Singapore puts its money where the mouths are

Sunday, 5 February 2012

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By James Smith | 12 May 2009 | Permanent link | 0 comments

So, S$1.73 billion (US$1.2 billion) it is then. Today’s annual government ICT procurement briefing in Singapore didn’t reveal many surprises (see Kelly’s report in the news section), which is itself a bit of a surprise given the activism of the government with its US$14 billion ‘resilience package’. However, the market is not looking to be surprised – and ill-considered quick fixes are not what is required to strengthen and modernise Singapore’s administration over the longterm.

Listening to James Kang, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore’s Assistant Chief Executive responsible for the Government CIO Office, place emphasis on continuing the government’s measured and substantial investment in public sector IT infrastructure was precisely what was called for.

If there was a nod to the slumping fortunes of the Singapore economy it was the emphasis on supporting homegrown IT companies – 67 per cent of tenders, by value, went to local firms in the previous financial year. According to Kang this is expected to hold true over the next 12 months. That is obviously good news for NCS, the homegrown giant of IT services, albeit still a bit of a pygmy by global standards. As the chill winds of protectionism blow through the corridors of government, small national champions like NCS can expect to struggle to grow their exports.

What I found interesting – and what you won’t get from the official press release – were the nuanced references to certain projects that seemed to be particularly close to IDA’s heart. So information security … right up there at number one: “Cyber warfare continues to be a big threat,” Kang revealed, before introducing plans for an anti-Distributed Denial of Service solution to detect and mitigate against such attacks in real time.

Another ‘special interest’ was the role envisaged for CRM in a number of business-focused agencies, the Economic Development Board and SPRING Singapore, as well the National Environment Agency: “Customers are important to the government – we need to make sure we know them well,” said Kang. And another clear area of interest … Business Intelligence: “It continues to be hot,” he explained. And five agencies announced plans to buy Business Intelligence tools – IDA, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of National Development and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority.

It was also rather telling – and in its own way hearteningly transparent – that the briefing made clear IDA’s technology preferences. This is good news for a number of vendors, including Microsoft and iLog – but none more so than SAP. It is very tightly embedded in Singapore’s public sector, and likely to remain so. So bearing in mind the previously mentioned focus on Business Intelligence – probably good news for Business Objects too.