Mr Leong Chin Yew: Though we appreciate the value of ICT, the need for assessing the benefits, risks and costs still remains crucial.

Mr Leong Chin Yew is Director of the Information Services Department, Housing and Development Board (HDB). He discusses the role of IT as a driving force in the agency, and how technology is being leveraged to enhance service delivery and performance.

What are some of the IT challenges that HDB faces as an organisation?
As Singapore’s public housing authority serving more than 80 per cent of the population, our customer base is very diverse, not only in terms of background, race, culture and age, but also in education, literacy and IT-savviness. In developing IT services, we need to cater to those with little knowledge of the digital medium and make our processes as simple and easy as possible for them. On the other hand, we also have to meet the high expectations of those who are IT-literate and highly knowledgeable and deliver superior technical solutions and services.

In addition, in the process of re-inventing and transforming public housing into a first-class living environment, HDB has to be flexible in our services. HDB’s dynamic business environment needs to be supported by agile IT applications and infrastructure that are highly adaptable to business volatility, where it can be easily enhanced to cater to any new business requirements as and when required.

Can you illustrate these challenges through a recent project that your agency has embarked on?
One of the challenging projects we embarked on was transforming the way HDB branch offices and its back-end offices operate. Public housing touches the life of many Singaporeans. Customers that turn to HDB come from all age groups, backgrounds and income levels. Our challenge was to re-adjust the IT architecture to boost delivery of services by ensuring that all customers, and not just the tech-savvy ones, could benefit. This entailed discarding old work processes and introducing changes that impacted HDB’s branch offices and back-end operations.

What was the strategy for ensuring the smooth development of the project?
We managed to avoid many pitfalls typical of large-scale revamps by introducing changes on a smaller scale before applying them to the entire organisation. We started with process re-engineering to transform the branch office and customer-related processes into an electronic workflow and in the process we shored up virtually all of HDB’s customer contact points. For example, by converting voice to digital format, we were able to “pool” manpower resources from our branch offices located all over Singapore to function as a single virtual call centre. To the customer, it was a single toll-free customer service number and this made it easy for the customer to contact HDB for any feedback or enquiry.

To re-engineer these process workflows, our team of operational and IT officers also had to have a good understanding of the vast range of business processes involved. They managed to build successful relationships with our business units as well as understand the unique requirements of each user group. Strong communications among all parties and support from top management also contributed to the success of
this project.

The initial business process re-engineering resulted in the elimination of 20 million pages of hardcopy documents, ensuring faster and more convenient customer-centric transactions. This has reduced operational costs significantly and enhanced job worth, transforming the way we work, serve and interact with our customers.

How did HDB build on these process re-engineering efforts to further enhance its service delivery?
The next phase of the project was to develop a far more intelligent and integrated one-stop portal solution that will provide our staff with rich insights on customers. With the one-stop portal, existing customer data and customer interactions with HDB from all touch points such as electronic, face-to-face, written and voice communications are consolidated, allowing our staff to confidently anticipate the nature of the customers’ enquiries or needs.

Given HDB’s diverse customer base, another challenge is to provide different channels to reach out to our customers and for them to contact HDB. The HDB InfoWEB is another touch point catering to the new generation of customers who are IT-savvy. To develop the InfoWEB, there was a need to sieve out what was essential and convey policies and transactions in a simple and easy-to-understand way. Focus groups and usability tests were held with staff and public. As a result, the HDB InfoWEB was able to transform complex transactions and information into a personalised channel for the customers, catering to their individual needs at their convenience.

The significance of this is evident considering how the InfoWEB has a vast content repository comprising over 1,000 webpages and a comprehensive array of about 160 easy-to-use e-services. The HDB InfoWEB won the Singapore Government Web Excellence Outstanding Website Award 2009 and the United States Web Marketing Association’s WebAwards – Government Standard of Excellence 2010. This is a testament that the InfoWEB has established itself as the gateway to HDB products and services serving its customers needs.

What are some of the learning points you can share with regard to HDB’s ICT journey?
The exploitation of ICT should focus on the business benefit, not on the technology, i.e., it has to be value-driven instead of technology-driven. This involves determining the appropriate level of technology that meets the needs of the organisation and its customers. Though we appreciate the value of ICT, the need for assessing the benefits, risks and costs still remains crucial. Strong collaboration between the IT department and business units as well as strong support from top management is critical to delivering greater value for both the organisation and
its customers.