“We are at an inflection point,” said Mr David Gledhill, Managing Director and Head, Group Technology and Operations, DBS. It is no longer about how IT can help with the business strategy, but how to survive in a digital economy as businesses move from transactions to digitising transactions to a completely different business model that encompasses digital and mobile.

Mr Gledhill was speaking at the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation’s ICT Business Summit 2014, which was focused on the theme of “Evolution of Mobile Connectivity”. He noted that for banks, their competitors were no longer other banks but companies such as Alipay, Alibaba Group’s third-party online payment service provider, and WeChat, which offers mobile payment services. “The point about moving to information and mobile is that we need to re-think what our business strategy is and how our business model is going to change.”

“It is not just about developing mobile apps but about re-thinking the organisation,” he said. “How do you rewire an organisation for mobility?”

According to Mr Gledhill, there are useful lessons to be learnt from the way Apple rewired itself for mobility. For example, one of the key things Apple did was to set up a data centre which would provide the robust infrastructure it needed to be real time, all the time. It also created “nimbleness” by introducing a modular programming language that allowed people to collaborate and build things quickly. The third thing it did was to explore new frontiers, not just in terms of technology but also in terms of new business models. For example, Apple practically reinvented the music distribution business, Mr Gledhill pointed out.

Any organisation should be thinking along these lines for the information and mobile age, he said – build a robust platform, get nimble as an organisation, and go explore.

Providing the research perspective at the summit, Mr Charles Reed Anderson, Associate Vice President, Head of Telecoms and Mobility, IDC Asia Pacific, said 2014 is going to be an interesting year for mobility as technologies improve and companies begin to take it seriously.

Companies that have successful mobile strategies will shy away from BYOD (bring your own device) and instead go with CYOD (choose your own device), he said, where users get to choose from a number of approved devices made available by the company. Unlike BYOD, which presents many challenges such as the need to secure and support users, CYOD will provide businesses with a better way to mobilise their business processes with better control over platforms and devices.

Another trend is vendor consolidation, which will result in greater stability in the mobile space, said Mr Anderson. Whilst a couple of years ago, many of the vendors were small start-ups, what is happening now is that all big vendors are focusing on mobility. “Everybody is moving into this space and with these bigger companies, if you have trusted them for business-critical applications, you will trust them for mobility as well.”

Providing the Singapore perspective, not just on the topic of mobility but also on the country’s wider aspirations to become a Smart Nation, was guest of honour Mr Steve Leonard, Executive Deputy Chairman of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). Mr Leonard spoke about the three key areas that IDA is working on to achieve this aspiration – to “Govern” in its role as industry regulator, “Deliver”, or help public agencies improve service delivery, through its role as Government Chief Information Officer, and “Build” Singapore’s tech industry by accelerating product start-ups and scaling these companies.

He also spoke about Singapore’s plans to deliver high-speed connectivity “everywhere that we can possibly get it”, build a nationwide sensor network, and address the issue of spectrum shortage by, for example, reclaiming broadcast spectrum.

Another area that Mr Leonard covered in his address was the S$500 million ICT for Productivity and Growth (IPG) programme, which seeks to accelerate the adoption of ICT solutions among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and boost SMEs’ productivity and growth. The IPG programme comprises three initiatives:

Scaling up proven ICT solutions: Promoting the adoption of ICT-based sectoral productivity solutions that have been proven to help SMEs raise productivity.

Piloting of emerging solutions: Encouraging enterprising SMEs to pilot emerging technology solutions that can transform their businesses, for example, innovations, in the areas of sensor, data analytics and robotics.

Enabling high-speed connectivity for businesses: Promoting high-speed connectivity for SMEs so that they can take full advantage of ICT-based productivity solutions.