In the News
Honouring the best in infocomm innovation
Fourteen organisations and companies from a wide range of sectors received Singapore’s highest accolade for infocomm innovation, the National Infocomm Awards (NIA), from Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Communications and Information, at a gala dinner on 23 October.
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Winners of the National infocomm Awards 2012 with IDA’s Chief Executive Officer Mr Ronnie Tay (extreme left), Minister for Communications and Information Dr Yaacob Ibrahim (fifth from left) and SiTF Chairman Mr Eddie Chau (extreme right). |
Organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), the NIA provides a platform for recognising innovative products and services from infocomm companies in Singapore. They also give recognition to public and private sector organisations which harness infocomm technologies to ensure their organisation’s effectiveness and efficiency.
A total of 266 nominations were received for the NIA this year. This was eventually whittled down to the 14 winners – including seven merit award winners – through a robust and stringent evaluation process.
“This year’s NIA submissions reflect the importance of ICT as an innovation enabler in businesses, government and the community,” said Mr Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer, IDA and co-chairman of NIA 2012 Steering Committee. “We see ICT enterprises making use of emerging technologies to develop new infocomm solutions. Organisations continue to find new and creative ways to apply technologies to improve service delivery, increase productivity or help customers make better informed decisions.”
“This year’s winners have shown great potential to establish themselves as infocomm thought leaders in their own right,” said Mr Eddie Chau, Chairman, SiTF and co-chairman of the NIA 2012 Steering Committee. “We are proud to see our local ICT companies, including new start-ups, developing unique and out-of-the-box infocomm solutions, as well as non-ICT sectors leveraging new possibilities powered by infocomm to generate value and impact to our industry and society.”
WINNERS OF THE 2012 NATIONAL INFOCOMM AWARDS
MOST INNOVATIVE INFOCOMM PRODUCT/SERVICE
iTwin
iTwin’s eponymous plug-and-play device comprises two identical halves which provide a secure and private environment for remote file access.
“The award will inspire us to continue searching for solutions to the problems of our clients.”
- Mr Lux Anantharaman, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, iTwin
Puffersoft Labs’ Enterprise Service Provisioning solution applies reverse cloud technology to enable enterprises to reap all the benefits of desktop virtualisation without the overheads.
“Winning the award is the result of hard work and teamwork, and of having good people working for us. We are grateful and honoured, and we hope to enhance our capability and take this to the next level.”
- Mr Adrian Tee, Director, Sales and Marketing, Puffersoft Labs
- eBUS: eBUSdelivery
- Knorex: Knorex ARise
- TrustSphere: TrustVault
MOST INNOVATIVE USE OF INFOCOMM TECHNOLOGY, PUBLIC SECTOR
KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
In a bid to enhance patient safety, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital piloted the use of RFID technology to keep track of the movement of surgical gauzes and instruments within the operating theatre. The Surgical Counting and Operating Theatre Tracking System minimises the need for multiple counts for gauzes and surgical instruments, and eliminates the risk of such items being retained in a patient’s body after surgery.
“We hope to share our technology with the larger healthcare community. Ultimately, our common aim is to enhance patient care.”
- Associate Professor Bernard Chern, Deputy Chairman, Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Singapore Prison Service seeks to help inmates inculcate a sense of personal responsibility and ownership of their rehabilitation through the Inmate Self-Service Kiosk (iKiosk), which enables them to carry out routine activities, such as printing personalised letter forms to their loved ones, on their own.
“Our objectives in implementing the iKiosk are to improve rehabilitation for inmates and help them reintegrate back to society.”
- Mr Chin Soon Theen, Assistant Director, Technology, Singapore Prison Service
- Immigration & Checkpoints Authority: Mobile Automated Verification and Identification System (MAVIS)
MOST INNOVATIVE USE OF INFOCOMM TECHNOLOGY, PRIVATE SECTOR (GENERAL)
Changi Airport Group
Changi Airport Group (CAG) harnessed the One Changi – Customer, Tenant and Partner Relationship Management solution to enable seamless collaboration between CAG, its partners and tenants, and ultimately, the delivery of a world-class customer service to the airport passengers and general public.
“To provide pleasant stress-free travel and a high standard of service that never ceases to surprise – this has always been part of Changi’s service DNA.”
- Mr Steve Lee, Chief Information Officer, Changi Airport Group
Citi Innovation Lab, Singapore
Citi’s Interactive Solutions is a real-time, interactive client experience that transforms the way Citi engages with treasurers and financial controllers. It addresses client queries, provides visualisation of global client portfolios, allows benchmarking of the client’s treasury management health and intelligently showcases best-in-class solutions based on the client’s tailored preferences – instantaneously.
“Every day, we put in our effort with the belief that what we are doing will make a difference in providing better service and a better experience for our clients.”
- Mr Lee Keng Mun, Head, Citi Innovation Lab Singapore
- ComfortDelGro: Integrated Taxi Management System
MOST INNOVATIVE USE OF INFOCOMM TECHNOLOGY, PRIVATE SECTOR (SMEs)
aSpecial Media uses a proprietary behavioural targeting engine to obtain relevant insights into what target customers are individually interested in. The information is real-time and highly relevant for ad targeting.
“We can help content owners (whether major publishing houses like newspapers companies or small SMEs like retailers and service providers), advertisers and ad agencies gain penetrating insights into the interests of their own customers or those of other companies.”
- Mr Paul Jansen, Co-founder and Chairman, aSpecial Media
- Hock Seng Food: E-Auditor
- QSA Marine & Logistics: 3i Vessel Tracking System
- Click here for a full list of winners of the National Infocomm Awards 2012.