E-Business: Suitable models for enterprises need to be chosen

E-Business: Suitable models for enterprises need to be chosen

Enterprises in developing countries are facing hardships in applying information and communication technologies (ICT) to their businesses, ranging from the application of basic calculating software to e-business and public relations management. To overcome these challenges, enterprise assistance organisations in Vietnam will have to introduce solutions to help enterprises boost the development of e-business, especially among the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME).

E-business, according to UNESCAP, means sending all key business processes electronically in order to improve customer and partner service satisfaction to cut down costs and sell more products. In other words, e-business means application of information technology, computers and internet to business. Therefore, it can be understood that any enterprise employing the internet to develop or promote its business is e-business. 

At the “National stakeholder consultation on e-business development for enterprise support agencies and small and medium enterprises” jointly held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and UNESCAP on May 31, 2005, Mrs Kelly Hutchinson, a consultant from UNESCAP, briefed that many SMEs in Vietnam are employing e-business but the question raised is how they are applying it and whether or not  they are reaching their business targets.

According to a survey conducted by UNESCAP on IT application in SMEs in several Asia-Pacific nations, the information access and scientific technological application to develop and promote value-added products is limited because they think that this way of business is impractical, which then leads to capital irrevocability. But, Mr Lars Heiberg Bestle, a UNESCAP representative, affirmed that ICT and e-commerce allow enterprises to take the initiative in business and create more profits. If the e-business is considered a part of business strategies, enterprises will obtain profits. He stressed that the problem here is which e-business types an enterprise should choose, adding that each enterprise should pick up a suitable e-business form and that Bat Trang Pottery and Porcelain Company is one of successful pioneers in Vietnam to employ e-business.

With the same point of view, Master Tran Luong Son, managing director of the VietSoftware Company, said that IT strategy must go in line with business strategy, not applying IT at all costs but being selective. Or in other words, each sector, field or situation needs its own method of application. Son said the IT investment process applied to enterprises must include the building of physical infrastructure first and computerising office works, and then setting up a communication system and computerising business schemes. After that, at a strategic stage, IT solutions should be applied to ERP, e-commerce, and e-business.

Currently about 80 per cent of State-own enterprises and 30 per cent of business in other sectors in Vietnam are applying IT to its management, production and business at different levels. These figures show the weakness of e-business in Vietnam. To develop e-business in the SME, according Mr Nguyen Van Thao, Director of the Institute of Technology for Business under VCCI , VCCI has plans to introduce a SME assistance centre on the internet in the stage from now to 2010. This centre will provide specific economic information to the SME and will develop an e-commerce promotion centre, which includes business consultancy and training for enterprises. This will also be a forum for exchanging experience, business environments, policies and regimes.

• Nguyen Thoa