Clause 3, Article 5 of the Postal Law stipulates the encouragement of postal enterprises to apply scientific and technological advances and train human resources for development. The Postal Development Strategy to 2025, with a vision to 2030, also specifies the viewpoints, goals and solutions to encourage and facilitate enterprises to shift towards technology enterprises.
REDUCE COSTS, INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
Vietnam's postal industry is witnessing impressive growth with revenue continuously increasing over the years, from more than 28 trillion VND in 2019 to about 70 trillion VND in 2024. The industry's revenue structure has also shifted strongly to package and parcel services with the proportion of total revenue increasing from 76% to 90%.
The explosion of e-commerce has been creating a huge volume of transaction data, requiring the postal industry to have effective data mining solutions to improve service quality and optimise operations. With a post office network extending to the commune level, the postal industry has a great advantage in collecting and exploiting data.
Vu Chi Kien, Deputy Director of the Department of Posts under the Ministry of Information and Communications, said: Exploiting data systems in the postal service is the process of using advanced data analysis techniques to extract valuable information from large volumes of data to support decision making and optimise operations.
Exploiting data at a real-time or near-real-time level will help postal businesses increase the accuracy of delivery time forecasts by 30-40%; reduce the number of complaints by 25-35% through prediction and prevention; reduce costs by 20-30%; and increase labour productivity by 15-25% through smart resource allocation, as well as improve the customer experience.
However, the postal industry is facing many challenges in the digital transformation process. Currently, the industry's information technology system is still lacking in synchronisation, failing to meet the needs of processing big data. Many operating processes still depend on manual operations, leading to high error rates and difficulty in scaling.
Data is stored in many different systems, lacking connectivity and difficult to exploit. In this context, building a comprehensive data exploitation strategy for the industry is more urgent than ever. This is not only an inevitable trend but also a solution for the postal industry to improve competitiveness, optimise operations and create new values for customers.
ENHANCED COOPERATION
Data mining in the postal industry is entering a period of strong development, driven by the boom of e-commerce and the increasing demand for smart logistics services. In order to optimise the network, postal enterprises have applied big data analysis to re-plan the system of service points and collection and delivery routes.
In warehouse management, smart warehouse systems are being deployed by many enterprises with the support of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). IoT sensors are installed to monitor environmental conditions, means of transport, and the status of goods, while AI algorithms help to optimise the arrangement and allocation of space inside the warehouse.
For example, at the newly opened Viettel Logistics Park in Lang Son, Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Trung Thanh, General Director of Viettel Post Corporation (Viettel Post), said: The Logistics Park is built according to the highest standards of technology such as IoT, 5G, AI, Big Data, Digital Twins (digital copies) and automation (self-driving vehicles, self-driving robots for automatic sorting), helping to optimise operating processes from warehouse management to freight transport and customs clearance, thereby shortening the delivery process, helping to reduce logistics costs by 40%.
On December 20, 2024, Vietnam Post and DataStreams Corp (DataStreams) signed a cooperation agreement to develop an application model using Data Fabric technology to unify Vietnam Post's diverse data systems, improve consistency, optimise data management efficiency, and strengthen information security.
Deputy General Director of Vietnam Post Pham Anh Tuan shared that integrating data through Data Fabric will support Vietnam Post to make more comprehensive and intelligent decisions based on data exploitation, analysis and close connection between systems, thereby designing and developing products and services that are more suitable to market trends while better meeting the diverse needs of customers.
However, data exploitation in the postal industry still faces many challenges in terms of data quality and consistency, especially the shortage of human resources with high-level analytical skills. Director of the Postal Department La Hoang Trung said that the story of technology cooperation is essential for better business, creating development momentum for the Vietnamese Postal market.
Sharing digital applications and physical infrastructure is a good initiative, but to share effectively and sustainably, there must be a clear mechanism. State management agencies need to build a comprehensive legal framework to promote digital transformation in the postal sector, including perfecting regulations on data management, sharing and protection, as well as mechanisms to encourage investment in digital technology.
It is necessary to devise special preferential policies for investment projects in digital infrastructure and high-quality human resource development, as well as to encourage public-private partnerships to build and operate shared digital platforms for the postal sector.