The OpenGov Recognition of Excellence (RoE) recognises government agencies who have achieved excellence in using ICT, often working behind the scenes to make government smarter, more agile, more efficient and more transparent. RoE aims to set new benchmarks of government ICT innovation in the ASEAN & ANZ regions.
The journey began in March 2017 when OpenGov recognised the efforts of government agencies and leaders in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia at the respective OpenGov Leadership Forums in those countries. For its 3rd annual Singapore OpenGov Leadership Forum which happened on May 18 2017, OpenGov recognised the efforts of 14 Singapore government agencies for their work in building Singapore towards being a Smart Nation.
Below are the 14 agencies which were recognised by OpenGov:
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
OpenGov recognised The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) for contributing to Singapore’s Smart Nation Journey through multiple innovative projects.
A*STAR’s Green Data Centres, which use warm water cooling, with water temperature at around 35 degree Celsius, as compared to traditional use of chilled water, at around 15-18 degree Celsius, helped to achieve significant power savings. The agency is also using virtual machines (emulations of computer systems) in the Green data centres, thereby saving power and storage space and reducing the carbon footprint.
A*STAR’s InfiniCortex is concurrent supercomputing across the globe, utilising trans-continental InfiniBand (a computer-networking communications standard, with very high throughput and very low latency used in HPC) and a Galaxy of Supercomputers. Effectively, it creates a Galaxy of Supercomputers, with the supercomputers at the 7 nodes leveraging the InfiniBand network to act as one and tackle the biggest computational challenges. It was the first project in the world, where a 100 Gbps connection was established between supercomputers separated by a geographical distance of greater than 26,000 km.
Building & Construction Authority (BCA)
The Building & Construction Authority (BCA) was recognised for the launch of their SkyLab facility. Opened in July 2016, the BCA SkyLab is a state-of-the-art rotatable test facility pivotal to developing innovative energy efficient building technologies. The facility is modelled after the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s FLEXLAB (Facility for Low Energy Experiments in Buildings). The 132 sq m facility is equipped with a network of more than 200 sensors with high accuracy and granularity, across two identical cells for comparison testing. These sensors measure performance metrics such as energy performance, indoor environmental quality, outdoor environmental parameters and building automation system indicators. The SkyLab is an integral part of Singapore’s move towards a Smart Nation through leveraging IoT and green technologies, as well as towards achieving the BCA Green Mark scheme for 80% of all buildings in Singapore to be green by 2030.
Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech)
The Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) was recognised for their success implementation of the (i) Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for e-government transactions using SingPass and (ii) launching CorpPass in September 2016.
The enhanced SingPass system was launched in July 2015 which includes an improved user interface, mobile-friendly features and stronger security capabilities. This one-time “second factor” password is delivered through Short Messaging Service (SMS) or an “OneKey” token. Over 2.3 Million SingPass Users were 2FA-ready by December 2016.
Launched in September 2016, CorpPass is a corporate digital identity for businesses and other entities to transact with Government agencies online, owned by the Ministry of Finance and managed by GovTech. Businesses currently conduct business transactions through multiple digital identities such as SingPass and EASY2. Having a single corporate digital identity will increase convenience for users who transact with multiple government agencies as they no longer need to handle multiple login IDs.
CorpPass will also allow businesses to have greater control, as they will be able to grant and manage employees’ access to Government digital services. The Government has also received feedback from the business community that SingPass should only be used for personal transactions, not corporate transactions, due to privacy concerns. CorpPass will be progressively rolled out from September 2016 to December 2017.
Housing & Development Board (HDB)
The Housing & Development Board (HDB) was recognised for bringing together a host of innovations and making Yuhua, the first existing HDB estate to benefit from Smart Home Solutions. The smart devices available as part of the trial includes the Elderly Monitoring System that provides peace of mind to caregivers of elderly loved ones, and the Utility Management System that help manage household utilities usage. From April 2016, residents from 3,200 households in Yuhua estate were eligible to participate in a trial for the non-intrusive smart devices.
Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS)
Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) was recognised for the achievement of the HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7 award for Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH). NTFGH which is managed by Jurong Health in collaboration with IHiS, became the first hospital in Singapore achieve the HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7 award. It is also the first in ASEAN and only the fifth hospital in all of Asia-Pacific to reach Stage 7 of the prestigious certification.
There are eight stages (0-7) that measure a hospital’s implementation and utilisation of information technology applications. The final stage, Stage 7, represents an advanced patient record environment. The validation process to confirm a hospital has reached Stage 7 includes a site visit by an executive from HIMSS Analytics and former or current chief information officers to ensure an unbiased evaluation of the Stage 7 environments.
NTFGH’s technological transformation achieved many firsts in Singapore, including the implementation of the most number of medical devices (976) interfaced directly into the EMR system and the achievement of a 4-Less Environment: Chartless, Scriptless, Filmless, and Paper-less.
JTC Corporation
OpenGov recognised JTC Corporation for contributing to Singapore’s Smart Nation Journey through multiple innovative projects.
Co-developed between JTC Corporation, NTU Singapore and local start-up CtrlWorks, the new building inspection robot named QuicaBot or Quality Inspection and Assessment Robot can move autonomously to scan a room in about half the time taken for manual inspection.
The robot can upload 3D data of the scans to the cloud and inform the human operator, who can then inspect critical and complex defects. The QuicaBot, which can operate for three days with two hours of charging, also has its own arsenal of high tech tools. They include: 1) small laser scanner for navigation and mapping; 2) large laser scanner to inspect walls evenness and squareness; 3) Inclinometer to check evenness of the floor; 4) thermal infrared camera to check for hollowness in tiles; )5 small standard colour camera to detect cracks on walls. To enable quick and nimble movements around the room, the team worked with CtrlWorks to develop the robot’s mobile platform.
Together with Accenture, JTC Corporation has piloted the Integrated Estate Management System (iEMS), which is easily layered onto the existing building management system and provides precise real-time data on building functions from air-conditioning to security, allowing JTC Corporation to operate more efficiently or spot anomalies, among other things. Just six months into the pilot, JTC Corporation had realised monthly savings of 15 percent on addressable electricity usage, as well as a 13 percent reduction in addressable chilled water use.
JTC Corporation has also shifted its building management approach towards one that is easy to monitor and control,proactive rather than reactive, and more energy efficient. Significantly, this has been achieved without cumbersome and expensive retrofits.
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) was recognised for the launch of a Regulatory Sandbox for financial institutions and FinTech players to test their innovations. The sandbox enables experiments to happen in a quarantined environment, with minimal costs in the event of failure. At the inception of an idea or an innovation, it might be impossible to anticipate every risk.
The idea is that MAS and the applicant will jointly define the boundaries within which the experiment will take place.MAS will determine the legal and regulatory requirements which it is prepared to relax for the duration of the experiment within these boundaries.
National Environment Agency (NEA)
The National Environment Agency was recognised for its Integrated Field Operations System (iFOS)- mobile workforce solution in operation since Feb 2017 for environmental public health and hawker centre operations, including sanitation, public cleanliness, port health, vector control, and hygiene. iFOS allows more than 900 officers to perform their operational tasks, such as inspection and enforcement actions, and access and capture information relevant to those operations while on the move.
The implementation of iFOS has supported a new concept of operations, in which NEA officers work in a networked environment, connected to the necessary resources via a single mobile-accessible platform. With its wider rollout and usage over time, operations will be increasingly integrated, scalable, and tightly coupled with 3P (private, people, and public sector) engagement. NEA will also be able to understand and serve the public better by having comprehensive contextual information, such as customer, sensors and operational data, accessible to our field officers.iFOS will help enhance NEA’s delivery of a high standard of services in our day-to-day operations, and readiness and preparedness to act and respond swiftly and effectively to environmental and public health incidents.
Singapore Customs
OpenGov recognised Singapore Customs for their work (together with GovTech) in developing the National Trade Platform (NTP), a one-stop next-generation trade information management platform to support companies in the trade and logistics industry, as well as adjacent sectors such as trade finance. Once rolled out, the NTP will replace the current TradeNet® and TradeXchange®1 systems and can potentially bring about up to $600 million worth of man-hour savings annually for businesses.
The NTP will significantly improve the way companies work and interact with one another. It will enable them to reach out to a wider range of businesses, both locally and globally, from importers, exporters, logistics service providers to financial institutions.
The NTP can help businesses improve productivity through digital exchange and re-use of data with their business partners and the Government. Businesses can streamline their work processes, reduce inefficiencies of manual trade document exchange, and tap on the potential of data analytics to draw insights from their trade data.
In addition to the suite of built-in services, the NTP will be developed on an open architecture where third party solution providers or IT developers can leverage the toolkits provided to develop new services and applications based on market needs. This will nurture a developer community on the NTP to seed and experiment with innovative ideas that can benefit the trade and logistics industry in the long term.
Singapore Police Force (SPF)
Singapore Police Force (SPF) was recognised for leveraging technology to defend the residents of Singapore against threats, old and new.
A one-stop self-help portal, https://www.scamalert.sg/ was launched to counter scams. It provides up-to-date information on the latest scams. People can share personal experiences of scam encounters and lodge police reports online. There are links to major online e-commerce platforms so that the public can approach the platform administrators for assistance regarding transactions on these platforms. Victims of scams will also be able to lodge reports for police investigations via SPF’s Electronic Police Centre.
Another SPF initiative is the Digital Evidence Search Tool (DIGEST) which will automate the forensic processing of huge volumes of data, enabling investigation officers to focus their efforts on more specialised investigation functions.
Singapore Land Authority (SLA)
OpenGov recognised Singapore Land Authority (SLA) for the agency’s Smart Nation Innovations. In June 2016, SLA unveiled the first phase of its national 3D mapping project. The models,which use advanced Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to generate ‘real world’ visualisations of the entire island, are part of a whole-of-government Smart Nation initiative aimed at improving risk management, facilitating collaboration and enhancing decision-making among Singapore’s public agencies.
SLA has also developed the Singapore Satellite Positioning Reference Network (SiReNT) which uses global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data from several countries’ satellites, not just the United States’ GPS data, to correct satellite data for real-time precision of up to 3 cm accuracy. It feeds into Singapore’s smart-city push in areas such as autonomous vehicles.
Singapore Tourism Board (STB)
OpenGov recognised Singapore Tourism Board (STB) for its work-in-progress on the Tourism Information and Services Hub (TIH), which will be launched later this year. TIH is a back-end digital repository of real-time information and travel services, where the industry can contribute and access for use on their respective consumer-facing channels such as websites and mobile applications.
Businesses can benefit from increased exposure of their product offerings and efficiencies in sharing and updating of tourism-related content. With TIH, STB can also obtain rich data insights on the visitor journey and behaviour that will further enhance the Singapore experience.
As a start, it will house content such as Destination Editorials, Images & Videos, Business Event Listings and Walking Trails contributed by STB and its industry partners. STB will also develop services such as Enhanced Navigation Map, Itinerary Planner to help visitors plan on the go, Recommendation Engine to provide customised suggestions and a Chatbot to provide real-time assistance, all of which tourism partners can choose to extract to use on their own front-end channels.
Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) was recognised for their development of the ePlanner and GEMMA (GIS-Enabled Mapping and Analysis) platforms. Both platforms enhance intra-government collaboration between agencies and departments and enable better informed decision-making, leading to improved final outcomes.
ePlanner is a one-stop, multi-platform, geospatial urban planning analytics tool, which integrates data from various sources to enable advanced spatial visualisation and analytics. ePlanner also enables planners from various agencies to access and analyse various land-use planning information such as zoning and development control parameters. By working on a common analytics platform, agencies can better share up-to-date information and make collective planning decisions.
GEMMA enables planners to compose multiple land use scenarios quickly, through a suite of apps that tracks urban development staging easily. It allows planners to search and select sites quickly, and jointly evaluate scenario outcomes and potential impact on supporting infrastructure with partner agencies.
Vital Shared Services – Ministry of Finance
OpenGov recognised Vital Shared Services – Ministry of Finance for its implementation of the Electronic Document and Knowledge Management System (eDKMS), as a part of Singapore’s drive to build a Smart Nation and a digital government.
It enables integration of daily HR, payroll and finance workflows for higher productivity and fostering greater knowledge management and a social collaboration platform. The system also reduces paperwork, manages the flow of information from capture through to archiving and disposal.
It improves records and case management, and enhances business information analysis and decision-making.
