TRG Pulse

Following TRG's seminar entitled "Office of the CFO for Hospitality: A new way of working to maximise profits", Ho Chi Minh Television broadcast a short story about the event in their news bulletin called "Market Connections" (Ket Noi Thi Truong) on April 22nd, 2013.

A screenshot of TRG's CEO in the story

The news story on HTV7 channel includes a brief summary of the lessons drawn from the seminar, as well as quotes from two of the event speakers: Rick Yvanovich - TRG's CEO and Kenneth Atkinson - Managing Partner at Grant Thornton Vietnam. The most prominent message is hospitality businesses need to have the right information even before they need it in order to outrun rivals in this increasingly competitive sector.

During the seminar, experts have agreed that to maintain a competitive edge is one of the most critical tasks that CFOs and top-level managers in this industry need to fulfil.  As a steward, operator, strategist and catalyst, CFOs nowadays have to drive down costs, raise profits while growing the business and keep guests coming back for more. They need a complete financial management, corporate performance management, business insight, business process management as well as integrated asset management system.

One of the points Rick discussed at the event was corporate performance. He pointed out that excellent corporate performance involved building a robust business model, aligning the 4 Rs and implementing an effective performance management system. The 4 Rs: Relationships, Risks, Resources and Routines need to be configured to answer 3 questions: 1/ How do we create value? 2/ How do we deliver value? 3/ How do we retain some of the value? A performance management system ensures performance planning, execution and reporting is a closed-loop process that makes things happen.

Rick also talked about the importance of a solution framework linking all hospitality business processes. Without it, CFOs and high-level management will have a hard time checking each system one by one. On the other hand, they can achieve speed with a solution framework that brings knowledge together and expedites action

To summarise, businesses should make use of market changes, promote technology’s sociability and mobility in order to adapt, control and grow.

Below is the news clip on HTV7 in Vietnamese:

HCM City – April 18th 2013 – A record number of guests turned up for TRG’s seminar entitled “Office of the CFO for Hospitality: A new way of working to maximise profits” on April 16th at New World Hotel.

Sponsored by Grant Thornton, CIMA and Infor, the morning seminar attracted around 150 people, including CFOs, CEOs, chief accountants, high level management and senior staff from nearly 70 hospitality companies and hotels ranging from 3 to 5 stars.

Compared to the last non-industry specific OCFO event, which was also the first of its kind, there were 5 speakers this time. They were Rick Yvanovich – TRG’s CEO and CIMA Region Board Member, Thai Pham – TRG’s Deputy General Manager, Kenneth Atkinson – Managing Partner at Grant Thornton Vietnam, Alejandro Palacio – Business Risk Services Manager at Grant Thornton Vietnam and Mark Vincent – Pre-Sales Hospitality Solutions APAC, Infor. Attendees learned about how the Office of the CFO concept applied to the industry:

• The Office of the CFO concept: Changing roles of the CFO, evolving operating model
• Complete Financial Management: Adapt to changing business needs, eliminate manual processes, and get the information you need even before you need it
• Performance Management: A robust business model, the 4 Rs theory and the importance of a performance management system
• Business Insights: Role-based analytics which delivers accurate, timely, consistent data for better decision making
• Hospitality Business Process Management: Create guest-specific packages or hotel stay experiences, know guest lifetime values at point of interaction, attract more guests, lower reservation costs, increase and optimise revenue by as much as 7%
• Property Management Integration: Ensure real-time data synchronisation enterprise-wide, empower staff with the knowledge they need to exceed customer expectations

In the final Q & A session, participants eagerly raised questions for the panel of speakers, who shared their expertise and experience in a variety of hospitality challenges such as planning, budgeting, strategy alignment and applying social space to process management. As always, the event speakers and TRG staff were ready to answer any further concerns of guests in the networking session afterwards.

This was the second time TRG had organised an event on the Office of the CFO concept, but the first time for the Hospitality sector. Rick Yvanovich, TRG’s CEO, said: “We gained more recognition from businesses and the press following the last event’s success. Building on that, we hope to spread the message that whatever challenge businesses have to face, there will always be best practices, experts and solutions to address it in order to help companies remain competitive in this highly saturated market”.

Here are some photos from the event:

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About TRG                           

TRG is a market-leading global professional services firm focused on delivering technical excellence. TRG adds value in a challenging and dynamic market by delivering the right IT solutions that work quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing our customers up to focus on their core. We do this by hiring people we believe in, and who believe in TRG, and empowering them with the skills and processes to outthink our competitors and deliver genuinely better solutions for our customers. We are a genuine consultant and partner who deeply understands the challenges of our customers’ business and is always ready to go the extra mile to deliver exactly the right solution for them. It is not about what we sell, it is all about how we think. Our solutions include: Financial Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Retail Management, Virtualisation, Hospitality and People Performance Management. To discover more about TRG, please visit http://trginternational.com

HCM City - Tuesday April 16th, 2013- TRG employees and their family members had a one-day planting trip packed with exciting outdoor activities at Tien Giang-Ben Tre on Saturday, April 13th.

Early in the morning, 50 TRG members, their spouses and kids already gathered for the nearly 90-kilometre journey. After having breakfast at Trung Luong crossroads, the energised group enjoyed a local boating experience on Tien Giang River. We stopped at a total of 4 islets. At the first two stops, we got to sip tea with pure honey, savour home-grown fruits and listened to traditional Southern music.

The atmosphere was heated up when the group reached Tan Thach commune, where the famous Ben Tre’s specialty – coconut candies were made. Fifty participants were divided into 5 teams to compete in a coconut candy wrapping contest. Surely the best way to learn was to practice it with your own hands!

Afterwards, we headed for An Hoa islet, the final stop and also where the main activity took place. The group also travelled to the restaurant in style as we took turns to hop on 4-passenger boats. Satisfied with a lunch full of local specialties, we eagerly started our mission to plant 100 trees, including coconut and jackfruit trees. Again, the 5 teams competed to see which one finished planting their assigned 20 trees first, of course under the quality supervision of planting experts.

The winning tree planting team

Vincent De Smet – Application Consultant at TRG – said: “My kid really loved to help with planting trees. I think the trip was a great opportunity to bond with families and colleagues, whilst enjoying the wonderful experience nature brought us”.

Tree planting is one of TRG’ annual CSR activities and this was our fifth trip. This event was in support of the World Forestry Day (March 21st), Earth Day (April 22nd) and Plant for the Planet – The Billion Tree Campaign.

Mr. Pham Hong Thai, General Deputy at TRG said: “Everyone had been looking forward to the trip and we thought it exceeded our expectations. It was a nice combination of different elements: nature, culture, fun, exercise and social responsibility. We’ll look at this one as a benchmark for future tree planting trips.”

Here are some photos from the day:

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About TRG                           

TRG is a market-leading global professional services firm focused on delivering technical excellence. TRG adds value in a challenging and dynamic market by delivering the right IT solutions that work quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing our customers up to focus on their core. We do this by hiring people we believe in, and who believe in TRG, and empowering them with the skills and processes to outthink our competitors and deliver genuinely better solutions for our customers. We are a genuine consultant and partner who deeply understands the challenges of our customers’ business and is always ready to go the extra mile to deliver exactly the right solution for them. It is not about what we sell, it is all about how we think. Our solutions include: Financial Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Retail Management, Virtualisation, Hospitality and People Performance Management. To discover more about TRG, please visit http://trginternational.com

Human resource is often considered one of the most important assets of an organisation. Companies nowadays pay great attention to its employees’ training and development programme; especially in developing leadership skills for the next-generation staff. To become a competent leader, it requires more than just technical skills and knowledge.

Leadership experience and related work experience have become important recruitment criteria to many big companies, not only for senior positions but also for low level and front line staff as the foundation to support long-term career development. Therefore, a lot of students have seized opportunities to obtain a set of leadership skills and competencies before stepping into the real world of work.

President Ho Chi Minh’s famous quote “To reap a return in ten years, plant trees. To reap a return in 100, cultivate the people” emphasises the role of education by developing students, equipping them with necessary skills and knowledge for their future careers and contribution to the society. This philosophy does not, however, only apply to the education sector but also to the business environment, where future business leaders are nurtured.

With this in mind, TRG has cooperated with RMIT to organise several workshops and talks to promote this concept as well as create networking opportunities for students, universities and business people. Rick Yvanovich, founder and CEO of TRG, has spoken at several workshops held by RMIT such as “Self-Discovery”, “Start-Up 101”. Recently, he has been invited to give a talk on business ethics and leadership behavior at a leadership training session organised by AIESEC (*) at RMIT on April 12th 2013.  

TRG currently has many interns recruited from RMIT. During their internship, they are trained, developed and potentially retained under the company’s graduate scheme, which is a pathway towards permanent employment. Huy Tran, a RMIT former student now an official employee of TRG comments: “At TRG I am offered opportunities to take the initiative and propose ideas, which helps not only in self-development but also career progression. From an intern to a marketing executive, I am glad to have acquired a lot of skills, especially leadership ones”.

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About TRG                           

TRG is a market-leading global professional services firm focused on delivering technical excellence. TRG adds value in a challenging and dynamic market by delivering the right IT solutions that work quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing our customers up to focus on their core. We do this by hiring people we believe in, and who believe in TRG, and empowering them with the skills and processes to outthink our competitors and deliver genuinely better solutions for our customers. We are a genuine consultant and partner who deeply understands the challenges of our customers’ business and is always ready to go the extra mile to deliver exactly the right solution for them. It is not about what we sell, it is all about how we think. Our solutions include: Financial Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Retail Management, Virtualisation, Hospitality and People Performance Management. To discover more about TRG, please visit http://trginternational.com

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(*)AIESEC is the world's largest youth-run organisation, focusing on providing a platform for youth leadership development.

Hanoi, April 2nd, 2013 - TRG is delighted to announce that from 1st April 2013, we have moved to our new office to downtown of Hanoi capital. The relocation by TRG moves our Hanoi office to Hoan Kiem district, a known CBD of Hanoi capital, where we believe to give better access and support to our clients as well as better working environment to our staff.

“From my office window, I can look straight to Hoan Kiem lake with beautiful scenery where I find it very relaxing and encouraging when coming to work. All of us here in Hanoi office are excited to move in this new location as we are very pleased with the working condition.” – said Ms. Nguyen Thi Le Hang  – Senior Business Development Manager at TRG Hanoi Office.

Please find our new office at:

Unit 1310, Business Centre
13th Floor BIDV Tower
194 Tran Quang Khai Street
Hoan Kiem District
Hanoi
Vietnam

Please note our new numbers:

Telephone:         84-4- 3935 2820
Fax:                  84-4- 3925 2800

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About TRG

TRG is a market-leading global professional services firm focused on delivering technical excellence. TRG adds value in a challenging and dynamic market by delivering the right IT solutions that work quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing our customers up to focus on their core. We are a genuine consultant and partner who deeply understands the challenges of our customers’ business and is always ready to deliver exactly the right solution for them. Our solutions include: Financial Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Retail Management, Virtualisation, Hospitality and People Performance Management. http://trginternational.com

Following TRG's seminar entitled "Office of the CFO: Change the way work is done", Saigon Entrepreneurs (Doanh Nhan Sai Gon) magazine and Business Forum (Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep) published their articles on the event as well as on some of the topics discussed by our event speakers, including:

• The Office of the CFO concept
• Complete Financial Management
• Performance Management
• Governance, Risk and Control
• Business Insight

Saigon Entrepreneurs magazine re-emphasised the changing roles of CFOs as well as actions needed to cope with increasing pressures in today's complex world. Meanwhile, Business Forum gave a brief description of the event held by TRG, sponsored by CIMA and Infor.

The articles are in Vietnamese and can be found below.

TRG on Saigon Entrepreneurs magazine:

TRG on Business Forum.

HCM City – March 21st 2013 – Speakers from TRG, CIMA and Infor walked the audience through the Office of the CFO concept for the first time at an event held on March 20th at New World Hotel.

Sponsored by CIMA and Infor, the morning seminar entitled “Office of the CFO: Change the way work is done” was organised by TRG. Around 140 CFOs, CEOs, chief accountants, high level management and senior staff from 90 companies attended the event.

Guests were greeted with light refreshments before proceeding to the one and a half hour presentation by 4 speakers. They were Rick Yvanovich FCMA CGMA FCPA (Aust) – TRG’s CEO, Pham Hong Thai– TRG’s Deputy General Manager, Venkkat Ramanan - Head of South East Asia, CIMA and Richard Wan - Senior Manager, Financial Solutions Group, ASEAN, Infor. Through lively presentation and examples, attendees learned about:

• The Office of the CFO concept: Changing roles of the CFO, evolving operating model
• Complete Financial Management: Adapt to changing business needs, eliminate manual processes, and get the information you need even before you need it
• Performance Management: A robust business model, the 4 Rs theory and the importance of a performance management system
• Governance, Risk and Control: GRC frameworks, best practices and enabling technology
• Business Insight: Real-time, in-context business intelligence

In the final Q & A panel session, the speakers shared their views and advice in a variety of business challenges such as planning, budgeting, strategy and process automation. Moreover, the networking session afterwards gave guests plenty of opportunities to mingle with speakers and dedicated consultants from TRG, who would address additional questions with personalised treatment.

Even though this was the first time TRG had organised an event on the Office of the CFO concept, the feedback received was generally encouraging. Rick Yvanovich, TRG’s CEO, said: “Being a management accountant myself, I understand the pressures on CFOs and finance professionals nowadays are high. Therefore, we strive to address what really matters and outline what we know by heart will help them overcome the challenges in today’s complex world”.

Pham Hong Thai, Deputy General Manager of TRG said: “By putting together an event of this scale, we hope to get closer to the businesses and convey the message that they are not alone in finding out what the best approaches or solutions are. As always, we appreciate all the input in order to serve them better in the future”.

Here are some photos from the event:

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About TRG

TRG is a market-leading global professional services firm focused on delivering technical excellence. TRG adds value in a challenging and dynamic market by delivering the right IT solutions that work quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing our customers up to focus on their core. We do this by hiring people we believe in, and who believe in TRG, and empowering them with the skills and processes to outthink our competitors and deliver genuinely better solutions for our customers. We are a genuine consultant and partner who deeply understands the challenges of our customers’ business and is always ready to go the extra mile to deliver exactly the right solution for them. It is not about what we sell, it is all about how we think. Our solutions include: Financial Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Retail Management, Virtualisation, Hospitality and People Performance Management. To discover more about TRG, please visit www.trginternational.com

HCM City – March 8th 2013 – TRG’s ladies had their day brightened by the male co-workers in the spirit of International Women’s Day. As with all events, this is a chance for us to foster a corporate culture of passion and support.

From the moment the ladies walked into the door this morning, they would be greeted by a noticeboard pinned with warm wishes from all the men. The next surprise was a rose on each lady’s desk, carefully wrapped in decorative paper. It did not end there. When we gathered for a brief in-house party, which was prepared by TRG’s male interns, our ladies enjoyed live acoustic and vocal performances by some talented co-workers.

Thu Nguyen – one of TRG’s senior Application Consultants – expresses her gratitude: “We were all delighted with the surprises the men had given us. They were really sweet and caring”.

Being an IT company focused on delivering technical excellence means we have to be ready and available whenever our customers need us. It also means working overtime, overseas business trips, which requires stamina and resilience. Yet roughly half of our employees are female with nearly a quarter operating in technical functions.  “On this special occasion, on behalf of all TRG’s men, I’d like to thank all the ladies not only for their hard work but also for their devotion to making the world a beautiful place”, says Thai Pham – Deputy General Director.

Some photos from today's celebration:

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About TRG

TRG is a market-leading global professional services firm focused on delivering technical excellence. TRG adds value in a challenging and dynamic market by delivering the right IT solutions that work quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing our customers up to focus on their core. We are a genuine consultant and partner who deeply understands the challenges of our customers’ business and is always ready to deliver exactly the right solution for them. Our solutions include: Financial Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Retail Management, Virtualisation, Hospitality and People Performance Management. http://trginternational.com

HCM City – March 6th 2013 – TRG, one of Vietnam’s leading technology providers, originally brought Citrix virtualisation software to the country. TRG is proud to continue its partnership with Citrix as a Silver Solution Advisor. Our membership renewal to the Citrix Partner Network marks a 14-year journey with the world’s top virtualisation and enterprise mobility solutions vendor.

Solid experience – Solid partnership

The Citrix Partner Network consists of over 10,000 members in over 100 countries.

TRG is certified and authorised to sell multiple products from the Enterprise mobility, Cloud platforms and App & Desktop virtualisation categories. Since 1999, TRG has implemented and supported hundreds of Citrix users. The most popular virtualisation products that we sell include XenDesktop, XenApp and XenServer.

Our dedicated staff hold multiple Citrix certifications as Engineers and Administrators. Cuong Le - our Customer Support Director - was one of the first people in Vietnam to be Citrix certified back in the late 1990s. He says: “Being one of the pioneers in this area means that as an organisation we need to lead in terms of both service availability and quality, which is why we insist on our team being heavily and properly certified. We’re glad to be trusted by our clients, including some of Vietnam’s biggest companies”.

Rick Yvanovich – CEO of TRG – says: “We highly value our relationship with Citrix, one of our main software vendors. By partnering, we can always ensure our knowledge and technology are up to speed to help our customers to shine”.

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About TRG

TRG is a market-leading global professional services firm focused on delivering technical excellence. TRG adds value in a challenging and dynamic market by delivering the right IT solutions that work quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing our customers up to focus on their core. We are a genuine consultant and partner who deeply understands the challenges of our customers’ business and is always ready to deliver exactly the right solution for them. Our solutions include: Financial Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Retail Management, Virtualisation, Hospitality and People Performance Management. http://trginternational.com

As the Lunar year of 2012 draws to an end, we are delighted to hear that our founder and CEO – Rick Yvanovich, was shortlisted for the top 100 Business Style Awards and nominated for the “Entrepreneur running a global company” category. This has added to a year of extending brand recognition, along with TRG’s rebrand launch in November 2012.

The Top 100 Business Style Awards (*), now in its third year, are co-organised by Phong Cach Doanh Nhan (Business Style) publication, community network Bstyle.vn and Phong Cach Doanh Nhan Club under guidance from Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and support from Royal Salute. Chosen from thousands of candidates nominated by associations and organisations across Vietnam, Rick Yvanovich was among 100 entrepreneurs honoured for their achievements not only in running their own businesses but also giving back to the community.

Rick Yvanovich at the awards ceremony

Having lived in Vietnam for more than 22 years, Rick has overcome language and cultural barriers to successfully lead TRG to where it is today. From a small group of employees in 1994, TRG has now grown to support thousands of customers in nearly 70 countries, including big names globally and domestically such as Hilton, Novotel, VMS, Bao Viet etc. Although the global economic downturn has hit many, TRG is still moving forward due to its commitment to learning and growth, with Rick creating opportunities for both internal and external training. His passion for continuous improvement has earned him a nomination for the “Entrepreneur running a global company” award.

Being asked about his achievements, Rick shared: “Living and working in Vietnam for over 22 years is a remarkable achievement of my life. Being able to work and contribute to the success of the people, families, partners, and organizations that I have worked with is also a great reward to me”.

A modern businessman is not all about doing business, but also contributing to the community he is working in. With that in mind, Rick has encouraged TRG employees and participated himself in various CSR events such as tree planting, blood donation, Earth Hour, coastal clean-up, orphanage visits, fun runs for charity (BBGV and Terry Fox). The list is already made longer with new activities added for 2013. “Each of us is a cell in society and let’s act for the sake of that society” – Rick said.

 

Rick Yvanovich along with other nominees for “Entrepreneur running a global company” award

Rick Yvanovich on Top 100 Business Style Awards publication

(*) The Top 100 Business Style Awards ceremony took place at Sheraton on January 22nd 2013.

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About TRG

TRG is a market-leading global professional services firm focused on delivering technical excellence. TRG adds value in a challenging and dynamic market by delivering the right IT solutions to work quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing our customers up to focus on their core. We do this by hiring people we believe in, and who believe in TRG, and empowering them with the skills and processes to outthink our competitors and deliver genuinely better solutions for our customers. We are a genuine consultant and partner who deeply understands the challenges of our customers business and is always ready to go the extra mile to deliver exactly the right solution for them. It’s not about what we sell, it is all about how we think. Our solutions include: Financial Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Retail Management, Virtualisation, Hospitality and People Performance Management. To discover more about TRG, please visit www.trginternational.com

HCM City, January 23rd 2013 - TRG International will organise a blood donation event on February 1st 2013 in collaboration with HCM City's Humanitarian Blood Donation centre.

This is the first out of the 3 annual blood donation drives TRG is committed to participating. As the Lunar New Year approaches, TRG believes it is the best gift to give people - the gift of life. Blood donors only have to be in basic good health and free from diseases such as Hepatitis B and C, syphilis, HIV/AIDS virus etc., and they could save the lives of many.

The next two blood donation events will be in June and October.

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About TRG

TRG is a market-leading global professional services firm focused on delivering technical excellence. TRG adds value in a challenging and dynamic market by delivering the right IT solutions to work quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing our customers up to focus on their core. We do this by hiring people we believe in, and who believe in TRG, and empowering them with the skills and processes to outthink our competitors and deliver genuinely better solutions for our customers. We are a genuine consultant and partner who deeply understands the challenges of our customers business and is always ready to go the extra mile to deliver exactly the right solution for them. It’s not about what we sell, it is all about how we think. Our solutions include: Financial Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Retail Management, Virtualisation, Hospitality and People Performance Management. To discover more about TRG, please visit www.trginternational.com