The Future Has Arrived in Singapore

While I traipse about the isles and inlets here in Singapore, my colleague Delaney Turner is on the ground in Orlando, Fla., for the annual Gartner Symposium ITxpo.

Delaney posted this dispatch providing an overview of what folks can expect to hear about IBM Software technologies at this year’s IT conclave, and it looks a lot like what customers will be hearing here in Singapore at IBM InterConnect 2013: how mobile, cloud computing, social business, and big-data and analytics are providing new recipes for business opportunity and customer-oriented technology strategies.

Which makes it all the more interesting when you consider new tech spending priorities, as conveyed by Gartner.

Click to enlarge. A nighttime view from atop the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore, the government of which has invested heavily in broadband and related technologies and services to improve the lives of its citizens and foster productivity across the city-state.
(Source: Todd Watson)

@Ron_Collier recently tweeted a graphic of Gartner’s Top 3 New Spending Priorities for 2014, and it went something like this:

• BI and Analytics
  


• Mobile
  


• ERP
  


• Infrastructure and Datacenter
  


• Cloud
  


• Security, Risk, Compliance
  


• CRM
  


• Digital Marketing, Social, E-Commerce
  


• Networking/Communications
  


• Applications Modernization

Here’s my Turbo Translation of that Top 10: I want to know more about my ever-increasing mobile consumers, while making sure my ERP systems are optimized to run more efficiently in my datacenter and on the cloud, in a secure manner that allows to better serve those clients via the digital and social mechanisms that they prefer via my optimized network and while leveraging and modernizing my legacy IT investments.

While attending IBM’s inaugural InterConnect last October here in Singapore, I wrote in a blog post that Singapore presented a good example for technology modernization, via its “Intelligent Nation 2015,” a 10-year master plan by the Singaporean Government intended to help this city-state evolve “into a global city, universally recognized as an enviable synthesis of technology, infrastructure, enterprise and manpower.”

A big vision, certainly, but the results are already beginning to pay off, and I am attaching an infographic that the Singapore government shared in its overview about the plan.

Click to enlarge. In May 2005, a high-level steering committee convened to spearhead the development of Singapore’s 10-year master plan to grow the infocomm sector and to use infocomm technologies to enhance the competitiveness of key economic sectors and build a well-connected society. iN2015 is a living blueprint, jointly developed with the people and the private sectors, to navigate Singapore’s exhilarating transition into An Intelligent Nation, A Global City, Powered By Infocomm. The plans intended to fuel creativity and enable innovation among businesses and individuals by providing an infocomm platform that supports enterprise and talent. It will connect businesses, individuals, and communities, giving them the ability to harness resources and capabilities across geographies. iN2015 will be the conduit to enable access to the world’s resources and for Singapore to export her ideas, products and services to the global marketplace.

Talk about a Smarter City-State — I already mentioned how fast my Internet access was here at the Marina Bay Sands, and the infographic informs us that more than 95 percent of homes and businesses can enjoy ultra-fast connectivity with its Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network.

And that in-building mobile coverage is going to be enhanced to cover more than 85 percent of the buildings here.

And that its eCitizen portal provides first-stop access to cross-agency content and over 400 government e-services.

And the progress goes on and on…

But let’s not just take their word for these advancements.

I ran into a colleague of mine earlier today at the Sands Convention Center who moved to Singapore last April from Eastern Europe.

I hadn’t known he’d moved here, so I asked him about the transition — how was his adjustment?

He explained that it had been quite easy, that the Singaporean Government has gone out of its way to make it very easy for one to become a resident here.

“To get my electricity turned on,” he explained, as an example, “I simply went to a web portal and made the request.” Not long after, his power was turned on in his new flat.

From his lips to Uncle Sam’s ears!

At a time when our US Congress is at a legislative impasse and can’t seem to even pass a budget, or citizens can’t get onto the new web-based healthcare exchanges to sign up for healthcare plans — as the rest of the world looks on and shakes its collective head — one can’t help but look at a government like Singapore and marvel at the investments in futuristic technology and services that enrich its citizens’ lives, saving everyone (including the government) both time and money.

But that’s just the thing, it’s not futuristic — this future has already arrived.

And though it may not quite live up to the future imagined by George Jetson and his dog Elroy, the idea of Singapore as a futuristic utopia doesn’t seem to be that far off, especially when compared to western democracies largely still enslaved to the moneyed partisan politics of no compromise.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a proud citizen of the good ol’ US of A. and the Republic of Texas (where, to be fair, we do have SOME public services delivered via web-based mechanisms that actually work), but every time I travel Eastward I can’t help but notice that there are better, smarter ways of doing things, and places like Singapore (and other places here in the Asia-Pacific arena) are actually doing them, as opposed to simply talking about them.

The good news is, over the next several days, I expect to hear a narrative from IBM leaders that will outline both the broad vision and the beginning of the particulars that will define “A New Era of Smart,” a vision that can serve as an information superhighway roadmap for other governments and businesses around the globe.

Most notably, IBM chairman, president, and CEO Ginni Rometty will share her insights into the emergence of an entirely different type of enterprise, one that is smarter, more authentic, more competitive, and better able to lead in this new era.

As Rometty articulated earlier this year before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, data is the new basis for competitive advantage in every industry, and constitutes a vast new natural resource that holds the potential to drive significant growth and progress.

This data is being generated by the instrumentation and interconnection of the planet and the confluence of mobile, social and cloud technologies, a confluence that, if an organization is listening and acting appropriately in response, can help leaders make better decisions and create more value both for their clients and their businesses.

Stay tuned here at the Turbo blog for extensive coverage of IBM InterConnect, and don’t forget that you can follow the action remotely on Twitter via hashtag #IBMInterConnect.

The Future Has Arrived in Singapore