Originally part of Singapore’s National Computer Board set up in 1981, NCS has provided ICT and communications engineering services in Singapore for the past 30 years. eGov Innovation speaks with Lai Weng Yew, Vice President of Business Application Services at NCS, to discuss digital transformation in the public sector, smart city initiatives and NCS’s recent projects.
Q: What is NCS’s role in Singapore’s Smart Nation Initiative?
As a leading ICT service provider in Singapore for the past 30 years, NCS has played a part in defining Singapore’s e-government landscape. The systems we built and delivered have helped drive greater efficiency and productivity, enable the delivery of one-stop services and transform citizen engagement across the public sector.
Supporting Singapore’s next phase of the Smart Nation initiative, NCS has conceived Solutions for Urbanised Future (SURF) in 2012, a living lab for public agencies and commercial enterprises to create and test-bed smart city innovations. NCS will leverage on its strengths – our strong domain knowledge in areas such as e-government, our technical expertise and communications capabilities of our parent company Singtel – to create solutions for the future.
Q: What are some of NCS’s most significant recent projects?
In the area of transport, NCS won the bid with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engine Systems Asia Pte Ltd (MHIES-A) to deliver a next-generation Electronic Road Pricing system for the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore. The new system will make use of advanced satellite technology for congestion management. It is first-of-its-kind to be implemented nation-wide in an urban environment. NCS will serve as the technology integrator while MHIES-A will supply roadside infrastructure and vehicle on-board units. The new system is expected to be implemented progressively from 2020.
In education, we are collaborating with Singapore Polytechnic and Cisco to create a smart campus that will be a blueprint for other Smart Nation projects. The solution will use advanced sensors, devices, networks and data to deliver services that will boost teaching, learning and operational efficiency to create a future-ready campus.
In the area of healthcare, NCS has developed a Continuous Care Management (CCM) solution which will help healthcare institutions and agencies provide better care for an ageing population and manage healthcare costs. CCM enables healthcare providers to remotely engage with patients to manage chronic illnesses while patients recuperate at home. Doctors and caregivers can track patients’ conditions and receive alerts about clinical anomalies through the CCM solution and IOT connected health monitoring devices.
Q: Cities around the world are embarking on smart city initiatives. What impact does this have on government agencies and enterprises?
Rapid urbanization has led to an increased demand for services such as healthcare, transportation and education. Strong economies have led to growing expectations of their population in terms of lifestyle. At the same time, cities have to grapple with increased security and safety threats.
To manage this wave of change, digital transformation and innovation will be paramount to the success of smart cities. Governments and enterprises must leverage on digital technologies to deliver stake-holder centric services for their customers. Government agencies will be faced with the challenge of delivering citizen-centric services. Next generation technologies can be leveraged to achieve this:
- Integrated & seamless services - next-generation services such as harmonized work flow processes, data sharing policies and knowledge sharing
- Stakeholder-centric & point-of-need services – making informed decision driven and backed by analytics.
- Future-ready workforce - future of work processes, comprehensive training curriculum and knowledge exchange.
- Transparent policy-making – centralized governance and citizen intimacy through social media communication
Q: What’s the difference between “Digital Technologies” and “Digital Transformation”?
“Digital Technologies”, which NCS defines as Social, Mobility, Analytics, Cloud + Internet of Things (SMAC+I), enable the desired processes while “Digital Transformation” results in broader outcomes, which are customer intimacy, operational efficiency and digital business models. The implementation and adoption of “Digital Technologies” are part of the “Digital Transformation” journey.
Q: What are the challenges faced by government agencies in the process of digital transformation and how can they be overcome?
Building future-ready cities is not just about building high-tech infrastructures and adopting emerging technologies. Governments need to assess their technological infrastructures from within and work out their transformation journeys to align with its smart city goals.
Very often, they are faced with the challenge of enhancing management and administration systems supported by numerous silos systems. This could further complicate matters when new solutions are added onto existing ones to address varying needs and requirements. It will then take an agile system to integrate and analyze different sets of data to achieve greater situational awareness and operational efficiency. NCS believes that it is imperative to harness the wealth of data available to us today into actionable insights instrumental to the pillars of a truly smart and safe nation.
Q: What advice do you have for government agencies undergoing digital transformation?
To kick start their digital transformation journey, government agencies can gather its stakeholders to establish a common digital goal that is aligned to the city vision.
Next, an in-depth review of existing processes needs to be conducted to assess areas where digitisation can be made possible - with the aim of optimizing operations and delivering more citizen-centric services to meet the needs of citizens.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Tan Wee Kwang
Quelle/Source: Enterprise Innovation, 16.05.2016
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
