Who will emerge as Singapore’s next infocomm champions? The answers will be revealed at the National Infocomm Awards (NIA) 2012 Gala Dinner, which takes place on 23 October at the Raffles City Convention Centre.
Organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), the biennial NIA is Singapore’s top accolade for infocomm innovation and excellence. At the gala dinner, the Guest of Honour Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, will present the awards to winners of NIA 2012.
There are two main categories of awards – the Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology and the Most Innovative Infocomm Product/Service.
(A) MOST INNOVATIVE USE OF INFOCOMM TECHNOLOGY
This category recognises the innovative use of infocomm technology by organisations in three sub-categories: Public, Private – General, and Private – Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The finalists for the three sub-categories are:
- Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology (Public)
- Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) – Mobile Automated Verification and Identification System
The Mobile Automated Verification and Identification System (MAVIS) is a mobile, handheld biometrics screening device that allows ICA officers in the field to perform biometrics screening on a subject to ascertain his/her identity and immigration status in Singapore. “With MAVIS, our field operations are now more efficient. We no longer need to transport individuals back to the ICA Building for verification of their identity or immigration status, since this can now be accurately performed in the field,” said ICA. - KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital – Surgical Counting and Operating Theatre Tracking System
KK Hospital piloted a RFID gauze and instrument counting system that tracks and locates the movement of gauzes and instruments as they move from one area to another within the operating theatre. The data captured by the system is displayed in real time. This significantly enhances patient safety by eliminating the risk of retained surgical instruments, gauzes or any other sterile consumables in a patient’s body after surgery. - Singapore Prison Service – Inmate Self-Service Kiosk
In line with the Singapore Prison Service’s rehabilitation framework, the Inmate Self Service Kiosk (iKiosk) allows inmates to carry out routine or administrative activities on their own. The initiative is aimed at inculcating a sense of personal responsibility and ownership over their rehabilitation by allowing them to make decisions on their own. Examples of self-help functions include printing of personalised letter forms, checking of eligibility for rehabilitation programmes and the status of requests. The iKiosk also increases the effectiveness of Prison officers by enabling them to focus on core functions such as inmate rehabilitation and ensuring Prison safety.
- Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) – Mobile Automated Verification and Identification System
- Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology (Private – General)
- Changi Airport Group (CAG) – Customer, Tenant and Partner Relationship Management Solution
The Customer, Tenant and Partner Relationship Management (CTPRM) Solution consolidates and integrates all customer touch points into one centralised Customer Relationship Management platform. These touch points include: web, email, phone, e-feedback kiosks and a unique system called SWIFT (Service Workforce and Instant Feedback Transformation) that handles instant feedback and e-Inspection or service recovery. The centralised platform allows CAG, partners, agencies and tenants to share information and collaborate to deliver world-class customer service to passengers and the general public. - Citi Innovation Lab – Interactive Solutions
Citi’s Interactive Solutions transforms the way the bank engages with its institutional clients. It addresses client queries, provides visualisation of global client portfolios, allows benchmarking of the client’s treasury management health and instantaneously showcases best-in-class solutions based on the client’s preferences. The platform was first deployed at Citi’s inaugural Client Experience Center in Singapore. It has since been exported worldwide and is now readily available on the laptops of all Citi Transaction Services sales and relationship consultants. - ComfortDelgro – Integrated Taxi Management System
ComfortDelGro’s Integrated Taxi Management System (ITMS) is the world’s largest state-of-the-art taxi booking system, managing a fleet of 16,000 taxis in Singapore. With ITMS, passengers can bypass Customer Contact Centre agents to book a cab through innovative data channels such as smartphone taxi booking applications, NFC-enabled FastCall panels as well as SMS taxi booking. “Our taxi booking services have become more efficient, which translates to more booking jobs for cabbies and therefore, higher income,” said ComfortDelgro.
- Changi Airport Group (CAG) – Customer, Tenant and Partner Relationship Management Solution
- Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology (Private – SMEs)
- aSpecial Media – Proprietary Behaviourally-Targeting Engine
aSpecial Media leverages a proprietary behavioural targeting engine to offer advertisers and marketers a powerful and precise way to detect the online presence of a consumer and determine his current interests. The consumer’s interests are tracked and scored as they change, and the behaviour of the individual consumers are grouped into clusters of “interests” which the publishers and advertisers can then tap to dramatically improve the relevance of their editorial content or commercial messaging. - QSA Marine and Logistics – 3i Vessel Tracking System
QSA Marine and Logistics provides a one-stop centre for shipping services. The 3i Vessel Tracking System (VTS), a web-based application, enables the company to better track and monitor its vessels and to measure fuel consumption and engine usage more effectively and accurately. The information is automatically recorded and transmitted to a main server, and can be easily accessed via the Internet. This has enabled the company to improve its productivity and efficiency while reducing its operating costs. - Hock Seng Food – E-Auditor
Hock Seng Food, a subsidiary of Hosen Group, uses the E-Auditor, a retail audit system, to track the movement of its products at the retail store level, and to obtain real-time information on the stock position at each individual supermarket island-wide. It also allows sales personnel to manage their coverage of Hock Seng’s retail customers and prevent an out-of-stock situation.
- aSpecial Media – Proprietary Behaviourally-Targeting Engine
(B) MOST INNOVATIVE INFOCOMM PRODUCT/SERVICE
The Most Innovative Infocomm Product/Service award category gives recognition to companies in Singapore which have pushed the boundaries of technology to develop innovative infocomm products or services that benefit their customers. The finalists for this category are:
- eBUS – eBUSdelivery
eBUS is a cloud-based platform for delivering TV commercials and video content electronically to TV broadcasters, cinema operators as well as IPTV, web and mobile media companies across the Asia Pacific. This eliminates the need to produce traditional plastic polycarbonate video tapes and deliver them using traditional methods. Instead, TV commercials can now be delivered to hundreds of locations within minutes instead of days. - iTwin – iTwin
iTwin provides a simple, secure and private environment for users to access the public Internet. It comprises two identical halves which are first paired on a user’s computer, creating a crypto key which is specific to the device. When the halves are plugged into the USB ports of any two online computers, anywhere in the world, iTwin works like the two ends of a cable, without the cable, providing highly-secure remote access. - Knorex – Knorex ARise
Knorex ARise is an end-to-end Augmented Reality platform for transforming advertisements or editorial contents found in printed materials such as newspapers and posters into interactive experience. When viewers hover their smart mobile devices over an advertisement, image or article, they are presented with overlay of elements such as a photo gallery, multimedia, social media, forms, location maps, 3D models, banners and more. These engagements can be translated into measurable outcomes and leads for the publishers and advertisers. - Puffersoft Labs – Enterprise Service Provisioning
Puffersoft Labs’ Enterprise Service Provisioning (ESP) provides a unique “Reverse Cloud” architecture which delivers end-user computing environments to thousands of computers on demand, with all the processing done at the client device, thus avoiding network or server latencies and bottle necks. It does this by decoupling the operating system and applications, removing software conflicts and allowing incompatible or legacy applications to coexist and run on newer operating systems without physical installation or modification. - TrustSphere – TrustVault Messaging Intelligence Platform
TrustVault is a messaging intelligence platform that analyses traffic patterns – particularly those between an organisation’s staff and its customers, partners and suppliers – and dynamically builds and maintains the “context” of an organisation’s relationships. This helps provide better visibility into activities occurring across the business, in particular via digital communication channels. By understanding the organisation’s “trusted” network, security systems can also be made much more effective without resulting in false positives.
