Mr Yap Chee Yuen: Very high demands are placed on IT in terms of the robustness, reliability and scalability of transaction operations.

Careers in Infocomm

Computing was his passion, and became his career. Under his charge, Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) won the accolade for Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology (Private Sector) at the 2010 National Infocomm Awards. Mr Yap Chee Yuen, Senior Vice President and Head of Management Operations at RWS, talks about his personal infocomm journey and the range of opportunities available for infocomm professionals in the hospitality sector.

What makes the hospitality sector an exciting area for infocomm professionals to be working in?
The hospitality sector is part of the growing services industry which is positioned as a strategic sector for Singapore. For IT professionals, it offers a wide range of opportunities in different business domains such as hotels, retail, amusement parks, F&B, shows and entertainment, which require different skill sets. At an Integrated Resort, for example, IT professionals will have the opportunity to move between business domains, and between back-office applications in logistics, purchasing, kitchens, technical service, wardrobe, facilities and engineering.

With businesses in the hospitality sector operating at least 18x7 or if not 24x7, very high demands are placed on IT in terms of the robustness, reliability and scalability of transaction operations. IT professionals will have the opportunity to gain experience in sustainable and highly scalable computer operations. They will also get to learn the basic and finer points of applications to do with customer relationship management, such as loyalty card and membership programmes, which play a critical role in the sector.

Other key applications that IT professionals will get exposed to in this sector are payment systems which support a diversity of payment modes, as well as employee-oriented applications that help enhance productivity and connectivity of mobile workers and knowledge workers. Technologies like RFID-enabled chips and cards, mobile and wireless communication technology and staff productivity systems are exciting technologies that offer excellent opportunities for learning for IT professionals.

What sparked off your own interest in infocomm?
I was very keen on computing during my university days. There was no computer science course – it only started after I graduated. Engineering was one of the rare courses that had a computer curriculum. The engineering world had all these programming languages called assembly languages, which were very low level. Even vending machines had semiconductors. There were a lot of programming courses.

How did you start your career in infocomm?
After graduating in 1981, I joined IBM as an analyst programmer. I spent more than a decade there, and rose through the ranks. My last job with them was as regional application manager to support the advanced billing system for the ASEAN countries.

I really appreciate my IBM days because as a rookie, I was trained there and I gained my IT thinking and foundations from them, in terms of IT management frameworks. That’s what attracted me to IBM rather than the engineering shop floor.

Building IT is like manufacturing. You have your R&D, researching what systems are available on the market. If they are not available, you must develop it yourself. Then you go through the implementation process - that’s like the production floor of a software factory. At the end of it, you need to manage, operate and maintain the system.

What are some of the other key infocomm jobs/roles that you have held since then?
I joined Acer in 1992. The company was setting up its Asia Pacific HQ in Singapore. I had to build up the IT operations to support the regional business. In 1999, I joined a contract manufacturer, JIT Electronics, in 1999, to build up their IT systems to prepare for expansion from Singapore and Malaysia into China, Europe and the United States. After that, I got a call from JTC, which didn’t have a Chief Information Officer for almost a year. They wanted me to rebuild their IT organisation.

Describe w hat you do in your current role.
Most of my career has been about building up or rebuilding IT organisations. I joined RWS to plan, build and deliver its IT infrastructure. We have six business units: the theme park, hotels, the casino, shows and entertainment, food and beverage and retail. There are already solutions for each of these on the market, so we don’t need to build them except for the casino system, but we have to integrate them into our system. The challenge is to plan the niche applications and do the integration so the systems can talk to each other, and the customer has a seamless experience.

What are the most important skill sets required for your role?
You need to know how to manage and control the computing environment and any changes that are introduced, so that when problems arise, you can troubleshoot. You must have problem management and change management skills – how to understand, record, log and track the issues that arise.

There’s also people management, which is a critical skill in order to succeed as a leader. CIOs don’t just look at technology, but also at how you manage, lead, motivate and recognise people’s work. All the aspects of business management are applicable in managing IT people and finances.

The third skill is process management. How do you help guide your people so that everything they do is a process? Every process has performance parameters we can draw to see if we are efficient and productive. There are parameters that we can sieve out and use to evaluate processes, to make them cheaper, faster and better.

How can this skill set/competency be developed?
When I was at IBM, I did a Diploma in Business Administration in NUS. When I felt it was not sufficient, I went for a Master’s degree in Business Administration. I also took the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD in France, and the e-Government program at Harvard.

Besides studying, as an IT professional, it’s also important to engage with the outside world. I’m a member of the Singapore Computer Society Executive Committee, and I’m chairing the National Information Technology Standards Committee. In chairing a discussion with people, you become more people-oriented, and you understand issues and problem-solving in a people context. You learn to listen, stay engaged with your people and help develop them.

To develop competency in technology management, you need to talk with your vendors and develop a close rapport. Typically, what I want a vendor to do is to have a quarterly review of their products and technology roadmap. In that discussion, I tell them our big challenges, where we are heading and how they can help us. It’s sharing, and an open discussion, which brings about a better understanding.

How important is it for information professionals to gain in-depth industry domain knowledge, and why?
In order to build the future and be a change catalyst, you need to know not just the technology, but where the business is heading. It’s important for you to get engaged with your business leaders and your business peers. You need to develop a good understanding of their issues and problems so you can help them. You also need to be savvy in building relationships and diplomatic, to make your job easier.