SCS Magazine 2022 Issue 4

TRANSFORM OR

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If Change is Inevitable, Is Transformation Optional?

Digital transformation is a trending topic for many businesses and governments.

Unsurprisingly, there’s extensive coverage of transformation success stories in news outlets, social media – and basically just everywhere. However, despite it all, it is common to detect hints of stress whenever the digital transformation subject comes up in conversations.

Actually, change is nothing new in our tech universe. From programming languages to best practices, there are more days where things are different than the same. So surely when we keep our technical competencies up to date, we are also honing our ability to learn and adapt – right?

What’s more – if we were to go by the analogy coined by Mr Tan Kok Yam, Chief Executive of SkillsFuture Singapore, all of us would already have gotten our digital transformation booster shot, thanks to the pandemic.

Indeed, whether it is educational institutions like Nanyang Technological University or our Changi Airport – as Mr Joe Chiu, Vice-President of Digital & Data Management Systems, Changi Airport Group, shared – transformation plays a key role in sustaining the delivery of quality education and distinctive Changi experience.

And even though the worst of the pandemic may have passed, it is important to lock in these digital transformation gains by keeping our workforce informed and activated, as well as reflecting on lessons gleaned from the digital transformation experience – just like the Urban Redevelopment Authority. But as GovTech has wisely pointed out from their experience of rolling out the National Digital Identity system, everyone’s digital transformation journey is unique and highly circumstantial. Therefore, it is not a given that what works for you will work for another – and vice versa. Instead, you’ll need to take ownership of your transformation.

The good news is – SCS is here to help with your transformation. We go beyond providing you with resources to walk the journey alongside you. One more piece of good news? It’s never too late to start transforming. How about making it your resolution for 2023?

Enjoy the read!

TAN TENG CHEONG Editor

Fellow, SCS tan.teng.cheong@scs.org.sg

EDITOR

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BEHIND THE SCENES:

Transforming from “Physical Me” to “Digital Me”

CHAN Member,

Digital identity is a cornerstone of digitalisation. It empowers users to identify themselves when transacting in the digital realm. Naturally, National Digital Identity systems have to be inclusive and accessible for all residents. Our National Digital Identity system – Singpass –is no exception. It needs to serve everyone.

Although I have always known this, I took it for granted until over a year ago when I came to lead the National Digital Identity (NDI) team. From my vantage point, Singapore’s success in transforming from physical to digital identity is no coincidence, but a culmination of various calibrated moves.

Singapore has an advantage with an existing national registration system that records every birth and death in Singapore,

DOMINIC

SCS Director, National Digital Identity, GovTech

and every immigration and emigration in and out of the country. This provides a strong foundation for Singpass. However, we did not start by telling our citizens that we were introducing a national-level digital identity.

EMBEDDING VALUE INTO EVERY SOLUTION

Our journey which began almost twenty years ago set out to solve problems that everyone was facing. Singpass was designed to be a unified Identity and Access Management (IAM) system for the government so that citizens no longer need to grapple with multiple credentials when they interact with government agencies digitally. This created tremendous value for Singaporeans.

Subsequently in 2016, the NDI team introduced Myinfo, a platform that provides verifiable credentials to the appointed receiving party. The product focused on supporting the “tell-usonce” principle. Instead of updating multiple government agencies about personal data changes like residential addresses, citizens only needed to inform one government agency, and other agencies they have provided consent to would automatically have access to the updated information.

Committed to the mission of making lives better, the product was enhanced incrementally with useful and userfriendly features. One such iteration resulted in the extension of Myinfo to Myinfo business, which enables digital forms to be pre-filled with data from verified government sources such as corporate profile, financial performance and ownership information. This helped users to save time and organisations to ensure information accuracy.

BUILDING TRUST IN THE SYSTEM

EVERY STEP OF THE WAY

Thanks to trust in the system, adoption became easier along the way. Trust is vital for digital identity to achieve its intended purpose because users need to trust that their digital identity is secure and cannot be easily stolen. That is why the NDI team continuously reviews Singpass’ security posture to ensure that it remains relevant and is capable of defending itself in the evolving threat landscape.

Scam incidents dominate the reported crimes in Singapore last year. To keep scammers at bay, the NDI team works in close collaboration with users and relevant agencies, studying the scammers’ modus operandi and setting up countermeasures. Educating users on how to spot a phishing site is one such measure.

ENSURING CONTINUED RELEVANCE TO EACH AND EVERY USER Security aside, a high level of service availability is equally important to ensure that users can assert their digital identity when needed. For the NDI team, this means that we need to interoperate seamlessly with an ecosystem of reliable partners and data providers. This goes beyond government transactions to encompass private sector services when businesses tap on Singpass’ suite of open-sourced application programming interfaces (APIs). With Singpass, users should be able to enjoy enhanced experience and efficiency for both government and private sector engagements.

To enable this, the NDI team is relentless about making Singpass easy to use. The NDI team applies design thinking to understand user needs as well as test and improve features iteratively so that they become more intuitive. The number of required clicks and steps taken to complete transactions is scrutinised and reduced where logically possible.

That’s not all. In multiracial Singapore, the Singpass app is made available in all vernacular languages – Chinese, Malay and Tamil – even when the non-English speaking population in Singapore is

small. The app is also equipped with various accessibility options such as Apple Voiceover and Android Talkback, enabling visually impaired users to navigate the app.

ENHANCING ITS INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER SYSTEMS

From time to time, the NDI team receives enquiries from peers in other countries about whether they can replicate Singpass for use in their jurisdictions. As eager as we are to share the Singapore Singpass story, each country has a unique landscape and set of challenges. Therefore, digital identity systems that work in one country may not deliver the same set of outcomes in another.

Since every country and region is different, it is a given that the landscape of digital identity will continue to proliferate. Some will be centrally run by government, while others will be supported by private sector players. But no matter what, these identity systems have to interoperate with one another like a mesh ecosystem.

Singapore may be an island, but our economy is not. In an increasingly borderless world where users expect seamless experiences, it is important that Singpass interoperates well with different digital identity systems and supports cross-border use cases like international digital identities or passports. The NDI team has covered close to the total addressable market with our large user base, but we need to keep abreast of such developments in order to strengthen Singapore’s position as the linchpin in the digital economy.

DID YOU KNOW

Singpass is Singapore’s National Digital Identity system. Led and owned by the Singapore government, 97% of eligible Singaporeans and Singapore Permanent Residents (PRs) currently use Singpass – one of the highest adoption rates in the world.

What It Takes to Shape a Great Global University

The advent of Industry 4.0 presented both disruptions and opportunities to organisations. With the bold vision of becoming a great global university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) embarked on a digital transformation journey to rethink and reengineer our operating models five years ago. Along the way, climate change, cybercrime, geopolitical risk and the COVID-19 pandemic posed new challenges, calling for us to recalibrate strategies to support business resiliency.

ALVIN ONG Fellow, SCS Chief Information Officer, Nanyang Technological University

START WITH MODERNISING LEGACY SYSTEMS

As a first step, a strategic business-aligned tech plan to modernise administrative functions and tech infrastructure, and strengthen teaching, learning and research capabilities was implemented. Integrated SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms replaced in-house built systems to facilitate the adoption of best practices, increased agility to meet business needs, business continuity and a safe online operating environment.

With the bulk of our applications on cloud platforms, NTU managed to conduct core functions remotely with minimal impact on delivery quality for over 40,000 students and staff during the COVID-19 outbreak. These translated to home-based learning, assessments, examinations, and virtual events such as open house, orientation, career fair and graduation ceremonies for students, and virtual meetings, discussion groups, town halls and webinars for staff. Significantly, these digitalisation efforts not only validated NTU’s strategy in the face of unprecedented challenges, but also won commendation from the Quality Assurance Framework for Universities (QAFU) assessment panel commissioned by the Ministry of Education.

CONTINUE EMBRACING NEW FRONTIERS OF TECHNOLOGY

In January 2021, NTU 2025 was launched. This strategic plan empowers a Technology-Enabled Future (TEF) characterised by a smart, secure and sustainable campus that emphasises agility, productivity and collaboration; and enabled by a unified 3As approach – Automation, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Specifically, NTU 2025 focuses on achieving uniformity of excellence in all activities, growing impact, and deepening disciplinary strengths while nurturing greater interdisciplinary collaborations.

Transforming Teaching and Learning

With the goal of delivering tailored and holistic university experience to students, an integrated student management system that seamlessly follows students through their NTU life cycle is currently under development. Our NTULearn ecosystem embedded with AI and analytics enables better learning outcomes by creating engaging and interactive learning environments for both learners and teachers.

Transforming Our Workforce

A digitally savvy and responsive workforce is important for elevating organisational effectiveness and boosting productivity. That is why bots will be increasingly deployed to alleviate workloads for repetitive tasks, reinforce human capability in strategy and decision making and create opportunities for innovation and growth. For example, when a next generation green mark digital research infrastructure shortens DNA sequencing of more than 1,000 plant species from 20 to three years, it catalyses testing and development of innovative ideas and products in advanced manufacturing, robotics, urban solutions, cleantech and smart technologies.

Transforming the NTU Campus

In line with our vision of a vibrant and sustainable campus, we rolled out a mobile friendly navigation system that offers real-time driving and walking

directions to 4,000 locations on campus, and an eco-sustainable electric shuttle bus service that provides real-time occupancy and arrival time information. These improve the commute experience on our 200-hectare campus. Complementarily, our IoT (Internet of Things)-enabled, smart, barrier-free carpark system also offers fast and hassle-free parking experience while reducing air pollution and traffic congestion in our 59 car parks and 4,000 parking lots on campus.

GO BEYOND TECHNOLOGY

Notably, TEF goes beyond technology deployment to encompass a fundamental shift to data-driven mindsets, culture, and practices. It necessitates continuous process re-engineering and the purposeful application of 3As. Additionally, the global shift to hybrid workplaces means that every NTU staff will have to get more done faster and smarter.

Besides embracing data as a shared university asset and boosting data literacy to unlock new insights and opportunities, we need to democratise technology by empowering employees with tools to create their own solutions. One example is a low code development platform to automate processes. However, optimising processes calls for reimagining how work can be done through automation. Agile and user-centric design practices underpinned by a strong cybersecurity infrastructure and heightened cybersecurity awareness are also essential.

NTU won the top accolade for Leadership and Management Team of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards Asia 2022. This recognition affirms the success of our transformation journey and the OneNTU ethos to co-create a techenabled future that improves the lives of every member in the NTU community.

TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE LEARN, WORK, LIVE AND PLAY ON CAMPUS

Learn – Enhancing Digital Teaching and Learning Experience

NTULearnVideo – This cloud-based, secured video learning platform incorporates innovative and adaptive two-way virtual synchronous learning activities such as advanced viewer analytics to enhance online learning experiences and better understand learners’ behaviour and needs.

AI-based e-Proctoring Solution – Deployed in over 46,000 online test sessions across the University, the AI system can identify potential fraud during e-assessment while reducing labour required to administer live online tests.

Interdisciplinary Collaborative Core ColLABs

– This flipped classroom can house up to 210 students while concurrently hosting students in 35 separate groups of six students. Fitted with the latest audiovisual technology, ColLAB allows students to share or mirror their laptop, phone, tablet and computer screens onto the classroom wall monitors to facilitate discussions, and simultaneously broadcast the presenting student’s video feed. Sound masking also reduces distractions from other group discussions.

Work – Harnessing Human-Machine Collaboration

From RPA to Intelligent Automation – Bots have been deployed across Human Resource, Finance, Procurement, and IT to automate manual, repetitive tasks. An AI/ Machine Learning (ML) model was also piloted to process essays/reports submitted for Aptitude-based Admission and automate the shortlisting of applicants –providing a more holistic and efficient way for selecting candidates.

Next-Gen Digital Research Infrastructure – This solution integrates research solutions from pre-processing and data collection to post-processing, bridging science and computational engineering to accelerate data analysis and scientific breakthroughs.

Live and Play – Creating a Vibrant and Sustainable Campus NTUMaps – This mobile friendly navigation system provides users with real-time and step-by-step driving and walking directions to more than 4,000 locations on the 200-hectare campus.

Campus Electric Shuttle Bus Mobile App – This eco-sustainable campus shuttle bus service integrates the mobile app with the fleet management system to enable real-time GPS tracking of the buses and provide timely information such as occupancy and expected time of arrival.

Barrier-free Smart Carpark – This system employs IoT technology to manage parking in 59 carparks and over 4,000 parking lots on campus. It offers a fast and hassle-free parking experience while reducing air pollution and traffic congestion. This initiative has clinched several awards, setting the benchmark for future commercial parking.

4 Lessons from URA’s Digital Transformation Experience

With a land mass of just over 730 square kilometres, Singapore is one of the smallest countries in the world. Facing limited land and sea space, Singapore’s development needs to not only be able to meet the needs of a country, but also that of a city. In this respect, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) plays an active role in addressing challenges similarly faced by countries all over the world – shaping Singapore into a great city to live, work and play.

Recognising the enabling effect of technology on internal users and external customers, Singapore’s land use planning and conservation authority, URA, embarked on our digital transformation journey in the 1980s. Over the years, the rollout of various digital planning tools has enhanced productivity and empowered easy collaboration among our stakeholders. Looking back, it is apparent that several key ingredients and digital planning tools have been instrumental in our transformative journey.

LESSON 1: A COMPREHENSIVE APPLICATION FRAMEWORK AND A COMMON VISION

URA’s technology and tools serve the needs and functions of multiple business groups. Therefore, it is important that users and developers are able to see the sum of parts and how they are interlinked with one another in a common vision. Complementing this is a Formulate-Implement-Review (FIR) closed-loop framework that maps

key upstream-downstream business functions, and ensures that applications and tools integrate and work together synergistically while fulfilling their individual purpose.

At the organisational level, these tools collectively contribute to the development of an integrated systemsapplication-data roadmap for URA,

which enables the identification of priority areas, and the connecting and sharing of technology applications and ideas across business groups. Individually, these tools facilitate evidence-based evaluation of planning scenarios, provide better insights to support decision-making, enable easy collaboration, enhance productivity, and improve customer service.

HOW DOES THE FORMULATE-IMPLEMENT-REVIEW FRAMEWORK WORK?

Formulate Tools offering analytical insights, and scenario creation and assessment through modelling and simulation (e.g. 2D-3D GIS, ePlanner, iPlan).

Implement Tools facilitating development and infrastructure planning, implementation and coordination, and regulatory processes (e.g. OneTool).

Review Tools supporting ground sentiment analysis and trend monitoring, and closing the loop for plan formulation (e.g. ePlanner).

CHING TUAN YEE Director, Design & Planning Lab, Urban Redevelopment Authority

LESSON 2: AN AGILE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH

An agile design and implementation approach that takes into account maintenance, sustainability and future adaptability and scalability is necessary to ensure the relevance and longevity of tools.

Beginning with the user journey, the developing team engages with multidisciplinary project teams, comprising business users and product managers, to identify gaps for process improvements and introduction of innovative features. Through proofs-ofconcept, prototypes and developing minimum viable products (MVPs), business users see their needs met and provide feedback for further enhancement, creating a success spiral.

Case in point – our ePlanner is the result of collaboration between different project teams. By assigning these sprint teams to different topics such as housing, greenery, sociocommunity facilities, etc., ePlanner layers supporting planning analytics under the Master Plan Review were developed and enhanced.

Then as part of the product roadmap, we continue to anticipate new needs and conceptualise ideas to bring new functionalities to users. For instance, to facilitate better planning, we are currently exploring the integration of 2D-3D functions into ePlanner to assist planners and urban designers in analysing their scenarios.

LESSON 3: AN END-TO-END DATA PERSPECTIVE

Accessibility to good quality data is essential for business analytics and supporting the planning at different FIR stages. For example, the ability to extract and integrate 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) submission models from case processing systems allows planners to better evaluate development proposals or formulate urban design plans upstream.

To enable this however, it is necessary to have an end-to-end data perspective involving the specification and capturing of data enabled through individual system design within a system-ofsystems wide data architecture. Data interoperability and policy and standards compliance at URA are ensured through a comprehensive data governance and management framework, involving a structured review of data schema design during the system development phase.

LESSON 4: CONTINUOUS CAPABILITY BUILDING

Our people are at the core of our transformational efforts, and intentional efforts to build organisational capability are instrumental to sustained success. That is why we seek to equip our officers at the intersection of planning and technology domains by encouraging them to build up team and individual competencies and skills through a combination of training courses, learning journeys, sharing and exchanges.

Our leaders lead by recognising and tapping on one another’s strengths and expertise to encourage cross-team interactions, and inspire and galvanise staff towards a common shared vision. Through encouraging a culture of innovation, experimentation and sharing, ideas contributed are quickly tested, developed and brought to production.

We also work in close partnership with internal and external partners to share resources and know-how, as well as build and multiply synergies to deliver highquality products which meet user needs.

Digital transformation is a continual journey. We will continue to harness new technologies and enhance our digital tools to serve evolving needs.

URA’S TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY –A SNAPSHOT

1989 – 2002

The Integrated Land Use System and its successor, Integrated Planning and Land Use System (iPlan) utilised geographic information systems (GIS) to support planning processes, which enabled quicker information retrieval and analytical functions. The use was limited to a small group of specialists.

1999 2000

The Electronic Development Application (EDA) system transformed the industry by changing to a fully electronic and Computer Aided Design (CAD) submission workflow, which reduced manual and hardcopy processing and conveyance.

New GIS technologies saw the beginning of 2D and 3D data integration, and opened new avenues in land use and infrastructure planning, urban design and analyses. More users came onboard to learn how to use these technologies.

MID-2010S

The implementation of new web-based digital planning tools such as ePlanner and OneTool further improved access to data and supported collaborative workflows. This marked the start of mainstream usage of data analytics for urban planning in Singapore. Joint labs with partner agencies and entities widened interest in data driven planning and enticed more users to tap on digital planning tools.

TODAY

URA’s ePlanner serves more than 1,500 users across 40 agencies, providing over 100 layers of visualised data and supporting various queries.

From Informed to Transformed: How to Get There?

TAN KOK YAM Chief Executive,

SkillsFuture Singapore

Earliest Tech Experience: Handheld game Octopus

Currently Playing: Total War: Three Kingdoms (very distractedly and intermittently)

Was Reading: Chinese Science Fiction (translated version; started during the pandemic)

Currently Watching: Animated series Arcane (with daughter) App You Can’t Live Without: Google Maps for getting around, and various newsfeeds

Favourite Way to Relax: Running (just picked up in the last few months)

Pet Topic at the Moment: Soccer (FIFA World Cup) –supporter for the England team

Transformation is a buzzword these days. Yet, even as businesses and professionals acknowledge its importance and necessity, the truly transformed are few and far between. What does it take to tilt the balance so that the informed become transformed? Mr Tan Kok Yam, Chief Executive, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), explains to The IT Society how physics has a part to play in this and why transformation should not be an end.

Q: Question, KY: Kok Yam

Q: What is causing the pushback for businesses to go from informed to transformed?

KY: Just like what is stated in Newton’s second law – the bigger the object’s mass, the more force is needed to shift it from its trajectory – we have to recognise that transformation is not just about shifting one person or one job role. It is a process involving the whole company, and potentially the company’s business partners. We may think that large organisations have the scale and resources but their processes are also more complex. Meanwhile, small and medium-sized organisations confront the opposite conundrum.

Then we have the brick-and-mortar businesses and highly regulated industries. For the brick-and-mortar, they need to figure out which business

processes can or cannot be digitalised. As for the latter, their pace of digitalisation is dependent on how enlightened the regulators are. One good example is in the banking sector where the role of the regulator, i.e. the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is instrumental in driving the industry’s digital transformation pace.

At the end of the day, Singapore is an open economy so businesses generally can’t really choose to sit out of digital transformation. It is risky and growthlimiting to do otherwise.

Q: What about for professionals, is it an option for them to opt out of transformation?

KY: Again, sitting out of digitalisation will limit a working person’s options quite severely – and it will get worse

with time. In the Skills Demand for the Future Economy Report 2022 published in November, we identified significant career growth opportunities in three areas – digital, green and care. The trends of digitalisation and sustainability cut across every industry and business. You can sense it even in the language and vocabulary being used, that there is a demand for new skills to be layered onto existing ones – so not just finance but fintech and green financing; not just facilities management but smart facilities management.

Therefore it is not just the professionals seeking new pastures in growth areas who need to reskill and upskill; professionals looking to progress in their existing fields should also proactively seek to enhance their skills and knowledge in tech, in green, and in other areas.

As a society, I think we should be confident of our own capacity to upskill and to be inventive. During the pandemic, challenging as it was, we discovered that many of us have the capacity to learn new skills and behaviours, and embrace changes, even at short notice – whether it is the hawker who now sells his char kway teow online or the 70-year-old grandma who became proficient in scanning the SafeEntry QR code.

Q: What is SSG doing to help businesses and professionals with the transformation?

KY: Our baseline is to make sure that continuing education is accessible and affordable for all. Besides SkillsFuture Credit, we also work closely with training providers to achieve that.

In addition, SSG is actively bolstering our collective ability to identify and develop emerging skills through using analytics and leveraging support from partners like SCS and other trade associations and professional bodies. By identifying important skills sets and sharing it with

organisations and learners, we empower them to make better choices and invest in the relevant areas of upskilling for themselves.

To ensure that these trends are current and relevant to the context of companies and individuals, we are also building a network of SkillsFuture Queen Bees – industry leaders who know their sector and industry well, and can aggregate the specific skills needs across different companies.

Finally, we are investing in raising the quality of training delivery. Adult learners have many commitments and are timestarved. It is therefore important that we make the training effective – by keeping it bite-sized, online if possible, so that learners can study at their own pace in a deliberate, disciplined manner, towards achieving micro-credentials, for example. Also, we need to make better use of the workplace as a classroom where learning can be more directly applied to the environment, structures and contexts of work.

Q: What can businesses and professionals do to help themselves?

KY: I think for businesses, it starts with the recognition that certain things cannot be fully outsourced. For example, they may outsource IT projects, but they cannot quite outsource the thinking of their digitalisation strategy. Similarly, while SSG can help identify market trends and work with businesses to distil implications, businesses ultimately have to decide for themselves what their focus and priorities are.

Similarly, professionals need to continuously review the changing environment, ask themselves what their aspirations, their strengths and perhaps shortcomings are. The individual, alongside his/her employer, best knows his/her own upskilling needs, with Government sharing information, and ensuring that the options to upgrade are available and affordable.

industry and the nature of work will continue to change very fast. This is a challenge, no doubt, but I believe that if we have a skilled and flexible workforce, we can in fact thrive in such a dynamic environment, through adaptation and inventiveness, making the best of the situation. As individuals and as a society, we will need to invest continuously in learning new things and upskilling, and celebrating our different skill sets and expertise. Then we can build that breadth and depth in our national ‘bench strength’, to succeed collectively, and turn challenge into opportunity.”

“There is a general recognition

What would you say to encourage someone to pursue upskilling?

If there is an area which you would like to improve your skills in, what will it be?

What would you say to encourage a business owner to send his/ her people for training?

What is a personal mantra that guides you professionally?

I am looking forward to the day when ...

that

THE CHANGI EXPERIENCE: The Sky’s the Limit

JOE CHIU

Senior

Member,

SCS Vice-President, Digital & Data Management Systems, Changi Airport Group

Earliest Tech Experience: The electronic table tennis simulation game Currently Watching: Key Opinion Leaders’ sharing on topics ranging from politics, climate change and economics to digital disruption Was Reading: Working with AI by Thomas H. Davenport & Steven M. Miller App You Can’t Live Without: Google Search and Google Maps Favourite Way to Relax: Light jogging while listening to music Pet Topic at the Moment: FIFA World Cup 2022

During the peak of the pandemic, operations at Singapore Changi Airport was severely affected. After the Singapore government eased most of its COVID restrictions in March 2022 and with the reopening of global borders, air travel accelerated. Joe Chiu, VicePresident of Digital & Data Management Systems from Changi Airport Group (CAG) shares with The IT Society how Singapore Changi Airport leverages technology to keep its operations adaptive and competitive in this volatile and uncertain world.

Q: Question, JC: Joe Chiu

Q: What are some significant tech changes and shifts at the airports in the last decade?

JC: In the early days, most IT solutions were developed and deployed using the monolithic architecture design, in which one vendor will be appointed to implement the end-to-end solution, ranging from user interface/user experience (UI/UX) to the web, application, database layers and hosting of the platform.

Since then, things have changed. Building IT solutions in silos is no longer optimal in terms of cost effectiveness, time-to-market, and user experience. To ensure alignment between business and operational needs as well as deliver a more stress-free, personalised and positively surprising experience to our passengers and customers, CAG has been advocating decoupled and enterprise architecture design to meet the dynamic demand.

While business and product users continue to develop applications and UI/UX that fulfil their specific use cases, the IT team focuses

on developing and deploying common middleware and backend systems that can be scaled, secured, and configured to meet business needs across various clusters and departments. Such a design has proven to be not only more cost effective, but also more efficient.

Q: How has leveraging technology enabled CAG to scale up and down quickly while ensuring smooth operations during the pandemic?

JC: Since 12 years ago, CAG has started moving systems to the cloud to enable better scaling, higher performance and controlled access. Thus, when the pandemic hit, we were able to use common middleware – like microservices, identity management, content management, customer relationship – and backend platforms such as hosting servers, managed services, and data platform to respond to changing circumstances quickly. For example, to support the reopening of Terminals 2 and 4, we needed to reinstate and reactivate digital related channels, including web portal, mobile app, digital content, maps, and routing services within

a short time. And we were able to accomplish that in a timely manner, thanks to the decoupled architecture design, with redundancy and scalable infrastructure that were in place.

Conversely, the pandemic has also shifted CAG’s digital transformation programmes to a higher gear. On one end, we had to support our staff so that they can work remotely; on the other, we had to keep up with the engagement of our passengers and customers through innovations and continuous improvements. To meet these business and operation needs, we established clear priorities and design considerations that are in line with our innovation practices such as customer over product, experiments over certainty, community over silos and agility over perfection. In addition, CAG came up with innovation framework and governance on how to move from envisioning a minimum viable product (MVP) to realising it, and eventually operating it in a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) manner.

Q: How did you manage to coordinate these with your team remotely during the pandemic?

JC: Like other organisations, we had some staff turnover during the pandemic. So, we found ourselves having to maintain service at the same high level with a leaner team. Adding to that, it was hard to hire people because there was a general shortage of tech people globally.

Fortunately, two things were in our favour. Our decoupled architecture of middleware and backend systems made scaling possible – even with our smaller team. Then, more importantly, CAG’s lead-by-example and hands-on approach of the leadership team meant that we are always ready to roll up our sleeves and go down to the ground to resolve customers’ pain points or work alongside our vendors to troubleshoot issues and enable service recovery.

Q: For customers and passengers, how does CAG’s digital transformation benefit them?

JC: If you were to look at our service DNA, positively impacting our customers and

passengers’ experiences is one of our ultimate goals. Naturally, many of our digital initiatives are designed to facilitate their ease, convenience, and enjoyment when they travel through our airport or visit our shops, amenities, and attractions.

One such tech application deployed and well-known to our passengers and customers is the instant feedback system. With its many touch points across retail shops, counters, and toilets, we collect valuable feedback and redirect them in the form of alerts and reports to relevant parties for prompt corrective actions. Additionally, through analysing the collected data, we are able to identify areas for improvement and share them with our airport community. The net effect of this system over time is a cleaner and more welcoming environment for the passengers and customers.

In other instances, we support our business and product owners by performing advanced analysis on the operational and transaction data collected and generating timely and relevant dashboards and data to assist them with

critical decision-making. We also provide a common set of digital content and data middleware that allows them to easily plan, develop and deploy their MVP using agile and DevSecOps approaches before embarking on full-scale development, implementation, and operation.

Q: What can we look forward to at CAG in the near future?

JC: Sustainability is increasingly becoming a big topic for governments, businesses, and people. Likewise, CAG is strategising, planning, and deploying new technology and applications with a view towards protecting and minimising adverse impact on the environment. Among which, we will explore how we can use technology such as artificial intelligence, datafication and predictive analytics to maximise resources and reduce waste and pollution.

That said, digital transformation is a journey. Particularly, to better serve our passengers and customers, we will continue to enhance our existing services as well as develop new ones to bring them greater accessibility and convenience.

NOT AN AVERAGE JOE

Inspired by the notion of minimising contact at touchpoints in the airport (e.g. contactless check-in kiosks and passenger lifts) during the pandemic, Joe converted his home into a smart home, in which all home appliances could be enabled or disabled via mobile devices, digital watch as well as human voice.

Why did Joe do it?

“I am passionate about what, why and how IT can change lives. Oftentimes, we think technologies only apply at workplaces. Truth is, we can apply them equally at home to empower convenience, and in a personalised way. Working from home for over two years during the COVID period provided me with the opportunity to test out and apply tech ideas in real life.”

How did Joe do it?

“I read and watched many DIY videos. Then I studied sensor circuitry, and bought, wired and soldered electrical components. Using self-assembled Wi-Fi infrared sensors, I captured and digitalised remote controller analogue signals and played back with sensors. Now, I can turn on/off and change settings of analogue appliances like ceiling fans, TVs, lights, sound and air-conditioning systems using mobile applications or voice on smart home devices like Alexa and Google Home.”

“Our people are at the heart of CAG’s digital transformation. Bringing autonomous and cross-functional teams together to brainstorm solutions, implement minimum viable products, run experiments at speed and scale in an agile manner and measure success using predefined key performance indicators, are critically important in enabling CAG to develop and build capabilities and competencies in a sustainable manner.”

General vs Technical: Which Skill Set Is More Important for Your Tech Career?

Technology is fluid by nature. The march of progress doesn’t stop – from steam engines to autonomous cars, from mechanical processors to microchips, from tape computers to smartphones, from telegraphs to the internet – and everything else, including biotech, artificial intelligence, quantum hardware and space exploration. It is difficult to grasp just how much the world has changed until we look back at our lives but a decade ago.

Yet for someone working in tech, this constant change poses a major challenge – there simply isn’t any skill that we can learn once and keep for life. Whereas professionals in other industries can gradually build on the knowledge acquired in school throughout their careers, much of technical knowledge becomes obsolete and requires a refresh rather soon for a tech professional. What is then the secret of a successful career for a technologist?

HOW TO TELL

WHAT’S WHAT

It helps to think about skills in terms of General and Technical abilities. General skills usually remain relevant regardless of technology developments. In tech, “hard” skills such as programming and engineering are often seen as the most important qualities to have. However, the subtler “soft” skills are just as critical. In fact, the faster the tech stack evolves, the more essential the ability to think critically, communicate effectively and work well with others becomes.

Notably, many prominent technology thought leaders in recent decades embody a powerful combination of system thinking, commercial intuition, a knack for communicating complex ideas to people from different backgrounds, as well as empathy and vision of how a specific product can fit into consumers’ lives.

GENERAL SKILLS CREATE A BASE FOR TECHNICAL SKILLS

Indeed, general skills create a solid base for building deeper technical competencies such as coding, data analytics, hardware design, biology, rocket propulsion and others, which need to be constantly updated to keep up with the speed science evolves.

The level of technical knowledge required will of course be dependent on the nature of work. A software engineer building complex machine learning algorithms needs a deeper level of technical understanding compared to a product manager. Everyone, however,

VLADYSLAV KOSHELYEV Member, SCS

Product Marketing Lead, Meta

Founder, The Koshelyev Company

will need to hone their evergreen general abilities while finding a way to keep their hard skills always updated and relevant.

THE MOST IMPORTANT GENERAL SKILL OF ALL

Given how rapidly technology is evolving, possibly the most important meta-skill in our industry is – learning. As the ground is constantly shifting under our feet, the capacity to quickly deconstruct complex technical information and learn key concepts required for tasks at any given moment is a real superpower. Learning how to learn effectively is the best investment we can make for our careers.

SCS Launched the 17th Community of Practice

SCS Product Management (PDM) Special Interest Group (SIG) was launched on 10 November 2022 to uplift the understanding and knowledge of product management skills in Singapore, and enable our members to build, and develop skills across key areas of product management through regular events, training, and materials.

In today’s fast paced economy, businesses strive to move faster, innovate, and drive differentiation in their products and services to stay ahead of stiff competition, meet needs of demanding customers and keep pace with continuously evolving technology. However, to unlock benefits of a product-led organisation, truly solve customer problems, and deliver real business value, good product management is essential.

Unsurprisingly, in Amplitude Labs’ Product Report 2022, it noted that business leaders are looking to manage retention and churn while

maintaining competitive costs. With product-led growth quickly becoming a top investment priority for customer retention and market differentiation, the launch of PDM SIG as SCS’ 17th Community of Practice is opportune.

With a committee that brings together experience from different backgrounds and industries, PDM SIG aims to establish a collective understanding for good product management. We invite all SCS members to join the PDM SIG. Together, let’s learn to take advantage of this shift in businesses and build skills and capabilities to evolve and enhance customer experience.

WHY JOIN SCS PDM SIG?

As a member of PDM SIG, you get to build and develop skills across key areas of product management through regular events, training, and materials in the following areas:

Understanding customers’ requirements

Developing an adequate business model

Creating a product roadmap

Appreciating digital capabilities Working with the product ecosystem

At the launch of PDM SIG. From left: Sam Liew (SCS President), Regina Ong, Edward Hutchins, Garret Yap (PDM SIG Chairman), Guruprasad Raghavendran, Raymond Kiong, Jimmy Sia, Jeffrey Ng, Wong Siew Fern, Chong Lee Fong.

SCS Movie Night is Back

SCS Member Movie Night made a comeback on 14 November 2022 after a two-year hiatus. Some 200 members and guests were treated to a sumptuous networking dinner and a private screening of the latest blockbuster movie, Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. They were joined by SCS Digital Youth Ambassadors and member volunteers for the SG Enable Smart Home Project.

SCS Digital Youth Ambassadors imparted digital skills and knowledge – under Infocomm Media Development Authority’s

Digital for Life Movement – to over 250 beneficiaries over 10 months. Additionally, member volunteers for the SG Enable Smart Home Project installed smart home devices in homes of 13 seniors and persons with disabilities. Recognising their valuable contributions in giving back to the community, SCS President Sam Liew presented certificates of appreciation to them at the event.

Thank you for being a part of our growing community. We are grateful for your unwavering support and invaluable contributions!

SCS Splash Awards 2022 Reimagines How AI can Empower a Better Singapore

This year, over 150 SCS Splash Awards 2022 student participants expressed their vision for Singapore’s future by demonstrating how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be applied to advance causes in seven challenge tracks, including AI in Blockchain, AI in Community Building, AI for Good, AI in Healthcare, AI in Mental Wellness, AI in Sustainability and Open Category.

Like previous editions, student participants had access to both online and in-person training resources such as complimentary workshops conducted by corporate partners and professional trainers. They also had the opportunity to learn how to deploy their applications on

Cloud and include cybersecurity elements in idea implementation.

After an intensive round of evaluation of the final submissions from 12 finalist teams, NUSH eSports Team 1 of NUS High walked away with the top prize in the Pre-tertiary category. Meanwhile, the idea and prototype from trAIge of National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) also wowed the judges, claiming the top spot for the Tertiary category.

Additionally, OCTAC of NUS, ISAD of NUS High and smAIcle of Temasek Polytechnic (TP) and Singapore Polytechnic (SP) won the AI in

Community Building, AI in Healthcare and AI in Sustainability challenge tracks respectively. Recognition was also given to IronHeart of TP for the Inclusion of Cybersecurity Elements in Implementation of Idea.

Presiding over SCS Splash Awards physically for the first time, SCS President Mr Sam Liew said, “SCS Splash Awards offers a valuable platform to stimulate and enrich curious young minds. Through providing our students with an opportunity to go through this holistic journey of experiential learning, we hope to create a rich pool of future tech talents for Singapore.”

Student participants from the 12 finalist teams.

PRE-TERTIARY CATEGORY

Winners Team (School) Solution

Champion NUSH eSports Team 1 (NUS High School)

1st Runnerup SearchLah! (Hwa Chong Institution)

To raise awareness concerning microplastics and further efforts in ocean plastic clean-ups, the innovation predicts microplastic concentration in the ocean via various ocean metrics.

SearchLah! is a Singlish-based speechto-text assistant which transcribes a mixture of spoken English, Mandarin and dialects into pure English or Mandarin text format. The text will then be passed through a search engine that returns search results to users.

2nd Runnerup …Ellipsis (Hwa Chong Institution)

To aid in the detection of colour blindness amongst Singaporeans, an automated colour blindness test system with a custom voice recognition system is built following the Ishihara test procedure.

TERTIARY CATEGORY

Winners Team (School) Solution

Champion trAIge (NUS and NTU)

trAIge turns free-text patient complaints into annotated summaries, allowing nurses to rapidly and holistically assess incoming patients before triage. For preregistered patients with non-acute issues, they can be diverted to an outpatient clinic upon arrival.

1st Runnerup IronHeart (TP) CardioDash detects left ventricle hypertrophy in 150 milliseconds through the analysis of received ECG signals. Developed using the convolutional neural network algorithm, it has a classification accuracy of 97% with zero false negatives.

2nd Runnerup smAIcle (TP and SP) SmAIcle is an AI-equipped mobile app that aims to achieve increased recycling and upcycling rates. It not only uses the camera to recognise and segment recyclables, but also provides specific instructions to prepare them for recycling and upcycling.

NUSH eSports Team 1 (NUS High School).

trAIge (NUS and NTU).

Talent showcase.

CHALLENGE TRACK

Winners Team (School) Solution

AI in Community Building (sponsored by Singapore Pools)

AI in Healthcare (sponsored by Integrated Health Information Systems)

AI in Sustainability (sponsored by Huawei)

Inclusion of Cybersecurity Elements in the Implementation of the Idea (sponsored by Cyber Security Authority)

OCTAC (NUS) UNEON is a platform that enables industry professionals to network with one another. Through exchanging real world career perspectives, they can stay relevant in today’s dynamic workforce and embrace lifelong learning together.

ISAD (NUS High School) ISAD is an accessible and free web application that screens patients for Alzheimer’s Disease. It incorporates the Mini Cognitive Test, which involves the Word Recall Test and Clock Drawing Test, and the Categorical Verbal Fluency Test.

smAIcle (TP and SP) Refer to Tertiary Category – 2nd Runner-up

IronHeart (TP) Refer to Tertiary Category – 1st Runner-up

Team (School) Solution

Young Splash Innovator

Findmates (Ngee Ann Secondary School)

Findmates app helps caregivers to easily locate people with dementia, and the person with dementia to find their way home using the user-friendly platform.

students and professionals benefitted from the training

sessions were conducted (11 training sessions + 52 one-on-one clinic sessions)

SPECIAL MENTION

Findmates (Ngee Ann Secondary School).

Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information and National Development.

Judges at the Splash Awards finals.

Youths in Tech Today. Tech Leaders Tomorrow.

According to the Skills Demand for the Future Economy Report 2022 released by SkillsFuture Singapore last month, Digital Economy jobs and skills continue to see high demand. Furthermore, with tech

skills increasingly cutting across all industries, it is more important than ever to nurture youth interest in tech and recognise their talents. This year, SCS awarded SCS Medals and Awards to 17 youths.

SCS AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PROJECT WORK

Daryl Chuang Jia Wei Nanyang Polytechnic Diploma in Business & Financial Technology

“I have always been fascinated with technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI). Ten years ago, using AI to generate artwork was something we only saw in science fiction. I’m glad that I live in an age where I can witness breakthroughs in AI every day and contribute to this new frontier.”

“Technology enhances business productivity and efficiency. Through working in tech, I’ve gained a better understanding of business processes, and how to create innovative and impactful solutions to make our society a great place to live in.”

Muhammad Hanif Bin Suhaimi Nanyang Polytechnic Diploma in Information Technology

“Technology is advancing faster than ever before to enable new capabilities for mankind. I aspire to play a part in defending Singapore’s cyberspace to ensure that these various essential technologies are protected and not used maliciously to cause harm.”

“Technology is at the core of creating opportunities and improving lives for people around the world. However, it also has the power to bring harm in the wrong hands. I wish to safeguard technology by pursuing further studies in cybersecurity.”

“Tech is a tool to enable change, disrupt conventions and redefine what life means to all of us. One of my biggest goals is to build something that revolutionises the way we live, and presents a new point of view to everyday normalcy.”

Loy Jun Cheng Nanyang Polytechnic Diploma in Business Intelligence & Analytics

Navid Chew Wei Xiang Singapore Polytechnic Diploma in Infocomm Security Management

Jayne Lau Jia Yi Ngee Ann Polytechnic Diploma in Animation & 3D Arts

Lim Chuan Hao Singapore Polytechnic Diploma in Information Technology

Eugene Long Yee Jun Ngee Ann Polytechnic Diploma in Information Technology

SCS OUTSTANDING IT YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

SCS SILVER MEDAL AND PRIZE

Muhammad Ennaayattulla S/O Adam Ismail Nanyang Polytechnic Diploma in Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics

“Tech has unlocked many possibilities to better the world, enriching and helping the lives of many. I would love to use my knowledge in the tech field to benefit more people and make the world better.”

“Technology makes tools, art makes meaning. There is no doubt that technology today has made art far more accessible. The inherent exercise of creativity in both technology and art yields results that truly celebrates function and utility, as well as beauty and goodness.”

GOLD MEDAL FOR BEST STUDENT

National University of Singapore Master of Computing Programme in Information Systems

Wee Yap Hwee

National University of Singapore Master of Computing Programme in Infocomm Security

“I believe that tech has the potential to empower and enable infinite possibilities by augmenting our existing capabilities. I am excited to be part of this meaningful process to deliver beneficial, safe and sustainable solutions.”

Kavita Kaur D/O Ranjit Singh

SCS

Jordan Khong Jun Wei*

Temasek Polytechnic Diploma in Game Design & Development

Caleb Goh En Yu Ngee Ann Polytechnic Diploma in Information Technology

Amanda Koh Ting Yi Ngee Ann Polytechnic Diploma in Animation

Dylan Koh Wei Long Temasek Polytechnic Diploma in Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics

Felix Wang Ruihong Singapore Institute of Technology Bachelor of Engineering in Information and Communications Technology

Hannah Jean Mah Qing Long Singapore University of Technology and Design Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science and Design

Zachary Tan Hong Xun Singapore Management University Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

Transformation: Better Late than Never

By Francesca Siow

Iwas randomly reminded of this phrase recently when chatting with an old classmate, Freddie. Besides the usual banter about work and life, we took the opportunity to exchange intel about our common friend –Frankie. Frankie is my brother (in case you don’t already know) who happens to also be Freddie’s ex-colleague.

NEVER AND FOREVER LOST Reminiscing about the good ol’ days at the Hapless Helpdesk, Freddie shared how he and Frankie used to repeat the same answers over 10 times a day to different users – and how they had “fun” fielding questions in voices from characters in South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants or Sesame Street.

But those were the days. Apparently, their then company held on to Private Branch Exchange (PBX) telephone systems when Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology came along and people wanted the flexibility to answer their office phones remotely.

Today, the company exists only in people’s memory and Wikipedia.

LATE BUT JUST IN TIME

Lucky for Frankie, he left long ago to pursue his startup dream. As for Freddie, he stayed on till the very end. After all, that was easier –and Freddie was actually on a roll! Because day by day, the number of calls from distressed users went from one every few minutes to only a few in one day. Surely that must mean that Freddie was doing a great job, that’s why users aren’t calling anymore?

It turned out – the real reason why there were fewer calls was because business was declining. Eventually, Freddie was picking up the phone over 10 times each day just to check that the phone was working. To keep himself looking busy and useful, Freddie decided to introduce the Hapless Helpdesk to TikTok.

Between livestreaming during work hours and filming videos of himself using voices of cartoon characters to answer calls, Freddie found his number of social media followers increasing exponentially while the number of work calls continued decreasing – scarily.

As it goes, the day Freddie lost his job at Hapless Helpdesk was the same day he became a full-time social media content creator.

ON TIME AND AHEAD

Today, Freddie with his three million strong followers is a celebrity influencer. Who would have thought –geek turned celebrity?

Well, but Frankie (the one who got away early) is also doing great at his startup. He just completed Series B financing and raised over $50 million. And I hear that he has big plans to bring his business to the North Pole next year. (Word has it that he might put a certain man garbed in red and white with a big bushy beard out of business.)