1. About Singapore

2. Background

3. Progress Made

3.1 Achievements so far

3.2 Some Examples

- One-stop Non-stop Service

- Greater Efficiency for the Public Services

- Integrated Information Sharing

- Technology Showcases

3.3 IT in Education

3.4 Internet Service for the Government

3.5 IDNet and IDEmail

3.6 Data Centre

3.7 Standards and Practices

4. New Thrusts for the CSCP

5. Conclusion

1 About Singapore

1.1 Singapore is a city state with a population of about 3 million and a land area of 646 sq km. Started as an entreport, Singapore is preparing itself to move from an industrialised economy to that of high value-added knowledge intensive information economy. Singapore has been able to enjoy good economic growth for the past years. In 1994, the economic growth rate was 10.1% with a GNP of about S$105 billion. Finance and Services, and Manufacturing sectors have been the twin engines of growth for Singapore, contributing to 28% and 26% respectively of the GNP last year.

1.2 In 1981, the government of Singapore has recognised the importance of information technology (IT) to sustain its economic growth into the twentieth century. The National Computer Board (NCB) was set up to spearhead the Civil Service Computerisation Programme (CSCP), and to build up a vibrant IT industry and workforce in Singapore.

1.3 Last year, the World Competitiveness report has ranked Singapore once again as the second most competitive country because of its people and pro-trade government policies and support. Singapore also enjoys an advanced telecommunication infrastructure with island-wide ISDN availability since 1989, a teledensity of 45.5 telephone lines per 100 persons, and 154 computers per 1000 persons. Personal computers' penetration to home is about 30%. Computer literacy amongst employees in Singapore was ranked second highest in the world. More can be done to bring about greater awareness and comfort in using computers by the man-in-the-street.

1.4 The IT industry in Singapore grew steadily by 18% on average over the last 5 years and hit a record high of 34% in 1994. Total IT revenue for 1994 was $5 billion, with $2.8 billion from the domestic market and $2.2 billion from the export market. Hardware sales contributed to 74% of the total sales, with Software and IT services contributed to about 11% and 15% respectively. Total IT workforce supporting the industry is about 20,000. The two local universities and four polytechnics produce about 2,000 IT related graduates and diploma holders a year.

2 Background

2.1 The National Computer Board (NCB) was set up as a statutory board under the Ministry of Finance to plan, coordinate, implement and manage the Civil Service Computerisation Programme (CSCP). It is an agency with 1,400 professional staff, focused on all aspects of IT development in Singapore. Its mission is to drive Singapore into the information age. The primary goal of the CSCP is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Civil Service through the innovative application of IT.

2.2 The CSCP is organised according to the principle of coordinated decentralisation. Civil service-wide systems, IT infrastructures, professional standards and practices are developed and set by the NCB to ensure maximum return on investment and civil service-wide system integration. The NCB also acts as the information technology advisor to the government. In this role, it evaluates IT project proposals submitted by the ministries, and advises the government on matters that require integration, coordination and standardisation across ministries. It is also the sole procurement agency for computer hardware and software for the Civil Service.

2.3 Each ministry is responsible for obtaining its own computerisation budget. It has the flexibility to prioritise its computerisation requirements and manage its own unique local systems. The Ministry Information Steering Committee is the highest level decision making body concerning the computerisation plan and budget of the particular ministry. It is usually chaired by the Permanent Secretary, who is the highest ranking civil servant. Each ministry also has a computer information system department, whose professional staff are provided by the NCB. The director of the department is usually a senior administrative officer of the ministry, while the technical leadership is provided by the Information System Manager who is a NCB staff. About 900 NCB professionals are deployed in the computer information system departments of some 30 government ministries and departments.

Ministry IS Steering Committee

NCB HQ

Director, Computer Info System Dept

Information System Manager

Application Technical Operations

Development Manager Manager

Manager

3 Progress Made

3.1 Achievements So Far

The CSCP's many successes have spurred increased effort and interest in IT development projects, from both the government and the private sector alike. To date, 800 systems have been put in place in the public sector, bringing the total worth of all CSCP projects to $655 million. Ongoing efforts include the implementation of forty-five new development projects worth some $96 million. There are about 40,000 PCs installed in the Civil Service of the total staff strength of 60,000. The penetration of PC to the Civil

Service is thus about two PCs for every three civil servants. The range of applications have brought about multifarious benefits to the Civil Service, businesses with dealings with the government and members of the public. A cost-benefit study conducted in 1988 showed that for every dollar of computerisation investment put in by the government, a return of 1.71 times has been realised. In 1994, the US CIO (Chief Executive Officer) magazine has selected the Singapore government as the only non-US organisation amongst 20 public sector organisations honoured for excellence in customer service through the use of IT.

3.2 Some Examples

The following highlights some of the applications delivered under the CSCP in the past one year.

(a) One-Stop Non-Stop (OSNS) Service

The aim is to bring government services to the public at their convenience. Various government application systems are linked and deployed to minimise multiple form-filling and multiple trips to different government departments. In addition, information kiosks will be installed at public places, for example at the community centres, libraries, MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) stations, and major bus interchanges to enable public to access to government information easily, or submit government application forms, pay government taxes, car park fees or fines, or renew licences at places most convenient to them.

OSCARS. With OSCARS, or the 'One-Stop Change of Addresses Reporting Service', Singaporeans no longer need to report separately to various government agencies on their change of addresses. They can update their residential addresses at any neighbourhood police post. The National Registration Office's database, which is linked to more than 90 neighbourhood police posts and eight police stations, will then transmit the updated data to all subscribing agencies by the next working day. There are eleven such agencies today, including the Central Provident Fund, Post Office Savings Bank of Singapore, Registry of Vehicles and Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore which are linked to OSCARS. With more than 140,000 addresses changed every year, OSCARS not only brings about greater convenience to the public, but also leads to substantial productivity improvement for the Civil Service.

(b) Greater Efficiency for the Public Services

Many IT projects under the CSCP help to improve the overall efficiency and responsiveness of government bodies, leading to substantial savings in time and effort, short queues and increased productivity for all concerned.

National Registration Identity Cards (NRIC) for Singapore Citizens and Residents. Involving 2.3 million citizens and permanent residents, the 3-year conversion exercise was completed in October '94. The achievement was made possible only by re-engineering the registration process, re-designing the workflow and converting sequential processes into parallel steps, thereby cutting down what was a two-hour waiting for the registration of a new NRIC into a few minutes' wait for each person. The new NRIC plastic card is forgery proof. It allows the printing of card holder's name in English and ethnic characters such as Chinese, Tamil and Jawi.

Inland Revenue Integrated System (IRIS). It is developed to enable the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) to simplify and streamline work processes as well as to reorganise from a non-integrated tax type structure into function based entities to provide one-stop services to the taxpayers. Introduced in 1994, the system has begun phased implementation in February '95 and will be completed by early 1996. With IRIS, the IRAS will replace manual with pipeline processing. The pipeline is an automated system which will process the bulk of tax cases with minimal human intervention. The rest, about 20%, which are big revenue or complex cases are streamed out of the pipeline by built-in criteria and rules to be processed by tax officers. The system will free tax officers from routine and mundane work, allowing them to focus on more complex cases.

(c) Integrated Information Sharing

Realising the importance of information sharing and maintaining data integrity for common data items used in the various computerised systems, three data hubs have been established for the CSCP. They are the Land, People and Business Establishments data hubs. Steering committees normally chaired by the permanent secretaries of the related ministries are formed to set policy for the definition, collection, maintenance and sharing of the common data.

Land Data Hub. The Land Data Hub made possible the sharing of 26 categories of land related data among its 30 subscribers. The system was completed in 1994. It introduced an on-line remote access facility to four government departments, allowing users to display and print maps at remote locations using personal computers. The Hub's major users include the land masterplanning by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, planning of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) lines by the MRT Corporation, and the compilation and analysis of state land ownership statistics by the Ministry of Law's Land Office.

(d) Technology Showcases

AlphaNet. As part of the initiative towards a paperless Civil Service, AlphaNet, a conglomerate of email networks that offers convenient electronic communication among 230 administrative officers, was launched in December 94. The project was designed to increase departmental interaction and service-wide information sharing. AlphaNet was completed in a compressed time-frame of six months.

Technology Court. A high-tech court was introduced for the first time in Singapore this year. Using multimedia and digital audio recording technology, it allows trials to be conducted without the involved parties' physical presence in the courtroom and cases to be presented on multimedia. The Technology Court will also provide access to a host of information through Internet and LAWNET. The latter provides access to several useful services for the legal profession. These include the Case Law Database, the Subsidiary Legislation Database, the Lotbase of the Registry of Land Titles, the Registry of Companies and Businesses, Biznet, the Bankruptcy Search System, and the Supreme Court Notices System.

CORENET. The NCB, the Ministry of National Development, and the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) jointly kicked off the CORENET (Construction and Real Estate Network) project. It is an integrated network linking public and private sector organisations in the sector to automate regulatory approval of building plans, construction procurement process and exchange of information. CORENET involves the re-engineering of business processes in the sector to achieve a quantum leap in turnaround time, productivity and quality. It will cut down on turnaround time for developers, resulting in savings, higher productivity and better quality buildings.

Tampines Regional Library. It was designated a prototype library in the Library 2000 vision. In addition to its traditional facilities, the new library offers a wide CD-ROM collection, access to the Internet, Teleview and Biznet, self-service kiosks, and an IT gallery showcasing the latest developments in computer technology. The library uses IT extensively, facilitating discovery and learning to equip the public for the information age. The work prepares Singapore to move towards a digital library, which will greatly enhance Singapore as a learning nation.

On-Line Library Services. In a move to expand its reach through cyberspace, the National Library launched the first on-line library service known as NL.Line through the Internet. Internet users can now access information on the library, search through catalogues, place book reservations, renew book loans and request for home delivery beyond library operating hours, without ever having to leave their homes.

3.3 IT in Education

3.3.1 Education System is a key infrastructure for any nation building. Computer is used extensively to enable a more effective and efficient administration of the education system in Singapore. More importantly, computers are also being introduced as tools to enhance the learning and teaching experience of the students and teachers.

3.3.2 IT for Administration. Todate, 74 computer systems have been developed to support the administration in the Ministry of Education (MOE) headquarters, 198 primary and 151 secondary schools, and 14 junior colleges. Each year, MOE deals with a student population of about 440,000 and a teacher population of 21,000. Core information systems developed include the Pupil Information Systems, Teacher Information Systems, School Information Systems, Financial System, Examination and Pupil Posting Systems. Two mainframe computers are being deployed to support about 3000 on-line users.

3.3.3 School Link Project

. About $32 million has been provided to equip the schools with PCs and to link them through the local area networks and the Ministry computer network. Another $50 million is proposed to upgrade the application systems for schools and training of 21,000 teachers on the use of IT. Teachers will be able to access information about the pupil, school financial system, and share data and lesson material from the PC. It reduced tedious data transfer and consolidation as well as ensured consistency in reports to the Ministry of Education. In 1988, the School Link project has been given the Exemplary Systems in Government Award by the URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) in US.

3.3.4 Computer Based Learning (CBL). An average of 12 teachers per primary school has been trained through a 15-hour course to implement CBL. Another two teachers per school were trained as CBL coordinators through a 100-hour course. In the secondary schools, teachers are trained in 15-hour CBL courses according to their subject areas. The concentration today is to encourage CBL for subjects such as Mathematics, English and Science.

3.3.5 IT in Primary Schools. From 1995 onwards, the MOE will provide computer equipment as standard resources for all primary schools. Depending on the enrollment, every primary school will get one or two computer laboratories, with each laboratory having about 40 multimedia computers. The Singapore Totalisator Board has also set aside S$40 million to schools to buy computers. A programme to accelerate the use of IT in primary schools (AITP) was initiated to provide six pilot primary schools each with 100 personal computers and a wide range of multimedia educational courseware. Students will be able to use the computers for project work, enrichment of general knowledge and remedial lessons. The courseware will enable teachers to facilitate exploration and discovery by their students.

3.3.6 Students' and Teachers' Workbench (STW). The project is a collaborative effort between the MOE and the NCB. It aims to support learning by providing access to media-rich courseware, facilitating communication cum collaborative learning and providing students and teachers with tools designed for an enriched learning environment. Teachers will be able to customise teaching and assignments to suit the learning abilities of students. Students can gain access to vast amount of multimedia material on the systems to prepare for assignment and seek knowledge. When the system is eventually linked up to the national information infrastructure, students can learn from both schools and homes. The pilot project for STW will comprise of six secondary schools and courseware for secondary one physics. The prototype system will be ready in Jan 1996.

3.3.7 Internet in the Schools. Internet was introduced to the Ministry of Education, 14 junior colleges and 20 secondary schools through a dial-in service in July '94. Todate, 700 user accounts have been issue. By middle of 1996, the facility will be accessible by all schools in Singapore via dial up lines.

3.4 Internet Service for the Government

3.4.1 The Government Resources and Information Network Project (GRIN) promotes the use of Internet in the Civil Service. Internet provides a rich host of information which can be exploited to support information gathering, policy research and study, and disseminate government information locally and overseas. The NCB helps to bring Internet service to relevant users in the public service, conduct awareness seminars, user training, and helps packaging of information for the Civil Service. Today, several government ministries have already started to use Internet as a channel to communicate their ministries' programmes and publish relevant information and data electronically to the masses.

3.4.2 InfoMap, the Singapore one-stop home page at the Internet, provides linkages to several government web pages, and information about Singapore such as the Singapore's Facts and Figures, property prices, places of interest for the tourists, and on-line art exhibition. This information is published by the Department of Statistics, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, and Art Museum.

3.5 IDNet and IDEmail

3.5.1 IDNet, the inter-department network, set up seven years ago, connects the various mainframe and minicomputers throughout the Civil Service. IDNet enables the various departments in the Civil Service to share computer applications and data, as well as to exchange information. It is a key infrastructure to the one-stop non-stop services such as the OSCARS and the provision of electronic mail for the Civil Service (IDEmail).

3.5.2 The network today supports 83 service-wide applications used by more than 4500 civil servants. To meet growing user demands, a new network infrastructure is being evolved. IDNet II will run the TCP/IP protocol and support access to both Digital and IBM host computers which are widely used by the Civil Service. The number of users supported will be doubled to more than 10,000 when the enhanced IDEmail are fully implemented. The enhanced IDEmail will merge a diversity of email systems currently used by the various ministries in the Civil Service. It will then become a truly inter-departmental communications system.

Others

IDEmail

Inter-department

IDNet Applications

LAN-based Client

Server E-Mail OSCARS

Systems

Paper-less

Initiatives

3.5.3 Common Desktop Configuration. To ensure better and easier management of desktop resources in the Civil Service, and to allow civil servants to access to common civil service-wide applications, a guideline for standard desktop configuration is set. For example, Microsoft Windows for Workgroup and Microsoft Office suite of products are recommended.

3.6 Data Centre

3.6.1 The NCB Data Centre, formed in 1993, consolidates mainframe computer operations for several government departments, achieving economies of scale through shared system software and consolidation of skills. A post-implementation review to assess the benefits from establishing the Data Centre showed a 20% savings in recurrent costs. The Data Centre has been maintaining a high average uptime of over 99% since its inception.

3.6.2 Computing facilities in the Data Centre include three IBM mainframes with a total computing power of 360 MIPS, and a total disk storage of 1,440 Gbyte. It uses various databases such as DB2, IMS, ADABAS/NATURAL, and IDMS.

3.6.3 As at 1995, the Data Centre services more than 10 government ministries and departments. It supports about 340 application systems, 10,000 users, a network of more than 250 data lines, and 5,000 PC s and terminals. The Centre itself has about 100 staff.

3.7 Standards and Practices

3.7.1 Creating and maintaining high quality of application development remains one of the key challenges for the CSCP. Efforts in developing an application development methodology, computer-aided design tools, security measurements and quality certification are some of the steps taken so far.

3.7.2 Application Development and Maintenance Methodology (ADMM). The ADMM has been developed by the NCB and endorsed as the project management standard in the CSCP. The ADMM specifies requirements for software life cycle phases, processes and products for application systems. It is divided into ten phases, namely:

a. Project Initiation

b. Requirement Specification

c. Preliminary Design

d. Detailed Design

e. Programming

f. System Testing

g. User Acceptance Testing

h. Implementation

i. Implementation Support

j. Maintenance

The ADMM is applicable to all in-house developed application systems. Turnkey systems may also use ADMM where applicable. Quality assurance and quality control activities are built into this methodology. Annex 1 shows the various phases and their standards expected in a typical quality management plan.

3.7.3 CASE Tools. To achieve significant productivity, a major investment was made in Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools to improve productivity in software development and maintenance. Using CASE, better and faster quality of application systems will be delivered. A 25% productivity increase in software development and 100% productivity increase in software maintenance are expected. A S$6.4 million CASE contract has been awarded to IBM to implement Seer Technologies' High Productivity System (HPS) software to the CSCP over an eight-year period starting in 1995.

3.7.4 ISO9000 Certification. The quest for quality in the CSCP resulted in 6 CSCP sites having attained the ISO9000 Certification. The aim is for all sites to attain an ISO9000 certification.

4. New Thrusts for the CSCP

4.1 The CSCP has moved from implementing application systems for individual ministry to increase internal efficiency, to integrating inter-ministry applications, and ultimately to enable a one-stop non-stop government service. The vision of the CSCP is to bring timely and useful government information and services to the public in the most cost effective and convenience way. New initiatives currently undertaken by the CSCP are:

- Paperless Office

- Electronic Procurement System

- Business Process Re-engineering

- New delivery channels like Internet or information kiosks

- Use of emerging technologies like smart card

- Making government information more accessible to public

4.2 Under the paperless office initiative, there will be more extensive use of electronic mails and mails-enabled applications, electronic document management system, automated workflow and formflow, and better information sharing through workgroup computing. An electronic procurement network will be piloted to link the Pharmaceutical Department of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance with approximately 1,000 suppliers electronically. The system will enable electronic posting of government tenders, and require suppliers to submit tender information electronically. Eventually, the supplier may allow automatic replenishment of stocks by the suppliers when it goes low, and facilitated electronic payment.

4.3 Business process re-engineering for the ministries with IT as an enabling tool will be carried out. For example, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore has gone through a major business re-engineering exercise to streamline the tax processing procedures. The Immigration Department hopes to cut down the waiting time and improve turnaround time for the processing of employment passes for foreign workers and passport renewals through business process re-engineering .

4.4 A pilot project is being planned to use smart cards for frequent visitors to Singapore. It will be tried at the Woodlands Checkpoint by allowing the smart card holder to pass through an autogate without manual checking by the Immigration officers. There is also a plan to provide smart card for civil servants to facilitate secure electronic transactions for the government.

4.5 Plans are also underway to make government information more accessible to the public. For example, non-sensitive government data such as land use information, company information can be opened up for companies to provide value-added services to the public.

4.6 Under the National High Speed Testbed project, plans are being made to deliver a "Virtual Government" to the public. The objective of the Testbed is to provide a platform for testing applications that require high communication bandwidth. Information kiosks connecting to the testbed will allow public to make on-line interactive enquires or applications to the government departments via videoconferencing.

4.7 Looking ahead, the challenge for the CSCP is to respond to the fast changing technologies and new business environment that the Civil Service will be operating in. The NCB will change its roles to focus on planning and architecting civil service-wide infrastructure, applications and standards; supporting the CIOs in the various ministries; and linking government information systems to the private sector and the public. In other words, the NCB's new role will be the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the government.

4.8 The implementation and maintenance role of the NCB will soon be corporatised and privatised eventually. Ministries will soon have the flexibility to source from the industry the best IT providers to implement their computerised systems. The corporatised entity will be subject to the commercial discipline. Therefore it will be able to achieve greater efficiency in its resource utilisation, and greater flexibility to enter into strategic alliances with other IT vendors or users.

5. Conclusion

The Singapore government has announced the IT2000 plan in 1992. The vision is to evolve Singapore into an intelligent island where IT will be used in every facet of the society, be it at home, in the school, or at the workplace. A national information infrastructure will be evolved to support this pervasive use of IT anywhere anytime. The public services information infrastructure and the key applications in education, library, healthcare etc will form the core services to evolve Singapore into an intelligent island. The 14 years of experiences and systems development know-how accumulated in the CSCP will prepare Singapore in good stead to usher in the information age.