IDA ramped up its efforts to help various sectors make effective use of infocomm for growth and business transformation. Through Calls-for-Collaboration (CFC) and partnerships with various public and private organisations, it continued to drive the development and deployment of sector-wide infocomm projects aimed at raising the game for various industries.

Education
In education, several initiatives were introduced to in 2012 to stimulate infocomm innovation and encourage experimentation amongst educators. One of these was a refresh of the Classroom of the Future (CoTF), a showcase of new learning possibilities enabled by technology. Now into its third iteration, COTF 3.0 uses the theme of Global Climate Change to demonstrate how seamless and wireless communication can be used to enhance collaborative learning and as a means of conducting virtual lessons. ( Read )

"The aim (of COTF 3.0) is to excite and inspire educators about the potential and possibilities in the use of technology in the classroom, and set them thinking about how they can bring these back into their actual teaching and learning context."

- Associate Professor Philip Wong, Associate Dean, Pedagogical Development & Innovations Office of Teacher Education, National Institute of Education, commenting during the launch of COTF 3.0

A "living lab" was also set up to allow teachers, curriculum specialists, educational technologists , pedagogical experts and other stakeholders in the education system to prototype and test innovations before trying them out in schools. The facility, eduLab@AST, is located at the Academy of Singapore Teachers at Malan Road. ( Read )

To encourage and support learning on the move (LOTM), new interactive Heritage Trails and a LOTM tool were launched at a Humanities Educators' Conference in May. The trails enable students to develop an appreciation for heritage sites around Singapore as they visit the Central Business District, Chinatown, Civic District, Fort Canning, Kampong Glam, Little India and the Singapore River, while the LOTM tool enables teachers to create new trails or customise existing ones. One school which successfully developed its own trails using the LOTM tool was Clementi Town Secondary School which designed a "Clementi Town National Education Trail" and a "Bukit Timah Trail". ( Read )

Financial Services
In the Financial Services sector, one of the most exciting developments in the past year was the successful rollout of a cross-industry, open-access infrastructure which enables businesses to offer secured Near Field Communications services to all mobile subscribers in Singapore in a timely manner, without the need to invest in their own infrastructure. This approach also empowers consumers with the choice of having multiple contactless payment products on their NFC phones, giving them control over which payment product they would prefer to use for a specific purchase. ( Read )

Government
Singapore remained in the spotlight for the successful adoption of infocomm in the public sector in 2012. For the third consecutive year, it retained its No. 2 position in the Global Information Technology Report compiled by INSEAD and the World Economic Forum, and was the only Asian country to rank in the top 10. ( Read )

Singapore also topped the Waseda University International e-Government Ranking for the fourth year running, sharing the top spot this time round with the United States. ( Read )

In addition, the Republic won a special award in the United Nations (UN) e-Government Survey, clinching the No. 2 spot in the global e-participation ranking which recognises the country's efforts in using online tools to create opportunities for greater participation and social inclusiveness. ( Read )

Singapore also continued to strengthen its eGovernment collaboration with other countries. Memorandums of Understanding were signed with the Information, Communications Technology and Post Authority of Mongolia ( Read ), and with the Ministry of Information and Communications of Bhutan ( Read ), setting out the framework for collaboration in areas such as ICT infrastructure and services, ICT manpower and expertise, and eGovernment project management.

To build further on its strengths in public sector infocomm, Singapore sustained its investments in this area in 2012. It outlined plans to call for S$1.2 billion worth of new tenders, with 254 new projects covering areas such as learning management systems, data analytics, e-services and portals, and business process management.
( Read )

One of the major public sector infocomm developments was the award of the Government cloud (G-Cloud) tender to SingTel. G-Cloud is a private cloud for Whole-of-Government use, allowing agencies to easily procure cloud services to deliver services securely and quickly on demand. ( Read )

Healthcare
In healthcare, infocomm continued to play an important role by opening up new possibilities for integrating data to better manage patients' care, facilitate communication among care providers and empower people to manage their own health through self-monitoring systems. Recognising this, IDA issued a Telehealth Call for Collaboration (CFC) in collaboration with Ministry of Health, to develop new models of distance care for the elderly assisted by ICT. ( Read )

Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Logistics
Three consortia were selected by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and IDA in March to develop ICT solutions for managing paperless airfreight processes in Singapore. This was part of the e-freight@Singapore programme which aims to integrate the air cargo and logistics supply chain by electronically linking stakeholders in the supply chain.

The consortia, which comprise 37 companies including shippers, freight forwarders and ICT vendors, were led by ICT solution providers Innosys, Kewill and Visiflex. Totalling S$4 million, the solutions developed under the CFC will be piloted among consortia members by 2013 and rolled out to the industry by 2014. ( Read )

Small and Medium Enterprises
Efforts to help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) harness infocomm for productivity gains gained further momentum in 2012. In August, funding support to help SMEs automate their business operations was raised from 50 per cent to 70 per cent of qualifying costs, under new enhancements to IDA’s iSPRINT scheme. At the same time, the grant cap for Business Improvement and Packaged Solutions offered under iSPRINT has been doubled to S$20,000. ( Read )

Earlier in the year, IDA also launched of a $21-million CFC to develop high-impact sector-specific Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) targeting sectors where many SMEs were still largely manual in their core operations. The spa industry, for example, is one sector that stands to benefit from sector-wide ICT adoption. The Spa & Wellness Association (SWAS) spearheaded the development and deployment of the Wellness ERP Software as a Service (WESS) to benefit its members. ( Read )

"With the cloud-based WESS system, not only can we manage our appointments, customer information, invoicing, inventory, and our daily and monthly reporting even better than before, I can now access information directly from the system rather than wait for reports from the manager and accountant. Our annual cost for the WESS business management system for each EdeS Spa outlet is less than $1,150."

- Mr Edward Wong, Chief Executive Officer of SwissBrands Singapore Pte Ltd, which operates two beauty and wellness centres under the trade name EdeS Spa. Mr Wong also chairs the Spa Section of the Spa & Wellness Association of Singapore

An info-educational series was also aired on television to provide SMEs with case studies of successful infocomm adoption. The series, which ran on Channel 8 in November and December, was supported by IDA and SPRING Singapore. ( Read )

Tourism, Hospitality and Retail
To enhance the competitiveness of the companies in Tourism, Hospitality and Retail, IDA issued a CFC under its Digital Concierge programme to develop and deploy Mobile Positioning and Analytics Services (MPAS) for the sector, As part of this initiative, an MPAS platform will be created to offer accurate, easily accessible and competitively-priced location positioning and analytics services to enterprises and consumers across multiple sectors. The platform will consist of detection infrastructure, location positioning and analytics shared services, enterprise services, as well as consumer services and an open positioning framework. ( Read )

2012 also saw the rollout of 28 projects under an earlier Mobility Solutions CFC, a multi-agency effort led by IDA in collaboration with SPRING Singapore, the Singapore Tourism Board and NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute. The projects awarded under the CFC will benefit over 150 user companies in the Retail, Food and Beverage, Hotels and Attractions sector and result in projected ICT expenditure worth S$12 million. ( Read )