Phong Nguyen: Versatile background enables more meaningful connections

Could you introduce yourself to our readers? 

My role is Business Development Director in Vietnam.  I joined Quincus last year, and I am excited to help Quincus grow our presence in this market.     

You’ve been in tech roles for almost a decade. Could you briefly describe to us what your experiences have been in tech? 

I have been in the information technology (IT) industry for about 10 years within product, sales, and consulting roles. I have experience with various clients from different industries, such as manufacturing; media and entertainment; and financial and insurance.

Previously, I focused on product apps for servers, storage and networking, and software licensing.  

Coming from a non-logistics background must be challenging. What was your experience like?

I see this as a challenge but also an opportunity. Through the process of learning about logistics, I get to connect with my colleagues and clients which I enjoy. I spend a lot of time researching as well. 

When I moved from IT to logistics, my background at that time was in IT consulting. When I approach clients, I have insight from the IT side of the business and am able to understand the solution development.  

I can then communicate our technology better and anticipate the issues they might have with technology in general.  

My conversations with them becomes more in-depth, and they can also empathise and connect with me better as I understand their perspective easily. My background in the product side of IT also helps me with this. 

The Vietnam economy is developing so rapidly. What are you hoping to achieve there with Quincus? 

Logistics tech industry applies technology to the logistics process. The way Quincus applies technology solutions is different.  

For example, clients have different operation methods. That is the challenge, but now our products are well developed based on extensive customer research—our modular design makes solutions more configurable for our customers.  

Logistics in Vietnam is an industry that still needs digital transformation. They rely more on human experience instead of tech: pen-and-paper processes are still used; decisions are taken largely based on experience and are not data driven. 

Many clients don’t know where to start or how products and solutions can be applied. Here, we come in by talking with them and offering the best solutions.  

There are some established local companies, but they have yet to offer end-to-end solutions. In industries such as e–commerce, retail, and FMCG, we can apply tech logistics. Especially in the retail and e-commerce industry, there is a lot of online ordering. I believe that we can help to fully optimise these processes by focusing on the middle and last mile as well. 

We can also partner with telecommunication and software sourcing companies in the local market.