a company will have to pay, because it will soon recoup the cost in greater profits.

“The smaller a business is, the easier it can implement digital transformation. There are businesses with only about 20 employees but all of their operations are digitalized – from a paperless office to digital operations. Their input data and output data are all automated. Any business can use digital transformation to reduce costs, manage data centrally, and arrange for experienced personnel to do the most important tasks,” the IBM official said.

Experts recommend that a small or medium-sized business find an experienced partner to guide their digital transformation. The partner should fully understand their business operation and should be tech-savvy and experienced in designing effective tools.

But perhaps the most decisive key to a successful digital transformation process is the decisiveness and clear vision of the company’s leaders.