COVID-19: Transitioning Your Business for Remote Work in Vietnam

Alberto VettorettiManaging Partner, Dezan Shira & Associates

With the current outbreak of COVID-19 throughout the globe, businesses are having to consider how to effectively utilize their employees under the situation where physical contact between individuals is being restricted to a very high degree. 

The gathering of large numbers of staff in offices should be avoided as much as possible, both in terms of infection risks, as well as because many staff have to rely on heavily restricted public transport to reach the office. It is in public environments where the risk of infection is highest. Your business needs to mitigate against having staff travel, if at all possible, during this time.

Business through digital means

In short, most options for the standard operation of businesses using traditional methodologies are temporarily closed. The options that remain open rely on “remote” operations. There are of course other dangers and problems relating to over-reliance on digital communications, particularly for organizations that have not put in place a robust Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

In this article, we outline some options and advice that specifically relate to the Vietnamese business environment. 

For the forthcoming weeks, companies will need to rely on the corporate digital infrastructure that they have already put in place and supplement it with the other non-corporate infrastructure that exists in Vietnam while being aware of the limitations and weaknesses of these public channels.

Digital and cloud platforms

For well-prepared companies, remote working need not be too much of a hindrance in the short-term. To take our firm as an example, our employees have laptops and are working from home. The company utilizes the MS O365 platform quite comprehensively, and our employees can maintain constant contact with each other via this corporate platform.

All the documents our employees need for the implementation of their work are available to them on Sharepoint Online and can be shared as necessary. Our ERP and CRM are remotely accessible. Data transmitted between company computers are being utilized at home and our servers are encrypted prior to transmission.

There is sometimes a slowdown in the transmission of data because employees have to utilize their home internet connections, but this does not have a serious effect. For example, we have held conference calls on MS Teams between team members in various locations (including one in China) with sufficient audio functionality.

But for less well-prepared companies, some problems can be predicted. If your company is not utilizing a robust corporate tool, such as MS Teams or Skype for Business (also known as Lync), intra-company communications may have to rely on traditional telephone, corporate email, or less secure public channels, such as Zalo, Zoom or Facebook messenger. 

If your corporate email server is hosted in your company’s HQ abroad, you may find that employees working from home are struggling to send or receive emails with large attachments. This is a common problem seen when transmitting data due to the congestion at international exits. Many companies circumnavigate this problem by setting up VPN-like structures between their home offices and overseas offices; however, when employees are working from home – these contingency plans no longer function effectively.

For client-facing or supplier-facing staff, the impact on operations because of the inability of these employees to physically meet their customers or vendors needs to be mitigated. If your company has robust corporate tools, such as MS O365 at its immediate disposal, you may consider inviting your clients/suppliers to communicate with you through those channels as an “external user”. 

If you don’t have such channels immediately at your disposal, maybe they do, and you can organize for your key staff to be added into their networks. Such coordination requires time to implement so please arrange for some lead-time for this to be facilitated.

Remote working guidelines

We can assume that there will be some acute short-term problems for companies with operations in Vietnam.  Here are some simple guidelines that can be followed to mitigate the effects:

  • Ensure your IT staff (both overseas and in Vietnam) are available to deal with connectivity and other related issues that arise. With employees working remotely, more problems can be expected to arise. Consider paying IT resources extra to ensure they are working on weekends or are available on call if there is an issue. 

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This article is produced by Vietnam Briefing, a premium source of information for investors looking to set up and conduct business in Vietnam. The site is a publishing arm of Dezan Shira & Associates, a leading foreign investment consultancy in Asia with over 27 years of experience assisting businesses with market entry, site selection, legal, tax, accounting, HR and payroll services throughout the region.

Dezan Shira & Associates is pleased to introduce our Covid-19 portal, dedicated to providing businesses with an extensive roundup of the latest developments, policy updates, and solutions to help manage your business operation during the outbreak. Checking in daily to keep up to date with new updates!


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