Digital transformation for small and medium enterprises is an inevitable trend for this era. Not only that, digital transformation in business also helps optimize work performance and increase competitiveness in the market. So how to successfully implement digital transformation in businesses? Below are shares about the role and current status of digital transformation as well as digital transformation solutions specifically for small and medium enterprises to apply effectively.
Digital transformation for businesses is an inevitable trend today
Digital transformation in businesses is the incorporation of modern technologies into an organization's production and business processes to increase business efficiency, improve customer experience and create a competitive advantage in the market.
The goal of digital transformation is to break the traditional, manual way of working to technology, modernize operations, and reduce labor. Therefore, if they want to successfully transform digitally, businesses need to constantly improve and innovate to keep up with technology and market developments.
“46% of digital businesses have recorded strong growth in annual revenue”
According to the Publication Office of the EU
Digital transformation is an inevitable trendNot only for large businesses and corporations, digital transformation is also an inevitable trend for small and medium enterprises. The digital transformation process is carried out through things such as re-evaluating the value chain, restructuring the company, reviewing business direction, and connecting with customers.
In today's digital era, traditional transactions or meetings through face-to-face form have begun to tend to shift to technology platforms such as Meet, Zoom, Online Banking, E-wallet, etc,... Customers today have had a significant change in purchasing behavior. The demand for information about products and services is gradually increasing. Along with that, new digital transformation trends have gradually penetrated into other aspects of the business, forcing organizations to change their working methods such as working, communicating, and collaborating remotely.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have realized this to make changes to suit the needs of customers. Businesses are also growing faster to catch up with the market, breaking away from the boundaries of the traditional business environment.
In addition, the digitalization process also gives small and medium enterprises an equal business environment. At that time, small businesses can optimize costs, and efficiency, thereby being able to compete with larger, older organizations in the market, expanding the market,...
Benefits of digital transformation in businesses
The benefits of digital transformation for businesses are huge, even for small and medium-sized enterprises. Specifically:
Save costs and improve efficiency
Cost is an important issue for businesses during the digital transformation process. Switching arguments helps businesses restructure business processes in the direction of simplifying and optimizing operations. From there, this process can increase work productivity and speed up task completion time. As a result, working efficiency is increased, and costs and operating time are significantly reduced.
The application of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence AI, automation, and machine learning can help businesses track and analyze customer behavior more specifically and accurately. This technology helps businesses manage buyer interactions with the company website, providing the ability to accurately assess potential customers. From there, it is possible to forecast sales more accurately.
Digital transformation saves costsEnhancing the customer experience
Business digital transformation can solve the difficulties that customers face when interacting with businesses. By improving the customer experience through digital transformation, businesses can collect and analyze information on key shoppers. This can be done with tools like data analysis, feedback gathering, and marketing automation.
In particular, digital transformation for small and medium-sized businesses can use that data and information to improve omnichannel service, deliver personalized products, and new channels of interaction using chatbots, self-service, and manage customer relationship management.
Increase customer experience
Increased competitiveness, agility, and innovation
Previously, small and medium-sized enterprises faced countless barriers to entering the market. Lack of capital can cause small and medium-sized enterprises to limit their ability to scale quickly and fall behind in technology. The emergence of digital transformation solutions such as cloud storage, new digital technology... allows SMEs to save many costs compared to before to maintain operations.
Thanks to digital transformation in business models, the lines between established businesses and small companies are gradually blurring. SMEs can compete with larger businesses. Cloud platforms enable scalability for small and medium-sized businesses. This allows SMEs to compete and grow while maintaining flexibility and efficiency.
Increased competitiveness
An example of successful business digital transformation
Multinational retail corporation Walmart operates a chain of supercenters and department stores. Walmart's first store opened in 1962. As of April 2021, Walmart owns more than 10,593 stores in 24 countries, operating under 48 different names. This company is a typical representative of successful digital transformation businesses in the manufacturing and retail industries.
In fact, the digital transformation process at Walmart took place in 2015 through the decision to acquire Chinese e-commerce company Yihaodian. By 2018, Walmart had an even stronger transformation when applying digital transformation solution - Blockchain technology in all stages of supply and sales. The company has spent a total of 11.7 billion USD in the information technology sector. As a result of digital transformation, the company's revenue is 548,743 billion USD according to the 2020 Fortune Global 500 report. At the same time, Walmart is also the largest private company in the world with more than 2.2 million employees.
>>>> Refer to more topics about digital transformation by each field:
Difficulties in digital transformation for businesses
Although digital transformation is an urgent process, successful digital transformation is not an easy job. According to a survey by the Vietnam Confederation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), up to 90% of businesses participating in the survey expressed that they have not been successful in implementing the digital transformation process. This shows that digital transformation still faces many difficulties and challenges for Vietnamese businesses.
Many businesses have fallen into the "digital transformation trap" by applying a piece of technology and mistakenly thinking that the transformation process has been completed. Only a few businesses have reached true stage 3 of digital transformation, which is the business model transformation stage.
Not to mention, the digital transformation process in small and medium enterprises will face countless other difficulties and challenges. Evidence in a survey of 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises by VCCI Center has identified the 4 biggest difficulties and obstacles that businesses encounter in the digital transformation process, specifically:
| Problems | Ratio |
| Lack of resources in digital technology application | 85.2% |
| Lack of digital technology infrastructure | > 81% |
| Lack of specialized human resources to access digital technology | 77% |
| Lack of experts or reliable, qualified companies | 65% |
Similar difficulties also appeared in the survey of the Enterprise Development Department, specifically:
| Problems | Ratio |
| Lack of investment costs, digital technology application | 60.1% |
| Changing business practices, lack of human resources inside digital transformation enterprises | 52.3% |
| Lack of digital infrastructure | 45.4% |
| Lack of authentic information about digital technology | 40.4% |
| Obstacles in integrating digital technologies | 38.5% |
| Leadership lacks understanding, lack of commitment | >32% |
These are the main barriers for businesses in the digital transformation process. For that reason, the number of businesses applying digital technology to their business processes is still small. Therefore, finding solutions to overcome these difficulties is the top focus of businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to successfully transform digitally.
Businesses face many difficulties in digital transformationLearn More About the Program: Support businesses in digital transformation
Solutions to help businesses successfully implement digital transformation
To successfully implement digital transformation, businesses can apply the solutions below:
Solutions for digital transformation human resources
Human resources are considered a core factor in the digital transformation process of businesses. Therefore, the strategy of developing human resources with sufficient knowledge and skills to use new technology is a priority for long-term development. First of all, businesses need to build training programs to improve the quality of available human resources, while attaching importance to recruiting, attracting and retaining future talent.
In addition, a new digital transformation trend that has recently emerged is data democratization. Data democratization not only benefits individuals and businesses but also benefits partners and society. The solution allows proactive search and analysis of data, giving all administrators and employees access to data. This helps businesses make good decisions early and improves cooperation between departments.
Solutions for digital transformation investment costs
Implementing digital transformation in businesses is a powerful transformation process, with great challenges and not easy for leaders. Digital transformation requires changes from thinking, awareness, human resources, infrastructure, strategy to technology solutions... Therefore, the amount of investment capital is not small. However, the reality is that digital transformation is not always guaranteed to be effective, and even creates difficulties for businesses. Therefore, leaders need to deploy more financial investment solutions during the digital transformation process for businesses.
In addition, building strong connections and close cooperation with foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises and developing enterprises in advanced countries is extremely necessary. This is to update new standards and techniques, calling for investment. Furthermore, Vietnamese businesses can also access the latest technologies and methods.
Solutions for digital transformation knowledge
Digital transformation is a great challenge and difficulty for leaders. Large businesses that have successfully transformed digitally in the world show that this process is necessary to make a change in order to survive in the market. Regardless of whether it is a large or small business, digital transformation is inevitable sooner or later.
Therefore, to change perceptions about digital transformation and gain access to technology, Vietnamese businesses can search and read more about successful digital transformation lessons of large companies. At the same time, strengthen links with businesses in developed countries around the world to grasp new standards and techniques.
Applying digital technology in transformation
Below are suggestions for digital transformation applications for businesses to apply in business activities. Note that to do this, businesses need to have in-depth knowledge of technology:
Cloud Computing
Technology for storing, maintaining, managing, analyzing, and securing data by exploiting servers via the Internet. With Cloud computing, businesses can test and develop applications, websites, operate big data, and easily share data through platforms such as Google Drive, Dropbox... Thereby, businesses can Streamline business and operational processes, optimize costs and improve customer experience.
AI artificial intelligence technology
AI technology allows displaying accurate search results and providing a personalized experience for users. This technology allows users to extract information from any potential data source. At the same time, AI also helps save a large amount of work time while still providing high search efficiency in both structured and unstructured data formats.
Robotic applications
This is one of the major technologies contributing to the digital transformation of businesses in 2021. The benefit of robot applications is to help improve productivity as well as increase business efficiency in organizations and businesses. Many large businesses in Vietnam have applied Robots in fields such as logistics, medicine, engineering,...
Internet of Things (IOT)
Digital technology is famous for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data between physical objects through the Internet network. With IoT, the process of collecting, analyzing, and processing data is made more efficient. In addition, thanks to IoT, business operational efficiency increases and customer experience is enhanced.
Comprehensive digital transformation solution specifically for small and medium enterprises
Viindoo All-In-One is an effective digital transformation solution for small and medium businesses. With the goal of helping Vietnamese businesses make a breakthrough on the path of digital transformation, Viindoo offers a comprehensive digitalization support solution. The software helps businesses break down all barriers on the way to digital transformation, improving efficiency in the business process.
Selecting the right technology to apply to the business
Choosing the right technology to apply is an important issue in the digital transformation of SMEs. This ensures that the technology is suitable for business operations and processes and saves costs and improves operational efficiency.
A suitable digital technology application needs to ensure satisfaction of factors such as rapid data mining, scientific record management, management of all business processes on a single digital platform,...
Viindoo All-In-One fully integrates features and modules in the same system. The software supports businesses in expanding and installing more work management utilities. At the same time, Viindoo can also be combined with other software to create the most complete ecosystem.
Empowering employees to use data
Data is the most important factor in any business organization. This is a meaningful factor that promotes accurate decisions in business. Enterprises should delegate the right to extract and exploit information to employees without restrictions when using digital transformation software. Thanks to that, company employees will have a better understanding of the business's activities, customers and cooperation partners.
Along with that, giving employees the right to use data also contributes to increasing communication and information exchange between individuals and departments. Since then, the connection in work has been emphasized. When situations arise such as customers needing information, employees do not need to ask for advice from superiors but have data sources to respond quickly.
Viindoo All-In-One can do all of these things for you. Viindoo software supports multi-platform management, using cloud computing technology to help managers easily grasp the situation of the business, allowing remote use of the software. At the same time, the application system has a feature of decentralization at each level, allowing managers to give data usage rights to employees easily while still ensuring security.
Synchronous and seamless enterprise system
An effective business always requires a seamless, synchronized process and parts. This will help increase the efficiency of digital transformation for small and medium enterprises. Work processes are also gradually being automated and coordinated more smoothly.
With Viindoo All-In-One, different applications in the business such as production management, accounting, customer relations, human resources,... are all integrated into a single system so that departments can Departments within the business increase their connection with each other. Cooperation between individuals and departments also increases, and operational efficiency is increasingly optimized.
In addition, Viindoo also provides business digital transformation consulting services, guidance on implementing plans and using software if the business needs to use it permanently. All businesses from small to large scale can try and buy the software at an affordable price. Viindoo software will be charged monthly or annually based on the actual number of users of the business.
In the above article, Viindoo has compiled detailed information about digital transformation in businesses. Hopefully, the above information will be useful and help your business to make more breakthroughs in your digital transformation journey. Follow us to learn more about effective digital transformation solutions for small and medium businesses. Or contact hotline 02257309838 now for free consultation.
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