Starting 'anew' from the old
TO encourage innovation in the public sector, regional governments sometimes turn to older systems and technologies in a bid to develop new processes and services.
As public sector lead executive for IBM global business services in Asean and South Asia, Krishna Giri can attest to such technology transformation journeys.
While the terms innovation and old may seem like polar opposites, he has seen how new services and processes can be created from 'age-old' technologies like the Internet.
Regional governments are definitely on an innovation drive, but Mr Giri says this must be accompanied by tweaks to accompanying processes and people to work.
Small companies should seize the opportunities that this new innovation movement brings, says Raju Chellam, Asia-Pacific vice-president of research firm Access Markets International (AMI) Partners.
An abundance of schemes are available from governments, especially in Singapore, to help smaller companies tap technology systems and processes.
In a recent interview with BizIT, IBM's Mr Giri and AMI's Mr Chellam shed light on how innovation can be applied in the public sector and how SMEs can gain from the government's new innovation imperative.
Q: The government sector has always relied on tried-and-tested approaches. Is there room for innovation and out-of-the-box thinking?
Mr Giri: Innovation is not to be confused with invention. Innovation refers to the use of new processes and technologies for better client and citizen services. For the past few years, we have been witnessing innovation in all sectors. A classic innovation example would be Apple with its iPods and iPhones.
Another example is the delivery of information and services to citizens through the use of various e-government services. Singapore is also a great example in continuously innovating itself.
Q: Are you seeing a greater drive towards IT innovation in Singapore and among regional governments?
Mr Giri: We have seen a greater focus on IT innovation. As I mentioned, governments are opening up e-services to customers and citizens. A case in point is the e-filing of tax returns in Singapore, where 100 per cent of personal income tax returns are filed online.
Now, this may be an application of existing technology, but attempting and succeeding in moving from manual to 100 per cent filing of documents for the entire citizen population is innovation on a great scale.
Governments are definitely being more innovative in the use of technology. This is true not only for forward-looking governments like Singapore, but also for governments who have been embracing IT of late.
I will give a simple example. Providing all the application forms on the Web may be using a tried and tested technology, but to the users of these services, it is a tremendous innovation which benefits them to a great extent.
Q: Can you provide pointers on how a government can start looking at IT innovation? Where does it start and what pitfalls should it avoid?
Mr Giri: There are two ways it can start - top down and bottom up. At the highest level, government leaders can set the direction, the objectives that are to be met through use of IT and set some broad targets. This can be done from taking inputs from the best practices of the private sector and the public sector on innovation in information and service delivery.
There is also a need to get ideas from the working level. The person who is delivering the service to the citizen can be a tremendous source of input on how this service can be improved, while reducing the operational cost.
This can be synthesised into an action plan, like the e-Government Action Plan set by the Singapore government. Individual agencies can define their plan based on the broad plan and execute projects, as per the plan.
The most common pitfall is not to take a holistic view. Innovation in IT must go with innovation in process and people aspects. Do you think the success in e-filing of tax returns in Singapore would have been possible without the help of community centres to help people to use the system?
This is classic innovation where an existing infrastructure is used to realise a change brought about by IT.
Q: Are there opportunities for SMEs to seize as part of this innovation drive?
Mr Chellam: Surely. The Singapore government is one of the most pro-business, most forward-looking and most helpful entities that Singapore-based SMEs can tap into.
Many SMEs in Singapore don't want to take the time and trouble to check out the schemes available from government agencies such as the Infocomm Development Authority, the Economic Development Board, the Media Development Authority, Spring Singapore and others and are therefore working below a level of efficiency they may otherwise get.
Q: How can SMEs align themselves with the government's innovation movement?
Mr Chellam: In three ways - by being aware of the numerous schemes available, by joining associations like ASME (Association for Small and Medium Enterprises), SiTF (Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation) and SCS (Singapore Computer Society) where they can network and find out how other SMEs have made use of innovation-oriented schemes, and by setting up rewards for employees, suppliers or customers that offer innovative ideas or processes or systems that save them money, time or resources.
The most important thing required is a change in attitude. Innovation is not a push-button device where you drop a coin, push a button and out comes an innovative idea or process.
Innovation is a continuous process in a company's entire value chain, and unless there are rewards and recognition for ideas that are implemented and work, innovation will remain a cliche.