The game of Tanca

After announcing the cooperation with LarkSuite (Singapore), last June was quite a busy time for Tran Viet Quan, founder of Tanca when he had to recruit more sales staff for the Company's upcoming expansion plan.

Expanding personnel in the context of many companies having to cut staff due to economic difficulties. This move against the market trend is also not the first time in Tanca.

At the time of Tanca's establishment, most businesses providing software as a service (SaaS) chose the web as the form of solution delivery for businesses, meanwhile, the platform chose to provide it via mobile applications.

When many startups take time to approach large businesses, since the second year, Tanca has been a timekeeping solution provider for long-standing listed businesses and large technology companies in Vietnam.

The secret of Quan is simple, providing the right solution the market needs. Most businesses have fingerprint time attendance machines, but the data output from these machines cannot be linked to the existing software system of the business. To solve this, the human resources department has to manually input data from these devices and output it into other systems.

Even when facial recognition camera timekeeping appears, there is still a gap in the synchronization of data from timekeeping systems with the main system. No one on the market has dealt with this problem and that's an opportunity for Tanca. “We are not creating new demand. We simply do a good job of a need that should have been solved a long time ago, which every human resources department needs,” said Quan.

When the synchronization of time attendance data is easier and more accurate, Tanca began to provide the feature of arranging work shifts, approving shifts, calculating salary based on work performance, etc., which reduces the workload by 70%. of the human resources department and digitize 90% of the traditional approval process.

After 5 years of providing solutions to the market, the Company is serving 2,000 businesses and temporarily leading the market share of timekeeping solutions for businesses. A better outcome for a startup that has gone through the pandemic and has never raised capital like Tanca.

Quan said that he founded Tanca after a request from a friend who owns 3 coffee shops when he was confused about timekeeping and shift arrangement. At first, he thought it was quite simple, but he was wrong. "I did a survey and found that at that time there were not many units providing this solution," he said.

After solving the problem of timekeeping for a friend's cafe, Quan began to try his hand at selling the solution to the market. At the time of 2018, digital transformation began to develop in Vietnamese businesses with many famous names at that time such as Base.vn, 1office.vn...

Competitive "door" providing solutions for businesses Mid-range businesses are narrow when comparing Tanca with digital transformation businesses born before. As for small and medium enterprises, Tanca's internal survey shows that the maximum payment of these businesses for all technology solutions for business is 25 million VND/year.

To survive, the Tanca solution must cost less than that, but the problem is that the Company cannot know which solution the business is using and how much to invest in it. "To get out of that vicious circle, Tanca's solution must meet the right needs with the price "without thinking" and reach a large number of businesses," Quan said.

Quan offers two strategies. Firstly, the Company positions its brand in providing timekeeping solutions. Second, Tanca will release the mobile application first because it is easy to reach customers. On the other hand, customers are also easy to apply to the current workflow. Having a trial period (about 15 days) will make upgrading to the licensed version easier.

His experience as a Communications Director at a game publishing company and a smartphone business helps Quan understand that in order for the application to be accepted, it must be as simple to use as possible. That way, the Company also saves on training costs for customers to use the solution.

After referring to the design language of popular global timekeeping applications such as Deputy, DingTalk, BambooHR, and Workday, Quan found that fewer buttons are optimal because it is both convenient for users and increases accuracy. determined by the system.

These two strategies have helped Tanca not only earn revenue but also unlock more specialized services than web-based shift placement for businesses. It must also be added that distribution on the web helps the Company to make better profits because distribution on the application will have to share profits with Google and Apple (about 30% of the selling price).

Although the situation is quite favorable for Tanca, the company's head so far has not dared to open up to investors because he has not found the best development direction for the Company. If receiving capital to finance the selling price and attract customers, according to Quan, is not the way to develop sustainably.

If receiving capital and expanding other services, stepping out of human resource solutions, and competing with units providing comprehensive digital transformation solutions for businesses, that is not Tanca's strength. , footfall is inevitable.

However, things can change after shaking hands with Lark Suite, a company that provides office suites with a presence in 125 countries. Currently, Tanca is the first partner in Vietnam to successfully integrate the ISV system (independent software supplier).

By doing this, Tanca can offer its solution to existing Lark Suite customers. According to Quan, providing services to 100,000 customers in Vietnam is very difficult, but the same number in 100 countries is a completely achievable goal when the company's products have been proven by the same market. more competitive price thanks to the cost advantage when located in Vietnam.

In fact, before partnering with Lark Suite, Tanca had clients in Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines and USA. Mr. Quan said the company is aggressively recruiting personnel to serve the target of 100,000 global customers. "Lack of investment capital may not build a sustainable business, but without human resources, it certainly cannot," said Quan.