The cloud one-stop system of Viettel was honoured at the 2021 Sao Khue Awards. — Photo vietteltelecom.com.vn

The total revenue of the Top 10 Sao Khue Award winners this year reached VND357.4 trillion (US$16 billion), creating jobs for 63,453 people.

The information was announced at the award ceremony organised by the Viet Nam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) held in Ha Noi last week.

This year the event has set a record with nearly 300 nominations from 161 enterprises, representing a 57.8 per cent year-on-year increase. This is the largest in terms of the number of nominations and registered businesses since the event was launched.

Through three rounds, the jury selected 180 excellent IT platforms, services and solutions to award the Sao Khue in 2021, including 25 platforms, 32 services and 123 solutions.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Phan Tam said the Sao Khue Awards are the pride of Viet Nam's ICT industry. It is also an effective tool and important driving force in national digital transformation.

He believed that the winning products and solutions would be widely deployed in organisations and businesses to help the country’s industries create a breakthrough for Viet Nam in reaching the international market.

“I call for the entire Vietnamese technology community and businesses whose products and services are honoured today to continue making more efforts, turn challenges into opportunities to create excellent digital services and solutions for the Vietnamese market. The MIC pledges to always accompany and create favourable conditions and support digital technology businesses with specific policies so that the ICT business community can maintain its development, and soon be the pioneering force for a digital country,” he said.

Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of the VINASA Founding Council and Head of the Organising Committee of the 2021 Sao Khue Awards, said that in 18 years, the IT industry has become the largest technology industry in Viet Nam with revenue accounting for about 14 per cent of the country's GDP. In this success, there has been contributions from the Sao Khue Awards.

Binh added that the products and services participating in Sao Khue this year all have innovations in product development such as AI, Cloud Computing, Big Data, IoT and Blockchain. Many products and services have been on the right trend and achieved high revenue growth, making them bright spots in the digital economy and contributing to Viet Nam's impressive growth performance in the past year.

The highlight of 2021 Sao Khue Awards is the new category Digital Transformation Platform with 46 registered for the award, belonging to three development models – Platform for Developers (marketplace), Core Technology Platform and Software Service Platform (SaaS).

Top 10 Sao Khue with products in six groups of awards such as digital products, solutions; digital conversion platforms; new technology solutions for all sectors; digital start-up products and solutions would be supported by VINASA, connecting with technology partners to build a Sao Khue Ecosystem. On that basis, award-winning products could reach users faster, forming complete digital ecosystems for Vietnamese people, helping accelerate the process of national digital transformation.

Nguyen Minh Quy, chairman of NOVAON Group that had four digital platforms honoured at the Sao Khue Awards, told Viet Nam News: “NOVAON chooses different approaches to its platforms and solutions, in order to bring the highest investment efficiency to customers. This will help the digital conversion efficiency of the business be measured and evaluated quickly, setting the stage for the next digital transformation phases.”

The four awarded platforms include OnMarketer – the marketing automation platform that helps maximise website conversions; Onfluencer – the first CPA Influencer Marketing platform; OnSales Caller – Smart customer care platform; and OnCustomer – a multi-channel customer experience management platform.

After 15 years of development, NOVAON targeted to become a leading technology corporation in the region with three strategic pillars including Digital Marketing, Digital Transformation and Global. The group has built a digital product ecosystem for corporate customers with 10 platforms and more than 20 digital products. These platforms are closely linked to create a comprehensive solution for businesses from marketing, sales, e-commerce and operational management.

Among the winners, human resource management product ACheckin of the Appota Group received top prize for excellent digital transformation at the Sao Khue Awards

Held annually since its inception in 2003, after 17 years, 1,089 outstanding Sao Khue Awards and titles have been given out. — VNS