Developing data infrastructure to serve digital transformation and digital economic development

In his speech at the opening session of the 2024 Vietnam - Asia DX Summit taking place on the afternoon of May 28, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung clearly pointed out: digital transformation is to create a new type of resource, data. For the first time in the history of our development, instead of consuming and depleting resources, people create new resources. In the past, the more we developed, the more resources we depleted; today, the more we develop, the more resources we produce.

Recognizing the importance of digital data and with the expectation that Vietnam will step in step with leading countries in the world in promoting digital data development, the Ministry of Information and Communications advised the Prime Minister to approve the 'National Data Strategy until 2030'. This is an important strategy in Vietnam's digital transformation process, aiming to build a new data infrastructure as the foundation for national digital transformation.

Informing delegates attending the seminar on 'Effective management and operation of businesses and organizations based on data' taking place on May 29, Mr. Tran Minh Tan, Deputy Director in charge of the Institute of Information and Communications Strategy (Ministry of Information and Communications), said that issued in early February 2024, the main idea of ​​the strategy is data-oriented, taking data as the center to carry out activities related to the development of data-based infrastructure and platforms.

"Data infrastructure with open data, big data, structured data and even unstructured data will create the foundation for digital transformation and the development of artificial intelligence applications. The throughout ideology is that the State plays a leading role, orienting so that all people can participate in data development and benefit from data", Mr. Tran Minh Tan shared.

Along with pointing out 6 main viewpoints, Mr. Tran Minh Tan also clearly stated 3 strategic goals that the national data strategy aims for, which are: developing public data, organizing exploitation and sharing to serve social development; Developing private data, creating a data market and also aiming for economic development. At the same time, there is also a matter of how to protect data security and exploit cross-border data flow resources, so that data 'deposits' in Vietnam.

Referring to how to do it, the representative of the Institute of Information and Communication Strategy said that to implement the national data strategy, the Ministry of Information and Communications has an action plan of the Ministry to implement the strategy, and at the same time guides ministries, branches and localities on this content.

An important thing that ministries, branches and localities need to quickly do is to announce the list of open data, big data and the data strategy framework of their ministries and provinces, or integrate the content of data development strategies in the annual digital transformation projects and plans of ministries, branches and localities to synchronize with the national data strategy.

“This is very important, creating conditions for agencies, organizations and businesses to participate in developing, sharing, exploiting and using data from ministries and provinces”, representative of the Institute of Information and Communications Strategy emphasized.

Businesses should not wait until they have a large scale to build data

Also at the seminar session on 'Effective management and operation of businesses and organizations based on data' within the framework of Vietnam - Asia DX Summit 2024, sharing the perspective of a digital technology business supporting many digital transformation units, Director of MISA Business Center Nguyen Ngoc Le affirmed: organizing and exploiting data well will help businesses operate better, improve competitiveness and increase productivity many times, especially when data is used. The data is processed using AI.

Emphasizing that data-based business management is an inevitable trend, Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Le also noted that businesses should build and organize data right from the beginning, when a new unit is established, the cost will be much cheaper than waiting for a large-scale business to build.

“Businesses need to calculate and have plans to be able to manage and operate based on data right now, with an important requirement being to have technology solutions to support data convergence”, Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Le recommended.

Also according to the MISA representative, among the 5 levels of data management, many Vietnamese businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam are still 'stuck' at the grasp level (level 2), not taking full advantage of the potential of data to advance to higher levels. This requires businesses to make comprehensive investments in digital transformation, human resource training and change in management thinking to be able to overcome challenges.

Specifically, there are 3 main issues in the digital transformation process, which are also 3 challenges and barriers for SMEs to operate based on data, which are: Fragmented applications, no data inheritance and high costs.

"In many businesses, there is a situation where each department or department uses different solutions so they cannot connect with each other, leading to information having to be re-entered and data being fragmented. In addition, some solutions are only suitable for one stage of the business's development, and when they need to be replaced, it is difficult to inherit previous data. In particular, SMEs also have difficulty accessing comprehensive ERP solutions due to high costs and redundancy of features", analyzed by a MISA representative.

MISA's development of the MISA AMIS platform is to solve the above 3 challenges for businesses. Having been practically deployed to more than 250,000 businesses and more than 25,000 business households in all fields and scales, MISA AMIS is an ecosystem that unifies business management operations on the same system. From there, providing multi-dimensional, intuitive reports helps business leaders have a comprehensive picture of the organization to make strategic decisions and optimize operations. In addition, MISA AMIS has now integrated virtual assistant MISA AVA, helping to improve the efficiency of technology application in business administration and operations.