Transforming Your Business Through Innovation
- By Paul Mah
- May 02, 2023
From developing new products and services to enhancing new ones, innovation is a vital linchpin for businesses in today’s fast-paced world. But how can organizations find time to not only innovate but to do so pervasively? And how are public sector agencies in Singapore setting a precedent – and what are some lessons that we can draw from them?
At a panel discussion held on the first day of the week-long IBM TechFest titled “Catalyst for Innovation”, panelists from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), and IBM shared their thoughts about how innovation has shaped their respective organizations.
Laying the groundwork for innovation
For Jennifer Muncy, vice president of Supply Chain Engineering at IBM, the pandemic underscored how businesses must constantly explore more efficient ways of leveraging technology. Indeed, it was technology that helped her team keep manufacturing running during the pandemic after an initial two-week work-from-home directive went on for another 102 weeks.
As the team grappled with social distancing measures and lockdowns, they turned to Cobots to ease workloads. To plug gaps in manufacturing, AI-powered systems were deployed to perform visual inspections of systems before shipping them to clients. Finally, augmented reality technology also played an important role to help engineers troubleshoot and overcome technical issues with suppliers stymied by travel restrictions.
While Muncy freely acknowledged that it was the pandemic that forced everyone to embrace technology, it would not have been possible without the groundwork that was laid much earlier.
“We developed the [technologies we used during the pandemic] for different reasons. I didn't envision that we would need them to keep production running; that we wouldn’t be able to get employees working in close proximity and still maintain a safe environment,” explained Muncy.
“The proof-of-concept work was completed before the pandemic and made it possible for us to pull solutions off the shelf and rapidly implement them in production during that very challenging time. While the challenges we face post-pandemic are different, I think every company needs to think deeper about how they can prepare – even if they don't necessarily know what you are preparing for yet.”
A culture of innovation
Young Ern Ling, the Deputy Commissioner (Future Technology and Public Safety) at SCDF recounted the disruption that stemmed from the pandemic such as a doubling in the number of calls for ambulances. Despite that, the team was able to roll out innovation projects on schedule.
“We implemented our seventh-generation ambulances and OMNII [Operational Medical Networks Informatics Integrator] platform, which allowed us to transmit data between the ambulance and the hospitals. With the system, patients are pre-registered on the way to the hospital, and we can send pictures and videos to prepare operating theatres ahead of time.”
Ling credited the success to factors such as having an innovation office to oversee innovation efforts across the force, the appointing of innovation champions to bring people together, and a framework designed to encourage sustained innovation. He notes how a substantial amount of effort revolves around communication and change management.
“A lot of effort was made in getting feedback from the ground and identifying pain points. How can we improve the workflows of our emergency medical services? What would the emergency medical technicians and paramedics want to see in the system? When people are clear about how a new system will address their challenges and benefit them in the long term, they are more incentivized to bite the bullet and push through with the implementation.”
“There has also been a lot of change management by middle managers to communicate and provide assurance to our people. It is important that our projects go through a process of communicating with stakeholders through various platforms such as workshops and dialogue sessions. For innovation to be pervasive, we need to build it into the culture of the organization,” Ling summed up.
Innovation as a multiplier
Innovation is a key enabler to help agencies like IMDA reach beyond our shores and make a global impact for Singapore, says David Khoo, a Deputy Director (5G Program) at IMDA. Yet innovation doesn’t happen by chance, and must be curated and planned for, he notes. This is especially the case for emerging technologies that might take many years to become commercially viable.
Khoo cited the 5G Innovation Program and efforts by IMDA to help enterprises drive innovation with 5G as one model that organizations can potentially adopt: “We started with solution research, which we did by collaborating with IHLs (Institutions of Higher Learning). Then we proceeded to industry trials with partners such as IBM and Samsung, to validate our initial findings.”
“It doesn't just stop there. IMDA did Phase Three where we rolled out what we call open live testbeds where enterprises can try and refine the solutions in the marketplace. Finally, the current Phase Four – which is where we are at today – sees us taking industry refined solutions into commercialization,” he said.
Khoo ticked off three pillars that he felt are vital to success: human capital, business transformation, and the ability to leverage emerging technology to drive innovation.
Plan ahead, get started now
Finally, it is vital that organizations plan ahead, says Ling, who shared that SCDF plans “five to eight years” ahead. “A lot of our systems today are no longer simple, siloed systems; they are large scale systems that are highly interconnected. To bring them to the next level, you need to plan forward and make the value proposition very clear,” he said.
Muncy, who professes to spend a lot of time “dancing with finance” thinks getting the resources to get started is often the most difficult. “You have to come up with an introduction point for technology where you can make the case with finance, to get seed money, so you can generate a proof of concept. So that often is the most challenging part of introducing any new technology.”
It can be highly rewarding, however. “Once you have the seed technology elements and you start to deploy them, it is like giving water to someone who is extremely thirsty. When we deployed our first robot, I got a call the second week: They wanted to know when they can have five more!”
“I think it's there's a period where it's kind of painful, and just need to find your introduction point. It doesn't need to be huge; it doesn't need to be the end game on step one. Think about a minimum viable product, find a way to negotiate that with finance, then work to get it out,” she concluded.
Paul Mah is the editor of DSAITrends. A former system administrator, programmer, and IT lecturer, he enjoys writing both code and prose. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/Smileus
Paul Mah
Paul Mah is the editor of DSAITrends, where he report on the latest developments in data science and AI. A former system administrator, programmer, and IT lecturer, he enjoys writing both code and prose.