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The Singapore OpenGov Leadership Forum 2021 – Virtual Edition was held over two days. This article covers Day 1. Read about Day 2.
Governments around the world are rapidly implementing digital transformation strategies to improve their engagement with citizens, deliver better public services and cut costs – all to help deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Disruptive technologies and best practices from a variety of tech partners offer immense opportunities to improve efficiency, overhaul legacy IT infrastructures and even provide a new optic as to how to best serve the needs of citizens in an increasingly online world.
COVID-19 has advanced digital transition by years and has foundationally altered the way both the public and private sectors across the world deliver services, products and programmes. Government agencies and institutions have fast-tracked digitisation of internal operations and delivery of citizen services. Businesses implemented temporary solutions, that are morphing into more permanent ones, to meet changing and new demands – far more quickly than was thought possible before the crisis.
Indeed, a digital revolution is underway.
However, this is a daunting journey – stories of floundering projects abound. Nonetheless, organisations and agencies in government, healthcare and education that get digital transformation right are proving that the effort and investment reap significant rewards when done right.
This was the focal point of the discussion during the Singapore OpenGov Leadership Forum 2021 – Virtual Edition, Day 1 that brought key decision-makers and influencers from the country together on one forum.
Convening the brightest digital minds for a strategic level discussion on the issues that matter the most, the Singapore OpenGov Leadership Forum, with another 100% attendance in the morning and afternoon sessions, offered a unique way of tackling challenges. Intentionally planned, every activity and facet of the event was designed to let delegates garner exclusive insights from the digital leaders as well as demonstrate their thought-leadership.
As always, the forum provided intimate interaction between key ICT leaders from the Public Sector and leading technology providers who influence and determine digital strategies across agencies and organisations.
Apart from informative presentations from renowned speakers, this year’s Forum continued its award-winning OpenGov Gamification Table (OGT) format in the new OpenGov Gamification Virtual Rooms (OGVRs). Every OpenGov Gamification Virtual Room was a virtual heuristic exercise allowing delegates to learn from a variety of decision-making scenarios just as they would in the physical world.
A Cultural Shift in the New Normal


To kickstart the session, Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief at OpenGov Asia delivered the opening remarks.
Long before the pandemic, there was an agreement on the benefits of remote working and talks on how to bring this about effectively and securely – but it did not happen in any significant way. Then, at the end of 2019 came COVID-19, which forced the world to halt in its tracks. Hit by an enemy that has never been encountered before in modern times, the virus respects no border, industry or community – devastating all with equal ferocity.
The public and the private sectors worked independently and together to fight the COVID-19, coming up with a slew of ad-hoc solutions and band-aid technologies. Digital initiatives and tech platforms were launched left and right. The demand on the public sector shot up dramatically as citizens, forced to stay at home, looked to the government for necessities to survive.
In the early stages, people were excited at the opportunity to work from home; a cultural shift that had been in the offing for a while. Interestingly though, the step was considered a “pivot” – with the connotation of reaction rather than strategic. People and organisations were said to be “pivoting” to manage and mitigate the issues the pandemic brought.
Beyond a doubt, both sectors did their jobs in terms of providing relevant programmes and initiatives throughout the age of COVID-19. But the question remains, were those initiatives innovative and intentional? Was enough done with the available tech? Additionally, as the initial euphoria of remote working wears thin, people, once happy about the shift, realise that the new normal disrupts their work-life balance and their well-being.
The good brings with it the bad, the unsafe and the difficult. Deployment, in normal circumstances, of technology like AI, Cloud and Data Analytics are accompanied by cybersecurity challenges. In a pandemic where almost everything has moved online, cyber breaches will happen.
Knowing this, Mohit challenged the delegates: if you put digital transformation at the heart of this revolution, is everything going to be miraculously in place? Or do we need to take technologies more seriously?
Organisations and institutions must find the right balance in their digital transformation journey using technology. They must also find leadership to achieve the ultimate end goal of a complete digital transformation in the new normal.
In closing, Mohit emphasised the need for agencies and organisations to find the right partner in their digital journey. Not just from the tech sector, but also the government, banking and FSI, to ensure that everyone is on the right path to an ideal digital transformation.
Singapore’s Digital Transformation


After Mohit’s opening remarks, the forum heard from Tan Gek Khiang, Director – Group Planning and Operation, Services group, Government Technology Agency of Singapore who talked about digitalisation in the Singapore Government.
Gek Khiang acknowledged that in 2020, there was a significant increase in new digital services and digital transactions with the government. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by several years.
The Singapore government’s top 5 digital services with increased transactions include the following:
- Students Learning Space
- Parents Gateway Announcements
- Sales of flats
- My Careers Future Job Seekers
- My CPF Profile
Digitalisation would continue to be a key pillar of Singapore’s public service transformation and it aims to be digital to the core and serves with a heart. Part of this mission is the government needing to push ahead with its ambition to ride the digital evolution and to deliver greater impact and value to citizens, businesses and public officers.
First is digitisation, or the process of changing from analogue to digital form (without any different-in-kind changes to the process itself). The second is digital optimisation or the process of using digital data and technology to improve existing business models, operating processes, services or outcomes. Lastly is the digital transformation or the process of exploiting digital data and technology to reinvent or create new business models, operating processes, services or outcomes.
Singapore is striving to enable every agency to be a digital organisation that is Digital-to-the-Core (DttC) with the abilities to plan, execute and measure digitalisation efforts. A DttC organisation embodies a “Digital and Data by Design” mindset, culture and practices to transform its core business.
The organisation must have a mission-driven digitalisation strategy. A clearly defined digitalisation strategy that articulates the vision, and ambition of the agency to transform its business and leverage technology to fulfil its core mission, with a well-defined execution plan to deliver the outcomes. Next is to transform core business with policy development and planning, operations management and service delivery. It must also develop its people and partners, processes and data and technology.
Singapore Government’s Digital Maturity strategy leans on six priority areas:
- Leveraging data to create value
- Leveraging digital tools & platforms
- Designing end-to-end service journeys
- Deploying Agile at Scale
- Strengthening people capabilities
- Building digital ecosystems & partnerships
Gek Khiang’s agency supports the Singapore government’s digitalisation by enabling them to leverage data to create value and to help agencies to democratise the use of this data, develop data capabilities, provide data platforms and solutions across the whole of government (WOG). Leveraging digital tools and platforms provides WOG platforms and products that reduce duplication, accelerate development, improve interoperability and provide a consistent user experience. Designing end-to-end service journeys across the government for diverse users & moments of life. Deploying agile-at-scale to quicken the pace of digital services development. Strengthening people’s capabilities by developing central enablers to uplift ICT and Smart Systems (ICT&SS) capabilities across WOG and by building digital ecosystems & partnerships to nurture a thriving ecosystem of partners in the public sector and communities.
She conceded that they are already mid-way in their Digital Government Goals and there is still more left to be done. They need to such as continuously supporting agencies to go beyond optimisation to the transformation of their core business, raising the capabilities of agencies in their digital maturity and exploiting technologies more such as AI, Cyber-Physical tech etc.
Data Analytics and Digitisation in the COVID-19 Era
The forum next moved to a presentation from J.R Helmig, Innovation Lead Global Security Intelligence SAS Institute on how the pandemic affected data collection, digitisation, and analytics.
The ecosystem of data analytics is essentially people, processes, tech and data. Analytical foundations, practical outcomes and future-focussed mindsets must take the helm in an effective ecosystem. While not all analytical opportunities apply to all locations, organisations or agencies every time, they are critical to success overall.
COVID-19 accelerated the need for a viable ecosystem of data analytics – not only in terms of healthcare, workforce, and public services but also to combat the rise of online fraud and cybercrimes. Data standardisation and modernisation with proper training would be key to combat these crimes in addition to automating investigative responses.
It was pertinent to note, pre-COVID problems still exist in current analytical efforts. Challenges such as the high volume of incoming data, low quality of incoming report data, a wide variety of data sources being manually integrated, inefficient ways to investigate and handle suspicious cases, limited resources with increasing pressure to perform more efficiently and effectively, manual checks of technical matches to identify the right business match, limited analytics capabilities to identify and analyse networks and relationships and so on.
Organisations must go from being reactive to being observant of what is happening to shape future outcomes. J.R and his team help create an analytical pathway that helps organisations identify their analytical baseline. This analytic continuum acts as the knowledge hub or library for organisations. This greatly reduces tech implementation risks as well as costs.
J.R suggested that organisations should adopt a case management system. An effective case management system must generate solutions whether be it automatically or manually. It must also be populated with any of the data available in the solution that is needed to successfully the desired result.
J.R encouraged everyone to predict and plan their new normal. They should be proactive with ongoing issues such as facial recognition efforts, fake personal protective equipment, news to manipulate stock prices, threats to military readiness or asymmetrical national security threats, just to name a few. Every organisation must anticipate criminality during COVID – both near term and long term - for both direct and indirect impacts, document and improve business processes during the recovery period, and plan for ongoing change - in business operations and consumer behaviour.
Utilising a Multi-Cloud and Data Strategy


Karthik Ramalingam, Director – Systems Engineering, Dell Technologies was the next presenter. He talked about the company’s multi-cloud strategies.
Karthik started by presenting their Digital Transformation Index – 2020, noting that 89% of organisations recognise that they need a more agile IT infrastructure to allow for contingencies. The index showed that 80% of businesses have fast-tracked digital transformation programmes this year and 94% report facing entrenched barriers to transformation.
Speaking of a more agile IT infrastructure, Karthik proposed the cloud as an on-demand self-service that has broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service.
The top 3 objectives driving cloud spending for customers are the following:
- New technology
- Digital Transformation
- Cloud-First Strategy
Karthik also noted that the cloud is not a destination or a place, it is an operating model and cloud-first is slowly becoming cloud-smart.
About the ongoing debate between the private cloud and public cloud, he felt that the answer is not one of them. Rather, it is both as organisations’ approach to Cloud Computing has evolved. A recent study shows that 93% of organisations will leverage multiple clouds environments over the next 2 years.
Operating in multiple clouds will lead to huge complexity such as costs, complex workloads, operational slots for management, disparate tools, observability and predictability, uncertain security postures, new skills and processes and inconsistent SLAs to name a few. These will all slow down cloud adoption and limiting its effectiveness.
Knowing this, he believes that organisations who choose a hybrid cloud platform can bring stability and consistency where workloads, apps, data are spread across multiple clouds bringing a consistent cloud experience for everything.
Karthik spoke on a use case for cloud-connected storage leading to data sovereignty by storing cloud data with a local CSP in a sovereign data centre. The user’s applications reside in any or all the major public clouds and the data and management of that data stay on shore with a local CSP (or with the SG Government), lastly, data is always encrypted at rest.
Another use case he mentioned was about cloud-connected storage to multi-cloud connectivity by having all cloud data in a single public cloud. It means storing data once with a local CSP and able to present it to multiple clouds simultaneously. Dislocating the application from the storage equates to application mobility between clouds becomes easier.
Talking about Singapore, he confirmed that Dell Technologies has a planned US$ 50 million (S$ 66 million) investment over three years since 2019 in the Global Innovation Hub (GIH) to accelerate developments in digital experiences and research & development capabilities. Of that planned investment, US$23 million (approx. S$30 million) will be invested this year. The establishment of the GIH has created more than 160 job opportunities in emerging technologies in Singapore and the hiring process will be completed by this year.
The innovation hub is a first-of-its-kind outside of the United States. It not only focuses on advancing digital transformation in areas such as augmented/mixed reality, data analytics, cloud-native, cybersecurity, edge computing but also includes a specialised team dedicated to elevating user experiences. The hub also houses existing R&D facilities for the development of digital products and solutions, a hardware prototyping lab dedicated to product design and innovation and an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Experience Zone.
Enriching Citizens’ Digital Journeys with Data


Taking over, San Zaw, Vice President Solution Consulting APJ, TIBCO spoke about enriching the digital citizen journey with self-service data and insights.
To achieve a true digital transformation in the new normal, San Zaw noted that accelerating citizen services (contextual, data-rich, and timely digital services) must remain a priority going forward. Enhancement of microservices, improving connectivity (IoT, Healthcare, Finance), data (data lakes, cloud, big data, packaged apps, data warehouses) and context (visual analytics, operational analytics, model ops).
The Modern Data Fabric consists of business intelligence (BI), self-service analytics, data science and operational transactions. It must also virtualise data layers for BI, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other apps to govern master data, metadata and reference data. It must also have the capability to operationalise data with integration, messaging, and streaming.
Additionally, an ideal Data Hub must contain the following:
- Master/Reference Data Management (how to manage key data entities)
- Streaming Data Management (how to harness data in flight)
- Metadata Management (how to define things)
- Data Virtualisation (how to access all data across the enterprise)
Converging technologies are made up of data, human insights, automation and machine learning. While converging personas are made up of domain experts, data analysts, data architects, data engineers and data scientists.
Hyperconverged analytics must be immersive, smart and real-time to accelerate data-driven decisions. This brings visual analytics, data science, and streaming capabilities together in a seamless experience that delivers business insights in an easy to use and tailored way. Data however must be made available for analytics and operations with 350+ connectors for numerous ERP, CRM, database, data warehouse, data lake, collaboration, social data sources. Organisations must create accurate and consistent 360-degree views of any data – customers, products, suppliers, assets, and locations.
When it comes to AI/ML intelligence, the following practices are advised to further enrich a citizen’s digital journey:
- Make AI consumable with embedded intelligence automation
- Edge intelligence for faster response times with on-device on/off-line AI services
- Take new AI opportunities by participating in API-orientated AI marketplaces
Operationalising AI with Model Ops is about building repeatable processes to deploy, monitor, manage, refresh, and update models in production. It must also have the capability to monitor model performance, accuracy, and business metrics in production environments. It also can reduce risk through effective model governance and ensure compliance and “auditability” with approvals and workflows.
While automation is done for repetitive tasks for efficiency and accuracy. Organisations may look to create automation steps via a robust, developer-friendly set of APIs, solve their toughest automation challenges by creating custom tools to automate a wide range of actions and scoring data with models in Python, R, PMML, TensorFlow, etc. in real-time.
In closing, he emphasised that unlocking the potential of real-time data is vital to making faster, smart decisions that will lead to solutions to citizens’ most critical challenges.
Digital Identities in the Blockchain Era


The delegates next heard from Frans Rijkers, Strategic Advisor, Innovation and Identity, National Office for Identity Data, The Netherlands who talked about digital identities in the blockchain era. He affirmed that all relevant verifiable and personalised credentials such as ID cards, bank details, employee ID and even concert tickets should be available to the user digitally, e.g., in a wallet.
Keeping with this, the Netherlands’ “NL Digibetter” Government Agenda aims to increase the autonomy of individual citizens and entrepreneurs. It intends to create one central place in which citizens and entrepreneurs can meet government and institutions to deal with those issues that relate to them personally.
The many possibilities include altering citizen’s data, gaining access to any data that is recorded about the user, granting consent for the use of personal data, and managing the citizen’s digital login facilities. The government’s digital agenda consists of the following:
- investing in innovation
- protecting fundamental rights and public values
- accessible, understandable and intended for everyone
- making citizen services more personal
- getting ready for the future (annual review of digital agenda)
In this Digital Government Agenda, the needs and rights of citizens and entrepreneurs will be the central point of focus, alongside the social challenges – for example, in the fields of security and healthcare. It will be realistic and will work at a pace that matches the speed of modern developments.
The complexity of the issues calls for all of government to act jointly and with clear leadership in taking responsibility to tackle those challenges. Digitalisation is more than day-to-day practice: it is a subject for discussion at the boardroom level. And because digitalisation is not restricted by national boundaries, it calls for close collaboration with other European countries.
Four heads of government recently emphasised the importance of digital identity as part of Europe’s digital sovereignty – the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark, Prime Minister of the Republic of Finland, Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia. They agreed that the Commission should come forward with proposals for new initiatives as well as strengthening ongoing initiatives. the group champion the need for solid framework conditions that foster an innovative, responsible and safe digital economy, including an EU-wide ecosystem for digital identities.
In terms of the European Blockchain Service Infrastructure, all EU members collaborate in the European Blockchain Partnership, realising services for the benefit of citizens, society and economy and services for verification of information on selected use cases.
A new data-sharing pattern is emerging thanks to these three main technology developments:
- Blockchain (new trust anchor)
- Verifiable Credentials (new document format)
- Digital Wallet (new app)
There is a new paradigm for making data trustworthy and blockchain is often misunderstood as another data sharing protocol. First, blockchain is not a protocol for sending and delivering data between systems but a shared ledger that creates permanent digital records. Blockchain uses cryptographic methods and a distributed consensus that creates trust between disparate systems. It is also a new trust system that is used to anchor verifiable claims so parties can trust them. Lastly, blockchain allows greater control for the end-user.
He conceded that this digital transition propelled public administrations to this paradigm shift. From one-size-fits-all to user-centric approach, from hierarchical to networked ecosystems, from centralised to distributed and from closed and proprietary to open and collaborative all because of this so-called digital transformation.
Modernising Workspaces in the New Normal


Frans session was followed by a presentation on adapting to the new ways of working in the new normal from Wah Kok Min, Senior Product Client Technologist, Dell Technologies.
The onset of COVID-19 is an unprecedented moment in history. Travel restrictions made it nearly impossible to continue “business as usual”. Businesses need to enable their employees to work remotely and maintain productivity, increase connectivity and provide for continuous, secure access to applications across endpoints.
Modernising to a Hybrid Workplace arrangement must be a seamless experience anytime, anywhere. It will start from the home of the employee equipped with seamless desktop apps, rich conferencing experiences and capabilities to leverage home broadband. Mobile productivity apps with seamless access to one-click meetings must also be incorporated. Lastly, the office must have a seamless Wi-Fi connection, contemporary meeting rooms and genius bar-style support.
As per studies, managing remote productivity came in as the most pervasive challenge for IT decision-makers (ITDMs) managing their organisations through this crisis. For enterprise, increase cost and complexity of logistics served as the most common challenge. In a crisis, operational norms are upended. Cybersecurity, which traditionally rates at the very top, comes in as the fourth most common IT concern. Responding to COVID-19 (surviving, adapting, and weathering uncertainty) are the most common concerns today.
Governments and industries alike must start with an approach that focuses on modernisation. Providing the right device with intelligence and security built-in, enhancing employee productivity with built-in software and services and accelerating modernisation with automation, insights and optimised experiences.
He conceded that the traditional workspaces may not work in the new normal brought by the pandemic so organisations must learn to adapt and modernise.
Wah Kok min acknowledged that the workforce’s support and assist system must be easy-to-use for managing assets and alerts, it must proactively resolve issues if there is a problem, a case is automatically opened, and troubleshooting steps shall commence right away, and the system also be equipped to gain insights and early indication of performance issues with hardware and software utilisation.
Embracing Big Data and Analytics Today for a Resilient Tomorrow


Brett Aimers, Adjunct Associate Professor, James Cook University Australia followed with a presentation about Big Data and Analytics, exploring how to embrace big data and analytics today for a more resilient tomorrow.
Setting the tone for his session, Brett said major disasters would occur more frequently as time goes by. While COVID-19 has, undoubtedly, been the most disruptive global event since World War II, climate and weather patterns are changing adversely. Therefore, thinking about a resilient society is simply not enough.
In 2019, 396 natural disasters occurred across the globe. Costing more than US$ 146 billion, over 12,000 people lost their lives in these disasters. In a more regional context, Asia experienced 40% of natural disasters and 45% of all attributed deaths in the same year.
With data and information on hand, organisations must utilise big data and analytics more effectively to predict critical events and their impact; and must share this information. Big data, analytics and information sharing are key to survival and economic recovery.
Major disasters lead to major disruptions, loss of life, a sense of helplessness and lack of trust. Big Data and Analytics can create countermeasures to help mitigate these – early detection, advanced warning, maps and layers, decision making and effective communication – creating confidence within the community.
Decision-makers get relevant and timely insights about possible disasters, enabling early decision making that can protect critical assets, (including relocation of their resources) contribute to impact assessment and support economic recovery.
Brett urged the public and private sectors to acknowledge the significant drivers for change. The first is that research indicates that two-thirds of the global population will live in cities by 2050. Another is that spending on disaster recovery is nine times higher than spending on prevention…literally, a stitch in time saves nine.
Brett concluded his presentation on a positive note. While COVID-19 may have an end date, climate change and natural disasters – of the scale critical events are inevitable. But big data, analytics and efficient information sharing can save lives and promote economic recovery.
Empowering the Public Sector’s Digital Transformation


The forum then heard a presentation from Leonard Tan, Country Manager, Singapore, Outsystems who elaborated on empowering the public sector’s digital transformation from within.
He emphasised that a government that is digital to the core must serve with a heart. A study that says that by 2023, more than 80% of the government’s digital implementations that do not build on a technology platform will fail to meet objectives. Governments must address their decaying technology infrastructure and become productive members of the digital ecosystem. Government CIOs can make the case for sustained IT modernisation funding by showing how digital platforms are vital to lowering risk and achieving business transformation goals.
Leonard mentioned 3 things regarding an organisation’s internal digital transformation. An organisation must:
- Build it fast (serious productivity)
- Build it right (serious applications)
- Build for the future (platform for a change)
Building it fast means adopting a Digital Government Technology Platform (DGTP) that focuses on customer/citizen experience transformation, workplace innovation, process automation and application modernisation.
One use case that he mentioned was Shawnee Kansas, which was previously heavily dependent on Lotus Notes and was unable to re-platform. It had a lean IT team with 1 app developer towards its rapid development without any additional headcounts that led them into modernising their legacy systems and applications with speed which increased their productivity.
Building it right means decision-makers must have insights into how a platform approach to government can transform the way that government operates and interacts with citizens, things and ecosystem partners. They understand the value of business flexibility afforded by platform service models and extending the ecosystem to include digital transactions. This awareness should position government CIOs to support their executive and programme area leaders in transforming government, which will necessitate leveraging a DGTP approach for delivering better mission outcomes.
The main components of a DGTP are the following:
- Customer/Business = Customer Experience Platforms
- Things = IoT, Analytics, Security
- Partners = Ecosystem Platforms
- Employees = Information Systems Platforms
Digital experiences are about engaging customers/citizens. Digital operations must streamline inefficient, manual and paper-based processes and the digital core must be able to transform large legacy systems.
Lastly, building for the future means empowering developers and extending reach outside of IT. (UI, Logic, Process, Data), enhancing experiences and reaching all touchpoints with the widest ranges of digital experiences, integrating and extending by never starting from scratch and implementing a limitless and easy integration system and a full lifecycle by being agile and continuously changing and automating the software’s lifecycle.
Digitally Connected Governance


N Bala Subramanyam, Additional Director General of Police – Organisation, Strategy and Planning, Government of Andhra Pradesh talked about a connected government equating to a connected citizen.
In terms of citizen services, Mori is the first village in Andhra Pradesh with an all-digital government. From 2015 onwards, the AP government goes to the Village Panchayat Office or to the doorstep of the citizens to disburse the Pension to 4.3 Million Citizens.
Vehicle registration was another milestone. Until 2016, the average time taken to get a vehicle registered was 79.2 days and people must submit 6 document proofs, get one inspection, physically reach RTA / DMV and work through an agent. From 2017, when the citizen buys a car, he/she can take his/her family for a joy trip, and not stand in a queue at the DMV, while the RC Book is emailed to the citizen in just one day.
In the past, to get Deepavali Crackers License, citizens need to visit 4 offices of police, fire, revenue, land registration and submit voluminous document proofs and go through a huge amount of stress. Now, with the Deepavali apply-in-one app, citizens can just sit at their shops and plan their sales, while the police, fire, revenue offices work for them to mail their license in just 2 days.
Apart from all these improvements in utilising digital technologies, he discussed their Works Management System (WMS). As of November 2018, the WMS app automatically matches and validates the eMBook entries with the standards and specifications rates, reflects the road works on the Google Maps, plugs irregularities and leakages, keeps the citizens informed, documents via 3rd party audit, QC outcomes, and other outcomes are being brought to the contractor and the government’s engineer much faster than before.
All in all, the newly formed state of AP embraced digital transformation to achieve visible governance and invisible government. Their main strategy is for government to act as a service and as a platform. They aim to provide citizen-centric service redesigned with outcomes through self-service or service delivery by 3rd Party. This digital transformation standard is also published as a government order.
The AP government’s digital services platforms include the following:
- myAP Portal (Single access for all government services)
- License Management System (Enabling citizens to consume and store licences on request)
- Certificate-less Governance System (Enabling certificate-less service delivery)
- APp Store (Government app store for deploying desktop and mobile apps)
- E-Highway (Repository for all government APIs)
- DataLytics (Robust Analytical Platform)
- ePragati Cloud (Next Level State-of-Art Data Centre Experience)
- Core Development Platform (Rapid Application Development)
- Localisation
At the end of his presentation, N Bala emphasised a few best practices they adopted for their digital transformation journey. He felt that governments must move from silos to an enterprise; learn to reuse the data and not recreate the data and make it contactless, paperless and cashless. Backend rules and procedures, validations, verifications etc should be automated to the extent possible. Reduce the number of forms the citizen requires to fill as well as the number of process steps that the application goes through. Governments should push the development of integrated services that cut across various departments. Lastly is to make all these standards into a government order, so it is backed by the law.
Improving Citizen Experiences through Digitalisation


The session then moved on to a presentation from Andy Gunawan, Asia Regional Sales Director, Nintex who discussed ways on how to digitally transform government operations to improve citizen experiences.
Organisations struggle to digitally transform. One reason is the lack of visibility into core business processes. Over 75% of enterprises feel processes are not well understood or up to date in their business. Another is the lack of resources to meet business demand. About 68% of enterprise business processes remain highly manual today despite past digital efforts and the lack of capability in current tools or systems. Close to 80% of enterprises require ongoing process improvement and automation know-how.
Andy opined that one way to accelerate digital transformation is to improve and streamline processes:
- Easy – collaboratively map, improve, and prioritise processes quickly
- Agile – low code, drag and drop, powerful, dozens of connectors
- Fast – implement in days to weeks, built for constant change
- Affordable – scalable, easy-to-update, low total cost of ownership
Andy discussed their company’s practices which are easy to use, powerful and complete. The platform can discover and map business processes with tools, process owners and participants, design sophisticated forms for all stakeholders in office or on-the-go, automate advanced business processes for people, data, and documents, drive speed and volume by mimicking most human-computer interactions, create documents with key data and automation quickly and easily. It is equipped with an “eSign” capability for documents with signature-based workflows and optimising automation performance to gain insight with process intelligence.
The National Gallery in Singapore oversees the world’s largest public collection of Singaporean and Southeast Asian art. With nearly 1.8 million visitors in the last year, the National Gallery Singapore is the most preferred museum in the country. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the National Gallery Singapore was looking to update business contingency requirements. The gallery needed to implement a new visitor registration form as a precautionary measure to support contact tracing if needed.
The Gallery’s IT Team built a new visitor registration form using Nintex Workflow Cloud in just 3 days. Details from visitor forms are recorded in a secured SharePoint list. The National Gallery Singapore can capture additional information from all visitors no strain on employees and the organisation is equipped to provide data to the relevant authorities if contact tracing is required.
Andy conceded at the end of his presentation that delivering a great experience to citizens and suppliers in the public sector must be the utmost priority. Further focus on the following fields is advised:
- Government Administration
- Public Works & Services
- Emergency Operation Centre (EOC)
- Technology Services
- Human Resources
- Defence
- Agencies Finance
Workforce Automation


The forum heard from John Ang, Product Manager, AI Innovation, AI Singapore on the ways on how to bot your workforce in 2021.
The mission of AI Singapore is to anchor deep national capabilities in AI, thereby creating social and economic impacts, grow local talent, build an AI ecosystem with programme coordinating agencies and fund universities and research institutions to help put Singapore on the world map.
AI research is at the helm, inventing next-generation AI techniques/algorithms with an R&D Roadmap, research grant calls and capability clusters. Next is AI technology by creating significant economic and social impact through solving national challenges and AI innovation and maker space catalysing AI innovation in the Industry through AI software, co-creation of solutions and talents: 200 Industry Projects, pre-built AI solutions: “AI Bricks”, Enablement: AI Apprenticeship Programme (AIAP)®, AI for Industry (AI4I) ® Training partnered with AI for Everyone (AI4E) ®
Today, John noted that only 40% of Singapore enterprises make digital investments. At first, organisations prioritise digital transformation for absolute change and earn money. Second is the digitalisation stage to improve organisational capabilities and save money. Lastly is digitisation to fully convert processes where they are spending money.
He advised organisations to focus on the digitalisation stage of the pyramid to save more resources. Examples of these practices are the following:
- EDM Blast -> Targeted Marketing, Brick & Mortar -> E-commerce, Gut Feel -> Data Driven Insights
- Manual -> Automated, Back-Office Processes, Dashboarding and Reporting, Customer Self-Service and Skilled Labour Decision Making
- Physical Forms -> Electronic Files, Paper Records -> Digital Records
John noted that the more AI you put in in your processes, the more integration it requires. Robotic process automation (RPA) bots are the easiest target in digitalisation and AI adoption due to their low cost and easy deployment. It also provides the fastest ROI and benefits, he added.
The best-fit workflows for RPA include the following:
- Repetitive
- High Frequency
- Time Consuming
- Error-Prone
- Multiple People
- Digitised
John said that the RPA landscape in enterprise workflows usually benefits from back-end integration and is cross-departmental and uses a single major process. It is present in high-security requirements, mission-critical workflows and ties up major resources as a process. On the other hand, RPA in Ad-hoc workflows usually have no back-end integration available or not worth the effort or the cost to implement. It is only within a department or local to several people. It can handle multiple minor repetitive processes but usually drains on employee productivity.
John shared that their company created TagUI, a simplified and efficient system to help address the issues of implementing RPA in Ad-hoc workflows. He extended an invitation to collaborate to delegates who are open to becoming contributors and early adopters of the system.
Power Talk
On the agenda was public services in the new normal and what does the word “Reboot” mean. Open for discussion was the kind of transformation the panellists were expecting to see and how did they think technology would support the reshaping of the world with lessons learned from COVID-19.
In terms of rebooting, Frans Rijkers said that while everyone is talking about the new normal in the Netherlands, some are already itching to go back to the old normal such as opening the border, going from point A to point B, building back the economy, as well as the old norm of working such as the traditional, onsite workspaces. But at the end of the day, he conceded that there is a lot of work to do moving forward.
Lee Siew Kit said, in the reboot stage, some of their employees prefer working from home but some are longing for physical interaction in the physical offices. For him, the reboot will involve a hybrid setup where people can still work in the virtual space while also being present in the onsite workspace from time to time when the future situations permit.
Guilhem Vincens on the other hand said that people have befriended technology and there is no going back. Innovations such as online banking and digital-only banks are here to stay. Therefore, he thinks, that the biggest long term societal impact of the pandemic is that it accelerated the adoption of digital technologies and it will continue to do so. That is how he defines the word reboot in the new normal.
The Singapore OpenGov Leadership Forum 2021 – Virtual Edition was held over two days. This article covers Day 1. Read about Day 2.


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GovTech has been recognised by OpenGov Asia for its innovative use of digital technology in transforming the public sector. Through the GovWallet initiative, GovTech has simplified government operations and unlocked new opportunities.
This effort forms part of GovTech’s ongoing work to develop a digital wallet module that enables government entities to securely and promptly distribute funds and credits to citizens and beneficiaries. Agencies no longer must build their own payment systems, and people can get their government payments quickly through apps they already use.
GovWallet facilitates payment tracking for government agencies while providing payment recipients with multiple options to monitor their payment and spending records. Notably, one of its key features empowers agencies to select authorised merchants and regulate payout usage.
GovWallet serves as a backend service module that seamlessly integrates with any government mobile application, including LifeSG and Singpass. This allows users to utilise their credits at PayNow and NETS accepting stores and withdraw cash from ATMs, facilitating financial access for individuals without bank accounts.
Essential insight to build digital payment
While working on SupplyAlly, a system that coordinates the distribution of tangible items like food packs, TT Tokens, and reusable masks during the pandemic, the GovWallet team initiated the Know Your Customer (KYC) research.
Through their collaboration with government agencies, the GovWallet team found that agencies are not only interested in managing the distribution of physical goods but also in disbursing government benefits to eligible recipients. The team discovered that there were limited locations where recipients could utilise their payouts, the widespread acceptance of digital vouchers in the commercial sector.
GovWallet was created to enable citizens to access the widely used SGQR and well-established payment ecosystems, such as PayNow and NETS, without the need for a bank account to complete the transactions. The aim was to expand the range of retailers where beneficiaries could utilise their payouts.
They recognised that a comprehensive approach to addressing security, fraud, compliance and monitoring concerns necessitates a risk assessment. The team engaged with various stakeholders to validate their strategy and output, encompassing both the technical implementation and policy framework.
As part of their pre-rollout plan, they used a separate team to conduct vulnerability analyses and penetration tests simultaneously. These assessments proved valuable in gauging risks, and their insights would inform the future rollout and expansion of GovWallet.
GovWallet is hosted on the Government on Commercial Cloud (GCC) platform and is deployed on Amazon Web Services (AWS). A typical disbursement campaign may require up to 1,600 man-hours to complete.
Their architecture, which is based on AWS’ Serverless framework, allowed them to scale up and down as needed, reducing the amount of manpower required to monitor, maintain and operate the system. Adopting a serverless architecture allowed them to concentrate on making GovWallet more cost-effective, high-performing and responsive to traffic vagaries.
GovWallet has been gaining popularity among both government agencies and citizens. However, as with any other product that requires integration with multiple parties, the GovWallet team needed to maintain close communication with agencies to avoid a drop in collaboration.
They have scheduled regular meetings with various parties, such as government agencies and banks, to keep track of progress and address issues as they arise. They have also worked on numerous disbursement campaigns with multiple agencies.
A noteworthy application of GovWallet was its collaboration with the Ministries of Defence and Home Affairs to disburse S$100 digital credits to over 1 million past and present national servicemen. The system successfully processed up to 1.1 million disbursements and payments, with minimal lag or disruption.
According to the team, communication is critical to the success of any project, regardless of its size. Onboarding a government agency onto GovWallet typically entails the agency, the GovWallet team and a frontend interface for citizens to access payouts, such as LifeSG or a commercial bank.
To be able to move and adapt quickly, all teams must be on the same page in terms of objectives and changes. This allows them to remain agile, quickly adapt to user needs, and benefit more citizens.
When designing the infrastructure or developing the code, the GovWallet team draws on market best practices. Additionally, they conduct routine security reviews of their products to ensure that they remain current with the latest security practices and vulnerabilities.
GovWallet is currently developing a self-service dashboard for agencies onboarding its platforms. This provides greater flexibility in administering government disbursement schemes without necessitating a system-to-system integration with the backend.
They are not restricting their expansion to support digital currency transactions on GovWallet and will continue to collaborate with banks to provide such services as needed.
About the team
GovWallet was originally created as a solution to the issues of higher costs, administrative workload and carbon emissions associated with the issuance of cheques and physical vouchers. As the team resolved these challenges, they partnered with industry players to integrate PayNow and NETS payment gateways into the platform, providing GovWallet beneficiaries access to around 200,000 merchants.
While the product team needs to be aligned with the mission and objectives of the initiative, it is equally critical for senior leadership within each organisation to support the initiative. This support enables the product team to reduce or eliminate potential roadblocks and achieve success.
When it comes to product roadmap planning and the development of user-centric solutions, GovTech collaborates closely with the Smart Nation Digital Government Office (SNDGO).
The GovWallet team places a strong emphasis on close collaboration and maintains open lines of communication with all functional roles involved in the initiative. For example, a developer can communicate directly with the product owner without the need for any intermediaries. This approach reduces the potential for misunderstandings and accelerates the feedback loop.
Regular dedicated checkpoints such as scrum and sprint retrospectives are held by the GovWallet team. During these meetings, the team members are given dedicated and safe time to reflect on and inspect the features they liked and areas for improvement. This practice encourages open communication and helps the team identify ways to improve their workflow and product development process.
In the same vein, the GovWallet team promotes effective interaction by establishing direct communication channels with other teams or departments. They also share their scrum cadence for keeping track of and aligning dependent activities. This enables everyone involved to stay on the same page, fosters collaboration and helps in delivering the project efficiently.
Scrum aided the team by dividing the delivery into two-week sprints. This resulted in a shorter feedback loop, allowing the team to adapt to changes more quickly, especially when deconflicting with other teams.
GovTech fosters an environment where all team members are urged to share their ideas for improving the way things are done or launching new initiatives. They have open communication channels with senior management, who are receptive to feedback and suggestions.
During the planning of their subsequent project phases, the team regularly carries out user research. Team members are encouraged to share any discoveries, improvements or trends they observed with the rest of the team.
The team values one another’s suggestions and takes them seriously, incorporating them into the work backlog when applicable. GovTech provides funding resources for its teams to test their ideas. This fosters an environment of transparency and openness where everyone is seen as a peer and can explore genuine possibilities.
GovTech encourages all employees to be agile, bold, and collaborative. By encouraging a culture of innovation and creativity, they have been able to tap into the diverse perspectives and experiences of its employees, resulting in new and effective solutions.
Through regular forums and open communication, the organisation has created an environment where everyone is empowered to contribute to its mission of using technology to improve the lives of citizens. This approach has not only improved the quality of the organisation’s work but also increased employee engagement and satisfaction.
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GovTech meluncurkan inisiatif dompet digital GovWallet yang bisa digunakan Singapura untuk mengirim uang dan kredit kepada warga penerima program dana bantuan sosial (bansos) pemerintah dengan aman dan cepat. Dompet digital ini membuat pemerintah bisa melacak proses penyaluran bantuan sosial. Sementara bagi warga penerima bantuan, mereka dapat mengetahui pembayaran yang diterima dan melacak riwayat pengeluaran mereka.
Dengan GovWallet, lembaga dan badan pemerintah bisa mengatur bagaimana dana bantuan yang mereka salurkan dipakai oleh penerima. Mereka bisa membatasi agar pembayaran yang dilakukan lewat GovWallet hanya bisa dilakukan di tempat-tempat tertentu saja. Dengan demikian, dana bantuan bisa digunakan untuk hal-hal yang lebih tepat sasaran.
GovWallet bisa digunakan di toko-toko yang menerima pembayaran PayNow dan NETS. Dengan PayNow, warga Singapura bisa melakukan transaksi pengiriman uang menggunakan nomor telepon. Sementara NETS adalah penyedia layanan pembayaran elektronik lokal di Singapura, mirip VISA atau Mastercard. GovWallet juga bisa digunakan di mesin ATM, sehingga warga yang tidak memiliki rekening bank bisa mengambil uang tunai.
GovWallet dikembangkan sebagai modul layanan backend, sehingga layanan ini bisa ditautkan ke aplikasi instansi lain, seperti LifeSG dan Singpass. Sehingga, tiap instansi pemerintah tak perlu lagi membuat sistem pembayaran mereka sendiri untuk mendistribusikan pembayaran.
Cara GovWallet dikembangkan
Inisiatif untuk mengembangkan layanan dompet digital GovWallet muncul ketika mengembangkan SupplyAlly. Seperti namanya, SupplyAlly merupakan sistem yang mengelola distribusi barang fisik, seperti paket makanan, Token TT (token fisik untuk layanan pelacakan COVID-19 Trace Together), dan masker pakai ulang (reusable). Sistem ini dikembangkan saat pandemi COVID-19 dan bisa digunakan untuk kebutuhan serupa setelah pandemi berakhir.
“Saat bekerja dengan lembaga pemerintah, kami mengetahui bahwa mereka tidak hanya tertarik dalam mengelola distribusi barang fisik tetapi juga menyalurkan pembayaran pemerintah kepada warga yang membutuhkan,” jelas tim GovWallet dalam wawancara dengan OpenGov Asia.
Selain itu, GovWallet juga menjadi jawaban GovTech untuk mengurangi emisi karbon dan biaya mahal imbas penerbitan cek dan voucher fisik untuk menyalurkan bantuan pemerintah. Untuk menyediakan layanan dompet digital, tim GovWallet bermitra dengan gateway pembayaran PayNow dan NETS.
Kolaborasi ini memudahkan warga penerima bantuan, sebab mereka bisa membelanjakan dana bantuan di GovWallet yang bisa ditransaksikan ke sekitar 200.000 toko yang sudah terintegrasi di jaringan PayNow dan NETS. Sebelumnya, voucher digital hanya bisa ditukar di sejumlah toko saja. Kini, dengan fitur SGQR di GovWallet penerima dana bisa melakukan transaksi di lebih banyak toko, tanpa harus memiliki rekening bank.
Selain itu, cara ini juga membantu meringankan penyaluran dan pengawasan dana dari pemerintah. Contohnya adalah kolaborasi dengan Kementerian Pertahanan dan Kementerian Dalam Negeri untuk menyalurkan kredit digital sebesar S$100 (Rp1,13 juta) kepada lebih dari 1,1 juta prajurit nasional.
Sistem ini pun berhasil menghemat waktu penyaluran bantuan dari rata-rata 1.600 jam kerja, kini bisa diselesaikan dalam sekejap. Sebagai contoh pada proses pembayaran jutaan prajurit nasional yang disebutkan sebelumnya, kini bisa diselesaikan hampir bersamaan, dengan minim gangguan dan jeda.
Penghematan lain yang dirasakan pemerintah adalah penghematan tenaga kerja yang diperlukan untuk memelihara sistem yang digunakan untuk membangun GovWallet. Tim pengembang memanfaatkan layanan cloud dari salah satu penyedia asal Amerika Serikat yang di-hosting di platform Government on Commercial Cloud (GCC).
Dengan membuat sistem berdasarkan arsitektur tanpa server (serverless framework), membuat sistem GovWallet bisa berperforma tinggi lantaran bisa bekerja fleksibel dan responsif terhadap lonjakan lalu lintas, namun lebih hemat biaya.
Sebagai layanan pembayaran digital yang rentan dengan kejahatan siber, tim GovWallet menyebut kode dan infrastruktur yang mereka rancang sudah menggunakan praktik terbaik di pasar saat ini. Di masa prapeluncuran, mereka melibatkan tim terpisah untuk melakukan penilaian kerentanan dan pengujian penetrasi. Hal ini berguna untuk membantu mereka melakukan penilaian risiko. Pemantauan keamanan terus dilakukan bahkan setelah layanan diluncurkan dan dipakai luas.
“Kami melakukan tinjauan keamanan secara berkala pada produk untuk memastikan produk kami yang sudah ada diperbarui dengan kerentanan dan praktik keamanan terbaru. Saat ini, kami belum mengadaptasi AI atau pembelajaran mesin dalam upaya pencegahan penipuan, namun kami terbuka untuk menjajaki hal itu di masa mendatang jika diperlukan,” jelas tim lagi.
Dalam waktu dekat, tim GovWallet tengah membangun dasbor, sehingga instansi pemerintah yang memanfaatkan GovWallet bisa mengatur sendiri bagaimana skema pencairan dana yang ingin mereka lakukan. Dengan dasbor ini, mereka pun tidak perlu melakukan integrasi sistem ke backend GovWallet. Ketika ditanya soal ekspansi ke blockchain dan mata uang crypto, GovWallet menyebut mereka terbuka untuk mendukung kedua hal itu dan siap bermitra dengan bank jika memang diperlukan.
Membangun efektivitas dan kreativitas tim
Tim GovWallet menyatakan komunikasi adalah hal terpenting untuk menjamin keberhasilan proyek dalam skala apapun. Berdasarkan pengalaman mereka, sinkronisasi informasi dengan sesama anggota tim lain membuat mereka bisa lebih gesit dan memastikan aplikasi menjawab kebutuhan pengguna dan memberi manfaat bagi lebih banyak warga.
Meski GovWallet telah mendapatkan apresiasi warga dan instansi pemerintah lain, namun tim GovWallet tetap memastikan komunikasi yang erat dengan semua pihak agar bisa tetap responsif mengatasi kemungkinan masalah dan mengikuti perkembangan yang terjadi.
Untuk menjaga agar aplikasi dompet digital ini tetap memenuhi kebutuhan pengguna, tim GovWallet, kerap melakukan riset pengguna secara reguler. Tim didorong untuk berbagi insight mengenai tren terbaru dan peningkatan yang bisa mereka lakukan untuk mengembangkan produk. Masukan dari riset ini akan mereka gunakan untuk merencanakan proyek fase berikutnya. Tiap masukan ditanggapi dengan serius dan akan menjadi bagian dari pekerjaan tim jika relevan.
Mereka mengembangkan budaya yang transparan dan terbuka dalam tim, di mana setiap orang menjadi rekan satu sama lain. Sementara pemimpin senior dari setiap organisasi menjadi pendukung inisiatif yang akan dijalankan dan mendorong tim untuk menyatukan upaya mencapai tujuan tersebut. Hal ini dilakukan untuk mengurangi dan menghilangkan kemungkinan terjadinya boikot atas program pemerintah.
Untuk menjaga keselarasan, GovTech juga bekerja sama dengan Smart Nation Digital Government Office (SNDGO) untuk pengambilan keputusan teknologi-kebijakan dalam hal perencanaan peta jalan dan dan pengembangan produk serta solusi yang berpusat pada pengguna.
Komunikasi dan kolaborasi terbuka dengan berbagai pihak juga dilakukan untuk memvalidasi pendekatan yang digunakan dan produk yang dikembangkan. Validasi dilakukan pada aspek kebijakan hingga implementasi teknis. Untuk menjaga keterbukaan, mereka mengimplementasikan jalur komunikasi langsung dengan peran fungsional apa pun dalam tim.
“Misalnya, pengembang kami dapat berkomunikasi dengan pemilik produk secara langsung tanpa harus melalui perantara apa pun. Ini membantu mengurangi kemungkinan kesalahpahaman dan mempercepat putaran umpan balik.”
Untuk meningkatkan layanan, mereka memiliki pos pemeriksaan khusus yang melakukan inspeksi secara reguler dengan metode scrum dan sprint retrospective. Dengan metode ini, tim didorong untuk melakukan refleksi dan inspeksi dengan mendiskusikan fitur yang mereka sukai dan mengkritisi fitur yang harus ditingkatkan.
Untuk mendukung komunikasi yang lebih efektif dengan tim di departemen lain, mereka juga membagikan metode scrum dengan mereka. Dengan demikian, semua tim yang terlibat memiliki kesadaran mengenai urgensi sebuah tugas dan tujuan yang akan dicapai.
“Scrum membantu kami dengan membagi penyelesaian tugas menjadi bagian yang lebih kecil dan menjadikannya sprint per dua minggu. Kami memiliki jarak yang lebih pendek untuk mendapat umpan balik dan tim bisa segera beradaptasi dengan perubahan, terutama ketika terjadi bentrok dengan tim lain.”
Sebagai penutup, tim menyebut GovTech pun mendorong setiap karyawan untuk gesit, berani, dan kolaboratif. Tiap staf didorong untuk memunculkan ide-ide baru untuk menyelesaikan suatu masalah dan mengembangkan komunikasi terbuka. Kedua hal inilah yang mendorong kreativitas karyawan.
Komunikasi terbuka dengan manajemen senior membantu menurunkan hambatan kreativitas para staf, sebab mereka merasa diberdayakan untuk berinovasi dan berkreasi. Mereka menggelar forum triwulanan untuk memaparkan ide-ide inovatif kepada tim kepemimpinan senior. Mereka juga bisa memanfaatkan sumber pendanaan dari GovTech yang bisa dimanfaatkan untuk menguji gagasan mereka.
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Singapore is pushing the boundaries of digitalisation for global trade, as the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) collaborated with industry players to successfully execute a live shipment from Singapore to Thailand during the first quarter of 2023.
Using Singapore’s TradeTrust framework, this fully paperless, live cross-border trade involved the use of Electronic Transferable Records (ETR), which are functionally equivalent to paper Bills of Lading (BL).
TradeTrust, developed by IMDA, was created to address the challenges of paper-based cross-border trades by leveraging international standards and frameworks and leveraging blockchain-powered technology to enable the digitalisation of transferable documents into ETR.
The IMDA TradeTrust framework harmonises the legal recognition of digital documentation among jurisdictions that have adopted the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
Loh Sin Yong, Director of TradeTrust at IMDA, stated that Singapore has endeavoured to reshape, reimagine, and redefine global trade since 2019. The international trade ecosystem profoundly relies on physical paper records and signatures for validation.
The live transaction for the shipment of liquid chemicals from Singapore to Thailand utilises the TradeTrust framework to generate an electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) that complies with UNCITRAL’s MLETR statutory law framework, he added.
Besides, they are thrilled to have demonstrated that the industry could potentially use eBL even in the absence of a contractual legal framework, as they believe this will encourage the widespread adoption of eBL in international trade.
A shipper, a TradeTrust-enabled digital platform provider, and a vessel owner supported by their Protection & Indemnity (P&I) Club participated in the world’s first ETR cross-border trade.
The TradeTrust-enabled digital platform provider has developed a digital solution to support the key logistics documentation processes for cross-border liquid chemical trade involving multiple parties, such as a surveyor and customs broker.
The use of TradeTrust has vested the digitalisation of the transfer of ownership title, issuance and surrender of the ETR as an eBL across multiple systems and stakeholders, in compliance with the UNCITRAL MLETR.
The shipment was made using the following methods:
- The liquid chemicals were dispatched from Singapore to Thailand by the shipper.
- Using a TradeTrust-enabled digital platform, the vessel issued an eBL.
- The use of Marine Vessel Pass has resulted in the creation of Digital Passports for Ships on the eBL, ensuring that the digital identity used in signing was onboarded and verified.
- The eBL was then surrendered on the TradeTrust Reference Implementation, demonstrating interoperability across multiple systems without the need for the development of inter-system connectivity protocols such as APIs. It also enabled digital and paper-based processes to communicate with one another.
- Their Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Club supported the vessel on the basis that the P&I liabilities arising from the use of a TradeTrust-issued eBL are equivalent to the liabilities that could have arisen from the use of a paper-based Bill of Lading.
- The eBL was legally supported solely by statutory law, with no contract law or rulebook used. This shipment demonstrated the utility of an eBL issued under the TradeTrust framework in a non-MLETR jurisdiction such as Thailand.
By streamlining and automating existing processes, the implementation of eBLs has increased productivity. The advantages include shorter wait times and lower costs. This pilot builds on industry collaboration to encourage the use of ETRs and facilitate cross-border trade.
ETRs can be issued, transferred, and surrendered in a trusted manner across different digital platforms using the TradeTrust framework, which is required in the context of cross-border trade.
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Data collecting regulation, information policy, and strategic planning are all areas where Thailand is eager to improve to drive the digital society and economy. Following the legislation, a framework for government assistance in compliance with personal data protection is being developed and deployed.
As an updated version of national strategies and goals on digital growth for economy and society, 2018–2037 phase 2, the act was addressed in a scheduled meeting with a designated committee that are responsible for monitoring the previous resolution’s implementation status. To help digital enterprises in Thailand, they followed rule No. 1/2022 and set up a digital service account.
Secretary General of the National Committee on the Digital Economy and Society, Puchphong Nodthaisong, attended the forum for the Promotion and Development of the Digital Economy and Society. More than fifty individuals from various organisations attended the meeting, which was attended by Minister of Digital Economy and Society Chaiwut Thanakmanusorn and numerous other connected figures.
Strategies for propelling the E-Workforce Ecosystem Platform, the backbone of Thailand’s digital economy, were reviewed in length. Puchpong shared that integrating metrics to gauge a country’s digital economy’s worth and improving government agencies’ ability to adapt to the national plan using an organisational project management approach was key.
The processing platform for the system and architectural design is now in development. The committee has offered advice on setting up and using the forum and other connected matters.
Qualification checks for registering digital service accounts were also considered, in addition to writing a ministerial rule prescribing supply and procurement methods that the state must encourage or support. The committee reported that it has revised a draught of rules and guidelines intended to advance the inclusion of people of all ages, including those with disabilities and the elderly, in the information age.
The annual Digital Economy Promotion Leadership Programme is organised by the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa) to further educate business executives on the cutting edge of digital technology.
The conference gave top-level executives the training they needed to analyse, synthesise, and apply knowledge to real-world challenges, empowering them to make meaningful contributions to the country’s economic development in the years to come. The ability of a government to invest in its top executives, both in the public and commercial sectors, is directly correlated to the country’s strength, as recognised by Depa. In addition, the rise of the digital economy will impact the administration of policies and plans.
Depa also geared up to educate the next generation of tech-savvy farmers. They looked at methods of boosting farmers’ and businesses’ digital technology use. Smart agriculture was presented to stimulate the digital economy during the summit. By embracing the digital economy, the province can fulfil its potential and meet its demands.
The commercial and service sectors, including the intelligent tourism industry, may all benefit from developing new agricultural goods and services made possible by digital innovation. The initiative’s latter phases saw commercial and service sectors merging with the technologically dependent “smart tourism” industry.
Several Thai farms have already started using smart agriculture. For example, to increase the nutritional value of their rubber and palm plants, farmers in Chiang Khan, Thailand, are using drones to disperse the biochemicals obtained from the pig.
Smart agriculture is an idea that has been gaining traction throughout the world in recent years. Connecting and enhancing the intelligence of farms promotes production and addresses difficulties specific to farms (such as fulfilling growing food demands). Precision farming, variable rate technologies, smart irrigation, and intelligent greenhouses are all examples of IoT-enabled intelligent agricultural systems.
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Launched in 2019, CrowdTaskSG aims to harness the collective intelligence of Singaporeans to provide government agencies with useful insights into national issues and addresses the prevalent notion that citizens’ voices are often overlooked. The platform serves as a bridge between citizens and agencies, offering a centralised platform for citizens to share their thoughts and ideas.
The initiative operates on the premise that Singaporeans can have an active and meaningful role in co-creation, collaboration and crowdsourcing, rather than being passive recipients of government schemes and services.
Citizens have a range of ways to participate, including surveys, polls and questionnaires focused on government policies and issues. In addition, they can take part in testing prototypes for new government websites, providing feedback on areas that require improvement and assisting with translation requests.
This diverse set of options aims to cater to various interests and expertise levels, making it easier for citizens to engage with the platform in a meaningful way. By doing so, CrowdTaskSG endeavours to foster greater interaction and participation from citizens, while also providing agencies with a more comprehensive understanding of public sentiment on various issues.
To broaden the scope of citizen participation, the CrowdTaskSG team is actively exploring additional tasks that can be performed through the platform. The team collaborates with other agencies to identify opportunities to optimise the platform for a wider range of crowdsourcing initiatives.
GovTech method to better engage citizens
The CrowdTaskSG team has been inspired by the widespread popularity of the mobile game Pokemon Go, which employs GPS technology to allow players to discover real-world locations, capture virtual creatures and engage with other players.
Gamification was the secret ingredient that propelled the success of Pokemon Go, as it transformed the simple act of walking into a social experience. The game tracks users’ daily steps and incentivises movement by rewarding them with new monsters.
What made Pokemon Go’s success truly remarkable was not only how quickly it became a worldwide phenomenon, but also how it motivated people to participate in physical activity – a pursuit that many individuals were previously averse to. The CrowdTaskSG team was intrigued by this philosophy and wondered whether a similar approach could be adopted to foster the development of a smart nation.
Undoubtedly, many Singaporeans possess a wealth of skills, ideas and feedback that could support Singapore’s transition towards becoming a smart nation. However, they may lack the motivation to engage in these activities.
CrowdTaskSG bridges the gap between citizens and agencies by integrating gamification elements to make the engagement process more enjoyable and rewarding. Through these efforts, they aim to create a more interactive and captivating platform that inspires citizens to take an active role in shaping national policies and improving their personal well-being.
By incorporating gaming elements, CrowdTaskSG takes completing surveys or tasks on the platform to a whole new level of fun – making mundane tasks far more enjoyable and rewarding. Users can earn experience points to level up and virtual coins for NETS QR purchases after completing a task.
The team has adopted simple gamification concepts to ensure that they appeal to individuals of all ages. To make the platform user-friendly and accessible to all, the team has designed a clean and straightforward user interface that minimises distractions and enhances accessibility.
As a product that is designed to prioritise citizen engagement, the CrowdTaskSG team places great importance on delivering a seamless user experience. In addition to collecting feedback and suggestions through the platform, the team frequently conducts user interviews with CrowdTaskSG users to gain insights into evolving user needs and identify areas for improvement.
The CrowdTaskSG team is committed to carefully considering the needs of government agencies as well as user feedback to continuously add new features and improvements to the platform. After the user interviews and testing sessions, the team works consistently on making the platform easier to use and making sure that information and instructions are clear and easy to understand.
The team recently introduced a Leaderboard feature in their referral campaign, which led to a 10% surge in user participation. They also revamped the reward system, making it more convenient for citizens to redeem their virtual coins.
CrowdTaskSG offers government agencies a cost-effective solution as they can currently utilise the portal free of charge. It is a user-friendly, self-service platform that not only enables government employees to submit tasks easily but also allows them to review responses with the built-in data visualiser.
The platform uses MyInfo verification to ensure that all participants are genuine, and its screener function simplifies the process of reaching specific groups of people for government agencies.
The platform has received positive feedback, with many users citing how it has facilitated fast and efficient communication with participants. This is particularly advantageous for User Experience (UX) and Design Thinking teams, who rely heavily on user testing and feedback throughout their design process.
The technology infrastructure that CrowdTaskSG uses has also been employed to develop the SG Translate Together (SGTT) web portal, which is a distinct product from CrowdTaskSG. This has enabled the Ministry of Communications and Information to collaborate with the public to gather translation data through crowdsourcing.
The data collected is utilised to enhance and train SG Translate, the Machine Translation Engine, resulting in more translations that cater to local needs. Additionally, SGTT provides translation resources and a form platform to engage with the local translation community.
The CrowdTaskSG team places a high priority on ensuring that the onboarding process for new users is easy and seamless when developing a product that is intended for widespread use. Therefore, deciding between a mobile application or a web-based application was a crucial consideration for the CrowdTaskSG team when they began the project.
There were several reasons why a mobile-responsive web platform was ultimately chosen for CrowdTaskSG:
- Because there are more steps to go through, downloading a mobile application to answer a survey is a huge barrier for new users. If it is a web-based platform, new users can log in by scanning a QR code, which is a quick touch-and-go.
- As a result of the pandemic, most Singaporeans are now accustomed to scanning QR codes to open websites in a browser, which became one of the onboarding workflows.
- Having a web-based platform enabled to reach users not only on mobile phones but also on desktop computers and even fixed kiosks in the form of touch-screen TVs and tablets when agencies conduct road shows and engage citizens.
To ensure that CrowdTaskSG could be accessed on various screen sizes, including desktops, mobile phones, tablets, and TVs, the team put a great deal of thought into the design of their components to maintain a consistent user experience across all platforms.
TypeScript is the main programming language used by the CrowdTaskSG team, and React is used for the front end, while NodeJS is used for the back end. Using a single language across the stack makes it easier for developers to switch between frontend and backend development with minimal contextual overhead.
A robust audit trail is crucial for a mass-market application as it helps developers quickly identify and resolve technical issues that users might encounter. Moreover, regular performance testing ensures that the application can handle high volumes of traffic and load spikes that may coincide with marketing efforts. By doing so, the team can avoid any performance issues that might lead to a poor user experience and ultimately impact the success of the application.
Constantly being wary of malicious activities is a common challenge with gamification in crowdsourcing platforms. Users could be inclined to cheat the system by submitting tasks multiple times or completing unassigned tasks to gain an advantage in their pursuit of rewards. While not a technical challenge, it is burdensome.
To prevent such behaviour, measures have been put in place to ensure that task submissions on CrowdTaskSG are unchanged or idempotent; submitting the same task multiple times does not benefit the user nor are they rewarded for completing tasks that are not assigned to them.
Nonetheless, security is of paramount importance for the CrowdTaskSG team as they are deploying a government product. Hence, every major release undergoes professional vulnerability assessments and penetration testing before distribution.
In addition to these pre-release tests, the team conducts monthly risk assessments using open-source scans and other risk surveillance tools. The team also has a surveillance bot that monitors traffic and potential attacks in real-time to ensure that any suspicious or unusual activities are promptly investigated.
About the team
For a diverse team to function effectively, a strong product vision and shared goals that inspire collective buy-in are crucial, beyond just support and resources. Creating a culture that embraces and celebrates diversity is essential in acknowledging that each individual brings unique perspectives and expertise to the table.
This recognition helps ensure that every team member can make meaningful contributions to the various domains. Support and resources can be generated from within the team if the right culture and communication are in place.
CrowdTaskSG’s work methodology is heavily influenced by GovTech’s Agile, Bold, and Collaborative values. The team convenes every two weeks for “retrospectives,” during which they discuss the previous sprint and exchange fresh concepts regarding the product and their work approach. To capture spontaneous ideas, they also maintain idea boards to jot down any potentially useful insights for future reference.
Regular and open communication is important and members talk to each other often (at least once a day). The team values a “no-blame” culture, which creates a safe space for members to express their thoughts and concerns.
Trust is a cornerstone of the team’s work culture, with everyone aware that they are working together for the best of the product. The team takes a collaborative approach to problem-solving, with all domain leads gathering to discuss various perspectives before arriving at decisions and working through problems quickly and efficiently.
The CrowdTaskSG team proactively helps each other to overcome any obstacles that may impede their progress. A conducive culture and effective communication facilitate this internal support system, enabling team members to assist one another in achieving their shared goals.
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Pemerintah Singapura meluncurkan CrowdTaskSG pada 2019. Sesuai namanya, CrowdTaskSG memang ditujukan agar pemerintah bisa lebih melibatkan partisipasi warga untuk menyelesaikan masalah nasional dan pembangunan di Singapura, sehingga kontribusi dan masukan dari warga bisa digunakan sebagai dasar penentuan keputusan dan tindak lanjut lembaga pemerintah.
Inisiatif ini meluncur dengan premis bahwa warga Singapura bisa memainkan peran aktif dalam pemerintahan. Mereka tidak hanya sebagai pemain pasif yang menerima skema dan layanan pemerintah. Namun, warga bisa berkreasi bersama, berkolaborasi, dan menjadi sumber informasi bagi pemerintah.
Inisiatif ini meluncur sebagai respons atas pendapat yang umum beredar kalau pemerintah Singapura kurang memerhatikan aspirasi warga. Oleh karena itu, CrowdTaskSG diciptakan untuk menjembatani kesenjangan antara warga dan lembaga pemerintahan. Lewat platform ini, pemerintah menyediakan satu platform terintegrasi untuk berbagi pendapat dan ide.
Hal ini diwujudkan dengan memberi kesempatan bagi warga untuk berkontribusi dalam survei, jajak pendapat, atau kuesioner tentang kebijakan dan masalah pemerintah lewat CrowdTaskSG. Selain itu, warga juga bisa melakukan tugas seperti menguji prototipe fitur atau produk baru di situs web pemerintah, memberi umpan balik tentang wilayah kerja yang perlu peningkatan, dan ikut terlibat untuk kebutuhan penerjemahan. Sebab, Singapura biasanya perlu menyosialisasikan kebijakan pemerintah dalam empat bahasa, Inggris, Melayu, Mandarin dan Tamil.
Tim CrowdTaskSG terus berupaya meningkatkan minat warga untuk berkontribusi aktif di platform ini. Mereka juga terus mengeksplorasi tugas-tugas bersama (crowd task) lain yang bisa diintegrasikan di platform ini. Untuk itu, tim CrowdTaskSG kerap menjalin komunikasi dan kolaborasi dengan instansi lain untuk mempelajari dan menggali ide bagaimana platform ini bisa lebih dioptimalkan untuk mendukung berbagai inisiatif crowdsourcing.
Gamification untuk menarik partisipasi warga
Sejak pertama meluncur, GovTech sudah menyertakan gamification pada platform ini. Mereka terinspirasi untuk memasukkan faktor permainan dalam platform ini lantaran terinspirasi oleh kepopuleran gim Pokemon GO.
Pokemon GO adalah gim berbasis lokasi dan augmented reality. Lewat gim ini, pemain diajak untuk menangkap dan mengumpulkan berbagai monster unik khas Pokemon. Memanfaatkan GPS di perangkat pengguna, mereka harus menjelajah ke tempat-tempat berbeda untuk menemukan berbagai monster langka itu. Monster Pokemon yang terkumpul bisa dilatih dan dipertarungkan. Gim ini sekaligus menghitung jumlah langkah yang dilakukan dalam sehari untuk menangkap monster-monster itu.
Kesuksesan Pokemon GO berhasil mengangkat gim ini menjadi fenomena dunia. Menariknya, gamification permainan itu berhasil menarik orang untuk keluar rumah dan lebih aktif melakukan kegiatan fisik. Hal yang kian jarang dilakukan di kehidupan modern sebelum popularitas gim ini meledak.
Resep rahasianya tentu terletak pada gamification yang berhasil dieksekusi dengan baik oleh pembuat permainan ini. Pokemon Go sukses mengubah kegiatan berjalan keluar rumah yang menjemukan menjadi kegiatan sosialisasi yang menyenangkan.
“Hal inilah yang membuat kami berpikir apakah kita bisa memanfaatkan cara yang sama untuk membantu membangun misi Smart Nation di Singapura,” jelas tim pengembang CrowdTaskSG dalam wawancara dengan OpenGovAsia.
Lewat CrowdTaskSG, tim ingin memberi ruang bagi talenta-talenta terbaik Singapura untuk memberikan kontribusi mewujudkan Smart Nation. Sebab, mereka percaya banyak warga Singapura yang memiliki potensi, ide, dan masukan berharga untuk membantu membangun negara. Namun, talenta itu tersiakan karena kurang difasilitasi oleh platform yang tepat dan kurangnya motivasi untuk ambil bagian.
Tim CrowdTaskSG berharap dengan berbagai gamification yang dihadirkan bisa menjembatani kebutuhan pemerintah dan keinginan warga untuk berkontribusi. Mereka pun ingin membuat proses kontribusi itu menjadi sesuatu yang menyenangkan.
Tim mengintegrasikan gamification ke dalam berbagai tugas yang ada di CrowdTaskSG. Misal, ketika warga membantu menyelesaikan survei atau tugas tertentu, mereka akan mendapat poin untuk naik level. Adopsi leaderboard ini diklaim berhasil meningkatkan pertumbuhan pengguna hingga 10 persen.
Mereka juga bisa mendapat koin virtual yang bisa digunakan berbelanja lewat NETS QR (jejaring pembayaran elektronik menggunakan kode QR di Singapura). Sejauh ini, tim sudah mengadopsi konsep gamification sederhana yang cocok untuk semua umur.
Sebagai layanan self-service, tiap instansi pemerintah di Singapura bisa membuat tugas atau survey yang mereka perlukan di CrowdTaskSG. Tim berpendapat mereka mendapat repons positif dari instansi pemerintahan yang memakai platform ini. Sebab, mereka mendapat cara yang efisien dan cepat untuk mendapat umpan balik warga.
“CrowdTaskSG sangat berguna untuk tim pengalaman pengguna (User Experience/ UX) dan tim Design Thinking yang ingin mengetes pengguna dan mendapat tanggapan mendalam dalam proses desain mereka,” jelas tim lagi.
Selain itu, CrowdtaskSG Tech Stack juga dimanfaatkan untuk membuat dan menyempurnakan situs SG Translate Together (SGTT). Lewat portal ini, Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informatika Singapura bisa berkolaborasi dengan warga untuk melakukan translasi data. Data ini lantas digunakan untuk melatih dan memperbaiki kemampuan SG Translate, the Machine Translation Engine, agar hasil terjemahan terasa lebih lokal. SGTT menyediakan sumber daya translasi dan forum sebagai tempat bersosialisasi komunitas para penerjemah.
Untuk membuat platform ini menarik dan berguna bagi pengguna, CrowdTaskSG aktif mencari umpan balik dan saran pengguna.
“Kami kerap melakukan wawancara pengguna untuk memahami kebutuhan mereka dan bagaimana meningkatkan kenyamanan mereka. Kami juga menjaga agar antarmuka layanan kami tetap bersih dan sederhana untuk mengurangi distraksi dan kemudahan pemahaman pengguna.”
Untuk menjaga keamanan, platform ini menggunakan verifikasi pengguna. Sementara bagi instansi pemerintahan yang ingin menggunakan platform ini, mereka bisa memanfaatkan fitur pemindaian untuk mendapat responden yang tepat.
Ketika berbicara pengembangan CrowdTaskSG ke depan, tim berkomitmen untuk senantiasa menerima umpan balik pengguna, baik warga atau instansi pemerintah, untuk terus memperbaiki layanan mereka dengan fitur baru.
Teknis pengembangan CrowdTaskSG
Tim CrowdTaskSG membagikan sejumlah tips ketika membuat layanan yang akan diakses secara massal. Menurut mereka, hal utama yang harus dipertimbangkan adalah kemudahan akses pengguna. Dengan pertimbangan itu, mereka membangun CrowdTaskSG sebagai situs web yang mobile-responsive agar bisa digunakan oleh pengguna yang menggunakan berbagai perangkat, baik ponsel maupun desktop.
“Jika dibuat sebagai aplikasi mobile, akan menambah kesulitan pengguna yang ingin berpartisipasi. Mereka mesti mengunduh aplikasi itu terlebih dahulu. Hal ini bisa menjadi penghalang besar bagi warga untuk berpartisipasi. Dengan membuat , pengguna baru cukup memindai kode QR, login, dan bisa langsung berpartisipasi.”
Untuk bahasa pemrograman, mereka menggunakan TypeScript, dengan frontend berjalan menggunakan React dan backend menggunakan NodeJS. “Memiliki bahasa yang sama di seluruh stack membantu pengembang kami beralih dengan cepat ketika mengembangkan frontend dan backend dengan sedikit contextual overhead.”
Untuk mempercepat respons ketika pengguna manghadapi kendala teknis, tim CrowdTaskSG menyarankan perlu dilakukan audit yang kuat agar bisa segera dilakukan identifikasi masalah. Mereka juga melakukan pengujian secara rutin untuk memastikan aplikasi mampu menampung ketika terjadi lonjakan lalu lintas.
Meski gamification dipercaya bisa meningkatkan interaksi warga, namun kendalanya adalah bagaimana cara mengatasi kecurangan. Sebab, ada saja warga yang ingin mencurangi sistem dengan mengirimkan tugas berkali-kali atau menyelesaikan tugas yang tidak ditujukan kepada mereka demi mengejar hadiah.
Untuk mengatasi hal ini, tim memastikan tugas yang dibagikan di CrowdTaskSG bersifat idempotent. Artinya, warga hanya bisa mengirim tugas sekali. Jika lebih dari itu, maka tidak akan berpengaruh pada peringkat atau nilai pengguna. Selain itu, mereka juga melakukan pemeriksaan validasi secara ekstensif untuk memastikan pengguna tidak diberi imbalan untuk melakukan tugas yang tidak ditugaskan kepada mereka.
Terkait dengan masalah keamanan, tim memastikan melakukan serangkaian ujian penetrasi dan menilai potensi kerentanan pada setiap perilisan besar. Selain uji pra-rilis, setiap bulan mereka juga menilai risiko keamanan melalui pemindaian open source dan alat pengawasan risiko lain. Tim juga memiliki bot untuk melacak lalu lintas dan potensi serangan secara real-time untuk memastikan penyelidikan tepat waktu terhadap aktivitas yang mencurigakan atau tidak biasa.
Membangun tim kreatif
Tim CrowdTaskSG dilatih untuk tak takut berinovasi. “Tim kami berpedoman pada nilai-nilai organisasi kami untuk menjadi Gesit, Berani, dan Kolaboratif. Kami melakukan dengan cepat, menguji dengan cepat, dan gagal dengan cepat.”
Mereka juga melakukan retrospektif per dua minggu sebagai momen untuk mengevaluasi hasil Sprint sebelumnya dan berbagi ide baru. Ide-ide ini tidak terbatas pada produk yang tengah dikembangkan tapi juga cara bekerja. Mereka juga memiliki papan ide yang akan menampung ide semua anggota tim yang mungkin bisa berguna di masa depan.
Selain itu, mereka menjalin komunikasi yang terbuka dengan tim dan berusaha mengadopsi budaya tanpa menyalahkan. Dengan demikian, mereka bisa memupuk ruang aman bagi anggota tim untuk berbagi pemikiran dan keprihatinan secara terbuka. Mereka juga menanamkan pola pikir untuk mengutamakan kepentingan pengembangan produk dalam cara kerja mereka.
Bekerja dengan tim yang berbeda latar belakang, tim CrowdTaskSG mengutamakan kebersamaan dan mengumpulkan perspektif dari berbagai sisi lewat diskusi yang cepat dan efektif. Selain itu, memiliki visi dan tujuan produk yang kuat juga mempersatukan tim yang berbeda latar belakang ini.
Mereka juga mengutamakan budaya yang saling merangkul dan merayakan keberagaman, karena anggota tim sadar mereka semua memang menyumbang perspektif dan keahlian yang berbeda ke dalam tim. Budaya gotong royong untuk menyelesaikan masalah satu sama lain juga dilakukan agar proyek yang tengah dikerjakan bisa bergerak maju.
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Passwords alone are no longer sufficient to protect users’ online accounts as cyberattacks become more frequent and advanced, hence, multi-factor authentication (MFA) is necessary to reduce the risk of unauthorised access to online accounts.
There are different types of MFA that use what the user has and who the user is. SMS-based Authentication, Biometrics Authentication, and Application-based Authentication are the most common types.
When a user turns on SMS-based authentication, they register a mobile number that is linked to their account. Most SMS-based OTPs are only good for a certain amount of time, usually 3 minutes, after which they can’t be used again.
When a user intends to log in to their account, the system produces an OTP and sends it to the registered phone number via SMS. The system then checks the OTP, and if they match, it lets the person into their account.
When a user turns on biometric authentication, they will have to enrol their biometric data into the system by capturing and storing their unique physical or behavioural traits in a digital format. This information can come from things like fingerprint scans, facial recognition, iris recognition, voice recognition, and more.
Besides, when a user attempts to log in to their account, their biometric data is used to verify the user’s identity by comparing the data to a list of existing users whose biometric data has been registered in the system. The user is granted access if the biometric data matches.
Similarly, when a user enables 2FA with an authenticator app on their account, they will typically be asked to scan a QR code or enter a secret key provided by the service into their authenticator app.
Once the secret key is entered, the authenticator app generates a unique OTP using an algorithm such as Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) or HMAC-based One-Time Password (HOTP) that is valid for a specific time window, typically 30 seconds, before changing. To generate the OTP, the algorithm considers the secret key known only to the user and the app, as well as the current time.
After their regular password has been validated, the user will be prompted to enter the OTP generated by their authenticator app when attempting to log in to their account. The service will then compare the user’s input to that generated by the authenticator app. If the OTPs match, the user is granted account access.
Likewise, SMS-based 2FA works by texting an OTP to a user’s mobile phone. To complete the authentication process, the user must enter this OTP into the online service. While SMS-based 2FA provides an additional authentication method, it is not as secure as authenticator apps or biometrics because SMS can be compromised:
- SIM Swapping: Threat actors can use this technique to acquire phone numbers via data leaks, public records, or social engineering, then bribe or trick a service provider employee into porting the number to a duplicate SIM card under their control. This gives them the ability to intercept users’ SMS verification OTPs and gain unauthorised access to associated online accounts.
- SMS Phishing: Using SMS Phishing (Smishing), threat actors can intercept users’ SMS messages and steal verification OTP to gain access to their various online accounts.
Thus, authenticator apps and biometrics offer a higher level of security compared to other authentication methods like SMS-based 2FA. Users are advised to practice good cyber hygiene by using a strong password and selecting the most secure 2FA method to protect their online accounts.