Lê Quốc Hùng, deputy general director of Saigon Food JSC, shares his company’s digital transformation story at a seminar hosted by VCCI’s HCM City branch and Global Enterprise Solutions. — Photo courtesy of VCCI

HCM CITY — Having the right people to lead the digital transformation project and the right software providers that understand production process were the primary reason for success in digital transformation at his company, Lê Quốc Hùng, deputy general director of Saigon Food JSC, has said.

The human aspect was crucial in digitisation projects and required systematic thinking, ability to accept change, and learning and team working capability, he told a seminar on digital transformation hosted recently by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s HCM City branch, and Global Enterprise Solutions.

ERP solutions also played a vital role in the digital transformation related to supply chains at his company, he said.

ERP helped the company unify data from the beginning of the supply chain and consolidate accounting data, and so it took only five days to complete month-end statements compared to 20 days earlier, he said.

Sales grew by 20 per cent year-on-year yet the indirect staff count decreased by 20 per cent thanks to leveraging ERP, he said.

It also helps his company decrease the cost of goods by 10 per cent every year, he added.

Speaking about the benefits of digital transformation in human resource management, Lý Xuân Nam, CEO of Tinh Hoa Solutions, said it would help businesses optimise resources.

Besides, it would help businesses identify bottlenecks and which departments/divisions were working inefficiently or were being overpaid, and make forecasts to help them anticipate future incidents such as employees leaving without notice or many quitting at the same time, he said.

Võ Tân Thành, director of VCCI’s HCM City branch, said digital transformation was occurring in almost every type of business in Việt Nam.

A VCCI survey on digital transformation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic found out that a majority of businesses had great expectations from it.

Almost all respondents expected digital transformation to usher in great changes in their production and trading activities, 71 per cent and 61.4 per cent expected it to help reduce production costs and paperwork, and 45.3 per cent expected it to help add value to products and improve product and service quality.

Thành said digital transformation was both a need and an inevitable trend that would help businesses survive and develop in the industry 4.0 era.

In a competition to retain and expand the market, businesses that go for digital transformation quickly would be able to capitalise on development opportunities and reap more success than those following traditional methods, he said. — VNS