Digital transformation, where should SMEs start?

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Digital transformation is taking place strongly in the banking sector

Where to start?

Mr. Tran Phu Lu, Deputy Director of ITPC, said not only large enterprises but also small and medium enterprises need to pay attention to invest in digital transformation because this will bring long-term benefits to businesses. For the EVFTA that has just come into effect on August 1, if businesses do not develop an appropriate digital transformation roadmap, they cannot seize the opportunity from this agreement.

TS. Nguyen Tuan Hoa, Chairman of the Board of Experts of the Green Economics Institute, affirmed that digital transformation is an inevitable process – if businesses do not do it, they will be left behind and out of the game. However, where SMEs need to start investing is an issue of concern for many businesses.

According to Mr. Hoa, businesses should start from approaching and becoming familiar with digital-based activities such as implementing digital contracts, electronic customs declaration, electronic tax payment.From there, proceed to digitally convert all activities of the enterprise by performing all operating activities, operating the business on the computer instead of using paper documents as before. In addition, businesses should also gradually approach new software in order to easily digitize their operations.

In the wave of digital transformation that is taking place in the world today, online exports area prominent trend. Specifically, in Vietnam, Amazon and Alibaba are both promoting activities to attract Vietnamese businesses to participate. It is forecasted that cross-border e-commerce will increase to US$3.3 trillion in the next two years. The logistics industry is also growing strongly, businesses are transitioning from traditional logistics companies to e-commerce logistics companies.

Regarding the European market, European businesses are 10-15 years ahead of Vietnam in digital technology. All transactions, contracts, payments, invoices, after-sales are in the digital space. When doing business with them, Vietnamese businesses also need to have equal digital capabilities to be able to transact.

Notes to avoid risks

Mr. Dinh Quang Thuan, a member lawyer of Global Vietnam Lawyers Law Firm, also said that the form of signing an electronic contract is quite common around the world, but many Vietnamese enterprises have not applied it because of concern about risks of legal value and confidentiality. However, Mr. Thuan affirmed that when signing an electronic contract using digital signatures and digital signature authentication service, the signed contract will be safe.

However, in some cases, enterprises cannot sign contracts with digital signatures, have no digital signature authentication service provider, but can only perform contracts via PDF or image files.At that time, in order to minimize risks, businesses should transact through email addresses with their own domain names, which are clearly registered, and must research partners carefully, choose reputable partners, have clear business information, have an up-to-date website, and use a separate registered domain name.

Enterprises should also consult experts and lawyers before implementation to help ensure safety or minimize risks in entering into electronic contracts. In the contract, it is also necessary to agree to choose a reputable arbitration institution with extensive experience in solving problems that may arise to serve as a dispute settlement agency.

In the logistics field, electronic transactions also face the risk of document fraud in general and for documents related to ownership of goods such as bills of lading and delivery orders in particular.

To prevent fraud when delivering delivery orders, LS. Ngo Khac Le, VIAC arbitrator, noted the two sides need to agree on a number of transaction codes along with the time frame for delivery of orders via computer, together with notice by phone and confirmation of acceptance of the telegram changing the paper copy will avoid the risk of document fraud when applying information technology.

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There have been some fraud cases in the form of requesting to transfer to another account with the reason of asking for help because they are facing difficulties such as being audited, changing banks.To prevent this, according to Mr. Le, enterprises need to specify the email addresses of the two parties, the number of money transfer accounts in the contract. When there is a change, they must ask again by phone or another email to confirm before transferring money, do not ask again by the email address they requested to change account because scammers can answer the message.