Supporting the recognition of talent

The sponsors of the SiTF Awards regard them as a platform to identify innovation within Singapore's ICT sector, reports VINCENT WEETHE SiTF Awards are seen by key sponsors such as ST Electronics, StarHub, Keppel T&T and BT Global Services as a good platform to recognise talent and innovation within the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.self storage These sponsors also see it as a way to contribute back to the community."The Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) Awards recognise excellence across the breadth of Singapore's vibrant infocomm technology industry. The awards help to spur entrepreneurship, as well as innovation not only among companies, small and large, but more importantly, among the educational institutions. We hope to see that the seed of innovation will continue to germinate these young innovators, invigorating our ICT industry," says Keppel T&T CEO Pang Hee Hon. "As a provider of data centre co-location services, Keppel T&T is happy to support the SiTF Awards as they help to celebrate the achievements of our ICT talents, spur innovation and serve as a platform for exchange and collaboration.""Singapore has a highly collaborative ICT community with mentoring and learning shared at all levels. This informal networking is important as fostering innovation at a grassroots level brings out some of the most cutting-edge ideas. Some of those cutting-edge ideas then go on to become entrants into the SiTF Awards which provide an excellent platform for the celebration of excellence and an opportunity for entrepreneurs to network across all levels of the ICT industry in Singapore. At a personal level, I enjoy the opportunity to see what's new and upcoming in the ICT industry while catching up with some old friends," says Wong Wai Meng, BT Global Services vice-president, BT Advise, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Turkey."It's as simple as BT Global Services wanting to make a positive contribution to society; our participation in the SiTF Awards is a reflection of this. BT Global Services has a strong reputation for giving back. In fact, we invest one per cent of our annual pre-tax profits into programmes which benefit communities and the environment. The returns we see are broader than might first be thought; by supporting organisations like SiTF for the awards we ensure that new talent is fostered," he adds.For StarHub's chief commercial officer Kevin Lim, the awards serve as a recognition of the efforts and achievements in the area of ICM (information, communications and media) and act as an enabler for many of these efforts which may otherwise go unnoticed and unrecognised. "The awards serve to recognise these efforts and achievements and, hopefully, motivate others to continue to strive for excellence in their field and in so doing, help develop the ICM industry," he says."StarHub is a beneficiary of past efforts and accomplishments in ICM and will continue to benefit from advancement in technology, which we use to serve our customers. We as a company do not believe we are independent for we are all contributors and products of the successful eco-systems that we belong to. We must continue to give back to the industry, not only to continue receiving the returns but to feed the eco-system and grow it. The awards are but one of the many activities which we engage in to achieve this end-goal," Mr Lim points out."The SiTF Awards recognise innovative local developed solutions, not just from the ICM industries but also from the end-users. This provides a form of encouragement for companies and end-user organisations to continue to develop interesting solutions that are beneficial to the industry at large, leveraging on innovations and technologies to improve processes and increase productivity. It is something we can be proud of and can be shared. The SiTF Awards provide the platform for this showcase at the national level," says Andrew Chow, president, ST Electronics (Infocomm Systems).Looking ahead to future trends and the innovations that will be required to meet these needs, demands for mobile apps and greater seamlessness in mobile communications as well as the drive towards Big Data emerged as key areas."Singapore's high mobile technology penetration rate, among the highest in the world, is spurring the demand for more and better mobile applications. Not only are more people using mobile applications for social networking, but they are using it as an interfamini storagee for shopping, banking, and even trading of shares. This trend is extraordinary as it changes the landscape of the ICT industry," notes Keppel's Mr Pang."One of the direct outcomes is that there is now an unprecedented volume of data flow. These data, due to the increasing demands of consumers and more stringent requirements of regulators, need to be housed in higher-quality data centres. Consequently, as a provider of data centre co-location services and business contingency services in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK, we are keenly aware of and are tapping into the opportunities offered by this global trend of demand outstripping supply," he adds."We see businesses looking to areas which will decrease complexity, reduce costs and help them maintain compliance. The focus is increasingly about managing risk and delivering business outcomes rather than specific technologies. The move to cloud, collaboration and use of mobility solutions, as well as a continued focus on security, are where we really see growth," says BT Global's Mr Wong."True mobility with seamless user experience is gaining real momentum as technologies and other forces are aligning. The proliferation of smart mobile devices is driving innovation in 'cloud', which enables mobility. The mobile first approach is increasingly being adopted and is a sign of the changing trends. People will truly be connected anytime, anywhere, on any device and do whatever they need to," explains StarHub's Mr Lim.The drive towards Big Data and the accompanying challenges is another area that will become more prominent in the future. "One of the biggest developments we see that is changing the way we look at information is Big Data. Businesses are starting to realise the potential of all the huge amounts of data that they have and the possibilities of harnessing them to drive productivity and/or to create new services," says Mr Pang."What is also driving the explosion of data is the fast-developing Internet of Things. In the Internet of Humans that we all are familiar with, individuals interact and communicate with individuals; humans are aided by machines in processing information and making decisions. In the Internet of Things, machines will communicate with machines and will have the artificial intelligence to process information and make decisions on behalf of humans. For example, sensors on board refrigerated trucks will continuously feed information on storage temperatures in the vehicles to a central system that analyses temperature fluctuations; the central system then determines whether the logistics vehicles need to be serviced and makes arrangements autonomously with the maintenance facilities," he elaborates. "This explosion in Big Data fuels the need for the development of new business analytic tools that are intuitive and easy to use. In addition, the underlying infrastructure will need to be upgraded to structure and handle the efficient and timely crunching of the huge amounts of data."StarHub's Mr Lim also sees similar trends coming to the fore in the future. "The next era, which is already taking shape, is in the area of Big Data and also the Internet of Things. Not only will people be connected but, everything. This will lead to more data access than ever before and with analytics, a deeper insight into customer behaviour, propensity, cause and effects, etc. We will know more, do more with less, predict, prevent and the list goes on. The future is so exciting, and what's more exciting is that it is already at our doorstep," he points out.Greater network integration was one of the areas that BT Global pointed out and is an area it is actively doing research on. "Something that we're working on actively through our innovation hub in Adastral Park is software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV). This brings to the world of networks the same concepts that virtualisation brought to the computing world and is just one more example of the areas converging. NFV and SDN are highly complementary; they are mutually beneficial but not dependent on each other (NFV can be deployed without SDN and vice versa). We see NFV being the more immediate of the two and are excited that it has the capacity to significantly reduce time to market, minimises capex outlay, and can potentially decrease space and power consumption. A real game-changer for the world of networks," adds Mr Wong.迷你倉