Gas South deploys 1C Vietnam e-Office System: Right roadmap - Right transformation
About Southern Gas Trading Joint Stock Company
Gas South JSC is one of the leading units in the field of LPG, CNG and LPG cylinder business in Vietnam. Gas South owns a business network stretching from Ca Mau to Nghe An, with a scale of nearly 1,500 employees.
The organizational structure includes 1 parent company, 5 branches, member companies, and 22 production and business facilities nationwide. On average, Gas South's production and distribution system supplies about 300,000 tons of gas each year, accounting for about 40% of the industry's market share.
With a hierarchical and regionally spread organizational model, combining the parent company, branches and warehouses and stations nationwide, Gas South's internal management system has many potential risks in internal control if it lacks a capable integrated management platform.
To enhance the effectiveness of control in management and administration, Gas South has identified digital transformation as one of the priority strategic directions. The focus is on gradually building an electronic office system to digitize archived documents and digitize work processes on a company-wide scale, thereby optimizing operating costs and improving management efficiency.
This orientation also reflects Gas South's long-term vision: to become one of the pioneers in the field of providing clean energy gas in Vietnam, while developing according to a sustainable business model in the digital economy.
Difficult problems before achieving the goal of building an electronic office system
The first challenge noted during the consulting and implementation process of 1C Vietnam was that the Group did not have an overall picture of the operating process system.
- The Group is actually operating more than 150 unique work processes, spread across multiple levels and departments.
- Coordination processes between levels and units are still handled manually: printing, initialing, and circulating paper documents, causing prolonged approval time and prone to errors.
- Document storage is fragmented, and document numbering lacks clear rules.
- The company does not have a mobile platform to support remote work, even though this is an essential need for leadership teams that regularly travel domestically and internationally.
- The previous electronic office system did not meet the digital transformation requirements of the Board of Directors. The system was only deployed locally at the central management block and had not been expanded to member companies, causing the document processing flow to be scattered and unsynchronized.
The above shortcomings not only reduce daily operational efficiency, but also directly affect the quality of decision-making and the ability to respond promptly to business opportunities.
This was the time when Gas South decided to build an electronic office system capable of digitizing archived documents and workflows, controlling execution and synchronizing data across the entire company – from the center to each operating point.
Goals set in implementing the Electronic Office system
Gas South aims to deploy the 1C:Document Management electronic office system to manage documents and the entire synchronized workflow system for the company's office block, 6 branches and 8 member units, with a deployment scale of up to 1,500 users in 5 months.
With that goal, the 1C:Document Management electronic office system is expected to not only meet the rapid implementation schedule but also ensure core management principles:
- No disruption to current business operations.
- Streamline processes while still ensuring all steps and sequences of current ISO standard operations.
- Building an open system allows internal teams to proactively update and adjust processes without depending on the supplier.
- Data security requirements during deployment.
Challenges in implementing e-Office systems
Faced with the Group's expectations in implementing the e-Office system, 1C Vietnam's consulting and implementation team had to face three major challenges right from the beginning of the project implementation.
Challenges in time and resources for implementation
Deploying the 1C:Document Management e-Office system with a scale of more than 1,500 users requires a comprehensive plan, careful preparation of the implementation plan, the ability to allocate resources, train users and effectively control the implementation quality from the 1C Vietnam team within a limited time frame.
The challenge of standardizing process management systems
Although the Group has built a systematic process system according to ISO standards, to convert to a digital platform, these processes need to be reviewed, streamlined and restructured to ensure flexibility, continuity and synchronization in actual operations.
This requires the 1C Vietnam team to not only have a firm grasp of the specific business characteristics of each unit, but also to closely coordinate with key users to advise on process improvements in an optimal direction, while still ensuring compliance, completeness and consistency across the entire system.
The challenge of changing user habits
Switching from an old system to a new platform means changing the way of working, the interface and the workflow. The fear of change becomes a big barrier, especially for departments that have been used to the old way of working for a long time.
This places great demands on 1C to ensure a smooth transition, minimize operational disruptions, and help users adapt quickly, creating a foundation for stable operations after deployment.
Method of implementing 1C:Document Management electronic office system
To realize the goal of digital transformation across the Group within a limited time, the implementation process is designed in a two-phase method: pre-implementation preparation and actual implementation.
A. Phase 1: Before implementation
On behalf of the Group:
The Group has proactively taken strategic preparations to create the foundation for a smooth transition:
- Hire an independent consultant to assess the digital maturity of the entire organization as a basis for planning a transformation strategy.
- Build a 5-year digital transformation roadmap , divided into specific stages and implemented according to the principle: step by step, firmly, and implement to the extent of effectiveness.
- Disseminate the implementation plan to core staff at branches, member units and key departments, facilitating coordination with the 1C consulting team during the preparation phase.
Vietnam 1C side:
Based on information and direction from the Group, 1C Vietnam established an appropriate approach, focusing on surveying the current situation, analyzing the system and determining the optimal implementation strategy:
1. Apply the Fit–Gap method :
Fit – Compare the status reports provided by the consultant with the software system structure, identify available compatibility points.
Gap – Identify gaps that need to be adjusted, processes that need to be streamlined, and then advise on improvement strategies that are appropriate for each unit's operations.
2. Organize in-depth discussions:
During this process, 1C Vietnam coordinated directly with each specialized department to review, analyze and systematize more than 150 actual business processes operating in the Group. At the same time, clarify the actual operating status, overlaps, and bottlenecks; ensuring specific requirements that need to be handled in the digital transformation phase.
3. Design detailed and flexible implementation strategies for each process group and each unit block, ensuring control, scalability and operational synchronization across the entire system.
B. Phase 2: During implementation
1. Digitize centralized archives
1C Vietnam builds the 1C:Document Management electronic office system, deploys digitization of archived documents and centralized document management, thoroughly solving the problem of data dispersion and lack of connection between units.
Establish strict access authorization mechanisms by document type, customer, role, department and security level.
Digitize internal documents with a specific form structure, allowing quick retrieval, easy search and information linking.
Optimize document processing through utilities including: converting formats to PDF, automatically locating digital signatures, configuring image signatures for documents
2. Digitize workflows according to business characteristics into the system
Configure the process as a conditional workflow, allowing the system to automatically route documents based on practical factors such as document type, approval level, operating unit or department in charge.
Design an intuitive process simulation interface that helps users track process flow, step-by-step responsibilities, status, and bottlenecks in each step.
Record and trace all operations and processing steps on the system in real time, ensuring compliance and transparency.
3. Internal training – technology transfer
Organize in-depth training for all users , divided by functional group, department and professional level, ensuring everyone clearly understands the operations, processes and applied management tools.
Set up a flexible testing model (UAT) , allowing the responsible staff to experience many versions of the testing process, give feedback and perfect the process to suit the actual operation.
Implement open technology transfer , helping businesses to self-configure, fine-tune and optimize processes without depending on the supplier.
4. Accompany and support continuous improvement
Support for expanding remote digital signature features, mobile approval, internal discussion, room and car booking, and profile management – helping businesses maximize the effectiveness of the software.
Closely monitor the operation process, promptly support and correct arising problems and advise on system upgrades to suit actual needs.
Results of implementing the 1C:Document Management electronic office system
After nearly 5 months of implementation, the project was completed on schedule, marking an important turning point in the Group's digital transformation strategy. The 1C:Document Management e-Office system has been stably applied throughout the entire organization, including the headquarters, 6 branches and 8 member units - with a scale of more than 1,500 users with:
- 150+ business processes have been digitized and successfully deployed, synchronized across the enterprise.
- 400,000+ tasks and 88,000+ documents were initiated, tracked and processed directly through the software in just over the first year of operation.
- 220+ standardized document formats with specific forms, allowing quick and accurate lookup by department and unit.
Project success factors
The success of the project to deploy the 1C:Document Management e-Office system between 1C Vietnam and Gas South is not only due to the choice of suitable technology, but also comes from 05 decisive fundamental factors:
1. The determination and commitment of the Board of Directors
Since the first days of the project, the Group's Board of Directors has shown great enthusiasm and determination by directly accompanying the project from the orientation stage to implementation. In addition, the Board of Directors continuously assigned specialized leaders of each department to coordinate the implementation and promptly resolve any problems arising in each stage.
This is the key factor in maintaining progress, ensuring unity of direction and maintaining commitment to achieving project goals to the end.
2. Effective communication and close coordination between the two parties
The 1C Vietnam project team and the Group maintain regular weekly and monthly meetings to update progress, handle backlogs and identify risks early.
The transparent and responsive coordination model has helped both sides maintain synchronization and initiative in each implementation phase.
3. Professional consulting and implementation experience
Inheriting more than 30 years of experience in software implementation from the parent company for large domestic and international enterprises and corporations, 1C Vietnam possesses a team of experts with extensive consulting capacity, training, transfer and accompanying capabilities with enterprises throughout the implementation process.
1C's solutions have been applied in many fields such as manufacturing, trade, logistics, etc. Thanks to this global experience platform, the 1C Vietnam team can refer to similar problems that have been effectively implemented in different markets, thereby advising Vietnamese businesses on processes suitable to industry characteristics and transformation goals, helping to shorten time and improve efficiency right from the beginning.
4. Flexible technology solutions, powerful customization
Based on the Low-code 1C:Enterprise platform, 1C Vietnam's Digital Office software allows deep customization, easily responding to complex processes that are common in the Gas industry.
Advanced technology helps shorten deployment time, ensuring scalability and flexible customization according to needs without depending on the development unit.
5. Methodical and strategic implementation roadmap
With the methodical implementation methodology of the 1C Vietnam team, the project was fully implemented from survey - consulting - solution design - testing - training to handover and post-implementation support.
Proactively building a multi-version test model (UAT) has helped the system operate stably, in accordance with the reality and working habits of each unit.