Public sector to call for S$1.14 billion worth of infocomm tenders in FY 2008

The pace of infocomm adoption in the public sector continues unabated, with a whopping S$1.14 billion worth of new tenders scheduled for the fiscal year (FY) 2008 (1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009). This was announced at Industry Briefing 2008: Business Opportunities for Infocomm in the Public Sector, which was held on 14 May 2008.

The annual event, organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), is aimed at giving infocomm businesses an early indication
of government procurement plans, which allows them to better respond to government tenders. This year's briefing was attended by over 700 industry players. In all, the public sector is expected to call for over 390 tenders
in FY2008.

In his opening address, RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer of IDA, noted the importance of industry collaboration in government infocomm projects. "Being able to tap on the expertise and experience of the infocomm industry has helped to inject new and innovative ideas into many of our national projects," he said.

As a result, Singapore has consistently ranked among the top nations in the world for the innovative use of infocomm. For example, Singapore ranked first in Accenture's e-Government report, 5th in the WEF Global IT Report 2007-2008 and 6th in the EIU e-Readiness 2007 report.

Ms Pauline Tan, Senior Director of the Government Chief Information Office, IDA, gave an overview of government infocomm procurement trends over the last few years, which showed a consistent willingness to invest in infocomm, and also opportunities for newcomers to land big contracts. Four of the 10 top contractors by total value of contracts awarded in FY 2007, for instance, were new to the list.

For the financial year 2007, a total of S$2.12 billion worth of infocomm projects was awarded. Some of these projects include the S$1.3 billion Standard ICT Operating Environment (SOEasy) for the public sector; the Supply of Integrated IT Support and Services by Ministry of Defence (MINDEF); the Forward Command Post by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA); Corporate Resources System by National Library Board; and the Data Hub and Health Promotion Board's Health InfoHub by Ministry of Health (MOH).

Mr Tam Kok Yan, Assistant CIO with the DSTA CIO Office, presented his agency's key projects for the coming year.

Local companies have also benefited from the Government's investment in infocomm. They were awarded a total of 64 per cent of infocomm contracts (excluding the SOEasy contract) in FY 2007, while multinational companies garnered
36 percent.

For FY 2008, IDA will be calling for tenders for Singapore's Next Generation National Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) and for the development of the second Government Data Centre. A tender will also be called for enhancements to
www.gov.sg, the Government's
one-stop portal.

Other government agencies such as MINDEF, the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) and MHA also outlined some of their key projects at the industry briefing.

MINDEF's projects include an Identity Management System; a Gap-Fit analysis which seeks to enhance the training management capability for the Singapore Armed Forces; and the development of an Employee Customer Relationship Management system to facilitate quicker and a more holistic way of managing queries and feedback from employees.

DSTA is looking towards the implementation of an alternate IT disaster recovery site as part of its business continuity master plan. Other projects include a pilot programme that enables the digital signing of contracts and a study on the next-generation enterprise resource planning system.

Two of the key infocomm projects from MHA are the Command and Control System for the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and Biometric Identification of Motorbikers 2 (BIKES 2) for the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority. The Command and Control System is the next generation Command and Control system to be deployed in SCDF 995 Control Centre for incident management and despatching of resources. The system will enhance SCDF's capabilities in managing daily operations and responding to civil emergencies. The BIKES 2 project will produce an automated immigration clearance system leveraging on biometric and human identification technologies for motorcycles with pillion riders.

The build-up of grid expertise in Singapore is gaining momentum as the infocomm industry looks toward the expected rollout of Grid Services Provisioning this year.

In November 2007, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) issued a Grid Services Provisioning Call for Collaboration. The successful consortia – which will be announced later this year - will offer high performance computing, storage and software facilities to businesses on a pay-per-use basis.

In anticipation of growing demand for grid expertise, two more polytechnics are expected to join the GridPass programme in June and September, bringing the total to five.

GridPass is the student-focused component of the Enterprise-g MAnpower Programme (g-MAP), a collaboration between IDA, Oracle and its partners to further develop grid capabilities and skills in Singapore.

To date, over 330 students have completed the GridPass programme.

To date, over 330 students from the Singapore Management University (SMU), Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and Institute of Technical Education West (ITE West Balestier) have completed the programme since its inaugural run at SMU in September 2007. NYP, through its specially-set up NYP-Oracle Grid Innovation Centre (NOGIC), is leveraging on Oracle's Enterprise Grid solutions to develop innovative IT services for industry and the government sector. The new GridPass programme will, therefore, augment the Centre's efforts in building up its capabilities. It will also enable more students to pursue relevant certifications.

"The rationale behind GridPass is that we should start educating the students about grid computing before they graduate to join the workforce," said Mr Kew Yoke Ling, Solutions Development Manager with Oracle. "This early education is aimed at providing an overview of grid computing, creating awareness and generating interest so that more future infocomm professionals will be keen to specialise in this field."

The GridPass programme includes a grid overview, followed by discussions on the storage grid, data grid, and application grid and enterprise manager grid control. At SMU, GridPass complements the Architecture Analysis module conducted by the university while at NYP, it is mandatory for students taking the Advanced Database Technologies module through which students learn how grid computing provides scalability, high availability and manageability to enterprise databases. To date, some 100 NYP students have taken the GridPass programme and there are plans for more students to take the programme. From ITE West Balestier, a total of 212 students from eight classes underwent the training.

Oracle will work with its partners to outline the necessary skills and knowledge that infocomm professionals need to build, create, manage and run enterprise grid computing environments, and to drive their systematic adoption through focused certification programmes. This will help to create a comprehensive certification roadmap for students and IT professionals seeking to work with grid computing technologies.

Besides GridPass, another 90 infocomm professionals have also been trained under g-MAP, to ensure a ready supply of trained personnel for the ongoing development of grid computing.

g-MAP itself is part of a wider collaboration between IDA and Oracle to enable Singapore-based enterprises to realise the benefits of enterprise grid technology in order to achieve cost reduction, productivity gain and revenue growth. The initiative, Enterprise-g@Singapore, was launched in July 2004.