Finding 'bottlenecks' to unleash the power of data

In the engineering industry, often assumed to be male-dominated, Ms. Duong Thi Ngoc Han has gradually asserted her position through perseverance and innovative spirit.

From an internal IT support staff, she became one of the leaders of digital transformation at Trung An Water Supply Joint Stock Company with initiatives that brought economic efficiency of up to billions of VND each year.

Silent starting point

In the imagination of many people, the water supply industry is a specialized, dry technical field and information technology (IT) is even more the "territory" of men. However, the story of Ms. Duong Thi Ngoc Han (Head of Information Technology Department, Trung An Water Supply Joint Stock Company, a unit under Saigon Water Supply Corporation - Sawaco) has proven the opposite.

Ms. Duong Thi Ngoc Han is the person behind many digital transformation initiatives.

PHOTO: NVCC

With more than 10 years in the profession, she is not only a rare "beauty" in charge of the technology sector at the unit, but also behind a series of initiatives that generate billions of dong in profits each year.

Talking about her chance to enter the industry, Ms. Han recalls that in 2014, when she first joined Trung An Water Supply Joint Stock Company, her starting point was in information technology but focused on website design. At first, she was assigned to the programming team of the Technology Engineering Department, mainly supporting the company's internal information technology issues.

"Realizing the actual need of the unit for applications to serve production and business, the company created conditions to open a programming training class for employees. I asked to join and the turning point started from there," Ms. Han shared.

From the position of technical support, Ms. Han and her colleagues in the team began to explore and learn to write software for the company. Programming, which requires high logical thinking and patience, is often considered a male profession. However, for Ms. Han, women's meticulousness becomes an advantage.

Currently, as Head of Information Technology, Ms. Han is managing a team of 7 members, including 6 programmers. Her team, as she describes, is young and full of enthusiasm. It is this enthusiasm that has become the driving force for her to lead the team to overcome the pressures of the digital transformation that is taking place strongly at Sawaco.

Billion-dollar initiatives

If you only listen to her modestly tell her story about her career, few people know that the software developed by "Ms. Han's team" has brought about outstanding economic efficiency.

Ms. Duong Thi Ngoc Han is the person behind many digital transformation initiatives.

PHOTO: NVCC

A typical solution is the "Free Notification Message Application via MyTawaco App". Previously, to notify invoices, thank customers or report incidents, the company had to spend a huge amount of money on traditional SMS messages. Realizing the trend of using smartphones is becoming more and more popular, Ms. Han proposed switching to notification via the application.

The results of this shift are telling numbers: on average, the company saves about 445,352 SMS messages per month, including more than 125,000 invoice messages, more than 317,000 network incident notification messages... The total cost saved from this initiative is up to more than 1.33 billion VND per year. An impressive number in the context of businesses trying to tighten spending and optimize operations.

Not stopping there, Ms. Han is also the "architect" for the solution of "creating QR codes to look up information and pay water bills online". This initiative has completely changed the traditional method of collecting money. Instead of having employees come to your home to collect money, customers are now in the habit of voluntarily paying online. This helps reduce staff pressure, reduce the number of outstanding bills and increase the actual collection rate. It is estimated that this solution helps save about 672 million VND per year by reducing direct collection staff.

In terms of technology, Ms. Han's initiative of "online troubleshooting software" integrated with GIS (geographic information system) also brings about clear economic efficiency. Previously, when there was a report of a water pipe burst, the company had to send 3-4 workers to the scene to know whether the pipe was large or small to handle. Now, thanks to the software, only one worker needs to approach, take a photo and send it back, the Construction Team office can immediately assess the situation to coordinate human resources and materials accurately. In 2021 alone, this initiative has brought in more than 724 million VND in profit.

In addition to macro solutions, small but practical applications such as "Looking up information on replacing water meters", "AI Chatbot for customer care" or "Online satisfaction survey" all bear Ms. Han's mark. These tools help reduce pressure on the transaction counter and call center staff, when the number of customers increases every year but the company does not need to recruit new staff.

With such tireless contributions, Ms. Duong Thi Ngoc Han has been awarded the title of Emulation Fighter for 5 consecutive years (2020 - 2024), receiving many certificates of merit from the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. In particular, she is one of the typical faces awarded the 24th Ton Duc Thang Award in 2024 - a noble award for engineers and workers with many outstanding technical innovations and improvements.

Ms. Duong Thi Ngoc Han is one of 478 typical advanced examples in the patriotic emulation movement of Ho Chi Minh City in the period of 2020 - 2025. She is also a member of the city's delegation attending the 11th National Patriotic Emulation Congress this December.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tim-diem-nghen-de-giai-phong-suc-manh-du-lieu-185251204204621534.htm