Public governance is more important in times of crises, such as the present pandemic, when economic and social consequences have far-reaching consequences. In these scenarios, existing governmental structures determine the nation’s initial reaction and ability to respond. They also impact, influence and direct the path nations and their economies take to recover and how societies adapt to a “new normal.”

Government services have traditionally been delivered in person by specific departments in brick-and-mortar locations through paper forms. However, despite the pandemic, agencies have had to rely heavily on digital technology, accelerating e-government and other citizen services.

With digital services, the government can provide information and services at any time, from any location and on any platform or device, while minimising citizens’ exposure to danger.

Thus, transitioning from traditional to digital services, or increasingly now a hybrid model, offers government capabilities beyond service delivery.

In the Philippines, the strengthened version of Republic Act No. 11032, also known as the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, is one of many government policies and reforms that have facilitated quick actions and efficient resolution of all government responses.

It applies to all government offices and agencies in the nation, including local government units (LGUs), corporations owned or controlled by the government and other public agencies that may be based abroad or locally to offer services for both business-related and non-business transactions for Filipinos.

The OpenGov Breakfast Insight on 15 September 2022 at the Shangri-La The Fort Manila offered the latest information on the post-COVID-19 Philippine economic recovery with technical advances.

Accelerating Digital Transformation in the Philippines

Mohit Sagar, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of OpenGov Asia, opened the discussion by acknowledging that the Philippines is speeding its readiness for involvement in the global digital economy.

“Disruption brings exponential change, while exponential change brings unlimited possibility and the unlimited possibility brings rising customer expectations,” says Mohit.

He noted the Philippines’ digitalisation goals, which include interactive, transactional, networked public online services, more citizen participation, better openness in government, which leads to higher public trust, and improved efficiency in government operations.

Knowing about technology trends isn’t enough. Neither is possessing the latest and best hardware. Organisations can understand and utilise cloud-based services while remaining adrift. The most likely reason is that many have forgotten that technology is a tool and not a purpose.

“For governments, providing services to citizens is the purpose, but along the way, some governments forget this.”

​Governments have unlimited possibilities. Their expectations and requirements for the services they offer have also exponentially risen.​ “We need to get our eyes more focused once more on purpose,” Mohit asserts.

Moreover, the Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) prepares the country for participation in the global digital economy in 2021. Other countries have achieved efficiency in production and services across all sectors by utilising superior information technology. As a result, the DICT highlighted the necessary adjustments in government, industry, and the public.

Mohit believes that to develop the policy and regulatory frameworks necessary for the effective governance of a digital economy, government agencies must collaborate more closely.

Of course, the goal has always been to provide dynamic, transactional, networked public web services. New technology has played a significant role in all the strategies laid out for more than a decade, as it has the potential to significantly boost a government’s level of performance.

Public engagement has a favourable impact on government decision-making because it introduces new information, attitudes and views. Digital services also improve government openness, which has a direct effect on public trust.

DICT’s mission also includes increasing the efficiency of government operations, which digitalisation has done well in governments around the world. Since the COVID-19 pandemic happened, governments worldwide have been changing and re-aligning their policies to get the economy going again in the new normal.

The business sector has called on the government to enact policy measures that will help enhance investments in digital infrastructure and remove recurring bureaucratic barriers to technology-driven development.

Since data science and analytics aid in developing improved policies and providing services, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) declared that these fields urgently require digital transformation.

The new normal has highlighted growing public use of digital services, more potential threats in digital platforms, and increased demand for working from home and utilising metaverse. Important laws were approved, and measures were introduced to assist the continued digitalisation of services nationwide.

These are essential because they establish the regulatory framework that serves as the basis for technology’s current and future use.

Data and Analytics Innovation for Philippine Public Sector and FSI: Accelerating Technology Functions

Gerard McDonnell, Principal Business Solutions Manager, Fraud and Security Intelligence, Emerging Markets & Asia Pacific, SAS, believes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) combines machine learning and decision making.

“AI improves decision-making by teaching systems to imitate certain human jobs via machine learning and automation,” says Gerard. “Data and analytics transformation are especially challenging for the public sector due to size and operational restrictions. However, some are making progress and providing vital insights.”

As an example, he offers social fund distribution and flood control​ in Jakarta, where SAS Hackathon as an innovation incubator was made. This happened when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, wherein lockdowns and activity restrictions halted a large portion of everyday business and endangered the lives of millions of people.

The Special Capital Region of Jakarta’s local government took measures to mitigate the impact, including city injections to keep businesses afloat during the worst pandemic and subsequent infection spikes. This COVID aid was a lifeline for MSME business owners and regional employees.

A group of Indonesian data scientists attempted to address this issue. Using data and advanced analytics such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, they assisted Jakarta’s local government authorities in optimising the distribution of COVID aid.

Hackathon teams worldwide engaged with experts and SAS mentors to address significant commercial and government concerns, using the event as an innovation incubator.

The research team utilised SAS® Viya®, a cloud-native data management, AI, and decisioning platform, to implement AI and advanced analytics. SAS Viya effortlessly interfaces with open-source technologies such as Python, which the team also utilised.

The link between AI and the cloud provides Hackathon teams, corporations, government organisations, and institutions throughout the globe with the ability to rapidly transform data into better, faster, and more reliable judgments. Teams of participants work and compete during the SAS Hackathon to produce the best solutions to a business or humanitarian challenge using SAS technology.

A growing number of companies are implementing initiatives to embed data and analytics at the core of their operations, recognising the potential to revolutionise performance. Governments are also becoming aware of the immense potential of data analytics to enhance the delivery of public services, address social issues more effectively, and foster transparency and trust among citizens.

FSI companies can harness data and analytics power using cloud technologies and turn this wealth of information into actionable insights. “Fraud involving VAT Carousels was a serious issue for the Belgian government. The solution is used to identify businesses with a high likelihood of engaging in VAT carousels,” says Gerard.

The SAS Hybrid method delivers ultra-early detection beginning with the first VAT return or other suspicious activity that is dubious. The outcome is a 98% reduction in VAT carousel fraud. Analytics played a crucial role in reaching this result; the models are highly accurate and give ultra-early detection beginning with the very first VAT submission.

“VAT Carousels are now a controlled phenomenon. The system enables international collaboration by identifying suspicious companies abroad,” reveals Gerard.

FSI firms may use the cloud to break down legacy infrastructure barriers and transform massive amounts of internal and external data into market and customer insights. Thus, cloud-based machine learning services increase transaction monitoring and model development.

A functional design, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, combined with authentic dialogue and data governance, will ensure that financial companies provide personal customer service that improves the overall customer experience.

These cloud-enabled capabilities enable FSI organisations to manage risk better, optimise operations, and provide more tailored customer experiences.

The combination of cloud and big data gives FSI companies more insights into their clients than ever before. It enables businesses to create highly personalised solutions that meet the demands of their clients while accounting for changes in critical demographics.

This in-depth understanding will enable FSI firms to provide the incentives and services needed to keep and increase their customer base.

How Do You Close the Resiliency Gap?

According to Eric Velardo, Head of Solutions Engineering, ASEAN, Veritas, ransomware is malicious software (malware) that threatens to publish or limits access to data or a computer system, typically by encrypting it, unless the victim pays the attacker a ransom price.

Frequently, the ransom demand includes a deadline. If the victim fails to pay on time, the data is deleted permanently, or the ransom amount escalates.

“Ransomware threats are a major risk for many types of businesses. Attacks utilising ransomware have become regular, with cybercriminals continuously innovating and developing new, more sophisticated delivery methods,” says Eric.

He emphasised with the increasing demands and danger of data loss, an advanced multi-layered resiliency plan is required to ensure that IT services are secure, resilient, and recoverable while providing end users with the smooth user experience they expect.

Eric shared that the earliest known ransomware attack occurred in 1989. It was a sleeping giant until recently awoken by a perfect storm of circumstances, including the lingering effects of the pandemic, companies producing and storing more business-critical data than ever before, especially in the cloud, and the fact that more businesses are willing to pay ransoms.

Unfortunately, today’s cybercriminals are more intelligent and inventive than ever before. A recent example is the Russia-associated REvil ransomware as a service provider.

Before being forced offline in a multi-nation operation earlier this year, the group began offering a two-stage extortion scheme that not only held victims’ data for ransom but also automated DDoS attacks and phone calls to their business partners and journalists to increase the pressure to pay.

The capabilities are supplied collectively to ensure that your business will be prepared to resist and recover when Ransomware attacks. Despite the enterprise’s challenges, Veritas has devised a three-step plan to achieve ransomware resilience.

The priority is to secure or safeguard data integrity. The first step is to ensure total protection. This includes ensuring that all aspects of the environment are backed up to immutable storage, from physical and virtual to cloud and containers.

This comprehensive protection must be deployed smartly and controlled automatically to scale successfully. Veritas offers multi-layered solutions that are built on zero-trust principles.

Second, any strategy is only as good as its weakest link. Indeed, ransomware prefers to attack the most vulnerable areas of an IT environment. Universal visibility, controllability and measurability are essential to close these possible gaps. Veritas can assist in ensuring that all systems are safeguarded and that suspicious behaviour is detected before it becomes a critical issue.

Finally, total cross-system restoration is automated and orchestrated. This is accomplished by providing as many options as feasible, such as other recovery sites such as secondary data centres, and even the ability to put up a whole data centre in the cloud on demand from efficiently stored static data. Veritas makes restoring as easy as a single click.

Only Veritas can automate and coordinate comprehensive data centre recovery on demand from deduped data to anywhere, including the cloud, at scale. That means organisations can execute their recovery strategy with a single click.

“We can practise and restore to a sandbox environment using the same recovery orchestration without affecting the production environment at all,” says Eric. “The enterprise IT solutions from Veritas ensure that IT applications are secure and dependable.”

He added that firms are not effective at testing their disaster recovery (DR) plans because it disrupts production. “However, not with Veritas. It’s also worth noting that you can test with a lower footprint during the DR and then deploy the full-sized DR system during recovery. This is something that most of our competitors do not have.”

Creating Agility and Resilience for a Changing Digital World 

According to Hon Chew Seetoh, General Manager, Asia, Boomi, based on an internal Boomi investigation of over 10,000 client use cases, the following are the issues impeding digital transformation success:

• Legacy systems ​are #1 among the barriers​
• Lack of enterprise-wide data structure​
• IT leaders have stalled or abandoned digital transformation
• Lack of improvement in customer exp​erience
• Have insufficient in-house skills​

“I feel that for the context of today’s agenda, it is useful to remind ourselves of the importance of data in our business. I have two simple examples that perhaps amplify this importance,” says Hon Chew.

The first is the fire that almost destroyed the historic Notre Dame Church in Paris. The data in question is a ten alphanumeric code that exploded on alarm systems, but no one could make sense of what it meant for 30 minutes.

It later turned out that the code was for a smoke detector in the wooden ceiling of the church. The 30-minute delay in not understanding what a 10-digit alphanumeric code was, almost destroyed 759 years of history. ​

So simplistically, it is not that there is no data, but its meaning, its relevance and most importantly, its impact, good or bad, on the business and the everyday lives of the citizens are not fully understood.​​

There are many positive examples of Digital Transformation using Data​. An international newspaper is an excellent example of how a legacy company has embraced Data in its business transformation.  ​

There are five factors that the international newspaper has made its 40% year-on-year paid digital subscription, and revenue and profit increases despite print revenue decreases​:

1. Leveraging Customer Data to Increase Subscriptions​
2. A new Mindset of Agile Product Experimentation
3. Intense Leadership Focus on Digital Experiences​
4. Cross Silo Collaboration Built on Trust​
5. Building a modern technical stack ​

​What is impressive is that these five strategies can be applied to almost any business.​ Thus, every company can succeed in the transformation.

There are two key considerations and strategies: Treating the data as a critical resource and​ integrating everything from everywhere. “Agencies and even private organisations need trustworthy information access to make effective strategic decisions and maintain efficient operations,” believes Hon Chew.

Integrated Experiences are the convergence of information, integration and interactions that revolutionise the way a company interacts with its customers to instantly connect them to what they desire. Customers, partners, employees, and stakeholders are all examples of users.

On the other hand, Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) is a platform that standardises how applications are connected within an organisation, making it easier to automate business processes and transfer data between applications.

The iPaaS provides integration services that mirror enterprise solutions to government IT managers. This streamlines workflows for internal workers and citizens that require the government to respond to their enquiries and fulfil their demands as quickly as its standard APIs.

The integration platform integrates the government organisation’s cloud-based and on-premises technology. This is especially significant in the public sector since legacy and internal systems are frequently used, and third-party solutions are challenging to integrate.

An iPaaS provides a central hub to facilitate the movement of data. This means enhanced internal staff efficiency and a greater capacity to satisfy the demands of your community’s residents.

For government and state entities, security and cost are significant concerns. An iPaaS solution provides a unified solution that enables the government to maintain legacy systems, add custom solutions, and integrate with newer APIs, making it more cost-effective than alternative approaches.

In addition, it is a more secure solution because it provides the government with a single platform that can be monitored and secured more simply. Data loss is less likely when using a single platform than when using different systems.

Through a single iPaaS platform, users may share information smoothly to suit the needs of consumers or citizens, and data administration is more efficient.

Boomi has a platform that enables companies to discover, connect, and leverage their data to deliver an integrated experience to users. The end-to-end platform ensures a great experience, from the design stage to the creation of new products and even the invention of new business models to create competitive advantages.

Know the 6 Key Drivers of AI Maturity Before You Hit the Wall

According to Alex Aung, Director, Sales Engineering (South Asia), Dataiku, “Maturity is not when we start speaking big things, it is when we start understanding small things.​”

Organisations are constantly modifying their operations to stay up with market dynamics and the competition. Business transformations have three primary goals: 1. Operational change, which entails performing present tasks in a manner that is better, faster, or less expensive; 2. Innovation of the business model in a completely different manner; 3. Domain expansion generates new business beyond already served areas and changes the company’s essence.

Alex explains that every organisation goes through five ai maturity stages: Explore, Experiment, Establish, Expand, and Embed. “However, the challenge is not the technology​but the culture and processes​.”

He shared three factors for why it is needed to assess AI maturity. “For benchmarking, place yourself on the potential growth curve toward mastery of leveraging AI — identify if your AI is acting as a utility, a business enabler or a business driver and where you stand vs your competitors.”

For strategic planning, strategise about what internal organisational steps an organisation should take to be confident that they can address AI at such a pace with such an ambition in mind​

Lastly, it is essential to communicate its vision, “Communicate to management where you stand and how far you have to travel and at what rate you can expect it​.”

Alex is convinced that vision, value, governance, talent, system and data drive AI maturity. He added that there are six main dimensions that an organisation must deliver to evolve from one maturity phase to another.​

On the other hand, shaping operating models means managing supply and demand, favouring AI adoption and transformation for the organisation, and maintaining agility and robustness to lead to sustainability.

AI can assist in driving step-change improvements to transformation programmes in five areas of business transformation: process, digital, management, organisational and cultural. By learning from previous examples, AI can personalise automation. It can also determine what drives process parameters such as cycle time, quality, and prices. Thus, AI can assist the organisation in understanding the inputs and how they influence the results.

Digital efforts entail gathering and disseminating new data more meaningfully and efficiently. Enterprises may improve their customer experiences with AI, and this empowers decision-making. They are frequently concerned with improving the customer experience, developing, or improving products, and creating new services.

Initiatives within an organisation consist of evaluating the department’s staffing and structure for the success of its employees. Teams can use AI to forecast employee success and retention based on employee characteristics and the organisational context.

Changing the company culture to accomplish business objectives better is the objective of cultural initiatives, which frequently include gaining people’s support and showing acceptable behaviour.

With AI, teams can comprehend and determine which elements and types of behaviour drive the desired objectives and quantify the influence of employee behaviour on business outcomes to prioritise the most significant.

POWER TALK: Smart Cities: Shaping the Future of Connected Government

By utilising the newest mobile and communication technologies, such as cloud computing, social media, and the Internet of Things (IoT), a connected government enhances the delivery of government services. It ensures that government operations are more open and transparent and that citizen participation in online activities is improved.

“The goal of developing a smart city is to improve the lives of every citizen in every nation through modernising and automating many essential processes,” says Raymond Remoquillo, Country Lead, Large Enterprise and REL Business, Lenovo Philippines.

Smart city deployments, in general, include a variety of features and cutting-edge technologies like ICT implementations, as well as various ecosystems of technology suppliers.

Sensors, gateways, communication infrastructure, and servers will all work together to bring the concept of the “Internet of Things” to reality, making it a vital component in building future cities.

On the other hand, smart city technology results in cost savings, more resilient infrastructure, and a better urban experience. Smart cities are the key to integrating a sustainable future with sustained economic growth and employment creation to provide the lifestyle with a new identity and unique value.

Smart cities have a very human and straightforward goal -to dramatically improve the living and working conditions of the metropolitan people.

As governments face constrained budgets and limited IT resources, technology advancements drive operational efficiency through automation solutions.

Government employees are expected to “do more” than ever for their citizens. As we progress deeper into the digital age, it is assumed that governments will digitally alter to serve their population better; this offers a formidable task.

Nonetheless, there is cause for optimism. By modernising government technology, “Digital Transformation” solves the dilemma of doing more with less for governments at all levels.

New possibilities for government workload automation have evolved, creating operational efficiencies for governments of all sizes, and even attending to the current problems with disaster management.

Paul Rene S. Padilla, OIC, Information Technology, Department City of Quezon, spoke about the crucial need to change current disaster data management methods. Collaboration among institutions is essential for sharing, visualising and analysing data to improve decisions and interventions.

Government automation is not a novel technology but one that continuously evolves. Artificial intelligence advancements continually lead to workload automation and play an increasingly vital role in streamlining government-related operations that specialists traditionally perform.

According to Diosdado Santiago, OIC, Information Management System, Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB), “Empowering the general public is part of the transportation sector’s goals.”

He added that government workload automation is a cost-effective means of assisting government agencies in operating more efficiently. It aids in delivering better-value services to citizens, freeing up government employees and resources to focus on other issues.

“It is important for us that we can connect and produce results like creating policies in using QR codes for public vehicles,” Diosdado says.

Understanding precisely what is needed and proper deployment is the key to getting desired results with any technology. Investments in poorly deployed or planned technology can be harmful, particularly in the government sector.

While there are numerous automation possibilities, governments must evaluate their priorities, strengths, shortcomings, and most urgent requirements. AI and autonomous intelligence, for instance, can be used to power government automation platforms and process automation software.

Angel Redoble, Chief Information Security Officer, of PLDT Group, ePLDT, and Smart Communications, believes that users should be protected even if they are away from the office. He emphasised that cybersecurity is crucial because it safeguards all types of data against theft and loss.

This covers, among other things, sensitive data, personal information, intellectual property, data, and government and business information systems. “Without a cybersecurity programme, organisations cannot defend themselves against data breach and can ruin their whole operations that could lead to the worst scenario,” says Angel.

Why Business Resiliency Matters More Now than Ever Before

COVID-19 has altered governments’ and businesses’ perspectives on economic resilience, and every country knows how to develop corporate resilience and why it is crucial.

“We have gone through the Pandemic and are now entering Endemic. Most of us have begun to reconsider Business Continuity. Resilience is a product of Covid19,” says Arnold Carlos, Account Manager, AWS.

Business leaders are becoming increasingly interested in data analysis for decision-making purposes. Change, simplifying, and knowing how to view analytics dashboards are priorities for CIOs.

With this, Arnold emphasised the importance of AWS, which will provide its business resiliency framework to build visual maps that will enable the client to improve infrastructure and optimise costs across weeks, months, and years.

Leaders had to make rapid choices but lacked immediate access to data or real-time analytics. AWS Constructed data lakes and analytics to aid leaders and public health officials in tracking the infection, analysing its effects, and ensuring the safety of employees and residents.

The decades-old mission-critical systems and websites broke under pressure, resulting in a poor user experience. AWS modernised historical systems to enhance the ability to offer vital services, such as unemployment insurance claims and safeguarding backup emergency operations.

Employees or students had restricted access to systems, resources, and data to perform government services or remote learning; therefore, AWS provided thousands of public sector companies with a tool to work, teach, and support remote citizens and students throughout the epidemic.

The centres lacked sufficient agents to manage call volume resulting in long hold times and overloaded systems. AWS Implemented artificial intelligence (AI), conversational bots, and virtual call centres to enhance the customer experience and give agency management actionable intelligence to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse.

Personnel lacked the necessary technical skills to keep systems operational, and constituents lacked in-demand skills – Provided no-cost AWS training on the cloud and how to construct IT infrastructure and develop secure cloud-based applications for government employees.

​Typically, organisations wait until something is broken before attempting to repair it. Building resilience enables an organisation to be proactive, accelerating a digital transformation, enhancing operations over time, and planning resources.

“We endorse the business resilience framework that we developed. This framework not only helps to present all the solutions we can offer by business resiliency category but also enables account teams to create visual maps,” Arnold explains.

In addition, the framework can aid senior executives in understanding the full benefits of establishing a solid infrastructure. Too often, business leaders decline cloud requests because they cannot adequately articulate how the technology contributes to the company’s overall goals.

Leaders must find ways to alleviate the challenges associated with severe cuts to financial and human capital resources, newly implemented health standards, and outdated technology. Sector and industry leaders are hard-pressed to prioritise what’s urgent and what may be delayed amidst many competing needs.

“By initiating the business resiliency dialogue and implementing solutions today, you can see beyond the immediate crisis,” Arnold ends.

Unlocking the Power of Your Data to Drive Actionable, Real-time, Insights-Driven Decision-making using Graph Database

According to Pranay Roy, Manager, Solutions Engineering, APJ, TigerGraph, there are barriers to the mainstream adoption of graphs despite graph computing’s ability to give data intelligence at scale and speed, there are still barriers to its mainstream adoption. These barriers include the lack of understanding of graph computing’s capabilities and the difficulty that many graph platforms have had in interoperating with third-party libraries and other systems in data processing pipelines.

“Graph technology is an important component of the total solution. Graph systems, when combined with other analytics technologies, will enable enterprises to gain meaningful insights from the massive amounts of data they already have,” says Pranay.

Detecting and preventing fraud necessitates a multi-layered, sophisticated strategy. This means that systems must go beyond transactions to relationships, including confirming identity based on a comprehensive understanding of activities and behaviours.

Once fraud has been recognised, it can be stopped in real-time. In addition, when the graph database system learns the fraud indicators, similar fraudulent activities can be discovered and halted more quickly.

Graphs and charts are visual depictions of data. They are significant and valuable because they are potent tools that may be used for tasks such as analysing data, stressing a point, and comparing multiple sets of data in a manner that is simple to comprehend and remember.

Pranay highlighted that comparing collections of complex data can be burdensome and difficult to comprehend at times, thus, graphs and charts are applied to present the data in a manner that facilitates analysis.

Business graphs are visual aids utilised for data analysis. They can facilitate the comparison of numerous data sets, as trends and linkages are often readily apparent on the chart or graph. They also aid in presenting data that is easy to understand and recall.

Graphs and charts are crucial because they facilitate the rapid data analysis and identification of linkages. They simplify information so the audience can easily comprehend and remember it.

Pranay elaborated on TigerGraph, a native parallel graph database designed for loading enormous volumes of data (terabytes) in hours and analysing relationships up to 10 hops deep in real-time.

He cited an example of the local government that can control the spread of future illnesses by finding infection centres and tracking people’s travels using graph analytics and TigerGraph.

“This is apart from tracing those who may be transmitting the virus and encouraging them to self-isolate; identifying everyone who was near spreaders and warning them about the risk of infection and developing models to forecast the number of ICU beds and ventilators needed at the peak,” explains Pranay.

He clarified that Temporal (Time Series) Graph Analysis is the study of how prescribers, providers and members change over time and how those changes affect their relationships.

“Temporal analysis can show, for example, if patients are seeing their health care providers, and if the cost of care for those patients is going up or down over time,” Pranay explains.

The temporal analysis lets providers immediately see all the information that is important for a specific patient and find ways to improve the quality of care. When combined with the multi-dimensional entity and pattern matching, temporal graph analysis can tell a care team which members are missing post-operative appointments.

“TigerGraph can help a care team offer support and help to members who are going through a similar journey and make sure that they stay committed to their recovery programmes,” Pranay concludes.

Data Analytics @ Cities and Transportation: Focus on the Implementation of Practical Ways to Unlock the Value of Data and Increase Efficiencies of Transportation

According to Yau Wai Yeong, Segment Marketing Manager, Smart Cities & Transportation Road Infrastructure, Intel Corporation, AI can improve organisational productivity, cost control and research advancement.

“Intel technologies provide holistic systems based on our experience with governments and the public sector. We can solve the most challenging problems together in ways that will alter society,” says Yau in an exclusive video presentation.

In AI, private enterprises have made incredible strides. Everyone gains from AI by using what they have learnt to solve problems in the public sector. Some of the most significant technological developments are frequently driven by the government. Innovation in the public and government sectors can encourage the adoption of AI across industries.

The core of AI in government services consists of machine learning and deep learning, computer vision, speech recognition, and robotics. When used, these strategies produce actual, measurable results.

As cities and municipalities have turned to technology to improve the lifestyles of their citizens, advancements in 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, and artificial intelligence provide cities with opportunities to enhance citizen experiences and services. This is primarily attained as the new technologies allow governments and businesses to build secure and sustainable urban environments designed to support a thriving economy.

5G represents the next generation of technological advancements designed to increase mobility and improve the lives of citizens. In conjunction with other technologies, 5G radically alters city residents’ lives, work, and travel.

5G facilitates infrastructure development in unprecedented areas, including on land, water, and trains. Real-time solutions ranging from mass transit and intelligent traffic management to vehicle to everything (V2X), lighting, parking metres, and sewer lines are made practical by AI computing at the edge. IoT sensors can monitor air quality, energy use, security, traffic patterns, and public transit.

Intelligent Transportation and Smart Cities can achieve massive device connections, increased data speeds, decreased latency, more system capacity, and a cheaper total cost of ownership with 5G.

“The demand for public transportation and infrastructure needs to be improved to meet the needs of growing populations and megacities,” says Yau.

5G provides city and transportation officials with the opportunity to rebuild their core technology infrastructure and establish a new, more robust foundation to satisfy the rising need for urban innovation.

Intel technologies are incorporated into the Smart Edge platform. Moreover, Smart Edge is a cloud-native, scalable, and secure platform for edge computing with many access points. With Smart Edge, businesses and communications service providers can support cloud-like services closer to the user on client premises or at the network edge.

Smart Edge opens new options and income streams for organisations and service providers while reducing the total cost of ownership for intelligent edge systems.

Innovative funding and financing options can advance Smart City and Intelligent Transportation initiatives. Funding commitments are necessary to implement a comprehensive Smart City and Intelligent Transportation concept and ITS improvements. It is a crucial component that requires careful planning.

Defining and implementing a Smart City, Intelligent Transportation, and 5G strategy is neither simple nor risk-free, but the potential rewards are substantial.

Intel believes that a successful city and transportation transformation involves the correct level of stakeholder collaboration, distinct priorities, and rigorous technological infrastructure design.

“Intel has a data-centric vision. Intel’s investments in AI, 5G, and Edge solutions are helping Smart Cities and ITS providers put data to work. The result is better synergy among Intel, the public, government, and industries both at the edge and in the cloud to drive data-based decisions and improve efficiency, make transportation easier, and give agencies and citizens more value,” Yau claims.

POWER TALK: Services in “New Normal”: Time to Recharge, Reinvent, Reimagine and Reinvigorate

As a result of the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the present public health emergency has resulted in significant changes to business practices and daily routines. This has implications for how businesses build and design their products and services, especially in the health care sector.

According to Cherrie Esteban, Chief, System and Software Engineering, Department of Health in the Philippines, to keep up with the times and encourage growth during a period of profound change, it is necessary to comprehend new requirements and new behaviours to help in every situation.

She mentioned that the department is currently improving its telemedicine programme for easier access to health care services. Still, they need to ensure that the data is being protected through policies, universal health care law and data security.

This new norm, which will alter the meaning of the workplace both remotely and on-site, is centred on technology, according to Dennis Omila, Chief Information Officer, UnionBank of the Philippines.

Most currently working remotely prefer to maintain a mixed model of remote and in-person work. And the new strategies of companies fit with the changing demands of the labour force.

Companies have diverted expenditures from larger office spaces and on-site support to new technical solutions that enable robust, safe and productive work environments to prepare for the new normal. In addition, government institutions must shift their concentration.

“Our goal is to leverage technology to support underserved communities, and we think applying AI to these efforts will make it more powerful,” says Dennis. “And people are the key part of the transformation.”

In addition, domestically and internationally, social media and virtual encounters have become the “new normal” as people attempt to maintain routine in the face of pandemic limitations. Most Filipinos are spending more time on social media and engaging in more online shopping.

With consumers increasingly turning to online buying in response to pandemic restrictions, entrepreneurs have even more embraced the online shopping digital boom. E-commerce websites are in the vanguard of these online shopping platforms, with anticipated sales revenue increases in the millions of Philippine pesos.

Technology has changed online business transactions into an unlimited marketplace; conducting business has become more convenient and efficient for sellers and buyers. The pandemic of COVID-19 has made this market a greater necessity.

Moreover, when Covid-19 struck, it compelled global socioeconomic transformations. Governments enacted orders restricting big gatherings of people, prohibiting in-person business transactions, and encouraging as much remote employment as possible.

In response, businesses and schools began searching for internet-based methods to maintain operations remotely. While working from home offices, they utilised numerous collaboration platforms and video conferencing capabilities to maintain contact with coworkers, clients, and students.

According to Charles David Ramos, Head of Information Technology, City of Makati, the new normal provides an opportunity to accomplish more things far better.

He added that Makati City tagged as the financial capital of the Philippines has been at the forefront of citizen services.

Some of their initiatives are: hospitalisation and education are free and other free programmes for the citizens. They also made payments easy for companies, organisations and residents through online portals and applications.

Moreover, Makati has been implementing a Data warehouse and analytics programme. They have the citizen corporate data apart from the electric bus transport system and south way system; and the digital twin city programme.

This shift towards digital operations in many firms affected both customer-facing and internal processes. Due to the inability to congregate in groups, many professional organisations and schools were forced to devise new methods of communication, collaboration and completion of jobs or school tasks while working remotely.

Customers have also shown a willingness in receiving services with minimal or no human interaction, necessitating remote or at least contact-limited operations from a customer-facing perspective.

Together, these factors contributed to a digital transition that has had repercussions across industries. Examining how these developments have affected firms can assist individuals in comprehending how organisations might embrace their digital growth and which aspects of these changes are likely to endure.

Closing Remarks

While a machine can accomplish a given task, typically more efficiently than a person, it lacks the artistry in the activity and the capacity to cater to the needs of the individual that is unique to humans. Therefore, technology is useless without human interaction. The procedure may recommend one method, but a competent employee understands when to change and the required nuances, such as “Tech will not take our jobs, so you have nothing to fear.”

Mohit agrees that “change is tough, and technology is our next-door neighbour; thus, all we need to do is grasp technology and its benefits.” The marketplace for technology professionals is evolving, as is the computing landscape and technology delivery.

Mohit concludes, “Begin designing a plan that exploits cloud benefits for your firm, as the cloud is here to stay.”