A new Accreditation@IDA programme will be launched to help Singapore technology start-ups establish their credentials, increase their visibility to potential government and large enterprise buyers, as well as help them gain more business opportunities. This was announced by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Communications and Information, at the official opening of IDA Labs on 24 April.

The accreditation process will also allow companies to receive practical feedback on areas of improvement for their product. “In the long run, we hope that this will instil the importance of quality control and assurance in our ICT companies’ product development life cycle and raise the overall quality standard of the technology product industry in Singapore,” said Dr Yaacob.

Speaking at a media briefing, Mr Steve Leonard, Executive Deputy Chairman, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), said the accreditation programme will be focused on helping originators of technologies as opposed to resellers or integrators of technology.

“We want to give small start-ups an opportunity to show what they are capable of and be involved in proof of concept (POC) or demos within government,” he said. ”But we are not putting them blindly before government. We want to test to make sure that their capabilities are what we expect, and then we will accredit them and bring them to the attention of the government agencies.”

Mr Edwin Low (centre, in picture above), Director, Accreditation@IDA, noted that from a buyer’s perspective, start-ups represent risk. ”They don’t have a track record and more often than not, their operations are small. They don’t even get to play because buyers have no inclination to find out otherwise. This is the first and most difficult mountain to climb.”

These start-ups will need an initial set of reference customers to build track record and win other customers. They will also need institution-grade users to help them evolve their products, he said. Accreditation@IDA is aimed at removing the perceived risk and helping them to create that track record.

However, accreditation is not a guarantee of sales, Mr Low emphasised. “If a company is good, we will test them and we will showcase them but ultimately, they need to convince the buyer of their value and deliver on their obligations and the capabilities that they claim to have.”

From the CIO’s perspective, accreditation provides them with a wider choice of solutions, said Mr Low. “Typically, government CIOs will not buy something they don’t know and they are not set up to find out everything they don’t know. If we pre-qualify the tech start-ups, they have one more choice to make which may prove to be better option and better value for money.”

The focus of the accreditation programme will be on innovative product companies that have a unique value proposition and deliver solutions that will “change the status quo or help solve big problems”.

As Mr Leonard pointed out, “Our goal is not to build more companies that can only compete domestically but companies that have the aspiration and capability to compete on a much wider stage.” He cited the example of water and environmental solutions company Hyflux. “It solved a problem that was important to Singapore, and important to many countries.”

As part of the strategies to open up opportunities for these companies, IDA will also be introducing initiatives to streamline and ease government procurement from the accredited companies. “Accreditation is not only about looking under the bonnet and kicking the tyres,” said Mr Low. After the accreditation process, IDA’s intent is to showcase and demonstrate the technologies to key agencies and stakeholders and facilitate buy-in by conducting POCs with potential buyers.

In line with this, IDA is reviewing the process whereby government agencies request for proposals and procure from accredited companies. It is also working to position accreditation status as an alternative to the Expenditure and Procurement Policies Unit (EPPU) financial grading.

As a guideline, companies applying for accreditation will have revenues of under S$10 million. The evaluation will be centred on technical capabilities – whether the products work as claimed – and on the financial and operational viability of the company.  Accreditation will be valid for 18 months, after which the company will have to undergo a review. Accreditation@IDA will be ready to accept applications from July 2014.