Many people think, “Digital transformation will help businesses succeed and grow quickly”. But according to Mr. Nguyen Hung Son – General Director of FSI, the digital conversion at FSI is the right choice “Start Smart and Scale Fast” and is not synonymous with revenue growth in a short time.
– In the current digital transformation revolution, the phrase “Start Smart” – Smart startup is being mentioned by many businesses. According to him, How does “Start Smart” look like? , and at what is FSI “Start Smart” happened ?
Simply understanding , Start Smart is a smart starting point choice. This means that among many issues of the business such as people, how to operate, processes, policies, strategies, etc., businesses need to determine which is the most painful issue of their own or which will be the factor to decide to accelerate the growth of the business and to embark on conversion from there.
There are also some units that use the phrase Start Smart and appreciate its importance. However, with our practical experience, at FSI we apply a more extensive method called “Smart Start and Scale Fast”. In particular, Fast Scale means fast replication. And for today’s interview, I will focus on the phrase “Start Smart”.
At FSI, after researching and evaluating our business, we choose Start Smart starting at 2 points: The first is to deploy the business management module, the goal is to help increase sales; The second is to digitize internal business processes to minimize delays and annoying waste caused by existing manual processes.
Because these two activities are defined as FSI’s “Smart Start”, even though the current work is very busy, the leadership is still very determined to carry out the transition. We have built a separate project management board for this activity, and assessed the number one priority for the project. Besides the regular support and supervision of the Board of Directors, we also promote communication on the role and benefits of this project for FSI employees to receive active participation of personnel.
– After selecting “Start Smart”, how does FSI start to develop it?
With the view: “Will transform from the smallest actions, operations based on the status quo!”. So initially we chose to deploy the pilot in two parts of the company, the human resources and sales department.
At the HR and Administration division, changing simple and frequently used procedures first such as: procedures for leave, booking a car, registering for a meeting room, registering an email … and the sales department carries out transforming the advance payment process for business trips, building an internal business management module that initially focused only on updating business information for reporting instead of excel and email.
After choosing a test deployment, just a “mouse click”, the implementers will complete a request, also a click will complete the processing stage. So, the previous problems were solved, saving 80% of implementation time and saving 30-40% more labor than the traditional method.
– So, in the implementation process, did FSI face any difficulties?
Surely, yes. Starting to see that converting digital is not as simple as originally envisioned. We expected to be able to successfully transform, so the project schedule was very urgent. Therefore, the first modules that have been implemented have many problems such as: The software is unstable due to inadequate testing, personnel do not have the habit of using these new technologies, so they often “give up”. forget ”the approval of the job request on the system leads to the process not running or running slower than the old way, causing the employees not to want to do it.
This fact makes the project phase almost stand still for a while. There was a time when the sales team was almost “opposed” to not enter project data into the system, the staff ignored the online request and still used the paper or email to confirm the job.
– Could you share, how did FSI resolve the difficulties and the “opposition”?
The project management board had to organize several meetings to gain experience. For each given module, it is carefully tested and trained for specific instructions before putting each module into operation. When an error arises, we will accept it immediately through a specialized personnel contact of the Digital Conversion Department.
Along with that, we determined to put manual processes online in 2 stages:
The first phase takes from 2 weeks to 1 month to run both Online and manual processes as before so people get acquainted with the software, and do not interrupt to get to work.
Phase two, will officially stop the application of paper processes. Leaders stop signing paper records, employees are required to complete online procedures, if not proficient, a hand-held instructor.
At the same time, FSI also issued operational rules through applications on cloud computing. At this stage, whoever violates will have sanctions, those who do well will be rewarded.
– It is known that digital conversion is always associated with security concerns, at FSI has encountered this problem, and how did FSI handle it?
In the early stages, sales people do not understand, so they are not confidential. To address this concern, we had to explain and communicate clearly about the security mechanism of the system so that everyone could understand the security level is much higher than storing data on the personal computer by itself
– FSI has synchronously applied many solutions to convert digital. So what are the FSI results achieved after digital transformation to the present?
We have determined that digital conversion is a long process, so at this stage, FSI has not counted as digital conversion, we are only completing digital conversion at 2 Smart Start points.
Up to the present time, revenue has not seen growth, because it depends on many factors such as receiving, management, policies, products, … rather than bringing software to increase sales right away. But in terms of costs, there have been clear changes.
Switching to a paperless model that reduces office costs is most visible. In addition, when an online reporting system is available, the personnel in charge of making business reports are reduced the working time, because the system has automatic reports. Since then we have cut a part of personnel costs, the company system is less cumbersome, so management costs are also saved.
– Can you share more about the digital conversion plan of FSI in the near future?
In the future, we will continue to select and bring traditional processes and operations online. At the same time, with successfully deployed digital applications, “Scale Fast” will be quickly replicated throughout the system.
– Thank you very much for your sharing. Hopefully, with the right decisions, FSI will quickly grow and develop further in the future. At the same time, I hope he will share more about the next step of “Start Smart” is “Scale Fast” in a recent interview.
