Mr Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft and IDA's Distinguished Infocomm Speaker, gave a lively and energetic speech on innovation, using IT as an enabling tool and the need to invest in people

In town as a speaker of the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) Distinguished Infocomm Speaker (DIS) series, Mr Ballmer shared his views on innovation and establishing a culture willing to look to the long term for returns adding that Microsoft spent US$6 billion on research and development (R&D) each year.

"You have to be patient and take a long-term approach if you want to be an innovator. While it's important to embrace disruption with speed and agility, most good ideas don't mature perfectly overnight. Successful organisations balance disruptive innovation with a patient, long-term approach," Mr Ballmer explained.

But Mr Ballmer also said that you do not have to be first to market with a solution to be successful, saying, "While the best innovation is where you dream of something before anyone else does and you build it before anyone else does. The truth of the matter is, for most companies, you are not going to be the first with every idea, and so it's important to recognize that there is great innovation value to those who come second to a market, and refine and improve upon the basic concept."

In line with this, Mr Ballmer said that was important to have the right type of shareholders who believed in the same vision for the company. He added that he tells his shareholders that they have to invest in the long term which is at least three to seven years.

Investing in the right people is also one of the keys to success. "In our business, people are our greatest asset," he said, adding that nurturing good people should complement technological leaps forward.

During the Q&A session that followed his speech, Mr Ballmer touched on various aspects of his management style, work-life balance and his vision of the future

"At Microsoft, we make sure we hire the best people. Even our cleaning staff," Mr Ballmer said, "when we hire our cleaning staff, I tell our guys to make sure that they're smarter than the cleaning guys down the road!"

Mr Ballmer added that at Microsoft, they make sure that their employees feel and remain passionate about their jobs. Quoting one of his staff who was offered a job at another vendor who promised him that he could spend at least 20% of his time working on projects that interested him, the employee turned them down saying that at Microsoft, he was working on what he loved a 100% of the time.

Ultimately, Mr Ballmer said, technology is an enabler. "Information technology is a powerful tool to let people do great things more efficiently and effectively in less time. Great companies and organisations put the right tools in front of their people so they can do great work," he concluded.

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Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan believed that the whole healthcare ecosystem can be transformed with the use of IT as a key enabler

At the inaugural Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) AsiaPac 2007 conference in Singapore, Minister of Health Mr Khaw Boon Wan said that information technology can help overcome the huge hurdles needed to transform healthcare and help contain rising healthcare costs, at the same time ensuring access to quality healthcare.

"Simply throwing money at the problem is not the answer. Money is necessary but not sufficient in ensuring a better healthcare system," the Health Minister said. According to Mr Khaw, what is needed are environments that encourage innovation and a changing of mindsets to one that is aligned to transforming healthcare.

Seamless, integrated care for patients across the whole healthcare ecosystem can be achieved with the use of IT as a key enabler in healthcare transformation. To date, IT has made some progress in the medical sector with Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) being used in many institutions. The challenge according to Mr Khaw is to take things to the next level, where healthcare delivery is integrated on a national level, between primary-tertiary-step-down care, and between public and private sector institutions.

"We all say that healthcare providers should treat patients holistically as a team, share information about the patients and partner one another to bring care to the patients, without duplicating efforts or replicating tests," Mr Khaw said. Unfortunately, the reality is often different with relatively few doctors, clinics and hospitals in the world consistently practise pro-active prevention regimes. Many chronically-ill patients are not receiving appropriate care at the appropriate level, and continue to be treated in more expensive tertiary settings.

To achieve this, the Minister said that inter-operability and data exchange are key to transformation, requiring the setting of data and systems standards and ensuring that they are widely adopted.

Professor Tan Ser Kiat, Group CEO of Singapore Health Services, delivered the opening keynote at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Asia-Pacific 2007 conference

In Singapore, the government has already undertaken steps to ensure that patients get the care they deserve. Public hospitals in both the SingHealth and the National Healthcare Group (NHG) clusters have integrated their respective EMR systems. "We have put in place the EMR Exchange or EMRX to allow cross-cluster exchange of patient information such as inpatient discharge summaries, laboratory and radiology reports, drug allergies and medical alerts, and recently, x-ray images. Immunisation and school health records of children are also available to the hospitals," Mr Khaw added.

The next major steps are to set national data and IT standards and to put in place the legislative framework for data protection. "These will provide the foundation on which we will build a national electronic health records database containing critical health records of every Singaporean," Mr Khaw said.

The goal will be to have all healthcare institutions – public and private sector hospitals, primary healthcare clinics, step-down care institutions – linked to this national database, accessing and providing real-time clinical information of the patients they are treating. "Beyond care provision, the database will also provide powerful applications, facilitating clinical research as well as epidemiological surveillance," he added.

Beyond these technical issues, Mr Khaw also said that there are many other issues that need to be addressed. These include system security, data protection, privacy, regulation and audit. While such issues can be difficult, the Health Minister said that we can take heart that other industries have faced the same issues and have successfully overcome them. "It can be done," he said.

Despite it being a weekend morning, a lively crowd gathered in force at the NTUC Centre auditorium for Nexus 2007

It was a lively crowd that gathered at the NTUC Centre on Marina Boulevard on a quiet Saturday morning on 24 March 2007. Ranging from young professionals to seasoned veterans in the infocomm industry, as well as a smattering of fresh graduates from the various local universities and learning institutes, the group packed into the auditorium for a unique conference and networking event – Nexus 2007.

Organised by The Digital Movement, Nexus 2007 aimed to discuss fundamental changes that are happening in business and technology, including Web 2.0, citizen journalism, mobile web explosion, open source communities, and globalization. The setting was informal and the discussions jovial but serious, which was unusual for any technology-based conference event. The morning kicked off with a energetic presentation by Nathan Torkington, a spokesperson from O'Reily Radar and Perl Foundation Board Member, who touched on the birth and development of Web 2.0, as well as the current tools available now for Web 2.0.

Nathan Torkington from O’Reilly Radar kicked off the morning’s discussion with a spirited presentation of how Web 2.0 evolved, what lies ahead and the importance of Open Source

The future of technology and the next generation Internet were major topics that were being discussed in some depth, with different sessions breaking out for different interest groups. Among the various panels were a host of prominent industry figures, including Mr Saw Ken Wye, Vice President of Microsoft Asia Pacific, Mr Steve Russell, President & CEO of SalesForce.com Asia Pacific, Mr Walter Lee, Vice President of IDC Asia Pacific and Mr Girija P. Pande, Head of Asia-Pacific, Tata Consultancy Services. The speakers provided their personal experiences and insights as to how new platforms, technologies, and business models are forming the basis of future web and mobile applications.

Mr Saw Ken Wye Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Asia Pacific Region, Microsoft Operations Pte Ltd, described how he first started his career in the IT sector, and how things have changed since, at the 1st panel discussion

While the topics were diverse, the mood was enthusiastic and spirited. Manas Gupta, a veteran of similar events held in Silicon Valley when he was working there, noted in his blog that the event had a "stellar line up of speakers" and the atmosphere made him feel like he was back in the Valley. The panels lasted throughout the day, with thought provoking and often extensive discussions on opportunities behind Web 2.0, citizen journalism, globalization, and the mobile web explosion. Other topics included the business realities of the Internet space today, citizen blogging power (exemplified by the "live blogging" feedback to panelists), privacy issues, managed media content and software distribution and even the concept of the "future-web", a notion coined by Mr Andreas Weigend, former Chief Scientist of Amazon.com.

Laptops were very much on display everywhere as participants made use of wireless Internet access available at the auditorium to blog "live" about their own comments and ideas as well as post photos up ‘live’ for viewing. It was online interactivity at its best, with most of the participants staying back late in the evening for a light-hearted networking session.

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