To delve into the journey behind this accomplishment and explore the impact of digital transformation, VnEconomy sat down with Mr. Rahul Shinde, Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam, who shared his insights into the company’s digital evolution, its integration of cutting-edge technologies, and the transformative effects on various facets of its operations.

Can you provide us with an overview of Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam’s digital transformation journey and its key objectives?

Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam embarked on its digital transformation journey in 2019, with a focused approach aimed at elevating customer-centricity through digital tools, amplifying productivity through automation, and driving a digital mindset by embedding agile processes. Over the past three years, the company has strategically invested in future-proofing capabilities with the help of cutting-edge technology, with a remarkable 87 per cent of key business capabilities now automated. This tech-enabled transformation has resulted in substantial efficiency gains and spurred notable business growth.

Looking ahead, Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam has set its sights on emerging as a prominent digital leader within the industry. Its multifaceted approach focuses on the early adoption of innovative technologies to drive productivity, fostering widespread digital adoption to generate tangible business value and cultivating a pervasive digital mindset across the organization. By ensuring widespread technology adoption and usability, it endeavors to empower all employees and customers alike to actively engage with and reap the benefits of these digital advancements.

Can you provide us with a detailed explanation of the specific technologies integrated into Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam’s digital transformation strategy and how these have influenced various aspects of its business operations?

In our ever-changing tech landscape, we concentrate on five key elements: prioritizing a nimble and agile foundation, digitizing our value chain, simplifying processes, enhancing cybersecurity, and fostering a digital culture. These pillars drive our growth in the digital era.

With a customer-centric and data-driven approach, our primary focus is on enhancing the omni-channel customer experience through automated solutions for our sales and customers alike to drive transparency and engagement. We are utilizing advanced analytics to extract valuable insights that enable us to serve our customers more effectively. Additionally, we are digitizing our supply chain operations with cutting edge tools focused on automated decisions on the shop floor and in our logistics.

We have embarked on a journey of automation, employing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to streamline our back-end processes to eliminate routine and time-consuming tasks and empower employees to focus on more value-added activities to drive business results.

In our quest to improve the employee experience, we have innovated with modern technologies such as chatbots and workflows and are exploring new immersive technologies such as the Metaverse, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR).

Finally, we are fortifying our foundation with robust security controls across devices, networks, and cloud infrastructure. We have implemented measures to ensure data privacy, thereby safeguarding our organization’s valuable assets.

In what ways has digital transformation improved decision-making processes within the company?

By prioritizing data accessibility, credibility, inclusivity, and the ability to share, the company has traditionally used technology to support management decisions and drive a digital mindset by democratizing and empowering decision-makers. With the pace of recent advancements in generative AI capabilities, we are now actively embedding AI-enabled tools to augment our data insights.

At the core of this transformation is a data analytics strategy focused on robust data governance, an agile approach to transparent AI-enabled decision-making frameworks, and the active engagement of stakeholders and sponsors in decision-making matrices to ensure alignment with company priorities.

Furthermore, advancements in generative AI enables self-service interactions to empower business users to generate performance-enhancing insights, optimize processes, and gain a competitive edge. The integration of AI and machine learning based on advanced analytics tools further refines decision-making in specific cases of prediction, anomaly detection, and content creation.

Have there been any notable cultural or organizational shifts within Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam as a result of its digital transformation journey?

Driving cultural change involves people, processes, and technology working together. Technology is an enabler, but transformation is the responsibility of all, where everyone is following a single organizational vision as a team rather than separate pockets of innovation.

Over the past two years, we have created digital champions across functions and upskilled employees in self-service analytics and low-code / no-code apps. We also conducted digital days and digital innovation events to drive engagement, ensuring that no one is left behind. Recognizing that upskilling employees is critical to this cultural shift, we emphasize the democratization of the digital experience and the importance of a culture that goes beyond reliance on tools alone.

By fostering an internal culture conducive to individual growth, employees are empowered to pursue both personal and professional development goals. The focus on digital culture extends beyond technology adoption; it emphasizes leveraging the ecosystem of business teams and partners to enhance organizational agility and elasticity, facilitating experimentation at scale.

Ultimately, these efforts foster a culture of continuous learning and experimentation, which are essential for an organization aiming to be future-ready in an ever-evolving business landscape.

How is the evolving role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) shaping the future of digital innovation within Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam, and what specific initiatives or technologies are being pursued to drive this transformation?

There is growing recognition among management that technology is disrupting businesses, bringing efficiency and creating brand new business models, products, and services enabled by technology. Consequently, there is consensus to prioritize the technology strategy, placing it at the forefront and aligning it closely with the overall business strategy.

With this context, the CIO is increasingly viewed as a key figure responsible for setting the agenda and advising on technology investment from a growth and transformational perspective. Previously, CIOs were primarily tasked with supporting business operations to ensure smooth functioning. However, their role has now expanded to driving transformational changes across all customer touchpoints, whether in stores, online, offline, or on the factory floor.

The required skillsets have broadened. Individuals now need to possess the vision to define strategic elements of IT strategy and align it with the business strategy, collaborate effectively across the organization, communicate efficiently with stakeholders, and navigate between tactical planning and executional tasks.

Our future focus on driving digital initiatives centers around key digital enablers that support omni-channel strategies, like generative AI, big data analytics, multimodal partner experiences, and collaborative platforms.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G will continue to accelerate smart manufacturing and integration with devices for end-to-end visibility and traceability in the value chain. Key trends include AI, machine learning, generative AI, vision AI, geospatial AI, and predictive and prescriptive analytics to support data-driven decision-making. Additionally, we are enhancing our coverage of IT security processes to prioritize data privacy.

Another priority is simplifying and modernizing the IT applications portfolio, achieved through agile methodologies and fostering collaboration across departments. Additionally, there is an emphasis on talent acquisition, with a focus on recruiting IT professionals who possess both an entrepreneurial spirit and strategic foresight.

In summary, Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam’s approach to digital innovation encompasses a holistic strategy that integrates technology, talent, and strategic vision. By embracing emerging technologies, prioritizing data governance, modernizing IT infrastructure, and fostering a culture of innovation, the organization is well-positioned to thrive in the evolving digital landscape and maintain its competitive edge.