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DIGITAL BIZ

Knowledge thetic and encourage solidarity and under- to focus on these? If so, what will be the
key products?
standing for each other. There are four re-
IBM Vietnam will continue supporting our
for the future entry imperatives we are focusing on: work- clients in the adoption of Open Hybrid Cloud
force well-being, work practices, work policies,
and workforce planning. architecture. Works include enhancing enter-
Ms. Pham Thi Thu Diep, Country We also leverage AI tools such as natural prises’ potential to cooperate in a broader busi-
General Manager at IBM Vietnam, language analytics to supplement standardized ness ecosystem, and enabling speed, security
tells VET’s Tra My of its pandemic psychosocial assessments and provide addi- and resiliency while radically reducing operating
costs and improving customer engagement. A
tional insights to support counselling and
response and ongoing projects.
treatment. This can support open dialogue number of IBM clients in Vietnam have suc-
on mental health and alleviate any stigma cessfully deployed or are on the digital trans-
head-on, while creating a judgement-free formation journey. Projects where IBM is sup-
work environment. It is important to inspire porting local clients include MBBank’s digital
and build confidence in our teams. transformation consultancy, TPBank’s big data
deployment, Trung Nguyen Legend’s hybrid
% IBM has committed to technological Cloud platform, Viglacera’s SAP HANA appli-
advancement in Vietnam. How will it cation, BIDV’s datacenter acceleration, and
realize this commitment? Techcombank’ score banking implementation.
In order to prepare the next generation of
leaders with the necessary skills and knowledge % What are your thoughts on trends in
on AI and on adopting AI responsibly, IBM Industry 4.0 in Vietnam? Do you have
Vietnam will be offering new online resources any suggestions?
for teachers and students to learn about the In the overall strategy of Vietnam’s Industry
foundations of AI for free. This program is 4.0 policy, the adoption of cloud technology
being offered by IBM Vietnam in cooperation by different enterprises and industries is
with several universities and organizations. visibly accelerating. This trend is driven by
% How has IBM been affected by Covid- We have announced the deployment of the need to become increasingly digital,
19 and what measures have been taken an AI and robotics training program, in coop- thereby positioning organizations to offer
in response? eration with several educational institutions, differentiated value propositions.
The health and safety of IBMers, partners, to provide basic AI skills to teachers in Viet- A recent survey by the IBM Institute for
and clients remain our top priority. In every nam’s 63 cities and provinces. These work- Business Value (IBV) showed that business
market we operate in, including Vietnam, we shops will equip teachers with a basic executives in Vietnam are increasingly planning
are navigating public health and government approach, workflow, and application of AI to invest in hybrid multi-cloud platform strate-
restrictions and the continued susceptibility that they can bring to life and will benefit at gies and capabilities to drive business trans-
to Covid-19. least 1,200 students nationwide. formation and unlock value. Of survey respon-
IBM has adopted a phased approach on This year, IBM Vietnam will expand to dents in Vietnam, 16 percent said their IT
returning employees to the workplace, intro- Phase 2 of the New Collar program in coop- spend is allocated to cloud at present and they
ducing evidence-based practices and policies eration with the School of Information and plan to increase the share of spend on hybrid
meant to reduce risks and applying a single Communications Technology (SoICT) at the from 41 percent now to 43 percent by 2023.
standard across the company: a globally-con- Hanoi University of Science and Technology Cloud has evolved, providing businesses
sistent set of policies and standards that are (HUST). By leveraging IBM’s learning platform, with benefits around reduced time to market,
based on public health guidance and other the school and its ecosystem will introduce accelerating innovation, optimizing costs across
government guidelines. cloud curriculum delivered through a series the enterprise, and in general improving stability
As communities move to reopen, we con- of enablement workshops for researchers, and resiliency. Despite significant investments
tinue our resource sharing with all our employ- lecturers, and students at ten technical uni- in time and capital, progress towards realizing
ees on how IBMers will return to the workplace versities in Vietnam’s three regions. The these benefits from public cloud have been
with data-driven, evidence-based practices enablement workshops are expected to benefit underwhelming. Common barriers include (i)
and policies that safeguard them. Our IBM 5,000 students nationwide, with at least 300 the perceived high cost of applying modern-
Return to the Workplace Playbook offers obtaining IBM digital badges with relevant ization and the somewhat long time for projects
practical guidance to employees, partners, industry skills. to realize benefits, (ii) vendor lock-in with
and clients on IBM’s initial phases of returning Last but not least, IBM Vietnam will coop- some cloud providers, thus making portability
to work when and where feasible. erate with our in-country educational partners difficult, (iii) reliance on expensive services
To ensure the safety of our employees, we to promote Open P-TECH; IBM’s global edu- and hidden costs (such as the cost of data
have been improving our health and safety cation initiative. This free digital education transmission) resulting in sticker shock, and
policies and protocols and workplace readiness, platform focuses on workplace learning and (iv) missing functionalities required for the
including social distancing and ensuring the digital skills, which builds on the industry- industry the client is operating in. All obstacles
right standard operating procedures (SOPs) leading P-TECH program and targets equipping require the platform be open and enable porta-
are in place. 14 to 20-year-old students and educators with bility across various landscapes that the cus-
During this challenging time, it is also foundational technological competencies like tomer may carry. Industry-specific cloud plat-
important to have empathy, solidarity, and cloud and AI. The target to April 2021 is to tap forms must be hybrid and should transcend
understanding for each other. We are keeping 5,000 local students, who will register for the IT elements to knit business applications
a close tab on employee sentiment and feed- Open P-TECH. and processes together. I believe the open
back and reiterating our approach constantly. hybrid cloud platform is where industry expert-
Now more than ever, for the well-being % Having been in charge of cloud services ise comes in. This will be crucial in supporting
of our employees, it is imperative to be empa- and cognitive software, will you continue the acceleration of Industry 4.0. %

38 | VIETNAM ECONOMIC TIMES | MARCH 2021