Singapore Business Review (July-September 2021)

Issue No. 96

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RANKING THE SIZE OF SINGAPORE’S BANKS FOR 2021 MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS ON THE REBOUND HOW RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY ARE SURVIVING YEAR TWO OF COVID-19 WHEN WORK-FROM-HOME CLOUDS OUT LIFE-AT-HOME

THE

AWARDS ISSUE

CELEBRATING THE BEST TECH AND BUSINESS PROJECTS FROM ACROSS SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA

FROM THE EDITOR About Us

S

ingapore hit a bit of a snag in its recovery progress as COVID-19 cases resurged. Nevertheless, the government and investors alike still look to the Lion City, optimistic that it shall roar again. In this issue of Singapore Business Review, we look into the resilient spirit of the Singaporeans, and to the companies who did not give up at times of adversity.

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PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Tim Charlton MANAGING EDITOR Paul Howell PRODUCTION EDITOR Janine Ballesteros PRODUCTION TEAM Lucia De Guzman Fidea Encarnacion Djan Magbanua GRAPHIC ARTIST Mark Simon Engracial II ADVERTISING CONTACT Aileen Cruz aileen@charltonmediamail.com Karisse Coderes karisse@charltonmediamail.com Reiniela Hernandez reiniela@charltonmediamail.com ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT accounts@charltonmediamail.com

The tourism and hospitality sector, amongst the hardest hit by the pandemic, is working on finding its footing. From travel bubbles, vaccination rollouts and leveraging on new opportunities, find out how on page 26.

With the pandemic came a need to digitalise almost every aspect of daily life, with laws and regulations playing catch up to keep people safe. How has the Electronic Transactions (Amendment) Act of 2021 helped in this endeavour? Find out in page 20.

This issue also features the winners of the Singapore Technology Excellence Awards, Singapore Business Awards, Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards and the Malaysia Business Awards. Head over to pages 38, 62, 76 and 92 for the full list of winners.

Enjoy the issue!

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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CONTENTS

26

SECTOR REPORT RECOVERY RELIES ON BORDER RESTRICTIONS EASING

FIRST 08 Cooling measures expected for heated private residential market:

FINANCIAL INSIGHT 18 Singapore still taking the lion’s share of Southeast Asian M&A deals

analysts

09 Singapore firms are sitting ducks for cyberattack risks

10 Singaporeans are turning into penny pinchers

STARTUPS 12 STACS’ ambitious battle strategy against a five-decade old business model

13 STACS’ ambitious battle strategy

12

STARTUP STACS’ AMBITIOUS BATTLE STRATEGY AGAINST A FIVEDECADE OLD BUSINESS MODEL

32

RANKINGS DIGITISATION CREEPS INTO SINGAPORE BANKS’, EVEN VIA NONTECH ROLES

SECTOR REPORT 26 Recovery relies on border restrictions easing

EVENTS

BRIEFINGS 20 The Electronic Transaction Amendment Act: Is this a step to the digital future?

38 Recognising Singapore’s most

22 ‘Me-First’ mindset looks set to drive new consumer trends in Singapore, Asia

62 Singapore Business Review

24 Helping staff to draw the fine line between work-from-home, and lifeat-home

against a five-decade old business model Published Quarterly on the Second week of the Month by Charlton Media Group 101 Cecil St. #17-09 Tong Eng Building 2 SINGAPORE MARCH 2018 2021 SingaporeBUSINESS 069533 REVIEW ||SEPTEMBER

dynamic and innovative digital projects for 2021 recognises top winners for International and National Business Awards

76 Find out who won at the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2021

92 Top local and multinational firms hailed in Malaysia’s most celebrated business awards

For the latest business news from Singapore visit the website

www.sbr.com.sg

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News from sbr.com.sg Daily news from Singapore MOST READ

AVIATION

SIA leaves key privitasation decision to its shareholders Singapore Airlines replied to inquiries from stakeholders on large loans and the future of the flag carrier, following its multi-billion net loss for 2020. The Securities Investors Association Singapore (SIAS) had questioned the aviation firm’s decision to issue a $6.2b mandatory convertible bond. The SIAS also floated the possibility of privitasation to stymie SIA’s losses as the pandemic continues.

HR & EDUCATION

AVIATION

The top ten most attractive companies to work for revealed Procter & Gamble, Changi Airport, and the SEA group were the top three in Randstad’s Most Attractive Employers in Singapore rankings for 2021. This was the second time in the row that Procter & Gamble bagged the top spot. The companies rounding up the top employer rankings are Singapore Airlines, DBS Group, Dyson, UBS, Unilever, IBM and also Resorts World Sentosa.

ASEAN locks down region-to-region aviation agreement with EU The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) have successfully conducted negotiations on the ASEAN-EU Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement (AE CATA). This is the first region-to-region aviation agreement in the world, and would enhance air connectivity, and facilitate peopleto-people and business exchanges between the regions. It will apply to 37 member states.

Using Technology and Culture to Build Employee Engagement

By Sudhanshu Tewari The modern employee does not view work in the same way as other generations; they expect to work for multiple employers throughout their working lives. Studies show that the one of the main reasons for leaving a job is a toxic work and culture environment, often caused by poor management. Lack of opportunities, inability to apply their skills, and poor pay and benefits are also cited as important reasons.

The G7 Tax Deal Should Motivate Singapore to Leverage its Advantages

By Benjamin Lim While nuanced and dependent on the final agreed framework, the G7 minimum tax deal is likely to affect Singapore in a few ways.

The Pillar One proposals may have some impact on Singapore. Given its relatively small market size and consumer base, it is expected that Singapore could lose tax revenue if the new rules take effect. Pillar Pillar Two will have more wider-reaching implications for business.

MOST READ COMMENTARY With the Single Family Office, Singapore’s VCC Can Be a World Leader

By Eric Chin Singapore’s introduction of the Variable Capital Company (VCC) investment vehicle in early 2020 was lauded by many as a ‘gamechanger’.

The VCC brought Singapore into the same realm as other global investment titans by allowing investors to hold multiple segregated sub-funds under one umbrella fund.

As a result, more than 200 VCCs have been formed to date, creating an upswing in investment.

4 4

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2019 SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

MOBILE - LIFE INSURANCE API - BUSINESS INSURANCE

NTUC Income wins Mobile - Life Insurance and API Business Insurance at the SBR TEA 2021 Income rolled out SNACK and GigSurance, making insurance simpler for consumers.

Max Tiong, Head of Digital Transformation at Income

A

s one of Singapore’s leading digital and multi-channel insurers, NTUC Income (Income) is driven to innovate and push boundaries to meet consumers’ ever-evolving needs. Staying true to Income’s aspiration to make insurance accessible to all Singaporeans led to these two awardwinning solutions that target new segments in the community, keeping insurance accessible to freelancers and young adults who are just starting out in their careers.

Through strategic partnerships with best-in-class digital ecosystem partners, Income rolled out two new insurance models in 2020 – SNACK and GigSurance – that take into consideration today’s evolving needs to transform how consumers engage with insurance, making it simpler, flexible, more affordable and embedded into their lifestyles.

SNACK by Income & SNACKUP: Income launched SNACK by Income in June 2020, a novel lifestyle based micro insurance model offering Term Life, Accident, and Critical Illness protection via bite-sized premiums, starting from $0.30. By linking policy issuance to lifestyle activities such as taking public transport or paying for groceries and dining at restaurants, the insured decides when and how frequent premiums are paid.

The success of SNACK was followed

by SNACKUP, an extension that allows consumers to build complimentary insurance coverage, contributed entirely by merchant and participating brands, when they spend with their Visa cards. This provides a novel

way for consumers to build their insurance coverage faster and for merchants, it enables a new dimension for them to reward customers via insurance. SNACK and SNACKUP lower the barrier to entry, facilitating consumers’ ease of cash flow with the benefit of stacking insurance protection.

To-date, more than $50 million sum assured has been accumulated by SNACK customers.

SNACK’s customer engagement has grown by 50% in the first quarter this year. SNACK continues to work with like-minded partners to identify opportunities to bring SNACK’s architecture and product offerings to more consumers in Singapore and across the region.

GigSurance: The gig economy in Singapore has grown in recent years. According to official figures from MOM, in 2019, independent workers accounted for nearly 9% of the local workforce, or 211,000 residents. Of them, more than 80% did freelance work as their primary job. With COVID-19, the demand for services such as logistics and delivery have surged especially during the Circuit Breaker period. This in turn fueled the appeal of gigbased work in Singapore.

Anchoring on FastJob’s service to link gig workers to available temporary roles via their FastGIG technology platform, Income launched in July 2020 its first truly usage-based personal accident insurance, GigSurance – with the aim to bridge the protection gap for gig workers. GigSurance enables gig workers on FastGIG to be covered for the exact period down to the hours, during which they are engaged in their gig-based work.

Leveraging technologies and integrating via APIs, GigSurance created a value proposition that redefines employee benefit for the gig economy by reducing the financial commitment traditionally required by a company for group insurance products.

Insurance premiums are no longer based on a 12-month annual term, but instead hourly

micro-premiums are charged based on the type of gig assignments. Companies can now cover gig workers with GigSurance real-time policy issuance whenever a gig worker clocks in to work or takes on an assignment.

GigSurance has lowered the barrier to entry for companies looking to provide insurance coverage for their gig workers, or casual labour force, while making insurance accessible to gig workers who are sometimes overlooked and hence vulnerable if they do not have adequate coverage. They are an increasing segment of the digital economy and should be protected by insurance coverage as accidents and mishaps can occur during the course of their gig-based work.

Max Tiong, Head of Digital Transformation at Income shared “It’s encouraging to see our efforts to plug the protection gap in these segments being recognised. The high scalability of GigSurance and SNACK also enables us to extend the offering to other like-minded partners who want a platform with such protection benefits for their employees, freelancers, members or customers. The growing traction we see is testament that SNACK and SNACKUP are indeed game changers both within the insurance landscape and also in the larger connected ecosystem beyond insurance.”

SNACK, SNACKUP and GigSurance are proof of Income’s relentless commitment towards delivering products, services and customer experiences that are relevant, personalised to fit individual needs, and truly #MadeYours.

SNACKUP

The high scalability of GigSurance and SNACK enables us to extend the offering to other like-minded partners who want a platform with such protection benefits for their employees, freelancers, members or customers.

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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AGENDA PEOPLE | PLACES | SERVICES | OPPORTUNITIES

OPPORTUNITIES

SP DIGITAL SP Digital (SPD), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SP Group, was incorporated to spearhead SP Group’s digital transformation and sustainability goals. Driven by our mission to Power Sustainability with EnergyTech, SPD leverages the latest innovations in technology to deliver solutions for SP’s various business units and the built environment.

We do this by providing consumers and businesses with timely data for decision making; and leveraging technology to optimize operations and deliver value.

OPPORTUNITIES

S P JAIN SCHOOL OF GLOBAL MANAGEMENT S P Jain School of Global Management (SP Jain) is an Australian business school with campuses in Mumbai, Dubai, Singapore and Sydney. The School offers a plethora of undergraduate, postgraduate, professional and doctoral programs with a motive of crafting leaders for the 21st century workplace. The learning experience provided by them is modern, relevant and truly global. Their full-time MBA programs have significant recognition as evinced through global rankings by Forbes, The Economist and The Financial Times to name a few.

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

HUMAN RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY

Lightning-Fast Expansion: How a Singaporean manufacturer accelerated market entry and testing Globalization Partners took home the SBR International Business Award for Human Resource Technology Lee, Corporate Finance and Business Controller at Ecolex.

Finding the right service provider is not as easy as it sounds. A global expansion partner should be zealous in respecting international labor law, experienced in compliance, and quick on their feet.

Charles Ferguson, general manager for Asia Pacific, Globalization Partners’

T

he Customer Ecolex is a bioscience based enterprise headquartered in Singapore The Challenge Ecolex was looking to hire talent outside of their home market, in the U.S. When Ecolex evaluated options, they found providers, but each were limited to payroll processing, accounting, and tax services – there was no single global remote work technology that covered all of their needs. They also prioritised looking for a partner that would stay on top of changing, complex international regulations.

“Not only is it costly to assimilate to local tax laws, the U.S. framework is extremely complex, whilst Japan has another set of rules. I’d rather leave it to experts than dedicate our own resources to a resourceand time-consuming task,” said Rosalind

The Solution Ecolex decided to team up with an efficient ally, relying on an Employer of Record (EOR) to bypass growing pains. This partnership enabled the company to quickly expand into other markets for product testing prior to entity setup.

“Going to an EOR is definitely the best choice at a company’s early growth stage.

As your business scales, hiring via an EOR means you can continue to grow seamlessly until reaching the critical mass that justifies setting up a legal entity,” said Lee. Globalization Partner’s end-to-end solution provided not only a platform for payroll and expense reports — it lifted the risk of hiring internationally.

“What most impressed me was seeing all the contracts available — the formats Globalization Partners is able to generate in an astoundingly short period of time and at a granular level. All contracts fully comply with the internal laws of the countries considered,” said Lee. The Benefits Fast delivery for fast expansion One of Globalization Partners’ main advantages is a local presence with a global reach.

“Globalization Partners’ team is on the lookout for our needs and concerns at any time of day. They have compliance on lockdown, particularly pertaining to EP issues,” said Lee. Global expertise, local support Ecolex gained access to a full-service

platform that bypasses the need for thirdparty advice and provides a one-stop-shop global growth solution. In parallel, Ecolex now has access to in-country experts, ready to cater to all HR and compliance needs.

“Globalization Partners’ platform provides total visibility of the teams we set up in other countries. We know that with a simple click, we could be going to the next market,” said Lee. A growth-oriented ally Companies in growth mode need to rely on partners that will grow in tandem with them.

Ecolex values the added edge that provides.

“We always like to work with people that are in growth mode. Our energy and our passion always contrast with companies that are already stagnant. We are fighting to consolidate our footprint and are exploring new ideas, opportunities, and products on a daily basis. We see that same energy when working with Globalization Partners.”

The Result By relying on Globalization Partners’ streamlined global employment technology, companies such as Ecolex can focus time and resources on what they do best: growing their business.

“We are now able to focus our efforts on one of the fastest-growing countries in Northeast Asia. By unlocking a local presence, we can provide a more specialised, technical offering to our customers that a distributor cannot,” Lee explained.

The Ecolex team feels confident expanding wherever demand is detected.

The company unlocked the ability to seamlessly integrate teams of local talent, invaluable when it comes to consolidating a local footprint in a new market. “We will also be looking to use Globalization Partners’ platform to consolidate a team in Argentina.”

Globalization Partners’ platform provides total visibility of the teams we set up in other countries. We know that with a simple click, we could be going to the next market SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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FIRST

As the residential property market heats up, the authorities are poised to step in

Cooling measures expected for heated private residential market: analysts

S

ingapore home prices increased for the fourth quarter in a row over the first quarter of 2021, up 3.3%, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). This was also the steepest growth rate recorded since the 3.4% increase that was registered in the second quarter of 2018.

Prices of landed property posted a rebound from the 1.6% decline in Q4, 2020 to 6.7% in Q1, 2021.

Prices of non-landed property increased at a slightly lower 2.5% in the first quarter compared to the 3.0% in the quarter previous, driven by a 6.1% price quarter-on-quarter increase recorded in the Rest of Central Region (RCR). This was buoyed by new launches such as the Normanton Park and the Reef At King’s Dock. Prices in the Core Central Region (CCR) increased by 0.5%, following a 3.2% increase in the quarter previous.

Home prices in the Outside Central Region (OCR) likewise grew in a slower 1.1% compared to the previous 1.8% due to a lack of new launches.

Rentals of private residential properties increased by a whopping 2.2%, compared to the almost flat 0.1% that was recorded in 8

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

the previous quarter.

Overall, developers sold a total of 3.493 new private homes in the first quarter, excluding executive condos, a 62.5% increase from the 2,149 units sold in the first quarter of 2020.

In the private home resale market, transactions more than doubled to 4,519 in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the 2,080 in the first quarter of 2020, the highest number of resale units sold in a

quarter since the 4,700 recorded in the second quarter of 2018.

Propnex CEO Ismail Gafoor noted that the average transacted quantity for the region for new private homes was at $1.6 m, a palatable price for many buyers.

Barring government measures to cool down the market, Propnex anticipates more than 10,000 new private homes to be sold in 2021, and more than 12,000 resold.

PropertyGuru Singapore’s Country Manager Tan Tee Khoon said that it expects the government to tighten measures to prevent investors from buying additional property to prevent the market from overheating.

“The government may tighten measures targeted at investors who own multiple properties, such as increasing the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) or reverting the Seller’s Stamp Duty holding period to four years.

Given that overleveraging is a concern, the government may also tighten the Loanto-Value limit which is currently capped at 75% for first-time home buyers taking a bank loan, potentially pricing first-time home buyers out of the private market as a reduction of a few percentage points could translate to tens of thousands more required in down payment,” Tan added.

CBRE Research and Cushman & Wakefield likewise said the government might implement cooling measures soon.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it predicted that new home sales figures for 2021 could potentially fall much closer to the 10,000 unit benchmark.

“In the longer term, the potential reopening of borders will also bring about the return of foreign investors to the residential market,” CBRE said in a report.

Residential units sold per month

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FIRST 90% of those who do pay cyberattackers will just make themselves even more vulnerable to a second data breach later

Ransomware threats plague half the world’s firms, according to a survey of 1,300 security professionals

Singapore firms are sitting ducks for cyberattack risks

S

ingapore firms may find themselves wholly unprepared for a cyberattack in the near future.

In a study by cybersecurity expert Cybereason, 1,300 security professionals have said that more than half of organisations globally suffered ransomware attacks.

In some cases, Singapore firms, in their panic of getting locked out of their own systems, opted to pay demanded ransoms. But according to Cybereason, 90% of those who do pay

will just make themselves even more vulnerable to a second, subsequent breach later.

In the 100 Singapore companies the cybersecurity expert surveyed, 25% of businesses who did pay the ransom suffered a second attack, most often at the hands of the same perpetrators.

The research also divulged that of the organisations who opted to pay a ransom demand to regain access to their encrypted systems, 28% reported that some or all of the data was

corrupted during the recovery process.

“These findings underscore why it does not pay to pay ransomware attackers, and that organisations should focus on early detection and prevention strategies to end ransomware attacks at the earliest stages before critical systems and data are put in jeopardy,” Cybereason said.

Further findings revealed that 25% of organisations reported a significant loss of revenue following the ransomware attacks. 40% of organisations indicated that their brand and reputation were damaged as a result of a successful attack, whilst 37% of businesses that paid a ransom demand shelled out between US$140,000 ($186,939) and US$1.4m ($1.87m). Another 5% paid ransoms exceeding US$1.4m ($1.87m).

Even worse, 20% of organisations were forced to shut down operations entirely due to these attacks “Singapore businesses must understand that paying a ransom demand does not guarantee a successful recovery, does not prevent the attackers from hitting the victim organisation again, and in the end only exacerbates the problem by encouraging more attacks. Getting in front of the threat by adopting a prevention-first strategy for early detection will allow organisations to stop disruptive ransomware before they can hurt the business,” Leslie Wong, regional vice president for Asia Pacific at Cybereason said.

CHARTIST: FIXED INCOME EXCHANGE FUNDS GAIN BULK OF INFLOWS IN 2021

S

ingapore’s fixed income exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have received the most inflows in the first half of 2021 (to 11 June), with the eight local ETFs seeing combined net inflows of $573.1m.

The fixed income inflows were led by the ICBC CSOP FTSE Chinese Government Bond ETF which received inflows of $335.5m whilst iShares Barclays USD Asia High Yield Bond Index ETF received inflows of $152.1m.

The Lion-OCBC Securities Hang Seng TECH ETF led the inflows of 18 equity inflows with $150.9m, whilst the Nikko AM

Singapore STI ETF saw inflows of around $41m.

The trio of REIT ETFs received $112.3m in inflows, with the Nikko AM-Straits Trading Asia ex Japan REIT ETF recipient to $82.4m in inflows.

ETF inflows generally come from primary market creation of ETF units by the participating dealers to meet the excess demand from institutional and retail investors for the ETFs on the secondary market whilst outflows result from primary market redemption due to selling activities of institutional and retail investors in the market.

Singapore’s fixed income exchange-traded funds

Source: SGX

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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FIRST SINGAPORE LOREM IPSUM RANKS DOLOR SIT EIGHTH IN MOST AMET, EXPENSIVE CITIES LIST

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

Singaporeans are turning into penny pinchers

O

ne in three Singaporeans’ relationship with money has changed since the pandemic, according to locally-based personal finance website SingSaver.

As Singapore started to recover during the first quarter of 2021, 75% of Singaporeans said they were more concerned about their finances, with 48% tracking expenses on a regular basis. Meanwhile, 46% had started to make more effort to compare between products before making purchases.

When asked what were the key motivations for their change in relationship with money, 51% said they were preparing for unforeseen circumstances, whilst 47% were driven by the urge to gain financial freedom.

According to Singsave’s country manager, Henry Sewell, Singaporeans taking charge of their finances were also seen in the personal finance website’s traffic, which increased 2.4 times over the first quarter of the year.

“The survey findings have reinforced our belief that personal finance content and comparison tools are key to a positive relationship with money and SingSaver remains committed to helping people reach their personal finance goals through such resources,”

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Singaporeans are giving more thoughts on where they spend their money.

Some 55% of Singaporeans saw an increase of up to 20% in monthly expenditures during the pandemic

Sewell explained during the interview.

Despite more Singaporeans watching their expenses, the study found that 55% of Singaporeans saw an increase of up to 20% in monthly expenditure, including food and drinks, healthcare and utilities, as compared to before the pandemic, in part due to more people working from home.

Meanwhile, more Singaporeans are also thinking about retirement, with 35% already actively planning for retirement pre-pandemic, and an additional 28% who have started since the pandemic.

“Tellingly, more younger people aged 18-34 are preparing for retirement earlier, with 45% of them starting retirement planning within the first five years of employment as compared to only 25% of those over 45,” Singsaver said.

LOREM IPSUMREAL ESTATE RESIDENTIAL

Transport Third highest-priced Department apartment unveils travel changes information hands forapp $34.4m

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

11

STARTUPS

STACS’ ambitious battle strategy against a five-decade old business model

Why this young ESG-focused startup is determined to reshape the finance industry for society’s benefit.

Benjamin Soh (right) is looking to reimagine the finance industry with an ESG focus

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n 2019, a young startup saw the need to change a fragmented capital market. It saw how institutions operate on different systems and ledgers, and go through a linearly-dependent process where settlements take between 2-14 days, depending on the asset class.

These were the problems that ESG-focused fintech startup STACS wanted to change ever since it started.

Talking with Singapore Business Review, Benjamin Soh, co-founder and managing director of STACS said that this problem had persisted for more than 50 years starting as far back as the 1970s.

Soh said that with the capital markets fragmented as it is, it leads to $1.068t (US$800b) of capital being locked up every single day in the clearing system.

“With multiple layers of processing, nearly US$300b is being spent on transaction costs and this model isn’t even effective. In the EU alone, 12

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In the EU alone, approximately 6% of trades fail to settle, resulting in €35b in penalties

approximately 6% of trades fail to settle, resulting in €35b in penalties annually,” he said.

Soh called this a waste - a waste of time, money and carbon footprints that STACS have vowed to address.

“Innovating our way out of these problems is vital if we are to deliver a green and sustainable future for financial services,” Soh stressed.

Early years A little known fact was STACS stood for “Securities Trading Asset Clearing and Settlement”, Soh told Singapore Business Review.

“The first challenge when we initially started would be navigating this relatively younger fintech space back then in 2019, and also to be taken seriously by the big players in the industry. Interestingly and fortunately for us, we managed to secure quite a few meetings with such big institutions even while we were brand new, before we even figured

out our company incorporation,” he explained during the interview.

In the simplest terms, STACS is a Singapore-based fintech development company with a vision to provide transformative technology for the financial industry.

The startup provides interoperability between existing infrastructure and its SaaS platform with STACS blockchain core.

STACS works by offering multiple options of connectivity for financial institutions: via its front-end applications built specifically for finance use cases such as trade lifecycle management of bonds, structured products and derivatives, API integration between existing platforms (i.e. Aladdin, Murex, Omgeo), and the STACS infrastructure as well as node-tonode integration.

The startup has collaborated with several leading institutions like the Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Eastspring Investments, Bursa Malaysia, EFG Bank, and Bluecell Intelligence, among many others.

The company raised $3.6m in its pre-Series A funding round, bringing the company’s fundraising total to $8m, led by venture capital firms such as Wavemaker Partners, Tribe Accelerator, and Stellar Partners.

Right now the company is focused on enabling environmental, social, and governance (ESG) frameworks and transparent reporting in financial markets through their GreenSTACS platform, which is growing rapidly.

Soh said they see a huge trend towards green fintech as a partnership between tech companies and financial institutions, and notes that the greatest impact is only possible through a tech platform partnering with the existing financial institutions, which already have millions of users.

“Ultimately our vision over the next five years is the same as it was on day one: to simplify global markets with our transformative technology”.

STARTUPS

Nextbillion.ai’s founders co-founder Ajay Ajay Bulusu, BulusuGaurav Bubna and Shaolin Zheng

The road that led to Nextbillion.ai’s mapping solution of the future

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etting lost despite having a navigation app or food delivery arriving late because the driver got lost are problems that stems from the underlying mapping technology used.

This was what NextBillion.ai, a SaaS mapping platform established in the early 2020s wanted to solve.

NextBillion.ai was founded by Gaurav Bubna, Shaolin Zheng, and Ajay Bulusu who were part of the senior management team at ride-hailing platform Grab.

Founder Ajay Bulusu said that the idea behind starting Nextbillion.ai came when

they realised that one map doesn’t fit all and the future of location is decentralization.

“We all have experienced our food delivered late or cold, ride-hailing giving us the wrong ETA or parcel getting delivered to the wrong address. These problems arise from underlying mapping technology.

For instance, can a mapping or language processing solution for Jakarta hold good in the Netherlands or Mumbai? Can an ondemand delivery mapping solution work for the freight industry? The answer is no and enterprises struggle with solving these issues as mapping technology is complex,” Ajay said.

NextBillion.ai is the first mapping solution to truly solve these. NextbillionAI provides Enterprise-grade, fully managed map data and APIs. Their product addresses the hyper-local nuances and provides tailor-made solutions for specific business needs, based on their data and geography. NextbillionAI solution helps to find the best ETAs, find precise pick and drop locations and the best route for the specific vehicle type that these enterprises are using.

Nextbillion.ai has two key offerings: its Map Data management as a Service and maps APIs, both of which offer upto 50% better accuracy, 3x lower latency, 10x higher throughput than state of the art alternatives, at a fraction of the cost.

In their last funding round, NextBillion. ai raised $9.29m (US$7m) from Lightspeed India Partners and Falcon Edge Capital.

NextBillion.ai is planning to build the first true enterprise mapping platform for enterprises and it hopes to enable the first enterprise grade, fully managed mapping platform for enterprises. It is also making a lot of deep tech investments across AI, machine learning and computer vision and they expect to drive a lot of new technology innovation in the mapping industry as well as file lots of patents for these technologies.

The long road travelled by tech-enabled coffee chain Flash Coffee

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fter an amazing Series A funding round, Singapore-based coffee chain Flash Coffee is ready to caffeinate not just Singapore, but the whole of Asia Pacific The company raised $20.07m (US$15m) in the round led by White Star Capital, with participation from Delivery Hero-backed DX Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and Conny & Co. According to David Brunier, CEO and cofounder of Flash Coffee, Rocket Internet’s Oliver Samwer and Alexander Kudlich reached out to him back in 2019 and asked whether he would be open to founding a new company with them.

At that time Chinese Coffee Company had just had a soaring $4b IPO after operating for 18 months, which got him excited to take a deeper look into the coffee industry.

He said that he found the fully un-digitized industry that was serving average quality coffee at exorbitant prices, largely unaffordable to the mass markets. He knew then that there was a tremendous potential to create a fully re-imagined product customer experience.

Launched in January 2020, Flash Coffee aims to revamp the company’s staffing models to enable Flash Coffee outlets to have significantly higher output with less staff than comparable businesses.

They created a concept that eliminates traditional business models’ inefficiencies, instead choosing

Flash Coffee’s CEO and co-founder David Brunier

to invest in the product itself. The startup plans to target tech-savvy, young professionals.

Flash Coffee is a tech-enabled coffee chain that serves an award-winning menu of high-quality drinks at affordable prices. Customers can use the Flash Coffee app to order and pay online, choosing to pick up orders from one of the brand’s iconic yellow storefronts or order for delivery through major platforms in each market Flash Coffee currently has 50 coffee shops across Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia which

continues to be profitable. David said they are eyeing a launch of 300 outlets across 10 markets in Asia Pacific and having a Flash Coffee Outlet every 500 metres in every major Asian City isn’t their only plan.

“We also plan to build a tech-driven powerhouse to build new brands across the region, top-of-class operational processes and a fully integrated value chain including in- house production facilities to further drive backward integrations,” he added.

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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EVENTS: CLOUD COST MANAGEMENT

Cloud4C lays out the guidelines for cloud cost optimisation There are three important areas that should be fixed to achieve this goal.

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he move towards digital technology is fast becoming a necessity in many businesses today. At the forefront of this revolution is cloud computing technology, where users can utilise IT resources from the internet without the need for any installation or maintenance. This big shift from the way traditional businesses use these IT resources provides faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale; but the downside to all these benefits is the cost.

With the challenge of cloud cost management looming in businesses, how can companies drive better value from cloud technology without incurring excessive costs and losing control over its management?

Answering these important questions is Cloud4C, a CtrlS Group Company that offers highavailability services through its high-grade data centres, expertise on hyper scalers, and support for hybrid clouds.

Cloud4C gives businesses the strategy and roadmap to define, 14

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Cloud4C can help businesses let go of their worries about what happens to their application, security, compliance, and business continuity

plan and implement logical steps on their cloud journey. They do this by examining the current and future states of a company’s overall business needs and technology infrastructure.

“Cloud4C is in the position to deliver much higher excellence that you can let go of the worries about what happens to your application, security, compliance, and your business continuity,” said Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Founder and CEO of both Cloud4C and datacentre firm CtrlS. One of the company’s specialisations is creating strategies to optimise cloud costs that go beyond payment flexibility. How can a company dramatically reduce their IT expenses while matching IT workload demands effectively?

Cloud4C answers this question—and much more—as they shared some of their insights and expertise at the “Cloud Cost Management: Driving better value for your business applications” roundtable event held last 15 April 2021 at Marina Bay Sands.

Cloud4C’s Vice President for

Cloud Solutions Hitesh Bhardwaj drove home an important point when it came to cloud costs: Cloud cost optimisation is not a technical challenge; it’s a governance challenge.

According to Bhardwaj, when you put a cloud engineer in charge of a cloud initiative, he can accidentally affect your monthly budget unknowingly.

Solving the expense problem requires a decision-maker to challenge the status quo.

Bhardwaj emphasized three important areas that must be fixed to optimise costs: “The first is cost ownership. IT must know they’ll be audited for what they’re doing and should be held accountable to them. The second area that needs to be fixed is visibility—they should know which applications are being used,” he explained.

Oftentimes, visibility is the biggest problem when it comes to managing cloud costs.

Cloud4C has created a universal cloud platform that’s specifically designed to solve this problem.

“By using that data, we have engineered the Universal Cloud Platform (UCP). We adjust data from the bills and get inside and ask what is causing that cost. And what is the predicted outcome?

If it goes this way, what will the yield be and what will it look like?

Is it aligned with the budgetary scale or not? If not, then there has to be an exercise done and that is the delicate ‘surgery’ you have to do,” he said.

The third area that needs to be fixed is the budget’s design.

Fixing these issues doesn’t come with a one-size-fits-all guarantee. It requires a shift in culture, a willingness to improve, accountability, and in some cases, the right partner ‘that has got skin in the game’ to help them optimise their costs.

“People are looking for cheap, fast and good, but if I can expand that, it’s really about costeffectiveness and flexibility,” said Terrence Yong, Cloud4C’s Board Member Chairman.

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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CYBERSECURITY - NETWORK

SentinelOne Named A Leader In The 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant For Endpoint Protection Platforms It was named the winner of the Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards for its Singularity Ranger IoT®.

SentinelOne office

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his month, the global analyst firm, Gartner, published their 2021 Magic Quadrant report for Endpoint Protection Platforms and positioned SentinelOne as a leader. This accolade was celebrated less than a month after SentinelOne was named winner of the Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards for its Singularity Ranger IoT®.

In addition to being named a leader, SentinelOne also received the highest scores in all three use cases in Gartner’s 2021 Critical Capabilities for Endpoint Protection Platforms report.

The Critical Capabilities for Endpoint Protection Platforms is part of the analysis conducted for the 2021 Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms and uses the same data collected during that research period. In conjunction with the report, we believe our ease of use, prevention, managed services and EDR functionality satisfied

customer needs to the highest possible degree across all use cases — use cases A, B, and C. • Customer use case Type A is focused on “lean forward” organisations that adopt new technologies very early in the adoption cycle.

• Customer use case Type B is focused on “overall value” by weighing the risks of the early use of new technology against the benefits.

• Customer use case Type C represents organisations that typically view technology as an expense or operational necessity and use it as a means to reduce costs.

“We believe receiving the highest product score across all three customer use cases in the 2021 Critical Capabilities for Endpoint Protection Platforms validates our vision and execution in delivering an AI-powered platform that is purpose built for the demands

of the mainstream enterprise market,” said Raj Rajamani, Chief Product Officer, SentinelOne. “We believe these results are a clear demonstration of the unrivalled capabilities SentinelOne delivers to a diverse set of customers and is representative of the continued market traction we’re experiencing.”

SentinelOne’s Singularity Platform encompasses prevention, detection, and response capabilities across endpoints, containers, cloud workloads, and IoT devices in a single, completely autonomous platform – using patented behavioural and static AI models to deliver protection with an invisible performance impact. With SentinelOne, organisations scale their cybersecurity with an AI-powered solution that provides transparency into everything that is happening across the network at machine speed and successfully replaces traditional antivirus.

To access both reports, go to: S1.Ai/gartnerMQ

“We believe receiving the highest product score across all three customer use cases validates our vision and execution in delivering an AI-powered platform that is purpose built for the demands of the mainstream enterprise market” Raj Rajamani, Chief Product Officer, SentinelOne Disclaimer: Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner Peer Insights reviews constitute the subjective opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences and do not represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates.

Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Gartner or its affiliates.

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17

FINANCIAL INSIGHT: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Singapore still taking the lion’s share of Southeast Asian M&A deals Not even the pandemic could fully defeat the investor demand in the company market, with both established companies and up-and-coming Singapore firms in the sightlines.

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nvestor appetite to acquire Singapore companies may have waned at the beginning of 2020, but it is now making a rapid recovery.

According to a report by Golden Gate Ventures, 42.6% of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in Southeast Asia in 2020 were from Singapore. Deals from Indonesia followed closely at 39.2%. The remaining 18.2% of deals were spread across the rest of the region.

“Singapore continues to record the highest number of M&A deals in the region in 2020. It remains as the hotspot for deal activity in the region, with around US$3.66B raised in fundraising by privately-held companies in 2020. A large portion of this went to Grab, which raised US$1.6B,” said Michael Lints, Partner for Golden Gate Ventures, in an e-mail interview with Singapore Business Review.

The pandemic hit activities such as M&As, exits, and global fundraising, Lints added, with Southeast Asia mirroring the global declines.

But investors were bullish for the vibrant Southeast Asian tech landscape last year. The opportunities from the dependence of Southeast Asians to mobile technology, with eight out of 10 viewing it as ‘very helpful’ during the pandemic, have piqued the interest of

Michael Lints

SentinelOne ofa Singapore accounted for 42% of all M&A deals in Southeast Asia last year

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investors amidst the pandemic.

“The high proportion of M&A is attributed to a strong demand for innovation among regional tech giants, which has led to preferences in acquihires of existing tech companies. The global tech talent crunch has been exacerbated over the past decade, all the more so in Southeast Asia as the ecosystem now gains unprecedented momentum,” Lints said.

Investors gobbled up companies in the fields of adtech, e-commerce, fintech, media, and social networking, making up more than half of the M&As deals in the Southeast Asia region in 2020.

Deals averaged at a price of US$74.7m amongst the estimated 45 mergers and acquisitions recorded in the Southeast Asian region in 2020.

Singapore-based Grab and Trax, and Indonesia’s Gojek were among the most active in the 2020 M&A scene, with their involvement in 49% of the year’s acquisitions.

Gojek has made a total of thirteen acquisitions as of last year, including Loket, Moka and MV Commerce, making it the top acquirer in Southeast Asia. Its merger with fellow Indonesian startup giant Tokopedia in May, forming the combined entity GoTo Group, is set to become one of the largest privately owned tech

FINANCIAL INSIGHT: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS companies in Southeast Asia.

While Grab made less acquisitions, with a total of three from 2017 to 2020. However, it has become more active in gaining investment funding, having raised US$1.6b in 2020. This is approximately 43% of the US$3.66b raised through deal activities in Singapore.

As of June 2021, Grab’s attempts at going public through a merger with Altimeter Growth Corp, a USbased special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), has been penciled in for the fourth quarter this year. This is a delay from the initial announced closing date of July.

Mergers and acquisitions to drive Southeast Asia exits over the coming years “M&A continued to be a significant driver of Southeast Asia exits in 2020. Set against the backdrop of a promising road to recovery in 2021, M&A is showing no signs of slowing down,” said Lints.

Golden Gate Ventures estimate that there will be around 468 Southeast Asian exits between 2020 to 2022, with the majority driven by mergers and acquisitions.

For the years of 2021 to 2024, Lints expects M&A activity to compose up to 80% of Southeast Asian exits, compared to 5% initial public offerings and 15% secondary sales.

“This forecast is encouraged by the entry of more late stage private equity investors, secondary buyers, SPACs and a generally welcoming public market for technology companies,” Lints said.

Set against the backdrop of a promising road to recovery in 2021, M&A is showing no signs of slowing down

He estimated that around 56% of Southeast Asian executives will actively pursue M&As in the coming year, defeating the 11-year average of 44% and becoming the highest rate since 2012.

As more unicorns mature, such as Grab and Gojek, the number of potential acquirers looking to invest in smaller startups through Series B and C deals also increase. This sets the stage for large fundraising activities and larger acquisitions in the region, not just from foreign companies but also from locally-based Southeast Asian firms.

“Additionally, the Southeast Asia startup ecosystem is also reaching a stage where some investors want to cash out - giving rise to a larger pickup of secondary markets, which have been typically low in the region. These investors won’t necessarily be pushing for the company to sell itself, but will be exploring secondary buyers who might be keen on M&As,” Lints said.

In its report, Golden Gate Ventures found that midstage startups used the slowdown in access to capital during the pandemic to focus on sustainable growth in 2020. Thus, cash-rich companies are well positioned for acquisitions from 2021 onwards.

Surveying 16 other venture capital firms, eight of the respondents to the Golden Gate study said acquisitions would pick up in 2021, three said that acquisitions would need another year to return to pre-COVID levels, two expected a continued drought in M&As, and three were unsure.

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

19

LEGAL BRIEFING

The Electronic Transaction Amendment Act: Is this a step to the digital future?

Digitalisation continues to assimilate itself into every aspect of everyday life - and now legal documents are set to have their own “digital equivalents” formally recognised by courts and government.

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ingapore has acknowledged the importance of these “digital equivalents”, especially in documents, and has now taken steps to facilitate the digitalisation of categories of documents which have until now required only a physical document.

The Electronic Transactions Act (ETA) is the framework that provides legal certainty for digital transactions, and puts a structure for secure electronic signatures in place.

According to legal firm Rajah & Tann, the ETA aims to facilitate e-commerce and electronic filing of documents. It establishes legal recognition of selected electronic documents in specified circumstances, and also establishes uniformity of rules and regulations and standards regarding the authentication and integrity of electronic documents.

On 19 March, the Electronic Transactions (Amendment) Act 2021 came into force. According to the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), this is the second comprehensive review of the ETA since it was first enacted in 1998.

With the Amendment Act, the ETA has now been modified to adopt the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records allows the creation and use, domestically and internationally, of electronic forms of transferable documents or instruments or otherwise known as electronic transferable records.

Amongst these, the Singapore government highlights the digitalisation of bills of lading which is a key document in maritime trade.

Singapore is one of the first major trading hubs to adopt this model.

These transferable documents or instruments are mainly used in international trades in industries such as shipping, logistics, and finance.

In the amended ETA, the provision supporting the legal enforceability of electronic records and signature now applies to the following: • Transferable documents or instruments such as bills of exchange, promissory notes, and bills of lading • Other documents such as consignment notes and warehouse receipts.

Amongst these, the Singapore government highlights the digitalisation of bills of lading which are a key document needed for maritime trade to flourish.

The adoption of electronic Bills of Ladings (eBLs) will enable the shipping industry to benefit from faster 20

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The Electronic Transactions Act will further open up possibilities of additional digitalisation of legal documents in Singapore

transactions, cost savings, and lowered fraud risks through the use of digital authentication systems). Singapore has been encouraging the adoption of eBLs and has conducted technical trials through the TradeTrust digital utility.

More digitisation to come Certain kinds of documents are still excluded for digitisation in the amendment but Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran said the amendment to the ETA may soon let the government introduce ways to digitise documents, such as lasting powers of attorney (LPAs).

LPAs are important documents which allow an appointed person to make medical and financial decisions on behalf of someone else should they lose their mental capacity. The current laws only allow for LPAs in physical form.

The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), together with the IMDA, has consulted various industry stakeholders via two public consultations and a targeted industry consultation exercise for the ETA review.

“The Government will continue to work closely with the industry to study the feasibility of extending the applicability of the ETA to more types of items which are currently excluded,” the MCI advised. “When an item is ready to be removed from the exclusion list, the Government will work towards the implementation of the necessary legislative and regulatory frameworks and corresponding safeguards to protect the vulnerable and less digitally-savvy.

“Together with close industry partnerships, the amendments will ensure the ETA continues to be progressive in the Digital Economy.”

The right direction Rajah & Tann says that the amendment in the ETA is a step in the right direction for Singapore.

“In the areas of shipping and international trade, this represents an important development in the modernisation of the industry, allowing it to improve its efficiency and enhance Singapore’s position as a maritime and trade hub,” the legal firm said.

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MARKETING BRIEFING

‘Me-First’ mindset looks set to drive new consumer trends in Singapore, Asia One example of this is the concept of “Phy-gital reality”, a physical and digital experience hybrid, which is now making a big impression among media consumers.

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etailers will need to continually adapt to the changing needs of the modern-day consumer, according to the Top 10 Global Consumer Trends 2021 study of Euromonitor International. Whilst customers are expected to be more open to going back to shopping in physical stores, the post-pandemic outlook points to a direction where business models will need to be constantly reviewed.

Research Consultant Radhika Singal said that what is fundamentally changing is how consumers are expecting brands to deliver experiences as a go to market strategy across their journey. Coined as the “Me-First” mindset, it recognizes differentiating one brand from others and carving a niche competitive advantage in consumers’ minds.

“The face of retail is changing from just buying products and services to consuming experiences whether in-store or online. Experiential selling, retailtainment, personalisation and promoting indulgence will be key to cater to the “MeFirst” mindset consumer,” she said.

“This includes gamification of marketing activities, live streaming of products and services, and social selling for engagement. Experience economy is nothing new and is a term that has been used for nearly two decades to define experiences such as concerts, festivals, or sporting events,” Singal added.

Singal explained that several luxury brands have already

The face of retail is changing to just buying products and services to consuming experiences been leaning on experiences as part of their premium aspirational branding strategies even before COVID-19, but the pandemic has proven to be a catalyst to trickle down experiential selling from luxury to high street.

Some activities offered by luxury brands include virtual try-ons, 3D body scanning for more accurate clothes fitting, live streaming fashion shows, and broadcasting appointments from the stores. Now, this is becoming an expectation from every brand in the marketplace.

Another aspect of the Me-First consumer mindset is that consumers are expected to drive their attention to products or services that offer them good value for money.

“The ‘Me-First’ consumer is conscious of the price value equation,” Singal said. “Hence, premium to them may not just mean a higher price tag or better quality, but rather attributes beyond these such as comfort, convenience, social and environmental values, eco-credentials, health and wellness, self-improvement, personalisation, nostalgia, or 22

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uniqueness that an experience creates.

Another trend that is looking set to stay in the new normal is the strategy of implementing “Phy-gital Reality”. Singal says this is essentially a hybrid of the physical and virtual worlds, where consumers can seamlessly live, work, shop, and play either in person or online, wherever they choose to be.

“The pandemic really accelerated the use of video conferencing, smart appliances, augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) try-ons, virtual concierge consultations, or live streaming forming new habits around working, shopping, and exercising which are certainly here to stay for the long run. 2021 will indeed see a continued acceleration of integrating virtual processes in physical spaces to give consumers an avenue to engage from the convenience and comfort of their homes,” Singal said.

AR and VR are seen to replicate in-store shopping experience online, while also driving exponential e-commerce growth.

One example is Singapore’s home design and furniture company Castlery, which introduced an AR-enabled app in April last year that allows consumers to view store’s furniture pieces in their own living spaces to build a virtual home.

There is also Decathlon Singapore which launched an instore Mobile App mid last year completely revamping and digitalising its in-store experience.

According to Singal, there are several such cases in points, even outside of Singapore and Hong Kong, in emerging markets around Asia.

“As per Euromonitor’s digital consumer survey 18% of people in Indonesia own a VR headset, compared to the global average of 11%. Such digital tools make ‘phygital’ a reality,” Singal said. “As per the same survey, 35% people in Indonesia have used AR or VR in the past one year against the global average of 22%, either to preview a holiday destination, tour a hotel room, shop for household items or try on makeup.

“It really is a testament to the increasing penetration of such immersive technologies even in the emerging world.”

Euromonitor Research Consultant Radhika Singal said that businesses are adapting to changing consumer mindsets.

DIGITAL – ANALYTICS

Building A Better Tomorrow with Data & Analytics BAT’s global data-driven transformation is led from Malaysia

BAT has won the won the Analytics - Consumer Products - Non-Durables category award in the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2021.

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ounded in 1902, BAT is one of the most international consumer goods businesses in the world with over 150 million daily consumer interactions and distribution to over 11 million points of sale across more than 180 markets.

A COMPANY WITH WORLDCLASS DATA & ANALYTICS CAPABILITIES The Data & Analytics (D&A) team was recently established with the objective of delivering insights and foresights globally across BAT. One early decision made was to base the team in the BAT Hub in Malaysia – a decision that has clearly paid off. “I have been constantly impressed with the depth and breadth of skills that Malaysia has to offer in Data and Analytics” said James Stratford, Head of Data & Analytics.

“Our move also presented the right opportunity to implement new ways of working, including the design of a people-centred office and new methodologies,” he added.

New ways of working such as Agile and DevOps, coupled with a “fail fast, learn fast” mindset were key

enablers to the D&A’s ability to scale rapidly whilst delivering real business value.

THE POWER OF DATA & ANALYTICS Analytics is a key enabler of BAT’s strategy to deliver A Better Tomorrow TM, from generating new consumer insights, improving the efficiency of the supply chain to implementing digitally enabled revenue growth management.

“Data & Analytics is used to empower and augment our people to make the right decisions at the right time, enabling commercial value by transforming data into information, insights and foresights.” said Breno Gentil, Group Head of Technology at BAT. Business adoption and data democratisation are achieved through rapid prototyping, collaboration and cocreation with business users.

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

23

HR BRIEFING

Helping staff to draw the fine line between work-from-home, and life-at-home 15 months in, the work from home setup may be taking a toll on the mental health of workers in Singapore.

It’s something HR leaders should keep a close eye on as the pandemic continues.

Workers stuck at home should be careful not to schedule back-to-back-to-back meetings

T

he pandemic has blurred the line between where work stops and where the home begins, and this is having an impact on the overall mental health of the workforce. With the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in Singapore and the possibility of further “circuit-breaker”-like movement restrictions looming in the background, the time has come to talk about breaks and burnouts.

The hybrid workplace has allowed offices to continue operations despite mobility restrictions, but it also paved the way for back-to-back meetings. A study, conducted by the Microsoft Human Factors Lab, has found that taking regular breaks is vital in keeping stress levels down.

The study found that breaks in between meetings help to “reset” the brain, which can also help participants to be more focused in the meetings that follow.

Many managers lack the time and tools they need to effectively identify flight risk, burnout or disengagement In Singapore, mental health issues resulting from the work-from-home setup, have become rampant - although HR solutions provider EngageRocket found in its 2020 research report that the impact on mental health was uneven across sectors.

In the Resilience of the Singapore Workforce report, it was reported that employees in the education sector (30%) and consumer industries (22%) experienced the highest stress levels. It added that those aged between 30-50 found it more difficult to cope, compared to other age groups.

“Employees are stressed, but with the pandemic, they have also developed new expectations,” EngageRocket co-founder and CEO CheeTung Leong told Singapore Business Review.

“They now demand better support from their organisations, flexible arrangements and opportunities for growth. If they cannot get these reliably (at their current 24

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

employers), many of them have been looking outside for other organisations that can provide them.”

Leong added that in the 2020 study, employee engagement showed a decrease of 14% from the previous year. Workers experiencing burnout also climbed, with only 44% of employees reporting they were able to avoid it completely.

This was lower than the 53% recorded in the previous year.

In preventing burnout, Leong said employers must take note of “the three Ts”: time, trust and (the chance to) turn off. EngageRocket data showed there were higher rates of burnout amongst employees and stakeholders who had been working remotely for 50 hours a week or more.

“While long working hours may be necessary in short bursts, this is detrimental to the staff member’s mental health if it is a prolonged feature of their working life,” he said, noting that in some cases, companies have made it a policy to free at least half a day from internal meetings.

“This helps to break up the work-week, and allow for time to get work done amidst a sea of meetings.”

Employers should also ensure their people are working in an environment of trust and psychological safety that can lessen their stress. Moreover, they may consider setting a clear time of day or week during which workers can “turn off.”

This will allow them to draw the line between work and home, preventing them from feeling as if they are “always on”, or “always connected” to work issues and communication.

Further, companies need to take action not just to prevent burnout, but also to prevent them from leaving the company.

This includes providing a stronger management support, and setting up reskilling and upskilling programmes, or flexible working arrangements, amongst others.

Management support has a high impact on the loyalty of an employee, but Leong notes that some firms are not equipped in recognizing which managers or units need attention, based on employee feedback.

“Many managers lack the time and tools they need to effectively identify flight risk, burnout or disengagement,” Leong told Singapore Business Review.

“HR and leaders need to help them understand how their team feels and track progress.”

Meanwhile, with 66% of workers perceiving digital and technological skills as critical in future work, companies must stay ahead in ensuring their employees are future ready.

For their part, workers also have a role to play in avoiding burnout whilst they work at home, one of which is a conscious effort to separate their professional and working life, with their personal lives.

This can be achieved by setting limits on the time they dedicate to checking, reading, and responding to workrelated emails and direct messages.

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SECTOR REPORT: TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

Singapore’s tourism industry remains in difficulty as the border restrictions continue to bite

Recovery relies on border restrictions easing Outlook for the tourism and food and beverage sectors do not look promising for the remainder of 2021.

O

ver 15 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the recovery of Singapore’s hotel and tourism and hotel industries still has a long way to go due to the uneven situations in different parts of the world, hindering international travel, and the relaxation of border restrictions.

The tourism and hospitality sectors have been some of the hardest hit ever since the implementation of the circuit breaker period in Singapore in 2020, as almost all incoming travel to the island state was prohibited.

Whilst some businesses managed to continue operating under strict safety measures, others had to shut down for a period of time.

Data from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) revealed that in 2020, the country saw an 85.7% decrease in visitor arrivals to reach just 2.7 million visitors, with nearly all coming from the first two months of the year when Covid-19 was still yet to take hold. Meanwhile, tourism receipts fell 78.4% to $4.4b over the 26

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

first three quarters of 2020.

“Singapore’s tourism sector has had to fight for survival in 2020. Our tourism businesses have displayed immense resilience and adaptability throughout this difficult period, reinventing their business models and leveraging technology to find solutions in a Covid-19 world,” STB CEO Keith Tan said.

As of the end of the first quarter this year, at least 45 attractions and 1,686 tour itineraries had received approval to resume their operations.

With domestic travel starting to resume and international travel pending talks between Singapore and other countries, recovery is starting to become more evident, albeit slowly.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), travel to Singapore may resume as early as August for passengers with clear digital health certificates.

Through the International Air Transport Association (IATA) travel pass, passengers can obtain and store

The IATA travel pass is undergoing trials in 20 separate airlines, and is set to be available for download in the second half of 2021

their COVID-19 test results from accredited laboratories; the app will also help facilitate check-in and onarrival processes.

CAAS mentioned the collaboration with IATA demonstrated the organisations’ shared commitment to driving the adoption of digital health certificates and restoring international air travel.

“We will continue to explore other solutions that can provide similarly secure and verifiable means of sharing health certificates for safe international travel,” CAAS director general Kevin Shum said.

The IATA travel pass is undergoing trials in 20 separate airlines, and was set to be available for download in the second half of the year. Future developments to the IATA travel pass are likely to include QR code scanning and the inclusion of digital vaccination certificate information.

“Ongoing trials put us on track for IATA travel pass to be a critical tool for the industry’s restart by delivering verified travel health credentials to

SECTOR REPORT: TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY No recovery yet for Singapore visitor arrivals

Source: Singapore Tourism Board

governments,” IATA director general Willie Walsh said.

Moreover, Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing recently revealed in STB’s Tourism Industry Conference that Singapore planned to top-up the city-state’s Tourism Development Fund by an additional $65.8m, as support for the sector amidst near-term headwinds.

“We remain committed to supporting our tourism sector, to help our businesses and workers build new capabilities, and break new ground,” Chan said.

However, the Ministry of Health continues to assess the status of vaccination both in Singapore and in other countries, noting that more data is needed before they can recommend further easing of border measures.

“Data on the duration of the vaccine’s protection and its effectiveness in preventing transmission has been encouraging thus far. More data is needed to assess if changes to border measures such as testing and stay-home notice requirements can be made for vaccinated individuals,” Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary said.

Puthucheary added that whilst the agency is in discussions with international counterparts on the mutual recognition of vaccine certificates, most countries have only recently started rolling out their vaccination programmes.

“Border measures will also take into account other factors such as the number of COVID-19 cases

and the infection control measures implemented in the source countries.

Hence, progress on cross-border recognition of vaccine certification may take some time,” he said.

Travel bubbles in the works Singapore has been discussing the implementation of “travel bubbles” with several countries who are also well on their way to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. But while several confirmations were made in March, none have yet had a formal start implemented, due in part to Singapore’s own troubles with the resurging Delta variant.

Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung confirmed that the Singapore government received a new proposal from Hong Kong to implement a travel bubble between the two cities.

He noted that Hong Kong’s capability to keep the pandemic under good control was a positive development.

The talks between the parties began in late 2020, but were delayed by a temporary spike of cases in Hong Kong, and then later by a resurgence of cases in Singapore itself.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also confirmed that Singapore and Australia will set up an air travel bubble, which will allow residents to travel without the need for quarantine. Singapore Prime Minister Lee met with his Australian counterpart on June 11 and both confirmed the two countries were “committed” to relaxing border restrictions, but no timeline or checklist has yet been proposed.

No timeline or checklist has yet been proposed for a travel bubble between Singapore and Australia

Mutual recognition of vaccination certificates and resumption of travel for students and business travellers were the key talking points.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s health minister Chen Shih-chung recently said Singapore could be the next country that Taiwan may form a travel bubble with, citing ongoing discussions between the two. No proposals have been formally made despite this remark.

In December 2020, Singapore lifted restrictions for travellers entering from Taiwan, exempting them from the mandatory quarantine period.

Emerging opportunities for the hospitality sector Hotels have been allowed to operate since July 2020, subject to the compliance of safe management measures and other guidelines. STB had approved a total of 277 hotels to resume services as of May this year.

They have implemented different strategies to attract more customers and generate revenue under the unique conditions, including “staycation” and “workcation” promotions, as well as virtual events.

STB’s $320m SingapoRediscover vouchers (SRV) scheme has also provided a boost for hotels, attractions, and tours. The organisation’s latest data revealed that over 300,000 Singaporeans had used the vouchers to make bookings, having spent $35.9m in SRV redemptions and out-ofpocket payments.

The SRV scheme is part of the SingapoRediscover campaign launched in July 2020 by STB, Enterprise Singapore, and Sentosa Development Corporation.

Meanwhile, Singapore has greenlighted operations of its homeported cruise lines—Genting Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean International—with enhanced safety protocols in November 2020, under the “Cruise to Nowhere” pilot initiative.

STB recently mentioned that the city-state now accounts for one-third of the world’s cruise travelers amidst standard safety protocols.

To date, over 120,000 citizens have SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

27

SECTOR REPORT : TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY taken the “Cruises to Nowhere”.

There is also a higher demand for sailings as vaccines begin to roll out and international travel prove to be impractical, with the aforementioned cruise lines extending their sailings to October 2021.

“Royal Caribbean’s 30-plus sailings in Singapore offer a real-life, validated model of how cruising can be a unique, safe vacation beyond what many other travel options can offer,” Royal Caribbean International president and CEO Michael Bayley said.

Similarly, STB has begun accepting applications to pilot meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) events in October 2020, allowing up to 750 attendees starting 24 April this year.

The agency said MICE and leisure event organisers also had to adapt, innovate, and leverage on technology to reimagine what events would look like in a COVID-19 environment.

“Over the past year, we have been encouraged that MICE events

continue to pick Singapore as a host destination. This shows that our efforts to progressively resume MICE events in a safe, trusted and innovative way are paying off. Our industry has shown the way in piloting new solutions that prioritise safety without compromising the event experience,” Tan said.

Repositioning for the future Recovery for the tourism and hospitality industries in 2021 seems to be unpromising despite the development of vaccines and gradual resumption of many related businesses. STB forecasts that tourism receipts and visitor arrivals will remain weak this year, as mass leisure travel and traveller confidence in Singapore take more time to return than had first been anticipated by the industry.

Tan noted that whilst international travel is unlikely to resume in a major way in 2021, STB will stand together with industry partners to prepare for recovery and to build a more

STB forecasts that mass leisure travel and traveller confidence in Singapore will take more time to return than had first been anticipated.

STB has vowed to build a more sustainable future for tourism in Singapore

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sustainable future for tourism.

“STB remains confident in Singapore’s position as one of the world’s safest and most attractive leisure and business destinations, and the long-term prospects of Singapore’s tourism sector,” Tan told Singapore Business Review.

The agency added that it will continue to support tourism businesses to innovate in order to meet evolving consumer needs and emerging travel trends once crossborder travel resumes significantly.

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

ANALYTICS - BANKING

CIMB’s SAS Viya Platform Builds its Digital Capabilities CIMB and SAS awarded Analytics – Banking Award at SBR Excellence Awards 2021

A

s one of ASEAN’s leading consumer banks, CIMB Bank Berhad (Singapore branch) recognised the urgent importance of using data-driven technology to improve their customer engagement and intimacy.

With the advent of technology including AI and Advanced Analytics, big data analytics has gained significant ground in the banking and finance sector, opening up enormous potential for banks to grow.

Limited Customer Visibility CIMB offers more than 20 financial products for consumer banking, but the associated data was placed in silos. This lack of a dedicated data platform made it difficult to retrieve, aggregate and analyse the information in order to develop actionable insights. In turn, this meant the bank did not have a 360-degree view of their customers and the totality of their engagement.

As a result of the siloed infrastructure, there was limited visibility of customers in terms of shared data and insights, which

hampered engagement with customers at the opportune time, affecting ability to drive revenue and growth.

Consolidated 360-degree Customer View with SAS Viya CIMB’s solution was to unify its customer data by implementing the SAS Viya platform. The solution provides a consolidated and unified view of the bank’s customers for a full 360-degree customer view.

Internally, the SAS solution has significantly improved the bank’s efficiencies – the amount of time spent finding the right data has reduced from 80 percent to just 20 percent.

CIMB and SAS teams at the SBR Technology Excellence Awards

creates an enhanced customer experience.

The advanced analytics capabilities enabled CIMB to deploy cross-selling and upselling campaigns at customer touchpoints when they are most receptive via digital messaging as real-time engagement. The new system helped improve the data analytics efficiency for the bank’s consumer lines of businesses, enabling Enhanced Customer Intimacy Brings them to make use of data to generate revenue.

Revenue Growth Opportunities The value to CIMB of the SAS Viya solution The bank can now capture their customers’ is clear. CIMB foresees a substantial Return magic moments and engage them at specific points in time to help in their buying on Investment (ROI), meeting its target by the decisions. It is a customised approach which end of the second year, compared to the initial forecast that it would take five years. increases the value the bank brings and

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DIGITAL - HEALTH PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Align Technology reshapes the future of treatment The company bagged the Digital - Health Products & Services award at SBR TEA.

A

lign Technology is a global medical device company with a vision to bring clear aligner orthodontic treatment to the masses. The company pioneered the digital orthodontic market with the introduction of the Invisalign system 22 years ago and continues to innovate products and technologies to help doctors transform smiles and change the lives of their patients.

With 15 million orthodontic case starts annually and more than 500 million consumers who can benefit from a better smile, the market for digital orthodontics and restorative dentistry is massive and has been unleashed by the need for digital. In a macro sense, COVID-19 has accentuated the digital economy across industries, and many dentists and orthodontists are embracing digital treatment in new ways and more purposefully than ever before.

With over 24 years of innovation in digital orthodontics and dentistry, including iTero intraoral scanners and digital workflows, Align is focused on bringing the latest technology to doctors and their patients through the Align Digital Platform, an integrated suite of unique, proprietary technologies and services delivered as a seamless, end-to-end solution.

Dentists and orthodontists who are Invisalign providers are now using virtual tools to optimize in-office appointments and deliver doctor-directed, personalized treatment that meets the needs of the moment – and will re-shape the future of treatment.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Invisalign doctors around the world pieced together video calls, texts, and patient-submitted photos through a variety of platforms to help monitor patient progress, reduce in-office appointments, and ensure continuity of patient care during treatment. In response, Align Technology launched a new set of digital tools to support doctors. These solutions included the Invisalign Virtual Care and Invisalign Virtual Appointment tools that were built into the My Invisalign App. These tools were both designed to further enable doctors to manage and continue a range of practice services

30

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

to communicate and connect with their patients during lockdown periods when their clinics were not allowed to be opened.

The idea to build a collaborative platform between doctors and prospective Invisalign patients was developed as a proof of concept during a hackathon. Using design thinking, a simple journey was developed with photos and a video that would be shared with doctors on a weekly or bi-weekly basis based on the aligner schedule. Doctors review these photos and share their feedback from their doctor portal through a bi-directional channel between the doctor and the patient.

Invisalign Virtual Appointment is now available in 13 markets in Asia Pacific, with over 1,200 active Invisalign doctors using the tool to provide patient access.

The Invisalign Virtual Appointment tool enables doctors to easily schedule and host HIPAA-compliant video appointments to discuss Invisalign treatment with patients. Invisalign Virtual Care, which is currently available in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, India and Japan, can be used for remote consultations once treatment begins, assessment of treatment progress, and communicate adjustments or concerns during treatment.

These tools help to deliver great outcomes and product performance that benefits both doctors and patients.

Feedback to date for these tools have been positive, as doctors adopted these tools to improve patient experiences and increase office efficiencies.

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SINGAPORE SINGAPORE BUSINESS BUSINESS REVIEW REVIEW | SEPTEMBER | JUNE 2020 2021

31

RANKINGS: SINGAPORE BANKS

UOB Plaza in Singapore

Digitisation creeps into Singapore banks’, even via non-tech roles The sector will continue in a “reform and transform” path, hinging on successful digital banking applicants.

W

ith Singapore’s banking sector expected to ramp up its hiring efforts from Q2 2021, the industry is expected to see a shift in job responsibilities and necessary skills. Most notably, digitalisation is gradually being integrated throughout financial service organisation, even into normally non-tech roles.

Spurred by the pandemic, banks have overhauled their strategies to focus on developing and strengthening their digital capabilities. A Randstad Singapore study noted that as the year progresses, banks will likely only continue to go into a “reform and transform” path, taking into account the success of numerous digital banking licence applicants in 2020.

In line with this, people with expertise in data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and systems architecture will be in high demand, noted Dean Tong, head of group human resources at UOB. He says those who are capable of boosting a bank’s operating performance and system capabilities will be extensively wooed.

32

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

Banks hiring acceleration, particularly in technology roles, had been taking place even before the pandemic

Remarking that the hiring acceleration, particularly in technology roles, had been taking place even before the pandemic, he said that the digital shift had also brought new challenges to the forefront. Issues such as cybersecurity are ones that banks will have to quickly mitigate to ensure the resilience of their systems and the sector as a whole.

“Growing consumer expectations for progressive banking solutions are also driving banks to innovate at an even faster pace today, especially as more consumers have become comfortable with transacting and investing online.”

The fast recoveries seen in wealth management, bancassurance, personal banking as well as insurance have helped counteract the adverse impacts of risk aversion during the pandemic, Randstad said.

In particular, relationship managers have become more adept in providing remote financial advisory services through the use of digital dashboards and data analytics.

These are able to provide a holistic overview of clients’ accounts.

“In 2021, we will see a further expansion of digital mobilisation in wealth and bancassurance to capture opportunities that occur throughout the life cycle of customers’ investment and financing needs,” the report explained.

HSBC Singapore head of human resources Brandon Coate echoed this observation, explaining in an email interview that they anticipated that those with wealth and consumer banking backgrounds, as well as exposure to digital platforms, will be in high demand in the next three to five years. “This will cut across the front office to support functions like compliance, finance and audit due to supervision by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and also importantly, technology,” he said.

The bank hopes to double its wealth and private banking business (WPB) in Singapore. Coate highlighted that since 2018, the segment had seen double-digit annualised growth rates in total wealth balances and bigger frontline wealth teams, including both retail and private banking relationship managers and investment specialists.

But even with the influx of digital options available today, UOB still recognises the need of their clients for a human touch, says Tong.

“We know that for banking services such as wealth advisory or business financing, our customers still prefer to speak with their bankers. As such, we are continually building our team of wealth advisers and relationship managers, especially those who are adept in using data and digital tools to serve our customers better.”

Singapore’s goal of becoming Asia’s wealth management hub will also mean more job opportunities for compliance services within the private banking and fund management segments of the industry, Randstad noted.

Within the investment banking segment, there will be more hiring opportunities even though the IPO and M&A segments have been relatively stifled, Randstad noted.

Sectors and firms that are primarily focused on technology, e-commerce, healthcare and environmentallysustainable financing are poised to accept new talent.

RANKINGS: SINGAPORE BANKS Skills and job security 2021 looks set to bring more new job opportunities for Singapore, as Asian banks leverage the city as a central hub for expanding their businesses in the region, Randstad said. As such, the demand for relationship managers, support bankers and credit risk managers is expected to remain high over the second half of the year.

Fintech skills also have significant demand, in areas such as AI and machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), the internet of things (IoT), cybersecurity, API, and design thinking, Coate noted.

“As you can expect, technology and IT hires will form the backbone of all digital businesses. These roles include cybersecurity, software engineering, devOps and data analytics. Corporate functions in traditional banks will also exist in digital banks, with an accentuation on governance, risk and compliance in what we know will be a highly regulated industry,” he explained.

On top of being well-versed in technology, those who possess project management skills and specialised knowledge such as trade finance document checking will attract more interest from hiring managers, the report added. HSBC Singapore also sees demand for applicants with customer acquisition skills, but the focus will be more on “hunting” rather than “farming.” Those that are adept in creative ways to generate revenue will be high in demand, as well as candidates that can tackle issues concerning environmental, social, and governance investing (ESG), Coate said.

For UOB, Tong highlighted that the lender has been expediting its hiring process in areas that are in line with its business strategies: extending its regional connectivity in support of their wholesale banking operations, expanding its omni-channel and digital strategy to ASEAN’s nascent affluent segment, and boosting its regional infrastructure.

But even though the sector has been seeing an influx of jobs being created to fulfill digital gaps brought about by shifting consumer tastes, Tong believes that banking is at its core still a people business and face-to-face

interactions will still be highly valued.

“For example, in the area of financial advisory, our customers have told us that they prefer to have face-to-face conversations as these are more meaningful and enable them to make confident and informed investment decisions.”

Likewise, Coate opined that AI will be a complement and not a replacement for human employees.

According to him, banks should invest in AI as aid to the transactional aspect of the business that lets machine learning and RPA take place. AI should be utilised on more routineand process-heavy operations, and direct resources should be placed on more complex operations that require human personnel, he explained.

Supply-demand mismatches In May, MAS managing director Ravi Menon proclaimed that Singapore’s financial sector would create 6,500 new jobs this year for the financial sector. 6,000 of these are expected to be permanent roles, with the technology and consumer banking segments taking half of the figure.

Technology has become central in financial services and Menon remarked that the sector had utilised technology across a range of various functions. However, he also revealed that there were not enough qualified Singaporeans to fulfill these roles, and as such, foreign talent would be needed to bridge the gap.

Recognising this mismatch, Coate remarked that the sector should strive towards independence and self-reliance, whilst still fueling the external demand. At the same time, that boundary should be extended towards being interdependent, “where there should be a fair exchange of knowledge, skill and capabilities in the near future,” he said.

For their part, UOB continues to embrace global talent who would want to take part in building the bank’s innovation drive across its international network. On the other hand, it is also nurturing its own people and the next generation of talent through numerous traineeship programmes, Tong explained.

Both banks championed their programmes in educating their

The demand for relationship managers, support bankers and credit risk managers is expected to remain high over the second half of the year

workforce, whether in technology or in other areas. With HSBC University, Coate noted as an example, the bank has built a curriculum that will support its version of a digital business through a range of materials covering areas including data, AI, automation, IoT, and cybersecurity.

“HSBC also partakes in the Institute of Banking & Finance’s Professional Conversion Programmes (PCPs) and Technology in Finance Immersion Programme (TFIP) to upskill our employees and support the industry in training more potential employees in the field of technology in finance.”

UOB is also a participant in the TFIP, where the bank offers programmes for those looking for a mid-career switch and those with no relevant tech background. “We have hired 35 trainees across two cohorts and are grooming them in the areas of cyber security, cloud computing, data analytics, full stack development and AI,” Tong said.

“Concurrently, we remain focused on developing the technical skills and growth mindset of our 26,000-strong global workforce to ensure that they are well-equipped to tap future growth opportunities.

One way we are doing so is through our flagship training programme Better U which enables our colleagues across the Group to broaden their soft skills, digital and data skills, and pursue specialised learning tracks in areas such as data analytics and project management.”

HSBC’s Brandon Coate says wealth and consumer bankers will be in high demand for the next three to five years

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

33

RANKINGS: SINGAPORE BANKS 2021 RANKING

BANK

Number of Employees 2021

Number of Employees 2020

2020 RANKING

CEO OR COUNTRY HEAD

1

DBS BANK

12,000

OVER 12,000

1

Shee Tse Koon

2

OVERSEA-CHINESE BANKING CORP

10,032**

10,032

5

Helen Wong

3

STANDARD CHARTERED BANK

ABOUT 10,000

9,000

3

Patrick Lee

4

UNITED OVERSEAS BANK

MORE THAN 9,000

MORE THAN 9,000

2

Wee Ee Cheong

5

CITI SINGAPORE

AROUND 8,500

8,500

4

Amol Gupte

6

HONG KONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION

3,300

AROUND 3,550

6

Wong Kee Joo

7

BNP PARIBAS

2,200

-

-

Joris Dierckx

8

MAYBANK SINGAPORE

2,000

2,000

8

Dr. John Lee

9

CIMB BANK

1,237

1,220

10

Jean-Pierre Michalowski

10

CREDIT AGRICOLE CORPORATE AND INVESTMENT BANK

1,055

9

9

Victor Lee

11

BANK OF CHINA

955**

955

11

Cheng Jun*

12

MIZUHO BANK

>700**

>700

13

Guan Yeow Kwang*

13

RHB SINGAPORE

639

737

12

Danny Quah

14

STATE BANK OF INDIA

124

140

14

Kishore Kumar Poludasu

15

ICICI BANK

90

110

15

Anupam Verma

16

BANK OF INDIA

77**

77

16

Geetha Nagarajan*

17

UCO BANK

42**

42

17

Rajeev Gupta*

TOTAL

61,951

62,363

* Info obtained from MAS website ** Info retained from 2020 rankings

34

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

M

Y

Y

Y

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37

EVENTS: SINGAPORE TECHNOLOGY EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Recognising Singapore’s most dynamic and innovative digital projects for 2021

A

s the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reshape the global business landscape, the question has shifted from how companies can survive the restrictions to how they can adjust and thrive despite the crisis.

It’s not just the “survival of the fittest”, but it’s now the “survival of the smartest”. Companies that create smart innovations that propel business growth, or those that spearhead technological advancements that defy convention and mediocrity allow them a more secure footing amidst the uncertainties that the crisis brings.

It is also these businesses that deserve recognition for their remarkable achievements in technology.

Following social distancing and safety guidelines, Singapore Business Review has awarded these enterprises at the SBR Technology Excellence Awards 2021 held via individual studio and virtual presentations throughout the second and third week of April.

Now in its third year, the awards programme lauds the country’s most outstanding companies that are riding the digital disruption wave and leading the technological revolution and digital journeys of their respective businesses and industries.

This year’s winners were judged by an elite panel that includes Daryl Pereira, Head of Cyber at KPMG; Cheang Wai Keat, Partner, Consulting at Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd.; Henry Tan, Group Chief Executive Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Nexia TS; Sivakumar Saravan, Senior Partner at Crowe Singapore; Cecil Su, Director, Head of Cybersecurity of BDO Singapore.

Singapore Business Review congratulates the following winners: AI - Automotive Services 21 United Holdings Pte Ltd Digital - Engineering ABB Pte Ltd Digital - Travel Services Accenture

Analytics - Life Insurance Aviva Ltd Mobile - Telecommunications Better.SG Enterprise Software - Apparel Browzwear Software - Startup Canapii Augmented & Virtual Reality - Telecommunications CITIC Telecom CPC Cloud - IT Services Cloud4C Biotechnology - Health Products & Services CooperVision Singapore Fintech - Mergers & Acquisitions Datasite Robotics - Warehouse Dematic & Bolloré Logistics Blockchain - Metals & Mining Digix Global Digital - Real Estate Far East Organization Blockchain - Logistics Freightchain Technologies Pte Ltd Digital - Healthcare Fullerton Health Fintech - Trading Services Futu Holdings Limited

Facial Recognition - Financial Services ADVANCE.AI

Digital - Logistics GeTS Asia Pte Ltd

Digital - Life Insurance AIA Singapore

Cybersecurity - IT Products Group-IB Global Private Limited

Cloud - Oil & Gas Air Liquide, APAC

Online Services - Real Estate Huttons Asia Pte Ltd

Digital - Remittance Aleta Planet

Augmented & Virtual Reality - Manufacturing IBM Manufacturing Solutions Pte Ltd

Digital - Health Products & Services Align Technology

Big Data - Advertising iClick Interactive Asia Group Limited

Fintech - Payments Atome

Fintech - Payment Cards IDEMIA

Robotics - Health Products & Services Avalon SteriTech Limited

Mobile - Healthcare IHH Healthcare Singapore

Digital - Chemicals AVIENT COLORANTS SINGAPORE PTE. LTD.

Digital - Financial Services IMTF BANKING SOFTWARE PTE LTD

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

Software - Energy INOVAANTAGE PTE LTD

Software - Shipping SVM Solutions and Technologies Pte. Ltd. (Solverminds)

Cybersecurity - IT Services Insightz Technology Pte Ltd

Information Management - Metals & Mining Syniti Asia Pacific & Japan

Cloud - Financial Services IPC Systems, Inc.

Cloud - Retail Tencent

Software - Computer Software JobKred Private Limited

AI - Telecommunications Tetherfi

SIEM - Computer Software LogRhythm

Mobile - Brokerage Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte Ltd

AI - Computer Software Luminance

IoT - IT Services Tracesafe Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

Nanotechnology - Automotive & Transport Equipment Nanofilm Technologies International Limited

Mobile - Transportation Transit Link Pte Ltd

IoT - Education Nanyang Technological University

Fintech - Payment Invoicing Uqpay Technology (SG) Pte. Ltd.

Enterprise Software - Media & Entertainment Nintex

Network and Broadband - Telecommunications VIAVI Solutions

API - Business Insurance NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative Limited

AI - Customer Experience WIZ HOLDINGS PTE. LTD.

Mobile - Life Insurance NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative Limited Robotics - Commercial Real Estate Trust OTSAW Digital Pte Ltd IT Storage - IT Services Pure Storage Mobile - Human Resource Technology Qualee Technology Pte Ltd AI - Financial Services Refinitiv Labs Asia

OTSAW Digital Pte Ltd

Information Management - Non-Profit or Government Organizations REVEZ Corporation Ltd Analytics - Banking SAS Institute Robotics - Logistics Schenker Singapore Pte Ltd Cybersecurity - Network SentinelOne

AIA Singapore

Aleta Planet

Software - Internet/New Media Shootsta Analytics - IT Services SIFT Analytics Group AI - Banking Standard Chartered Bank Computing - Aerospace Stratus Technologies Augmented & Virtual Reality - Engineering Surbana Jurong Consultants Pte Ltd

Datasite SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

39

EVENTS: SINGAPORE TECHNOLOGY EXCELLENCE AWARDS

CooperVision Singapore

Aviva Ltd

Avalon SteriTech Limited

Browzwear

SAS Institute & CIMB

Dematic & Bolloré Logistics

Canapii

Cloud4C

Digix Global

Fullerton Health

Huttons Asia Pte Ltd

IHH Healthcare Singapore 40

IBM Manufacturing Solutions Pte Ltd

INOVAANTAGE PTE LTD

CITIC Telecom CPC

Align Technology

Far East Organization

Futu Holdings Limited

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

AVIENT COLORANTS SINGAPORE PTE. LTD.

GeTS Asia Pte Ltd

Freightchain Technologies Pte Ltd

Group-IB Global Private Limited

IDEMIA

Qualee Technology Pte Ltd

IPC Systems, Inc.

Atome

ADVANCE.AI

JobKred

LogRhythm

SentinelOne

Insightz Technology

Tracesafe Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

Nanyang Technological University

NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative Limited

Nintex

SVM Solutions and Technologies Pte. Ltd. (Solverminds)

Transit Link Pte Ltd

Shootsta

Standard Chartered Bank

Surbana Jurong Consultants Pte Ltd

Stratus Technologies

Syniti

Pure Storage

Tetherfi

Uqpay Technology (SG) Pte. Ltd.

Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte Ltd

VIAVI Solutions SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

41

DIGITAL - LIFE INSURANCE

AIA Singapore’s Claims EZ leads the way to faster insurance claims processing

From submission to disbursement, Claims EZ offers a simple and fast claims experience for their customers, reducing the end-to-end claims process to 1 – 4 working days, compared to the industry average of a fortnight.

E

management that will help the company moderate the rate of health insurance premiums while maintaining a healthy claims reserve pool.

“Ultimately, AI is a problem solver, with its ability to reduce workflows and the number of steps needed to complete a task. The insurance industry will be able to benefit greatly from this as AI helps us enhance existing operational processes— for greater customer satisfaction and more meaningful employee productivity,” said Teo. Despite their avid support for AI, the company believes that technology should enhance the human experience instead of replacing it.

For example, via Singpass Mobile and AIA 2FA remote authentication, Claims EZ’s digital nature not only allows customers to submit claims on the go. Ensuring that less tech-savvy customers’ claims needs are taken care of, Claims EZ has also been developed with remote-authentication capabilities, allowing AIA’s insurance representatives to support their customers via secured online platforms; forgoing faceto-face meetings and physical signatures.

Cashless reimbursement capabilities had also been built into Claims EZ to facilitate claims payouts directly to policyholders’ bank accounts using PayNow. “We believe that machines are only as intelligent as the people who build, operate, and maintain them. AIA wants to equip their employees with the skill sets to not only understand AI but to harness its benefits to its fullest potential,” Teo added.

Achieving these objectives comes full circle with AIA’s main goal of putting their customers at the heart of everything they do.

“In the end, the outcome here is that AIA will become better, faster and more costeffective at fulfilling our brand promise of bringing healthier, longer, and better lives to our customers.”

fficient claims processing has tremendous implications for insurance companies that aspire to provide customers with the best service experience while also being more competitive in their industry. Having an efficient claims process improves customer satisfaction, offering valuable service that further enhances customer loyalty and retention.

The process of managing claims often has a huge scope. The challenge that many insurers face is how to deliver the entire processing cycle effectively to their customers.

According to a 2020 survey in Singapore conducted by Swiss Re, the COVID-19 outbreak has greatly impacted the sentiments of Singapore consumers towards their future insurance purchases.

The survey revealed that 57% of those who desire to purchase insurance in the future look for a faster claim process or payment system when making their choices.

With more than half of the respondents looking for a faster claims process, it’s important to create an efficient system that manages the entire claims process effectively to keep customer satisfaction levels high.

platform that forms part of the insurer’s comprehensive digital ecosystem. Built-in partnership with AiDA Technologies, this fully integrated end-to-end digital claims platform allows customers to submit their claims online.

Once submitted, AI and Machine Learning (ML) technologies automatically and accurately assess claims. This means that simple and straight-forward claims can be straight-through processed (STP) without human intervention, which gives the Claims team more time to personally attend to more complex and outlier enquiries.

Melita Teo, Chief Customer and Digital Officer, AIA Singapore, said, “Even during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, AIA was well-equipped to continue servicing customers when we entered into circuit breaker, as we had begun building our digital ecosystem over a year ago.”

Aside from making claims processing faster and more convenient for customers, Claims EZ’s ML engine allows it to self-learn and identify anomalies more accurately in claims patterns. It can also detect fraudulent and high-risk cases and flag them to AIA’s team for further investigation.

The result is improved proactive claims

Claims EZ: Building an all-inclusive digital claims ecosystem Claims EZ is AIA Singapore’s Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled digital claims

AIA wants to equip their employees with the skill sets to not only understand AI but to harness its benefits to its fullest potential

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

43

+

Congratulations to Better.SG for their SBR Technology win!

Better.SG wins Mobile - Telecommunications Award at SBR TEA Its Call Home app helps connect migrant workers with their families Recognising the contribution of a company’s innovative systems in the field of mobile telecommunications, Singapore Business Review’s judges have awarded the Mobile Award for Telecommunications to Better.Sg. This was for their Call Home app, a cost-effective 3G solution that allows migrant workers to call their families’ landline phones in their home country.

Better.Sg is a non-profit volunteer-run organisation that drives techforgood in Singapore by building and supercharging innovative digital tools to address societal issues. Their goal is to empower and engage the multidisciplinary techforgood community in Singapore and help organisations do more social good using technology.

Call Home was created by four people brought together by Better.Sg. Many people in Singapore have adapted to the new social distancing rules by relying on digital connectivity to connect with their loved ones.

However, one group was left behind in the mix: migrant workers.

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

Working and living away from home can be challenging even in the best of times. And with the global pandemic happening worldwide— and the fear and uncertainty that comes along with it—these overseas workers were struggling to afford calling cards after losing their jobs or getting pay cuts.

In most cases, their families lack stable internet connections at home or don’t have access to Wi-Fi. Some couldn’t afford data plans that will allow them to make calls with WhatsApp or Viber. With a landline being the only option, their one challenge is how to get prepaid calling cards at local stores during quarantine.

An unlikely solution came by way of a Facebook and TikTok Hackathon; a group of acquaintances entered together and originally

developed an app that helps isolated seniors with 3G smartphones communicate with loved ones. When they became aware of the predicament facing Singapore’s migrant worker population, they quickly pivoted their focus to address that need.

This led to the creation of Call Home.

The team partnered with Twilio to create a programmable voice solution that was easy to use and quick to launch. The solution enables low latency and clear audio capabilities, and the migrant community was able to successfully call home, just as they would with prepaid cards.In addition to Twilio’s Programmable Voice solution, the Call Home team leverages Twilio’s Programmable SMS as an internal solution to help verify and onboard migrant workers to the app. Workers are sent an OTP when they sign up, to verify their Singapore mobile number.

To ensure the calls were cost-effective for the migrant workers, Twillio.org, the social impact arm of Twilio, provided a discounted rate that led to an overall 40-55 percent decrease in calling costs.

Since the launch in September, Call Home is already hearing from migrant workers, about how they’re less worried about being able to speak with their families because they’re now able to do so for free.

Especially considering the challenges isolation can bring, these calls help keep the migrant workers feeling happier and less alone.

The team also partnered with the nonprofit Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), to help support the most vulnerable migrant workers in Singapore. TWC2 provided the contact details of a few hundred workers who were seeking case work with the organization and the app was advertised to them to enable them to retain more of their savings. The app is now used by over first 1,000 workers and aims to reach ten thousand by the end of 2022.

As demand increases, Call Home might expand to other countries such as India or Myanmar, the team said, where a majority of the migrant workers’ families reside.

And, they’re exploring using programmable SMS to automate and offer migrant workers tech support via chat. Twilio’s portfolio of solutions have given Call Home’s team the ability to create an ideal, seamless, and simple experience for all levels of communications— including for those who need it most.

“The goal is to ensure that the workers are stress-free when making these calls to their families. They not only help them feel less lonely but they keep them tied to their purpose, which is to financially support their families back home,” said Gloria Chua, Design Lead and Head of Marketing for Call Home. “We’re heartened that this simple solution has brought comfort to many of them in this difficult time.”

“We’re heartened that this simple solution has brought comfort to many of them in this difficult time.”

IPC wins SBR’s Technology Excellence Award ,

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

45

DIGITAL - REAL ESTATE

Far East Organization Awarded For Its Robust, EasyTo-Use Work Order Management System The Central Engineering Management System (CEMS) brings quantum improvements in productivity and operational efficiency.

A

s Singapore’s largest private property developer, Far East Organization develops, owns, and manages a diverse portfolio of real estate products in the residential, hospitality, retail, commercial, healthcare, and industrial space segments. Of which, it manages more than two hundred and fifty properties situated across the city-state.

Toiling behind the scenes, come rain or shine, is a close-knit group of dedicated engineers and technicians from the Organization’s Central Engineering Department (CED) who strive to ensure the facilities at its properties are running at optimum performance for the benefit of tenants and guests.

A typical day includes conducting proactive preventive maintenance work orders on one or more M&E (mechanical and engineering) systems, such as chillers, electrical switchboards, heat pumps, and water pumping systems. However, many repair and maintenance requests also funnel through the department. The timely and complete fulfilment of work order keep the properties running smoothly and customers happy. As such, cultivating a high-performing CED is critical to achieving consistently high levels of customer satisfaction, and preserving the value of the company’s assets.

To that end, CED partnered with the inhouse Group IT Digital Lab, as well as stakeholders from various business groups, to conceptualise and develop a bespoke digital work order management solution known as the Central Engineering Management System (CEMS) to bring about quantum improvements in its productivity and operational efficiency. What followed was an intensive nine months where the cross-functional team employed design thinking, lean and agile software development frameworks to deliver CEMS. Key functions incorporated into the system are: • Dashboards and reports to track the progress of work order and resolution

The team leverages on CEMS for the entire work order management process from identification through resolution to drive efficiency and better decision-making.

•

•

•

•

time; to identify recurring issues; to flag out anomalies in the equipment, and to track equipment repair and servicing history.

Fine-grained configuration of service level tracking based on property type and operational hours, coupled with automated notifications and escalations.

Digitisation of checklists and meter readings to replace paper forms and physical logbooks, and to automate the detection of anomalies.

Capturing feedback and suggestions from tenants for performance assessments and fine-tuning work order management processes.

Integration with building management systems to automatically create a corrective work order for follow-up when alerts are triggered.

“This streamlined, multi-faceted system has provided a common platform for our property management and engineering teams as well as our service providers to communicate and standardise our work order management process - from the raising of the issue to the completion of the work order by our external contractor, and routing of the completed work order for processing of payment,” said Edward Ng, Executive Director (Projects and Operations) at Far East Organization.

“There is now seamless, real-time communication with the various building

This streamlined, multi-faceted system has provided a platform for property management, engineering teams, and service providers to communicate and standardise the work order management process 46

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

systems in our properties through the autocreation of work order when system alerts are generated. This has improved our service level and reduced the need to constantly check and monitor the systems which are deployed in wide geographic areas across Singapore,” explained Edward. “With the equipment tagging capability in place, we can monitor and assess the health and performance of the wide range of equipment under our care on a real-time basis, allowing the team to take a predictive approach to maintenance.”

Launched in September 2020, CEMS has been utilised by more than five hundred users managing more than a hundred thousand preventive and corrective work orders. Its most notable achievements include estimated manpower savings of around two thousand man-days, improved compliance with service level agreements, optimised deployment mix of onsite and offsite engineers, and the ability to draw analytical insights from real-time operational data.

Central Engineering Management System (CEMS)

SBRad_210528_v2_FA_PATHED.pdf

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47

FINTECH AWARD - TRADING SERVICES

Fuelled by positive reception in Singapore, Futu takes regional and global markets by storm

User-centric easy-to-use app interface with low fees, Futu aims to build on its 14 million users across the globe

F

utu Holdings Limited (Futu)’s internationalisation strategy saw the Nasdaq-listed company recently open a Singapore office that will serve as its South East Asian headquarters to lead expansion across the region in the coming years.

And Futu has already received a very warm reception.

Earlier in March this year, Futu launched the international version of its renowned investment platform app in Singapore, moomoo, to serve the wider global market.

The platform is fronted by a bull mascot, a play on the bull market.

In just the first quarter of 2021, Futu experienced rapid growth in Singapore, Hong Kong and the US, accounting for more than 70% of the 273,000 new client growth. moomoo has experienced strong uptake and positive feedback from its users since its launch, even clinching the Fintech Award under the Trading Services category at the Singapore Business Review’s Technology Excellence Awards 2021.

This comes on the back of Futu witnessing exponential growth as witnessed in its recently released first quarter financial report, with total revenue increasing 349.4% year-on-year and total trading volume soaring 277.5% YoY. The online brokerage firm aims to transform the way the man on the street invests, with its fully comprehensive financial technology ecosystem providing users a seamless and intuitive one-stop platform.

Futu Listing

Futu Team in Nasdaq Listing

Backed by strategic investors which includes Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners, Futu is poised to take the global stage.

And Futu is looking to moomoo to take it even further. moomoo is moving the needle Besides its easy-to-use interface, this onestop platform provides users with flexibility to manage their assets, portfolios and investments across multi-markets, unlimited access to the latest news and resources across the globe, access to real-time market data, and even interactions within a trading community - a full suite of tools providing Singapore investors with an unparalleled investment experience. moomoo has seen popularity amongst the younger generation of investors, who are active investors and are driven to keep up to date with investor trends. Besides free resources for users, the moo community was created to allow individuals to exchange thoughts and information, providing users with a safe space. Besides using the stock comparison tool for peer analysis, the moo community will allow users to sound out their investing ideas with others across the globe.

Futu took on a user-first customer journey ensuring a seamless interface and top security, with a 24/7 security system supported by

With Futu, we encourage users to take control of their investment journey and learn even more about the different products on the app with access to countless resources.

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

Tencent Cloud. And in placing customers first, Futu has managed to cut costs that will go to traditional brokers, reducing the cost borne by customers - a quality platform, value added services with lower fees and charges.

“Breaking into the Singapore market is a milestone and a pivot to springboard Futu into a broader South East Asian market. We know that starting one’s investment journey is daunting when you’re alone, and we want to be able to provide users with the tools and resources to get where they want to be,” said Mr. Gavin Chia, Director, Futu Singapore.

“With Futu, we encourage users to take control of their investment journey and learn even more about the different products on the app with access to countless resources.”

User-driven customer experience Futu has always placed its users - all 14 million of them across the globe - at the core of its business, emphasising the need to create a seamless and simple digitalised investing experience for global diversified products.

“It’s important that businesses learn to embrace technology while not losing sight of the personal touch. Investors always look at user interface, security, and attractiveness of the products and services, and this is what we have specifically worked on to make sure we’re providing the best-in-class for our users,” added Mr. Chia, who asserted that feedback from Futu clients will make the platform even better.

“It’s a continuous learning process for us, listening to our customers and understanding better how we can improve our platform to meet their needs.”

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

49

DIGITAL - LOGISTICS

GeTS unveils new enhancements in CALISTA The company continues to lead the logistics technology ecosystem in driving innovation.

G

lobal eTrade Services’ (GeTS) technology powered platform, CALISTA® enables the orchestration of logistics, compliance and financial requirements of trade and supply chain seamlessly, and securely. It provides companies access to reliable and competitive freight options, timely visibility of cargo movements, accurate advisory on trade formalities and adherence to regulations, and availability of fuss-free working capital support. By using CALISTA, stakeholders can benefit from streamlined trade and supply chain processes, data reusability, connectivity across multiple customs nodes, improved authenticity of data flow, and access to accurate and up-todate status visibility.

GeTS continues to lead the logistics technology ecosystem in driving innovation to deliver the best supply chain orchestration experiences possible. It will be rolling out upgrades to CALISTA by the third quarter of this year. The upgraded platform for the enhanced CALISTA will provide a more intuitive User Interface (UI) and improved User Experience (UX) for its customers, whilst delivering added benefits like enhanced security and greater connectivity.

Benefits Better performance and experience The UI has been redesigned by adopting a user-centric approach which identifies the user’s requirements and pain points. This in turn improves the user experience.

Enhanced security The upgrade will heighten CALISTA’s security and continuously monitor, protect, and maintain the integrity of the systems and data.

Greater connectivity The power of Application programming interfaces (APIs) continues to play a critical role in CALISTA’s competitive edge. The upgrade will see CALISTA’s existing set of APIs further broadened to cover more services. This also makes it easier and a lot more convenient for customers and partners to connect to the platform.

CALISTA

Swifter innovation The upgraded CALISTA platform consists of a rich collection of building blocks that utilises a robust, engineered core which leverages cloud native architecture and technologies to improve scalability. The smart management and optimisation of large data volumes are done through analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Advancements to individual modules can also be made quicker with minimal system downtime.

The first phase of the upgrade and migration begins with CALISTA’s book and track service, more specifically in its vessel schedule and freight booking modules. CALISTA book and track helps SME and multinational shippers and freight

forwarders to facilitate and streamline their containerised freight bookings and shipping documentation. It also helps them to track and trace their shipments. With the latest upgrade, users can look forward to a faster and smoother customer onboarding process, whilst existing ones can enjoy enhanced functions and features that improve productivity and reduces errors.

“Digitisation drives end-to-end transparency across the supply chain which generates valuable data to optimise and enable strategic decision making. We hope the enhanced book & track modules can help companies to digitalise and consolidate their information into one single visibility, enabling them to manage their shipments more easily,” said Ng Chee Keong, Vice President of GeTS.

We hope the enhanced book & track modules can help companies to digitalise and consolidate their information into one single visibility, enabling them to manage their shipments more easily

Copyright © GeTS Asia Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. CALISTA® is a registered trademark of GeTS. The materials provided by GeTS herein are solely for marketing purposes only. The information contained in the materials is proprietary to GeTS or subject to intellectual property rights owned by GeTS. Any use, disclosure, transmission, reproduction of the said materials in any manner without prior written consent of GeTS is strictly prohibited.

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

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51

MOBILE - HEALTHCARE

IHH Healthcare Singapore stays ahead of the digitalization curve with new mobile apps

DigiHealth and DigiCare mobile apps provide patients and doctors access to important medical and administrative information, enhancing the overall patient care experience

H

ealthcare, like many other industry verticals, is no stranger to digital innovations and disruptions with advances in automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.

The challenge in the healthcare industry lies in keeping the patients’ overall well-being at the heart of it all – a constant priority for IHH Healthcare Singapore (IHH SG).

Today, the leading international private healthcare operator is revolutionising healthcare delivery with its two award-winning mobile apps – DigiHealth for patients and DigiCare for doctors – helping both patients and doctors make better-informed healthcare decisions.

Data-driven healthcare transformation “We are seeing data in a different light. The insights help us stay agile as we continue to evolve our services and expand our expertise to provide a holistic care experience to our patients and customers,” says Dr Prem Kumar Nair, CEO of IHH Healthcare Singapore.

Many IHH SG services began in traditional brick and mortar facilities, but now patients can access these services through greenfield digital platforms like telehealth and even possibly remote monitoring in the future.

As its digital offerings expanded, the organisation increased investment in building its technology capabilities in-house and shifted IT priorities to consumer-driven projects – requiring collaboration from many stakeholders with a deep understanding of the patients’ needs.

This in turn creates stronger teamwork across business units and enables teams to operate like one care network with the patients’ best interest in mind.

The DigiHealth mobile app is a culmination of this synergy, but most importantly it is one of the key milestones in IHH SG’s longstanding promise to continuously provide patients with seamless and personalised care.

Mobile app made for patients The DigiHealth mobile app was designed

before admission at any of the hospitals.

Business partners, such as corporations, can also reap the benefits and integrate with the app seamlessly to gain insights on their staff’s health status and optimise their overall healthcare plans.

Dr Prem Kumar Nair, CEO of IHH Healthcare Singapore

to help patients take charge of their health anytime, anywhere.

Patients can retrieve their imaging and laboratory results, view radiology results, perform health profiling and even receive doctor recommendations through the app to better manage their health and maintain their well-being.

The DigiHealth app also provides peace of mind by helping patients keep track of hospital bills, check for bill size estimates for treatments and seek information about the doctors and specialists across primary to quaternary care.

Patients can also book appointments with any of the Parkway Shenton GP clinics or over 1,500 specialist doctors accredited with all four of IHH SG’s hospitals in Singapore (Gleneagles, Mount Elizabeth, Mount Elizabeth Novena and Parkway East hospitals). The app is integrated with MyINFO, facilitating and expediting e-registration

Integrated healthcare delivery To complete the connected care experience, the DigiCare mobile app was created to help doctors better manage their patients.

The mobile app notifies doctors of their patient’s conditions and allows them to review radiology images, evaluate laboratory results and notify patients in a timely manner, even whilst on the go.

Furthermore, the DigiCare app allows doctors to e-admit their patients and file their professional fees conveniently. These functionalities help them reduce the time spent on administrative tasks, enabling doctors to spend time doing what they do best – building their practice and providing the best care to their patients.

The future of digital healthcare Looking ahead, IHH SG is actively developing its core competencies and capabilities to continue harnessing data and technology to improve healthcare delivery and services.

Dr Nair noted, “DigiHealth and DigiCare are solutions we created for both our patients and clinicians, allowing us to rely on data to better assess important healthcare trends and customise our services to build a stronger provider-patient relationship – all while keeping our patients healthy.”

“However, we realise that we are only just scratching the surface. The possibilities in healthcare are limitless and we’ve tried to ensure our platforms are built for collaboration over the longer term. IHH SG has and will continue to welcome likeminded partners with new technologies and healthcare-related services to enhance our patients’ healthcare experience.”

For partnership enquires, please contact us at digihealth@parkwaypantai.com.

DigiHealth and DigiCare are solutions we created for both our patients and clinicians, allowing us to rely on data to better assess important healthcare trends and customise our services to build a stronger provider-patient relationship – all while keeping our patients healthy 52

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

DGX, physical gold made digital through the blockchain DGX is a secure digital token that represents physical gold. Built with secure and auditable blockchain technology, each DGX token represents 1 gram of fine gold approved by London Bullion Market Association. The physical gold is stored in state of the art vault facilities and can be fully redeemed in person.

BUY

AUDIT

STORE

DGX tokens represent physical gold

Digix engages Inspectorate Bureau

All gold bars are currently stored in

from London Bullion Market Association

Veritas, on a quarterly basis to verify the

Singapore and Canada based custodial

approved refineries.

authenticity of the bullion in the vaults.

vaults - The Safe House and Brinks.

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TRADE

RECAST

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a fee of 1%.

always backed by 1 gram of gold.

even payment.

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

53

IOT - EDUCATION

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – Smart Campus, Smarter Thinking

The university took home the IoT - Education trophy at SBR Technology Excellence Awards 2021.

F

rom 3D-printed bathrooms to roboplants that “communicate”, new technologies have crossed the domain of science fiction to become part of everyday life, with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) at the centre of it all.

Placed among the top universities in various global indices such as Nature Index, Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds, NTU has achieved worldwide acclaim for its research output, innovation and teaching excellence.

NTU Smart Campus The NTU Smart Campus is home to a digitally connected community of students, faculty and staff. Students are introduced to immersive technologies, learner-centred practices, and modules such as data science and artificial intelligence as early as their first year. Learning and working alongside industry giants such Alibaba, HP, Volvo and Delta Electronics, students and faculty benefit from cross-pollination of ideas that often leads to ground-breaking research.

NTU has set up the Global Alliance of Industries @ NTU (GAIN) to catalyse industry-university partnerships for strategic collaborations and knowledge sharing. With over 200 industry partners, GAIN is a gateway for organisations to connect with the research and innovation ecosystem of NTU and work on creative solutions and applications with its world-class faculty, researchers and students, supported by state-of-the-art facilities.

For example, in the area of future transportation, NTU has made impressive strides with the world’s first full size, autonomous electric bus in collaboration with Volvo. The autonomous bus is among the many innovative transportation solutions being tested on campus.

The new Continental-NTU Corporate Laboratory also aims to address future urban mobility issues with research expertise in areas such as autonomous robotics, navigation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and smart materials.

Beyond research and innovation, NTU has also moved rapidly with its digital transformation, implementing cloud-based, mobile-centric systems for work and learning.

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(ANPR), data analytics and mobile payment methods to make parking easier across the University’s campuses.

Ms Tan Aik Na, Senior Vice President (Administration) at NTU Singapore said, “Being the first in Singapore to implement the Smart Car Park System is an example of NTU’s digital transformation efforts. These advanced digital solutions are part of our NTU 2025 strategic plan and are aligned with Singapore’s goals to be a Smart Nation.”

Barrier-Free Smart Car Park

It was the first university in Asia to launch Workday, an integrated HR platform for employees. Virtual learning tools also made possible a seamless switch to home-based education at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Singapore’s first barrier-free car park In 2020, Singapore’s first barrier-free car park was introduced on campus. The Smart Carpark System is a ticketless and barrier-free parking solution developed in partnership with ST Engineering. It recently won the Singapore Business Review’s annual Technology Excellence Award, in the IoTEducation category.

Paired with the GoParkin mobile app, the system integrates the latest technologies such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition

Leader in sustainability and innovation Addressing some of humanity’s grand challenges such as in sustainability, the University is leading not just in sustainable research but also by example. NTU has set an ambitious target to halve its net energy utilisation, water usage and waste generation

by March 2026, compared to the levels of 2011.

On NTU’s beautiful garden campus, there are 57 Green Mark-certified (equivalent to LEED-certified) building projects, of which 95% are certified Green Mark Platinum including smart learning hubs The Hive and The Arc. A key pillar of Singapore’s Smart Nation vision, the NTU Smart Campus is creating better living experiences, supporting new discoveries and enabling resource sustainability to meet the challenges of Industry 4.0.

NTU-Volvo

The autonomous bus is among the many innovative transportation solutions being tested on campus.

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For more information, visit our website at https://www.fullertonhealth.com/sg/familycare.

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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ata hygiene is a crucial business resilience strategy for outlasting this protracted global economic volatility. Prevent poor data practices from undermining your business growth and competitive advantage.

From reporting and analytics, to making strategic decisions and complying with regulations, all areas of a business rely on data.

In a 2021 HFS Research study conducted in conjunction with Syniti, 89 percent of global C-suite executives cited a high level of data quality as a critical factor to overall company success. Yet, most businesses struggle with poor quality or downright bad data that is invalid, duplicated, inconsistent, or outdated.

As companies look for new ways to grow, data becomes an increasingly critical foundation to drive business outcomes such as revenue, profitability, competitive advantage, and growth.

The Business Value of Proactive Data Management Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting companies’ data management journeys, impeding some and accelerating others. If data management was critical before, it has never been more important for organisations to depend on it to navigate the effects of the pandemic with strategic confidence.

For instance, companies face an unprecedented barrage of increased data volumes as employees adapted to remote workplace arrangements. “For resource-strained IT departments to manage these high-capacity loads, a robust data framework is essential,” says Mr Gordon Lam, president for Asia Pacific & Japan at Syniti.

“Companies that accelerated their digital transformation journeys to build a comprehensive digital infrastructure are better positioned to ensure business continuity in the ‘new normal’ of remote work.”

Disruptive technologies fuelled by data are also poised to transform the competitive landscape.

According to the HFS Research study, only 23 percent of companies around the world have implemented an enterprise-wide data strategy at scale, but half of this group will achieve 10 percent or more revenue growth—more than three times the average.

As an end-to-end enterprise data management company, Syniti supports businesses in realising better business outcomes by developing robust data quality, data governance and data management practices.

The success of an organisation’s digital transformation efforts—from automation to artificial intelligence and machine learning—hinges on the efficacy of its data management processes. Regardless of the sophistication of a company’s software infrastructure, poor quality data results in poor quality decisions.

Syniti’s data management solutions help to ensure that data is correct from the moment it enters a system, providing a “single source of truth”—a consistent set of data that powers confident decision-making across different business functions.

Turning Data into a Strategic Asset As data increasingly becomes a company’s most compelling asset, platforms and tools that support its business application also become mission critical. Education and committed C-level leadership are key to cultivating a data-driven organisational culture with the necessary expertise and strong data security.

The Data Readiness model from Syniti facilitates organisations to make focused investments in data quality improvement to sustain a high degree of operational readiness.

This concept of Data Readiness helps an organisation to understand how ‘readily’ its data can support business operations.

As data readiness increases, operational risk decreases—resulting in an overall increase in operational readiness. Only then can enterprises succeed in employing

“Companies that accelerated their digital transformation journeys to build a comprehensive digital infrastructure are better positioned to ensure business continuity in the ‘new normal’ of remote work.”

Gordon Lam President for Asia Pacific & Japan at Syniti

technologies to dynamically and intelligently harmonise data, leveraging technologies such as cloud and artificial intelligence for data modernisation.

Ultimately, business data should be managed within an information governance initiative, which defines clear business policies and rules. This policy-aligned approach not only mandates quality standards based on key business initiatives, but also makes it possible to verify compliance with the stewardship processes and systems that implement them.

According to Mr Gary Chua, chief operating officer for Asia Pacific & Japan at Syniti, “Treating data like an asset and elevating data management to a vital component of enterprise software architecture is indispensable in today’s data-driven world.

Businesses can no longer afford to disregard a comprehensive data management strategy if they plan to survive and thrive.”

At its heart, Syniti is passionate about helping companies drive better business outcomes with their data and supports leading global and regional companies.

Visit https://www.syniti.com/ to find out more about how you can leverage quality data for stronger business growth.

Build Resilience.

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Learn more at logrhythm.com

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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Pure Storage truly believes that we are innovative, and we deliver the solutions to enable our customers to be too.

Pure as-a-Service™

It’s not effective or efficient for organisations to constantly undertake storage refresh cycles. It requires juggling varying maintenance expirations, managing cloud contracts, and playing a guessing game about how much storage they will need in the year(s) ahead.

Customer-driven innovation with Pure as-a-Service: Breaking boundaries and putting an end to the storage guessing game.

If the past 17 months have taught us anything, it’s that we don’t know what’s around the corner. And businesses deserve the flexibility and freedom to start small, or indeed start big, with the option to scale up or down depending on their needs.

Breaking Boundaries

Businesses need complete control over where their data resides, without the bureaucratic burden of traditional STaaS. We’ve always held this view at Pure, which is why we broke ground to become the first storage company to offer a truly unified services model, delivering both on-premises and in the cloud.

• • •

Ripping up the traditional storage-as-a-service (STaaS) rule book Delivering an industry-first offer of a flexible onprem storage model Making storage as simple as a utility bill

Innovation. It’s a word used a lot in our industry, in fact we’d challenge you to find a vendor or service provider that doesn’t claim its products and solutions are indeed innovative. It’s a term so over-used that we believe many have lost sight of its true meaning. Real innovation needs to:

• • • •

Be future looking — but grounded in the immediate Not be afraid to take a non-traditional path to get an end result

With Pure as-a-Service, our insistence on simplicity is a key factor in where our innovation lies. We’ve taken the traditional (STaaS) rule book and ripped it up. With one simple, single contract, we’re not only eliminating the headache of over/under provisioning and painful migration, we’re also setting you up to face the challenges of the future.

Truly offer a solution to an existing problem

Pretty innovative don’t you think?

Be innovative: Nothing would ever change if we all just played it safe

To find out more, email: asean@purestorage.com

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Digital Employee Experience Platform Winner Best HR Technology award

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www.qualee.com 58

Think of your utility bills: You are billed based on consumption. This is exactly what Pure as-a-Service offers you. It’s a simple enough concept, but an innovative one in this field.

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

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facebook.com/stratustechnologies/ SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

59

Integrated Ship Management Solutions for Maritime Operations Excellence

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Inbuilt chat/ discussions

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Improvement in performance with real-time and quality analytics

Productivity tools

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

61

EVENTS: SINGAPORE BUSINESS AWARDS

Singapore Business Review recognises top winners for International and National Business Awards

T

he COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t ended yet, but its impact on businesses has already left a devastating effect on many companies globally. And while specific industries have borne the full brunt of the catastrophe, the ripple effect can be felt by all industries. Those that have successfully learned to maneuver through the uncertainties and adapted to the changes have been clearly shown to have much better chances of surviving even after the crisis ends.

In an effort to recognise these organisations that have successfully adjusted to the new actualities of a pandemic economy, Singapore Business Review held this year’s International Business Awards and National Business Awards last April to May this year.

The International Business Awards continue to laud the most outstanding international firms operating in Singapore. Meanwhile, homegrown Singaporean companies were celebrated in the sixth edition of the National Business Awards.

“The pandemic has disrupted the global business landscape and forced companies to adjust to a ‘new normal’, and it’s likely that these changes will continue even after the COVID-19 is a thing of the past. It’s a difficult situation for everyone, but it also tests their mettle and endurance during a crisis. Those who rise up to this challenge are the winners here,” said Singapore Business Review editor-in-chief Tim Charlton.

This year’s nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Jiak See Ng, Financial Advisory Leader at Deloitte Asia Pacific; Kuang Hui Tan, Chief Executive & Managing Partner at Crowe Singapore; Max Loh, Singapore and Brunei Managing Partner at Ernst & Young LLP; Marcus Lam Partner, Assurance Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Roger Loo, Executive Director, Management Consulting Services at BDO Consultants Pte Ltd. Congratulations to all the winners!

Singapore Business Review congratulates the following winners: SBR International Business Awards:

Amity Global Institute - Education Bayer South East Asia Pte Ltd - Pharmaceuticals Blue Yonder Asia Pte Ltd - Supply Chain Technology Bottomline Technologies - Financial Technology Cargill Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd - Food Science China Mobile International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. - Telecommunications DHL Supply Chain Singapore (Logistics Customer Service Center) Business Services EPAM Systems - Business Travel Technology Etiqa Insurance Pte Ltd - Financial Services Globalization Partners Pte Ltd - Human Resource Technology Heraeus Materials Singapore Pte Ltd (Heraeus Electronics) Manufacturing KEMIN INDUSTRIES (ASIA) PTE LTD - Agriculture Schenker Singapore Pte Ltd - Logistics Tricor Group - Consulting TurnKey Lender - Credit Solutions Technology Vertiv Singapore - Data Center 62

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW |SEPTEMBER 2021

National Business Awards

Adventus Singapore Pte Ltd - IT Services Advisors Alliance Group - Financial Technology AEM Holdings Ltd. - Manufacturing Technology Eden Strategy Institute - Consulting IGG - Internet/New Media Infosys Compaz Pte Ltd - Cloud Services Lagos Free Zone, A Tolaram Group Venture - Industrial Construction Meinhardt Group International - Engineering Moleac Pte Ltd - Pharmaceuticals MTM SHIP MANAGEMENT PTE LTD - Shipping Oncoshot - Health Products & Services PSB Academy - Education Stamcorp International Pte Ltd - Metals & Mining Utracon Overseas Pte Ltd - Heavy Civil Construction Verticurl - Marketing Technology

Etiqa Insurance Pte Ltd

Amity Global Institute

DHL Supply Chain Singapore

Cargill Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd

Blue Yonder Asia Pte Ltd

Globalization Partners Pte Ltd

EPAM Systems

Schenker Singapore Pte Ltd

KEMIN INDUSTRIES (ASIA) PTE LTD

Advisors Alliance Group

Vertiv Singapore

Eden Strategy Institute

AEM Holdings Ltd.

Lagos Free Zone, A Tolaram Group Venture

PSB Academy

Adventus Singapore Pte Ltd

Heraeus Materials Singapore Pte Ltd (Heraeus Electronics)

IGG

Meinhardt Group International

Stamcorp International Pte Ltd

Tricor Group

Moleac Pte Ltd

Utracon Overseas Pte Ltd

Infosys Compaz Pte Ltd

Verticurl

MTM SHIP MANAGEMENT PTE LTD SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

63

INTERNET - NEW MEDIA

IGG wins SBR National Business Awards for Internet / New Media Its Lords Mobile strategy game maintains its popularity and sets a new revenue record in 2020.

Lords Mobile - Chaos Dragon

H

ow can we help gamers who spend very little money, or do not spend at all?

That was one of many questions facing the development team in 2016 as they discussed ways to improve the game.

Lords Mobile was launched in March 2016. The game seemed promising, and the response from gamers was encouraging. It was a good game; the challenge was to make the big leap from good to great.

The team had worked tirelessly for more than a year to produce the game. Now that the game is launched, the real work begins.

Whilst the development team worked feverishly to fix the bugs that inevitably pop up after public release (no matter how extensive the pre-launch testing), the operations team scoured thousands of comments left by gamers and collated useful feedback and suggestions. Many played the game intensively alongside other gamers, to get a better sense of what people liked or disliked about the game.

Once the bugs were fixed, the next step was to improve and refine the game.

Lords Mobile is a “free to play” game.

Gamers can play as much as they like without spending a cent, but there are in-game purchases to make the game more enjoyable and reduce the time needed to level up. As with almost all “free to play” games, only a fraction – usually less than 10% – of gamers make purchases.

Those who spend will naturally have a better gameplay experience compared to those who don’t, just as flying first or business class is more comfortable than economy.

The logical thing to do would be to take

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very good care of big spenders, the same way airlines treat their first and business class passengers. Often, the low-spending and non-paying gamers, who far outnumber the big spenders, are neglected.

But IGG wanted to take care of both groups of gamers.

The reason is simple. A war strategy game, with millions of gamers from around the world playing concurrently in real-time against each other, needs different types of gamers: strong and weak, bold and meek, leaders and followers, attackers and defenders, fighters and farmers.

Without the right mix, without a critical mass of gamers each playing different roles and contributing in their own way, gameplay will lack variety, and gamers will lose interest after a while.

Over the next several months, the development team added features protect and help the weaker non-paying gamers, so they do not get discouraged (because they cannot keep up with the big spenders) and leave the game prematurely. Their progress will be slower, but they can still enjoy the

game at their own pace.

For example, when they are attacked and their troops are injured, the system sends resources to help their troops heal; by assisting fellow guild members, they earn coins which can be used to buy shields for their castles; they can shelter part of their army from attacks, provided they log in regularly to do so.

Over the next five years, the development team would continue to regularly update content, add features, and improve gameplay mechanics, not only to enhance the experience for big spenders but to retain non-paying gamers. This has enabled Lord Mobile to compete with newer games and maintain a base of loyal fans.

By the end of 2016, Lords Mobile had grown into IGG’s new blockbuster game.

It would go on to win multiple industry awards and accolades, and, according to independent third-party analytics firm App Annie, was the highest-grossing war strategy game worldwide for 19 consecutive months.

To date, Lords Mobile has grossed over US$2.3 billion worldwide. It is available in 20 languages, has 370 million registered users, and 13.7 million monthly active users.

About IGG IGG is a leading mobile games developer and publisher with global headquarters in Singapore, and offices in the US, China, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Belarus, the Philippines, the UAE, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, Italy and Spain. The company has been ranked amongst the Top 52 publishers worldwide for seven consecutive years by independent mobile analytics platform App Annie.

Lords Mobile - Don Guapo

Lords Mobile has grossed over US$2.3 billion worldwide. It is available in 20 languages, has 370 million registered users, and 13.7 million monthly active users

70%

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

65

Moleac is a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Singapore, dedicated in finding, developing and commercialising new medicines for the unmet medical needs of patients suffering from central nervous system diseases and injuries, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and dementia.

HELPING PEOPLE WITH ACQUIRED NEUROLOGICAL DISABILITIES RECONNECT WITH THEIR LIFE.

Our main goal is to help people with disabilities after brain injuries or neurodegenerative diseases, as well as their families, reconnect with their life.

Moleac has pioneered a new drug development approach, looking at sources of innovation from Natural Medicines, hence shortening considerably drug development cycle time and investment to bring medicine to sufferers’ unmet needs. We scientifically select natural compounds and formulations from traditional medicine and develop them according to international standards.

Thus, our first marketed product, NeuroAiD for post-acute ischemic stroke (AIS) has experienced an exceptional commercial development,reaching 30,000 patients in more than 35 countries each year. Close collaboration with academia has generated a large body of scientific and clinical data supporting the design of future trials for developing a botanical drug.

Building on this success, to expand our worldwide presence from Singapore, we led the development of a new herbal formulation (MLC1501) as a drug in post-stroke recovery.

An Investigational New Drug application (IND) has been opened by US-Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), allowing us to conduct two safety studies of MLC1501 in healthy volunteers (Phase 1), hypothesising that MLC1501 improves functional and motor independence and recovery of neurological impairments in post-AIS survivors having not received or not recovered after acute treatment.

In 2020, US-FDA has encouraged to move directly to a pivotal study, representing a noticeable acceleration of the overall program. A second IND was recently approved for MLC1501 in TBI.

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Visit Moleac today at www.Moleac.com !

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

67

BUSINESS TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY

Engineering the Future with EPAM: Helping Clients Embrace Digital Transformation Taking on an imminent challenge and finding a long-term solution is how EPAM makes the future real.

EPAM designed and created the unique web and mobile application to seamlessly weave the entire process for global business travellers to plan, stay and conduct meetings and conventions in Singapore, without needing to quarantine on arrival.

T

he global pandemic accelerated digital transformation across industries and organisations. Many of the world’s leading brands relied on EPAM Systems, Inc. as a trusted partner to help them transform not only their technology strategy, but also business models, design and operations to run smarter and faster in markets faced with continuous change.

One example is EPAM Singapore’s recent collaboration with Temasek Holdings and its consortium of partners for the Connect@ Changi project – the world’s first safe ‘Business Travel eXchange’ designed to reopen Singapore borders safely and efficiently.

EPAM was chosen as the digital partner for this collaboration, responsible for designing and delivering an integrated tech solution encompassing all frontend and backend development as well as a seamless user experience.

The end-to-end digital solution provides a holistic, world-class experience to business travelers while giving them much-needed assurance and peace-of-mind to meet safely with their local counterparts. It comprises of a public website with comprehensive information about Connect@Changi, a booking and reservation system (available both on web or mobile) for accommodations and meetings, as well as lab test scheduling and reminder systems for travelers to fulfill the required swab tests and health declarations.

Connect@Changi was an ambitious project from the start, fraught with great uncertainty, demanding timelines and dynamic changes on the ground. What helped the EPAM team thrive and gain success were the company’s agile software practices,

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effective engagement and communication across multiple stakeholder groups, and innovative problem-solving techniques that enabled them to address constantly changing requirements due to public health policies or new government regulations.

The whole project took approximately four months from conception to development and delivery. The team at EPAM is thrilled to win this year’s SBR International Business Awards for the ‘Business Travel Technology’ category – a worthy recognition of having played a key role as technology partner to enable Singapore’s national resilience project aimed at reviving the country’s position as the regional business centre. Moving ahead, the project team, which includes employees across several APAC locations, continues to iterate and enhance the platform to support growing business needs while adapting to changing regulatory requirements. It is heartening to imagine that in the near future, the facilities and the digital application EPAM helped build, will be the de facto platform to support and enable the world to interact in Singapore again – through regional corporate meetings, MICE events and other large-scale global forums.

Looking Ahead In the increasingly competitive global business environment, EPAM continues to be customer-driven whilst serving as an ethical organisation and sharing its time, talent, and

knowledge to improve tech education around the world, giving back to the communities where they live and work.

By combining both the culture of engineering excellence that EPAM is historically known for, along with exceptional delivery capability around digital, consulting and experience design, EPAM continues to strengthen their value propositions for both customers and employees across the APAC region.

Darren Lee Starsmore, Managing Director and Head of APAC Business at EPAM Systems said, “ EPAM is a talent community comprising consultants, designers, architects, engineers and trainers who help our customers thrive in a market challenged by the pressures of digitisation. We help them pivot and adapt to a fast changing, and sometimes very unpredictable, global environment. Our teams work together to create solutions that achieve meaningful, sustained impact for businesses, their employees and customers.”

EPAM is a talent community comprising consultants, designers, architects, engineers and trainers who help our customers thrive in a market challenged by the pressures of digitisation.

ENGINEER THE

WITH SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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COMPANY FEATURE

How Surbana Jurong uses sensors to make buildings smarter and safer

With Smart Digital Spaces, building facilities can be digitally maintained while improving workplace productivity, air quality, safety, and quality of life

A

key tenet of Singapore’s Construction Industry Transformation Map is the transition of a labour-intensive Facilities Management industry in the Built environment sector to a higher value one powered by data analytics, predictive maintenance and smart solutions. As a global urban, infrastructure and managed services consulting firm, Surbana Jurong plays a key role in this transition.

The company leverages 30 years of experience deploying digital applications in Singapore’s public housing and large-scale infrastructure projects to design and build smart and sustainable spaces for its clients.

“Smart Digital Spaces is a term we coin for spaces that are equipped with technologies and IoT sensors to digitise processes such as Facilities Management (FM) processes,” explained Eugene Seah, managing director for smart city solutions and senior director for special projects at Surbana Jurong.

“We channel data derived from the sensors to a Common Data Environment (CDE) platform which we call “24K Integrated Platform” (24K) to perform predictive maintenance for different asset types and to gain better insights from the data so that our clients can optimise their operational cost of maintaining their assets, while at the same time reducing their carbon footprint. This platform has machine learning capabilities and visualisation tools which will cater to the needs of the various user profiles”, Mr Seah added.

SJ’s 24K system is an agnostic, plug-andplay platform that houses its enterpriselevel digital facilities management system, OMNI. The IoT sensors are plugged into OMNI and visualised on a dashboard. For smaller spaces, SJ has a Pocket FM solution which is a lighter version of OMNI. Displaying all the data streams from temperature, humidity, occupancy sensors deployed in a space allows building managers to ensure the health and safety of the users of a particular building are not

Smart Digital Spaces in Action Surbana Jurong applied their Smart Digital Spaces in their 400m2 space Collaboration Hub at its Singapore office, which serves as a showcase for guests and clients to visualise how all the technologies in their smart system come together to achieve meaningful outcomes.

In an upgraded version, the sensors will be able to detect the level of microbes in the air and send a signal to the fan coil

SJ’s 24K system is an agnostic, plug-and-play platform that houses its enterprise-level digital facilities management system, OMNI. compromised. For an asset owner, digitising the management of spaces means the ability to have better control of costs and being able to set realistic goals to meet sustainability targets.

Aside from playing a critical role in the fight against climate change, these sensors can surgically rectify mechanical & electrical faults in lifts, pumps, and airconditioning systems. Building managers have on-hand mobile apps where they can access the entire dashboard showing the data streams from the various sensors in real-time. This optimises the number of building technicians required on-site to monitor the asset since they are only deployed when they are alerted to a problem.

units to activate ultra violet lights to kill viruses. The sensors can also detect areas with poor internal air quality readings and pump fresh air into the space. Areas with high plug loads or vampire loads can also be identified.

Surbana Jurong is confident it can help its clients reap the same benefits of technology adoption.

“Our system at the collaboration hub is a brownfield project. What we have implemented here can easily be replicated in other brownfield sites, and there are many in Singapore; existing buildings which present numerous opportunities to improve their ventilation systems without overhauling their mechanical & electrical systems.” said Seah.

Surbana Jurong, ITE partners to advance the built environment sector

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The MOU was signed by Ms Low Khah Gek, CEO, ITE (left) and Mr Wong Heang Fine, Group CEO, Surbana Jurong (right)

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urbana Jurong and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance the national effort to transition the labourintensive Facilities Management industry powered by data analytics, predictive maintenance, and smart solutions.

The partnership focuses on training ITE students in Engineering

and Info-communication Technology including AI, BIM, Data Engineering, Digitalisation, Digital Facility Management, Digital Asset Monitoring, and Mixed and Virtual Reality (MR/VR).

Under the partnership, Surbana Jurong will also sponsor Course Medals to outstanding ITE students from built environment courses annually, to recognise and encourage young talents.

AEM’s bold vision in an Increasingly Complex World

SBR

Established in Singapore in 1990, AEM has played a notable role in contributing to Singapore’s manufacturing and innovation capabilities in the semiconductor industry.

“AEM is truly a Singapore success story.

Customer success, engineering, innovation, and teamwork are at the heart of our company.

It is a company that has grown from strength to strength over the past nine years, and we are ready to bring the company to greater success,” added AEM’s Chief Executive Officer, Chandran Nair.

AEM’s engineering talents provide support and drive success for AEM’s customers globally.

A Robust Growth Portfolio From a contract manufacturing company to a global leader in test innovation, AEM Holdings Ltd. (“AEM”) is transforming the test industry by providing comprehensive and best-in-class technologies in test and handling solutions for semiconductor and electronics companies worldwide.

As Singapore accelerates its Smart Nation initiative, AEM is partnering with leading research agencies in Singapore to drive rapid progress in the 5G, Mobility, and Artificial Intelligence ecosystems. Through strategic acquisitions in Singapore and worldwide, AEM aims to be a critical node of the global value chain to deliver scalable, leading-edge, and resilient test solutions for innovation in an increasingly complex world.

Global Reach and Visionary Leadership

National Business Award for Manufacturing Technology “Besides being a year full of unprecedented challenges, 2020 was also a year where we, as a company, have come together to navigate these obstacles and identify new opportunities - allowing us to continue to lead in the industry,” said AEM’s Non-Executive Chairman and Director, Loke Wai San. With strong management leadership and support from its board, AEM plans on extending its global reach. The company has presence across Asia, Europe, and the United States. With manufacturing plants located in Singapore, Malaysia (Penang), China (Suzhou), and Finland (Lieto), and a global network, AEM offers its customers a robust and resilient ecosystem of test innovation and support.

By innovating test, AEM enables its customers to fully realise the potential of technology with speed and confidence and propels the advancement of countless products and systems that shape, connect, and power the future.

For more information, visit www.aem.com.sg

AEM has grown strongly amidst the global pandemic. In FY2020, the company recorded its highest revenue of S$519 million and its market capitalisation crossed S$1 billion.

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MANUFACTURING

Heraeus Materials Singapore Pte Ltd bags Singapore Business Review Award for Manufacturing Its team created a new business model that supported 5G high speed for semiconductor makers, doubling their revenue even during the pandemic.

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eraeus Holding GmbH is a leading technology group family-owned company headquartered in Hanau, Germany, with annual revenues of over €22billion. As part of its global business unit Heraeus Electronics, Heraeus Materials Singapore Pte Ltd (HMSL) operates since 1985 at two sites for R&D and the manufacturing of semiconductor assembly and interconnect materials.

5G Communications 5G Communications is driving technology and market demand in the next decade.

5G Smartphones must be more powerful with greater features packed into smaller spaces. Heraeus Electronics R&D developed a new family of advanced packaging solder paste Welco™ materials to address miniaturisation, thermal budget, and reliability needs of 5G mobile communications semiconductor device packages. Repeatability and reproducibility are also important factors during the high volume, complex assembly of such 5G device modules. We put every effort into ensuring the robustness of our products at their factories. Our highly experienced technical solutions teams located globally are ready to provide onsite support to assist customers in every step.

“Customers enjoy our early engagement to align roadmaps with their commercial and technical needs”, says Singapore-based Chi Keung Lau, EVP Global Head of Sales, Heraeus Electronics. “Companies who are looking for higher yield & reliability, improved cost-effectiveness or new technologies will find in us a professional partner for materials solutions in semiconductor assembly and packaging.”

To address the importance of memory devices in Smartphones, Heraeus Electronics has developed AgCoat Prime,

a cost-effective, high-reliability goldcoated silver wire for memory devices interconnect. Customers do not need to retrofit their wire bonder equipment to replace gold wires with AgCoat Prime. No inert or forming gases are required.

Automotive Automotive megatrends push technological development. Connectivity and ADAS drive the trend for miniaturisation. Electrification demands higher power density with the underlying challenge to fulfill the reliability requirements of the automotive industry and a zero-defect mindset.

Heraeus Electronics has a long history of supplying vehicle manufacturers globally.

We live in high precision and no defect solutions every day in this demanding market. We support our customers’ challenges to meet these megatrends successfully by offering our strong and broad product portfolio which consists of various materials for assembly and packaging technology: aluminum bonding wires and ribbons, metal-ceramic substrates, solder paste, sinter paste, and thick film paste. One of which is our Innolot solder paste portfolio which provides reliability improvements for applications using standard operating temperatures and elevated operating temperatures of up to 150°C.

Chi Keung Lau, EVP Global Head of Sales of Heraeus Electronics

power modules play a key role to provide efficient electricity supply in a wide range of market segments, e.g. industrial, automotive, renewable energies, traction, etc. The electrical vehicles segment shows the fasted growth and is becoming the biggest market for power modules.

We dissolve issues by creating perfectly matched solutions that minimise complexity and compromises. Our application knowledge and simulation competence help our customers shorten their development cycles, lower their costs, and bring next-generation products faster to market.

Heraeus Electronics offers a wide portfolio of materials solutions for packaging of power modules e.g. metal ceramic substrates, solder, and sinter materials for die and system attach, bonding materials and Die Top System for the die top connection. In conjunction with engineering services, we are uniquely positioned as a development partner for innovative products. Our application labs are equipped with real production and testing equipment to enable prototyping, testing, simulation, and process optimisation services.

Power Electronics In today’s increasingly electrified world

For inquiries, please send an email to: electronics.apac@heraeus.com

Companies looking for higher yield & reliability, improved cost-effectiveness or new technologies will find us as a professional partner for materials solutions in semiconductor assembly and packaging 72

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Electronics

Performance

Unlock Your Potential

Efficiency Reliability Yield Cost

Unlock your potential with Materials Solutions from Heraeus Electronics Are you challenged by extreme automotive requirements? Are you exhausted when being tasked to deliver maximum performance on miniature devices for mobile and portable electronics? Are you in doubt when matching materials for power electronics?

Heraeus Electronics offers applications insight and materials solutions that help meet your electronics packaging targets. At a higher speed, lower costs, or better device performance.

Contact us, We hold the keys to unlock your potential Heraeus Electronics Heraeus Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG Heraeusstraße 12-14 63450 Hanau, Germany www.heraeus-electronics.com SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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CONTACT CENTER & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SERVICES As the world’s leading logistics company, we also run an omni-channel contact center. Trusted by the government, aviation and technology MNCs, we provide outsourced customer service and business processing solutions around the clock, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Let us help you deliver exceptional experience to your customers. Talk to us about your contact center challenges and requirements, and our team of experts are ready to support and help design the best solutions.

Chris Stewart Director, Logistics Customer Service Center DHL Supply Chain

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Blue Yonder. Fulfill your potential.™ blueyonder.com ©2020 Blue Yonder Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Let’s talk about the future of food.

At Cargill, we are committed to nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way.

Through our Innovation Center in Singapore, we are collaborating with customers, start-ups and research institutions to co-create innovative food solutions that respond to evolving consumer trends and demands.

Find out more about partnering with us at www.cargill.com © 2021 Cargill, Incorporated

SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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EVENTS: MALAYSIA TECHNOLOGY EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Find out who won at the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2021

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oday, technology’s influence encompasses all industries.

From mobile banking and e-commerce to even biotechnology and gaming, the world now lives in an era where technology greatly expands business terrains and opens more opportunities for growth and development.

In recognition of companies that have made significant strides in these areas, the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2021 have honoured these enterprises by introducing the winners through a studio and virtual awards presentation last May 4 to June 3.

The winning companies were also accompanied by virtual interviews as they shared their thoughts about winning the prestigious awards programme.

This year’s nominations were chosen by an elite panel of judges consisting of Michael Graham, Chief Digital Officer at PwC Malaysia; Edmund Wong, Associate Partner, Malaysia Technology Consulting at Ernst & Young Advisory Services; Justin Ong, Partner and FSI Financial and Regulatory Risk Leader at Deloitte Asia Pacific; Alvin SH Gan, Head of Technology Consulting at KPMG in Malaysia; and Lou Hoe Yin Partner, at RSM Malaysia.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Singapore Business Review congratulates the following winners: Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 3D Gens Sdn Bhd Biotechnology - Healthcare Technology Abletech Solutions Sdn.Bhd. E-Commerce - Startup ACASIA Communications Sdn Bhd Service Technology - Telecommunications ADA Analytics - Advertising Allo Technology Sdn Bhd Infrastructure Technology - Telecommunications Network and Broadband - Telecommunications AmBank (M) Berhad Analytics - Banking APM Automotive Berhad Software - Automotive & Transport Equipment

BAT Analytics - Consumer Products (Non-Durables) BizSmart® Solution by Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad Digital - Banking Online Services - Banking BonusKad Loyalty Sdn Bhd Digital - Marketing & Public Relations Mobile - Marketing & Public Relations Boost E-Wallet Fintech - Financial Services Fintech - Payments Boustead DCNS Naval Corporation Sdn. Bhd Software - Aerospace & Defense bp Malaysia Digital - Energy CIMB Bank Berhad Robotics - Financial Services Cocoro Life (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd Digital - Consumer Products (Durables) Collectius CMS (M) Sdn. Bhd. Cloud - Financial Services DDK Blockchain By Universal Horizon Sdn Bhd Cryptocurrency - Technology ENTROPIA (M) SDN. BHD. Digital - Manufacturing E-Commerce - Consumer Products (Non-Durables) Farm to Fork Sdn. Bhd. Cloud - Food & Beverage Freightchain Technologies Pte Ltd Blockchain - Logistics HotelX Mobile - Hospitality & Leisure

ASIA AEROTECHNIC SDN BHD Enterprise Software - Aerospace

Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd Analytics - Utilities Information Management - Utilities

BAC Education Sdn Bhd Online Services - Education

Innovation Associates Consulting Computing - IT Services

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K-One Technology Bhd IoT - Manufacturing

Tenaga Nasional Berhad Digital - Utilities

Lazada Malaysia E-Commerce - Logistics

Tune Protect Malaysia Mobile - Financial Services

Lembaga Tabung Haji Online Services - Financial Services

UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA Digital - Education

LexisNexis Southeast Asia Analytics - Legal

Vertiv Malaysia Sdn Bhd Infrastructure Technology - Internet/New Media

Malaysia Airlines Automation - Airline Infrastructure Technology - Airline

Vision Petroleum International Sdn Bhd Data Centre - Oil & Gas

MAMPU Software - IT Services Nexagate Sdn Bhd Cybersecurity - Computer Software OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad Mobile - Banking

3D Gens Sdn Bhd

One Two One Advisor Sdn Bhd Mobile - Business Services Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn. Bhd. Mobile - Utilities Perbena Emas Sdn Bhd Construction Technology - Materials & Construction PETRONAS DIGITAL SDN. BHD. AI - Oil & Gas Analytics - Oil & Gas Digital - Oil & Gas

ADA

POS AVIATION SDN BHD Digital - Data Center Principal Asset Management Berhad Fintech - Human Resource Technology PruBSN Aman by Prudential BSN Takaful Berhad Fintech - Life Insurance

Allo Technology Sdn Bhd

Standard Chartered Global Business Services AI - Banking Sunway FutureX Farm Infrastructure Technology - Agriculture Telekom Research & Development Sdn Bhd AI - Telecommunications

ASIA AEROTECHNIC SDN BHD SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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EVENTS: MALAYSIA TECHNOLOGY EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad

AmBank (M) Berhad

BAT

BAC Education Sdn Bhd

Boost E-Wallet

BonusKad Loyalty Sdn Bhd

bp Malaysia

Cocoro Life (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd

Collectius CMS (M) Sdn. Bhd.

K-One Technology Bhd

ENTROPIA (M) SDN. BHD. 78

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Lazada Malaysia

Boustead DCNS Naval Corporation Sdn. Bhd.

CIMB Bank Berhad

HotelX

LexisNexis Southeast Asia

UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA

Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn. Bhd.

Nexagate Sdn Bhd

Malaysia Airlines

OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad

Lembaga Tabung Haji

Perbena Emas Sdn Bhd

Perbena Emas Sdn Bhd

Principal Asset Management Berhad

Prudential BSN Takaful Berhad

Tenaga Nasional Berhad

Vertiv Malaysia Sdn Bhd

PETRONAS DIGITAL SDN. BHD.

Telekom Research & Development Sdn Bhd

Universal Horizon Sdn Bhd

MAMPU

Standard Chartered Global Business Services SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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MOBILE - UTILITIES

The Rise of Digitalisation in the Water Industry Creating Joy in Every Drop of Water for Our 8.4 million Consumers

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uilding a digital driven utility business model in this on-demand economic climate will further push the competitive edge in shaping consumer experience through the various first-hand touchpoints. At Air Selangor, we embarked on our digital drive focusing on real-time monitoring and prediction of operations, digital working culture, and empowering consumers to be digital savvy. These are our foundation to become a digital utility of the future and shape our digital solutions ranging from a single click mobile application to digitalised operations management.

Consumer Mobile Application In 2018, we rolled out the Air Selangor Consumer Mobile Application as part of our effort to provide an improved consumer experience through digital solutions offering real-time updates on water services disruption, billing, payment, and highlights about water services in their community.

Presently, we are embarking on redesigning the app to be awareness-driven in terms of its feel, whereby there will be highlights on water conservation efforts and environment protection besides consumers being able to experience realtime incident management updates.

Intelligent Command Centre The Air Selangor Intelligent Command Centre (ICC) commenced operations in 2019. The ICC is the first strategic digital shift rolled out to achieve our aspiration to become a digital water utility. The ICC is set to link and integrate our key strategic asset parameters such as flow, pressure, reservoir level, pump status, and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) capabilities.

The ICC also features integration with Online Hydraulic Model, an endto-end integration system for monitoring, analysing, and modeling distribution systems in real-time. This online system is based on

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The Data Analytics Centre (DAC) was set up to fully harness the potentials of our data, allowing us to build enterprisewide capabilities of Big Data Analytics. the integration of real-time hydraulic data with hydraulic computer simulation models and statistical prediction tools. The current ICC ecosystem will be further enhanced with the ‘Digital Twin’ feature, a virtual asset representation of the physical assets for real-time monitoring and prediction.

Operations Mobile Application (OMA) In 2020, we rolled out OMA to consolidate and streamline operational processes.

OMA enables early detection and real-time recording of pipe leakage, provides work updates on site operations, facilitates preventive maintenance work, monitors land usage activities along rivers for pollution investigation, coordinates the deployment of sensors for efficient leak detection, and manages water quality data.

Data Analytics Centre The water utility industry is adapting fast to the new ways of data consumption as data analytics are gaining traction in driving discussion and insights. These data points are used in decision making, drafting policies, increasing efficiency, and cost optimisation exercise.

Air Selangor is embracing

big data analytics as the new game changer to steer Air Selangor Strategic Plans and Initiatives Realisation (ASPIRE) and Operations Business Intelligence (OBI).

The Data Analytics Centre (DAC) was set up to fully harness the potentials of our data, allowing us to build enterprisewide capabilities of Big Data Analytics.

The function of DAC is to build, maximise, and upscale the capabilities of end-to-end big data analytics that include artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digitalisation of intelligence. DAC is Air Selangor’s core excellence centre for all data analytics initiatives.

Ultimately, this will allow us to derive better insights to identify pain points in our operations, which subsequently will enable us to leverage on data-backed decisions and forge more effective solutions in our business operations.

Swimming Through Digital Revolution Tides Challenges are prevalent in the digital revolution and for us at Air Selangor, success is all about bringing joy in every drop of water to our consumers. That’s our brand promise. Our consumers are at the heart of everything that we do. We work to ensure clean and high-quality water supply to all our consumers through our digital initiatives.

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E-COMMERCE – LOGISTICS

Lazada Malaysia garners E-Commerce – Logistics award at MTEA 2021 Its Transport Invoice Dispute System is an innovative solution that simplifies the seller-shopper relationship.

Logistics plays a critical role in the value chain of eCommerce, and has always been the corner stone of Lazada in ensuring a premium and quality shopping experience for our merchants and customers across the region.

Since being acquired by Alibaba several years ago, Lazada has the advantage of leveraging its world-class data driven technology infrastructure for eCommerce logistics needs. Today, Lazada’s state-of-the-art fulfilment centres in 6 countries occupy over 300 thousand square meters of land, and 85% of Lazada’s parcels are sorted by Lazada’s own facilities.

To further innovate and stay ahead of he needs of our customers, Lazada upgraded and further integrated its logistics network through Project Apollo since September last year to ramp up its logistics capabilities across the region.

Project Apollo is designed for the future as it allows Lazada to centralise network and data management, better allocate and control routes, and manage cost. More importantly, Project

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Apollo provides the capability to synergize logistics and eCommerce, and deliver value-add services to our merchants and consumers. Altogether, this offers us tighter and more efficient control over logistics, and an unparalleled advantage to improve customer experience and grow our seller base.

It is this end-to-end integrated network that has also enabled Lazada to continue to meet the demands of consumers during the pandemic. The data-driven logistics infrastructure backed by Alibaba’s cuttingedge technology allowed Lazada to manage the surge of order volumes when stay-at-home measures were imposed extensively.

“In the past year people are increasingly adopting eCommerce for their everyday needs, and we are committed to continue to leverage our unparalleled logistics advantage to bring them convenience and variety through eCommerce.” said P Sunil Singh, Chief Logistics Officer of Lazada Malaysia.

Lazada app

Furthermore, innovation is in our DNA and our logistics team continues to source new ways to streamline and improve processes. Our recent win in the Malaysia Technology Excellence Award 2021 under the eCommerce-Logistics category is a testament of the pace of innovation at Lazada towards building outstanding long-term growth potential, foster closer relationships between different departments, and provide significant customer and stakeholder value.

CIMB BUSINESS

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IS THE NEW BRAND. A great CX inspires your customers to rave about you.

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Providers of Civil Engineering and General Construction Works for Today and Tomorrow Lot 304, 3rd Floor The Spring Shopping Mall, Persiaran Spring, 93300, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia www.perbenaemas.com.my

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SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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3m

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Customers in 6 Countries

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Collectius aims to transform the debt management industry in Asia. Our processes are specifically designed to provide an end-to-end digital user experience that is secure, simple, and frictionless. We are digitally driven to facilitate an efficient and professional mediation process, that sets the benchmark for the wider industry.

In 2020, Collectius announced a landmark partnership with IFC to launch a US$ 60 million platform to reduce non-performing loans in Asia.

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6:31 PM

Your partners in business, for life.

We understand that it is not an easy feat running a business, much less a successful one. With CIMB Bank, we take on your burden so that you do not have to.

From banking solutions for everyday business needs to providing financing for operational cash flow to ensure business growth - we are your partners in business, for life.

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CIMB Bank Singapore

AI - TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Business can now avoid cable cuts through AI-enabled solution

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) wins the AI - Telecommunications Award at the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2021.

Dr. Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer, TM R&D

C

onnectivity is fundamental to the growth of a digital nation. Risk to this infrastructure will impact almost all broadband and digital services to the nation. Today, third-party construction works are the highest contributor of cable cuts, and efforts to prevent them are crucial.

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) through its innovation arm, TM Research & Development

(TM R&D) wins the AI - Telecommunications Award at the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2021. In developing PATROL as proof of function to automatically detect construction activities using a vehicle dashcam to generate real-time alerts using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms.

PATROL combines AI, video, and a TM R&D designed methodology to accurately assess construction activities that pose a high risk to a telco’s cable infrastructure. With PATROL, telco providers are able to quickly identify risks caused by third-party construction works allowing their operational team to take proactive measures to prevent cable cut incidents thus offering a huge opportunity for operational cost avoidance.

“This is indeed a proud moment for us. Such a huge boost for our effort in showcasing how AI can be applied to solve real-life problems.

We hope to explore more innovations for TM,

TM R&D team

to enable a more digital society, digital business, digital industry, and digital government toward accelerating Digital Malaysia,” Dr. Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer, TM R&D.

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EVENTS: MALAYSIA BUSINESS AWARDS

Top local and multinational firms hailed in Malaysia’s most celebrated business awards

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usinesses etch unique grooves that help enterprises commence new ways of thinking—and living—that benefits the society.

In recognition of companies and startups that have made tremendous strides in their innovative projects and practices that greatly enhanced their businesses, the Malaysia National & International Business Awards has announced the winning companies for this year via digital and studio event launch.

Presented by Singapore Business Review, the winning companies were also accompanied by virtual interviews as they shared their thoughts about winning the prestigious awards programme.

This year’s nominations were chosen by an elite panel of judges consisting of Tan Hooi Beng, Deputy Tax Leader and International Tax Leader at Deloitte; Ngu Heng Sing, Executive Director, Advisory at KPMG in Malaysia; Pam Lee, Executive Director, Advisory at BDO; Dato’ Robert Teo, Managing Partner at RSM; Esther Yap, Partner, Audit at Mazars; and T S Teoh, Country Deputy Managing Partner at ShineWing TY TEOH in Kuala Lumpur.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad

Singapore Business Review congratulates the following winners: Malaysia National Business Awards Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad - Banking Bountiful Ventures Sdn Bhd - Consumer Products (Non-Durables) Boustead DCNS Naval Corporation Sdn. Bhd. - Aerospace & Defense Empada Sdn Bhd - Oil & Gas Hong Leong MSIG Takaful Bhd - Business Insurance Myclass technologies sdn bhd - Education Nature Farm Enterprise Sdn Bhd - Food & Beverage

Boustead DCNS Naval Corporation Sdn. Bhd.

Malaysia International Business Awards Adient Automotive Seating (M) Sdn Bhd - Automotive Services Allianz Malaysia Berhad - Life Insurance Besi Apac Sdn Bhd - Energy Consus Global Sdn Bhd - Consulting ENZA ZADEN ASIA SDN BHD - Agriculture Hamilton Sundstrand Customer Support Centre (M) Sdn Bhd Aerospace Intel Microelectronics Sdn Bhd - IoT LHT GPAC TECHNOLOGY (M) SDN BHD - Materials OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad - Banking 92

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Nature Farm Enterprise Sdn Bhd

Adient Automotive Seating (M) Sdn Bhd

Adient Automotive Seating (M) Sdn Bhd

Allianz Malaysia Berhad

OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad

Hamilton Sundstrand Customer Support Centre (M) Sdn Bhd

Hamilton Sundstrand Customer Support Centre (M) Sdn Bhd

Boustead DCNS Naval Corporation Sdn. Bhd.

OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad

Nature Farm Enterprise Sdn Bhd

Allianz Malaysia Berhad

LHT GPAC TECHNOLOGY SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2021

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ALPHA B R AV O COLLINS

We are Collins Aerospace. With our customers, we chart new journeys and reunite families.

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