23 October 2012 - Fourteen organisations and companies, big and small, and from a wide range of sectors, received Singapore's highest accolade for infocomm innovation, the National Infocomm Awards (NIA), from Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, at a Gala Dinner this evening.
Singapore, 23 October 2012 | For Immediate Release
Fourteen organisations and companies, big and small, and from a wide range of sectors, received Singapore's highest accolade for infocomm innovation, the National Infocomm Awards (NIA), from Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, at a Gala Dinner this evening. The NIA 2012 winners have undergone an intense competition involving 266 nominees and a robust and stringent evaluation process comprising a good representation of judges from the infocomm industry, to be recognised tonight for their outstanding infocomm achievements.
Raising productivity and enhancing customer service delivery were clearly seen as the main pull factors for innovation excellence among the winners of this year's Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology award category. Changi Airport Group (CAG) harnessed the One Changi - Customer, Tenant and Partner Relationship Management solution to enable seamless collaboration between CAG, its partners and tenants, and ultimately, the delivery of a world-class customer service to the airport passengers and general public. Similarly, for the Citi Innovation Lab, the Interactive Solutions leverage gesture-based interactions and engaging graphics, to transform the way the bank engages their clients.
This year's public sector winners also championed a unified objective to capitalise infocomm innovation to deliver better public service to citizens and their stakeholders. In a bid to enhance patient safety, KK Women's and Children's Hospital innovatively developed the idea of harnessing RFID technology to keep track of the movement of surgical gauzes and instruments within the operating theatre (Surgical Counting and Operating Theatre Tracking System). Singapore Prison Service, on the other hand, seeks to help inmates inculcate a sense of personal responsibility and ownership of their rehabilitation through the Inmate Self-Service Kiosk, which enables them to carry out routine activities, such as printing personalised letter forms to their loved ones, on their own.
This year's nominations from the SMEs category also saw these smaller companies increasingly tapping on latest technologies such as cloud solutions and mobile applications, in their pursuit for business growth and success. The winner of this category, aSpecial Media uses a Proprietary Behavioural Targeting Engine to increase its efficiency in attaining real-time key audience insights for precise content personalisation and ad targeting.
In the category of Most Innovative Infocomm Product/Service, this year witnessed many innovative tech start-ups leveraging cloud, data analytics, near field communication and smart mobility to develop interesting infocomm solutions that are geared towards solving modern day business problems and meeting user demands and needs. The judges also saw the potential in many of these innovations to scale beyond Singapore to the regional and global markets. The winners of this category are iTwin, a plug-and-play device - comprising two identical halves - that provides a secure and private environment for remote file access, and Puffersoft Labs' Enterprise Service Provisioning which applies reverse cloud technology to deliver all the benefits of Desktop Virtualisation without the overheads.
"This year's NIA submissions reflect the importance of ICT as an innovation enabler in businesses, government and the community. We see ICT enterprises making use of emerging technologies to develop new infocomm solutions. Organisations continue to find new and creative ways to apply technologies to improve service delivery, increase productivity or help customers make better informed decisions. The panel of judges were impressed by the nominees' enthusiasm and passion for innovation. We look forward to seeing more organisations and companies in Singapore leveraging on innovation through infocomm for greater success in the years to come," said Mr Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer, IDA and co-chairman of NIA 2012 Steering Committee.
"This year's winners have shown great potential to establish themselves as infocomm thought leaders in their own right. We are proud to see our local ICT companies, including new start-ups, developing unique and out-of-the-box infocomm solutions, as well as non-ICT sectors leveraging new possibilities powered by infocomm to generate value and impact to our industry and society," said Mr Eddie Chau, Chairman, SiTF and co-chairman of the NIA 2012 Steering Committee.
The list of this year's winners, merit award recipients and details of the winning projects are found in Annex A (130.14KB). The NIA is a biennial series of national-level awards, jointly organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) to recognise organisations and companies which have exemplified the spirit of innovation, in their development of new infocomm products and services, or their use of infocomm technology to achieve excellence. Nominations were evaluated by two evaluation committees and a panel of judges. The evaluation process considered criteria including innovativeness, technology used, ease of implementation, scale of use, market presence and business impact.
ISSUED BY CORPORATE AND MARKETING COMMUNICATION DIVISION
INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE
Related Resources:
- Annex A: List of Winners, Merit Award Recipients and Project Descriptions (130.14KB)
- Annex B: Factsheet about the National Infocomm Awards (35.19KB)
About Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA)
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is committed to growing Singapore into a dynamic global infocomm hub. IDA uses an integrated approach to developing infocommunications in Singapore. This involves nurturing a competitive telecoms market as well as a conducive business environment with programmes and schemes for both local and international companies. For more news and information, visit www.ida.gov.sg.
About Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF)
Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) is Singapore infocomm industry association, which brings corporate members ranging from local startups to establish MNCs. SiTF works with various stakeholders in the ICT industry to address ICT-related issues and to promote emerging technologies in areas such as Digital Media, Cloud Computing, Green IT, Wireless, Security and Governance.
SiTF's charter is to serve as the voice of the Singapore infocomm industry and to provide members with opportunities to increase their market presence and business reach. Among the key events initiated by SiTF are the SiTF Golf Classic, SiTF Awards, SITEX and Asia Pacific ICT Summit (APICTS). The key initiatives by SiTF include MatchiT, 123JumpStart, SiTF Academy and administering the 'Infocomm Singapore' brand.
For more information on SiTF, please visit www.sitf.org.sg.
For media clarifications, please contact:
IDA
Teresa Tan (Ms)
Assistant Manager, Corporate and Marketing Communication
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Tel: +65 6211 1745
E-mail: teresa_tan@imda.gov.sg
Tan Sock Gim (Ms)
Manager, Corporate and Marketing Communication
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Tel: +65 6211 1350
E-mail: tan_sock_gim@imda.gov.sg
SiTF
Cheam Gim Chng (Ms)
Manager, Marketing & Sponsorship
Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF)
Tel: +65 6325 9812
Email: gim@sitf.org.sg
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