How do you take interesting research technologies beyond the ivory tower, into applications that can be used in the ‘real’ world of business and enterprises? That tricky question is more likely to be solved with the launch of the Business Analytics Translational Centre (BATC) on 19 September.

A joint initiative between the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and A*STAR, BATC is intended to help companies use cutting edge business analytics tools to mine and manage huge volume of data in order to gain insights about their operations, and from there enhance decision making and drive growth.

A capacity crowd attends the launch of the Business Analytics Translational Centre.

Speaking at BATC’s official opening at Biopolis, Mr S Iswaran, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade & Industry, said that the establishment of BATC “is in line with Singapore’s efforts to translate our research and development (R&D) into new products and services, and it is a step in the right direction to advance business analytics as a growth area in Singapore’s infocomm technology sector”.

Dr Ng See Keong, Centre Director of BATC, elaborated. “First, by translating the R&D outcomes into industry-relevant solutions, we want to enable the government, the industry and the enterprise to benefit from the rich intellectual properties generated by the researchers in the research institutes (RIs) and institutes of higher learning (iHLs). Through better understanding of industry needs, BATC can help shape the R&D roadmaps of the researchers in the RIs and iHLs for business analytics to generate new intellectual properties that can fuel the industry further. In this way we can unleash both talent and the intellectual properties by RIs and IHLs into industry to deliver huge economic benefits through productisation and commercialisation of industry-relevant products and solutions.”

Mr Iswaran cited the case of how researchers at A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research developed data management and mining systems to analyse billions of data points about the GPS positions of 15,000 Singapore taxis. Using these to determine the locations of pick-ups and drop-offs during the peak morning period, they analyse the patterns of taxi demand and supply. “This research may one day contribute towards developing a smart system that not only notifies taxi drivers of the best places to pick up their passengers, but also enables us to monitor and manage traffic in real time,” he noted.

BATC will work with IDA to encourage user organisations and government agencies to leverage BATC's analytics capabilities to apply analytics strategically, to guide business strategy and planning, as well as optimise day-to-day business processes.

Mr Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer of IDA, noted that in today's highly-connected society and competitive economy, organisations are looking to data to better understand their customers and achieve their goals. “Analytics is key to deriving value from these data collected. We are pleased to work with A*STAR to set up the BATC as a focal point for users and developers of analytics technologies to tap on the analytics' intellectual property and capabilities available here today."

One of BATC's first partners is Wiley, a 200-year-old international publishing company which sees business analytics as a crucial part of modernising its operations, as the publishing industry takes to the information highway and traditional publishing morphs into knowledge services.

Another partner is leading analytics company, Revolution Analytics, which has set up its lab in A*STAR's Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R). Revolution Analytics will be licensing BATC's technologies for their own analytics platform.

In the public sector, BATC's lead user and technology partner is the Ministry of Law. BATC will be developing prototype analytics technologies to enhance the ministry's management. This will enable the ministry to gain insights as to how it can improve its formulation of policies and operations.

Another function of BATC is to provide training opportunities for researchers, engineers, IT professionals and business analysts from academia and industry to expand the talent pool in business analytics. The centre will involve the trainees in R&D or applications development projects. This will develop a pipeline of talent capable of applying analytics approaches in various domains.

Said Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman of A*STAR, "BATC is a meaningful contribution from A*STAR and IDA to help both the public and private sectors innovate in their work processes to achieve greater productivity. It is also a useful demonstration of how public-public collaboration can establish impactful value-creating platforms for our economy."