FPT IS accompanies Vietnamese companies to turn technologies into business advantages in digital era

On December 15, at FPT Techday 2022 organized by FPT Corporation with a theme of “Accompanying”, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Minh – CEO of FPT Information System Corporation (FPT IS) – has had a high-level talk session with business leaders of Rang Dong and Boston Pharma. The session has inspired and opened up new perspectives, new formulas to help companies turn technologies into outstanding business advantages.

Digital transformation creates new “impulse” for business

Digital transformation has been profoundly affecting structure and relationships in Vietnamese economy. At the event, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Minh – CEO of FPT IS – says: “According to the national report on digital transformation, Vietnam’s digital economy accounts for 10.4% of the GDP, and is projected to rapidly increase to 20% in 2025. Thus, it won’t be long before a major portion of the GDP as well as companies’ revenue come from digital sources, and very soon business leaders will also become digital leaders”.

So what are the ways to take steady steps to leverage technologies for business growth? How do technologies become competitive advantages? To address the concerns, Mr. Minh and senior business leaders of Rang Dong and Boston Pharma have discussed two success stories about how digital transformation has created tremendous business growth.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Minh – CEO of FPT IS – emphasizes the importance of digital transformation in digital economy.

As a long-standing company with more than 60 years of operation, it seems that Rang Dong Light Source & Vacuum Flask JSC may struggle with digital transformation, however, the company has been continuously creating miracles with a growth rate of up to 15% ~ 20% for the period from 2019 up to now, twice as much as before. Speaking at the event, Mr. Nguyen Doan Ket – Vice Chairman of the Board cum Deputy General Director of Rang Dong – affirms that digital transformation is the lever to create a new “growth flywheel” model for the company.

Starting transformation with technologies in the period of 2019 – 2022, Rang Dong has set out the goal of “becoming a high-tech company” with the strategy of “Embedding digital transformation to business core”. Accordingly, Rang Dong has focused on adopting technologies into two core issues: (1) Strategically restructuring products – creating ecosystem of 4.0 products and services, and (2) Transforming and deploying DBM-020 business model. 

During the period, FPT has been accompanying Rang Dong to research and develop core components of IoT system, cloud computing system, device controlling software, as well as mobile applications. In addition, both sides also cooperate and develop omni-channel sales systems to comprehensively optimize sales activities. Mr. Ket affirms: “Rang Dong can now perform smart production management; become an actual digital company; enhance work performance, degree of automation, and real-time management capabilities; and shorten time-to-market of new products”.

Mr. Nguyen Doan Ket – Vice Chairman of the Board cum Deputy General Director of Rang Dong – says “determined mindset” is a prerequisite for business leaders to drive digital transformation towards success.

Speaking of such accomplishments, Mr. Ket says “determined mindset” of the leader is the key. Accordingly, “Excellent vision and courage of the leader is mandatory, since those are core factors of success. The leader should build transformation strategy right from the company’s own business goals, only by doing so can the company move in right direction”, he affirms.

As a further example of the impact of technologies on business activities, Boston Vietnam Pharmaceutical JSC (Boston Pharma) presents a story of digital transformation that implies “only moving forward, definitely no backwards”. Specifically, the fact that Boston Pharma conducts successful digital transformation originates from 03 motivation factors: mindset and determination of leaders, readiness of employees, and finally, trustworthy partners and appropriate solutions”, said Mr. Luong Dang Khoa, Chairman and General Director of Boston Pharma. 

Since 2019, Boston Pharma has started digital transformation using an ERP management system integrated with Boston Sales application, automated process-handling robots, FPT.AI virtual call center, and an ecosystem of Base.vn. Adopting technologies, Boston Pharma has achieved numerous “quick-win” results. Specifically, revenue has increased 3-4 times while number of employees only sees slight increase, efficiency has been optimized 4 times, costs and resources allocated for customer service has been reduced by one third compared to before. Previously, with revenue of VND 400 billion, 3-4 accountants of the company could not properly handle the work in time, while with revenue of more than VND 1,000 billion as of today, Boston Pharma only needs 1-2 accountants. Automated invoice extraction has increased the average number of invoices processed per day to nearly 100. Besides, Boston Sales mobile app with more than 200 types of pharmaceuticals integrated has helped increase the average number of purchasing customers significantly, sometimes up to 100,000 purchases per month. 

Mr. Khoa says “technology is creating happiness” for business leaders since the work of management has been significantly improved with digitalization. Leaders can update data instantly anytime, anywhere. Inventory, production, sales, and product quality data, anything can be grasped despite wherever they are. Transparent systems have allowed Boston to stabilize product prices in the market, absolutely avoiding letting the price float as situation changes, especially during the Covid-19 period. This helps Mr. Khoa and Boston fulfill the “desire” which is to always think for the community instead of thinking about profit. Mr. Khoa advises companies to get themselves prepared in terms of resources, financial capacity, and especially determination and direct participation of the leaders before taking any first step into digital transformation.

Mr. Luong Dang Khoa, Chairman and CEO of Boston Pharma, inspires companies with his story of digital transformation which implies “only moving forward, definitely no backwards”.

Deeply involved leaders and future problem of business connection

“Each company will have its own problem, and there will be many difficulties and challenges to overcome. However, deep involvement and orientation of the leaders are prerequisites for successful digital transformation, which can obviously be seen via the stories of Rang Dong and Boston Pharma”, said Mr. Minh.

Regarding the promotion of digital economy and digital society in the future, Mr. Minh affirms digital transformation in each company is “no longer enough”, in fact it is business connection problem that should be addressed. “We need to reduce the time for order delivery from 1 week to 2 hours, the time for loan approval from 1-2 weeks to 1 hour. That should be based on connection between companies and banks as well as other relevant organizations. Along with commitment and synergy of companies, FPT is always there to assist to make a dream of digital transformation a success, promoting digital economy in a faster way. If there are going to be more success stories, our dream of digital economic growth of 31% – the highest rate in Southeast Asia – will come true.” 

Currently, FPT is cooperating with large domestic banks and companies to research and develop eTradevn ecosystem, including domestic letters of credit or supply chain management platforms. Blockchain-based systems will digitalize and directly connect the chain of trade financing activities and supply chain financing activities between companies, suppliers and banks. Using big data, the solution will provide accurate reports on business conditions and financial health of companies, provide supply and demand reports for suppliers to optimize production activities, allow banks to quickly set up effective capital financing programs for business and production activities of companies.

The ecosystem of FPT IS’ solutions will comprehensively connect and address key problems across industries.

In addition, at exhibition area, FPT IS has demonstrated other solutions related to Paperless office; Digital HR management; Omni-channel and procurement management; Remote signing; Anti-fraud solution for digital identity verification; Digital credit; Digital healthcare; Data integration, management and exploration; and Digital citizen.