Singapore eyes investing $1.1bln in public sector infocomm tenders

Infocomm companies can look forward to about 350 new offers like eCitizen Portal, among others.

The Singapore Government on Tuesday announced that it plans to invest S$1.1 billion worth of new infocomm tenders in Financial Year (FY) 2010. This is consistent with past years' procurement trends, excluding one-off major developmental projects such as the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network and SOE projects, with the actual procurement in FY2009 being S$1.12 billion, according to an IDA report.

This announcement was made on Tuesday by RADM (NS) Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), at the Industry Briefing 2010 on Business Opportunities for Infocomm in the Public Sector. Organised by IDA, the annual Briefing provides information to the infocomm industry about infocomm projects that are in the pipeline for Government agencies in the new FY.

Some of the other projects awarded in FY2009 include the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network Operating Company, the expansion of the Expressway Monitoring & Advisory System or EMAS to manage major arterial roads, a revamped gov.sg portal to provide citizens with a single point of access to the latest key government news, events, online feedback for the government and a consolidated directory of government offices, key personnel and services, and i-Singapore which encourages innovative geospatial services by mash-up of public, private and people sector contents to create knowledge and value.

Noting that the Government's continued investment and emphasis on infocomm will contribute to sustaining and enhancing the economy's innovation potential and long-term competitiveness, RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay encouraged infocomm companies to leverage programmes like the Government Technology Experiments & Trials Programme or TREATS to test-bed cutting edge solutions to meet business needs expressed by government agencies.

He also encouraged the industry to contribute their ideas for the next e-Government Masterplan, which will leverage on innovative technologies and collaboration between the public, private and people sectors for the development and delivery of public services through infocomm.

In FY 2010, infocomm companies can look forward to about 350 new infocomm tenders with a total projected worth of S$1.1 billion to be called. Some of these projects to be called by IDA include the re-development of the eCitizen Portal to include new features such as the OneInbox, as well as the enhancement of business intelligence capabilities to analyse information through the use of business analytics tools.

Other key projects by other government agencies include the DSTA Enterprise System by Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA), the Central Picture Archiving Communications System by Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and Biometrics Screening Capability system by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

CPF presented a few key projects which include the development and implementation of a new CPF Member System, Intranet and Office Workflow System, and the upgrading of the SAP system. The new CPF Member System aims to achieve increased operational efficiency, increased business agility and enhanced public service delivery to more than 3 million customers. The Intranet and Office Workflow System aims to develop a new staff intranet portal to enable information sharing and collaboration, while the upgrading of the SAP system will allow the Board to deliver new self services to employees and develop new business capabilities.

DSTA presented several IT projects aimed at enhancing the capabilities of the agency. These include the DSTA Enterprise System that increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the agency's core business processes, and the eWorkplace platform that enhances knowledge management within the organisation.

MINDEF presented a few key projects aimed at enhancing its operational efficiency through the development of corporate IT systems. These projects include the Central Picture Archiving Communications System, which is a computerised military healthcare system that streamlines the storage of X-Ray records of Singapore Armed Forces personnel, as well as the Enterprise Document Workflow Management System, which facilitates electronic approval processes in MINDEF.

The Ministry of Home Affairs will be implementing the Biometrics Screening Capability system at all immigration counters in the coming year. This is a turnkey system which will enable the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to enhance security as well as to process the clearance of travellers more effectively at the checkpoints.

Separately, another key system that will be put in place is the Public Camera Zone Phase 2 for the Singapore Police Force (SPF). This is an enhancement of the current Police CCTV camera network to protect public areas of strategic, economic and security importance.

The National Library Board utilises a wide range of technologies to continually improve its library services to its patrons. To further strengthen its service levels, NLB will be looking into engaging IT Facility Management services for its service desk, technical support and data centre operations. Another key project in consideration is developing an Electronic Selection and Acquisition System to streamline and improve the selection and acquisition process of library materials.