By Mohan Naidu, FPT UK Managing Director
To function optimally, enterprises need access to a wide portfolio of options for IT and operations talent. Enterprise leaders are looking at all business and talent models to get what they need, especially where emerging technologies are concerned.
Software outsourcing is set to explode in Vietnam as its standing grows as an IT development destination. In recent years Vietnam’s IT industries have been moving up the value chain and offering more value-added work. Vietnam, a nation that at first might not come to mind as a global software exporter, but just like South East Asia in general, is behind some of the world’s leading providers.
Providing the bridge between Europe and Asia
While many new ideas may come from the EU, Asia provides an ideal testing ground to trial concepts. Regulation is more flexible with the freedom to explore solutions; people are open to new ideas and ways of thinking. As a software business, FPT has not only assisted its customers with technical implementations but also helped them bring innovative ideas to life. Asian firms have found they can act as the bridge between Europe and Asia in many digital initiatives.
One of the challenges facing the UK and Europe is a dearth of resources in emerging technologies. A digital talent shortage has forced service providers to step in to plug up some of the gaps while in-house teams are being hastily expanded to cope with the workloads. Companies that have previously relied on their offshore delivery centres or captives are now trailing behind with many of their digital transformation projects. Endemic across all industries the fallout has meant some are reconsidering their service delivery location strategies (part of business continuity and disaster-mitigation planning) to rebalance some of the risks.
The answers may lie in building a dedicated delivery team or a captive delivery centre (under your ownership) in a collaborative partnership. Not only could the risks be mitigated with a more cost-effective model and a highly-skilled talent pool but there is also a shared responsibility for business operations and continuity. This approach returns the bandwidth that companies may have lost during COVID, giving businesses the freedom to refocus on their core activities such as the development of products and strategy.
Could the next IT services powerhouse come out of Vietnam?
Vietnam is a rising digital nation. With 70% of the population under 35, Vietnam is seen by many big international companies as a new opportunity to be the next key service delivery location and/or captive centres. Its digital economy is the second-fastest-growing market in Southeast Asia, according to a recent report by Google, Temasek, and the US-based global management consultancy Bain. The challenge it faces is a need to grow the digital workforce by an additional 190,000 IT engineers by the end of 2021.
The Government has also shown its commitment to reinventing the country. The National Program for Digital Transformation, aims to grow the digital economy to 30% of GDP, deploy universal fibre and 5G, build 100,000 digital businesses and employ 1.5 million people in the digital workforce by 2030.
Vietnam is listed in the Top 5 most attractive destinations for IT Outsourcing (According to AT Kearney, 2019) while Gartner considers Vietnam as the Tier 1 Emerging offshore outsourcing location in APAC. Vietnam also ranks #9 in Top 10 Digital Nation (According to Tholons).
About the author
Mohan Naidu, FPT UK Managing Director
Mohan Naidu has a wealth of experience in business development, alliance management, delivery, and technology consulting with global leading system integrators. Before joining FPT, Mohan spent more than four years at Avanade, a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft, looking after Cloud-based solutions for API & Integration and Growth & Strategy for the UK and Europe banking units. Previously, he spent nearly two decades at Indian IT company Tata Consultancy Services, holding various positions in sales, client partner and delivery.
FPT Software is part of FPT Corporation (FPT – HoSE) – the global leading technology and IT services group headquartered in Vietnam. With revenues of 513M USD & 20,000 employees, FPT Software delivers world-class services in smart factory, digital platform, RPA, AI, IoT, enterprise mobilization, cloud, AR/VR, embedded systems, managed services and other services globally from delivery centres across the United States, Japan, Europe, Australia, Vietnam and the Asia Pacific.
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