With the advantage of being a pure Vietnamese product, the Viettel Backendless (VBS) platform meets the most pressing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and freelance developers on their digital transformation journey.
Vietnamese people solve the digital transformation bottleneck of Vietnamese businesses
With a price that can reach tens of millions of dong per month, Mr. Nguyen Van Nam, a programmer in Hanoi, is very "hesitant" when he has to use Google's software services. Even at the company Nam is working for, which has about 30 programmers, using paid cloud platforms provided by Google or Amazon is a luxury because the all-inclusive price is only suitable for large businesses with strong economic potential while they are a small business.
"Due to the demands of my work, I still have to "save up" to buy services from foreign providers. However, they only have certain packages, so choosing which package is enough for the needs and affordable is always a difficult problem," said Mr. Nam.
However, the suffering of people like Nam may become a thing of the past with the launch of the Viettel Backendless (VBS) platform. Developed by Viettel Solutions, a member of Viettel Group, VBS not only simplifies the software development process but also stimulates the demand for software development and digitization of information for Vietnamese SMEs.
Sharing about the journey to the introduction of VBS, the solution that just won the Sao Khue award in the digital transformation platform category, Mr. Pham Duc Chuong, the project manager of VBS, said that the idea for the product was formed in the phase of the COVID-19 pandemic began to break out in Vietnam. The distance in the pandemic and unprecedented demands have strongly driven the process of accelerating digital transformation.
"Currently, the domestic market has 58,000 businesses operating in the information technology field, 1 million freelance developers. However, not every business has enough high-skilled personnel and financial potential to develop strongly. Therefore, low-code development platforms, including the Viettel Backendless platform, were born to solve these problems, helping SMEs and developers focus on developing products for end users," Mr. Chuong said.
Advantages in the face-off with the "tech giants" on home turf
VBS is a platform that provides solutions for developers to focus on developing applications for end users without having to worry about backend development techniques and server infrastructure operations.
"Our goal is to partner with businesses and individuals to create optimization in software development. Therefore, our platform aims to provide the most complete range from mass business solutions to cutting-edge technology solutions such as AI, Blockchain... with a simple, flexible approach to promote the confidence in technology in businesses as well as promote digital transformation in the Vietnamese market." - Mr. Chuong said.
A common feature of SMEs and freelance developers is limited budgets. Giant technology companies like Google and Amazon also offer similar products but are too expensive while the platform is designed for customers around the world, which has many points of non-conformity.
To have an opportunity to compete with global names on home turf, VBS must solve these problems. VBS is not only a platform tailored to the needs of Vietnamese customers, but it must also maintain an affordable price to allow all businesses and individuals to access to accelerate the creation of useful products for end users.
The diversity of scale and business areas of businesses creates extremely diverse needs in the field of software design, which is also what the VBS development team has been struggling to exploit to perfect their product.
"To talk about the impression in the process of developing VBS, I think there is no more accurate word than two words of faith. The faith comes from the evaluations of the world's leading technology analysts (Gartner, Forrester, etc.), the faith in the achievements that Viettel has owned has helped us overcome difficulties and challenges to complete the VBS platform, a platform that will be very useful for businesses, programmers in the current digital era." - Mr. Chuong said.
“Instant noodles” of the Vietnamese software industry
According to Mr. Chuong, VBS is a service platform that operates on a Serverless (no server) model, which is a combination of software services and cloud infrastructure services. In simple terms, the platform is like a pack of instant noodles or a ready-made meal with all the ingredients. Users just need to stir-fry for a delicious meal.
The difference between VBS and the products of large technology groups is that it minimizes the number of lines of code that programmers need to write to create a complete feature. Normally, there are cases where the function has to be written up to hundreds of lines of code, but now, with VBS, they only need 5-7 lines of code.
Although relatively new in Vietnam, this service has been developed by Google and Amazon for a long time. The disadvantage of these services is that they are expensive while they are not created to meet all the needs of Vietnamese people. In addition, the billing method of foreign providers is still very rigid, not suitable for the majority of Vietnamese customers.
"The "tailor-made" feature of VBS is to provide the most familiar utilities and features, update the latest trends with the most appropriate costs. The target users of this platform are not necessarily high-quality IT engineer teams, instead, ordinary staff can still create high-quality software products," said Mr. Chuong.
As of now, VBS is being used for a number of development projects related to healthcare, education, and government. The feedback from programmers is quite positive. The ability to simplify processes, create new features quickly, and be user-friendly without requiring programmers with high expertise.
"Currently, we are focusing on Viettel's internal customers and contributing to the digital transformation of the healthcare and education sectors. It is expected that by the end of 2022 to 2024, VBS will serve 1,000 businesses in the technology sector and 17,000 freelance developers," said Mr. Chuong.
To compete with Google or Amazon, which are already recognized names around the world, understanding the domestic market and optimizing the package is considered the key. VBS plans to provide flexible usage policy packages to meet the diverse needs of users and popularize the platform in the Vietnamese market.
On the other hand, the convenience and affordability of VBS will help SMEs be more confident in digitizing their internal work. From these confidences, the product will promote digital transformation in multiple industries in Vietnam.
The Viettel Backendless platform is constantly being improved and updated with new technologies to support the IT community and businesses to maximize their potential and create new opportunities to enhance their competitiveness. As a powerful tool to create breakthrough developments for each business in the digital transformation era. Viettel believes that with its role as a pioneer in creating a digital society, VBS will be a solid foundation for the digital future of Vietnamese businesses
