SHAPING THE ICT LANDSCAPE

Our extensive data infrastructure is the backbone of our solutions. To deliver unrivalled and end-to-end connectivity across the world, it is important for us to continually invest in and enhance our infrastructures.

Our global coverage was expanded during the year by deepening our presence in China, India and the US. We now have over 200 points of presence (POPs) in 160 cities. Singtel was also part of the consortium that launched the Southeast Asia Japan Cable system, which, together with the Unity cable system, offers the fastest available transmission speed to deliver the lowest latency connectivity between Asia and the US.

To enhance our infocomm technology (ICT) solutions, we introduced a comprehensive managed mobility service to deliver consistency in solutions, services and support for enterprises across Asia Pacific. Our one-stop service allows enterprises to simplify regional procurement, contract negotiation, policy and spend management, mobile application services and roaming.

We continued to be the leader for International Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) and International Ethernet-Line in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, from January to June 2013¹. We were also recognised as a leader for Datacenter and Hosted Cloud Services in Asia Pacific, scoring highest in capabilities according to the IDC 2013 MarketScape report.²

INNOVATING TO CREATE BUSINESS ADVANTAGE

Innovation is a constant for Group Enterprise. It is key to ensuring that we deliver solutions that give our customers a competitive advantage. The aggregation of leading-edge technologies, including sensing, social, analytics, security, cloud and networks, is the foundation of our offering to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), large multinational corporations (MNCs) and governments.

Our strategy in the increasingly complex cyber security environment is based on next-generation predictive, responsive and recovery capabilities. Our ability to apply the best technologies is critical to scalable security services.

We also aim to become the preferred cloud computing partner in the region, with an expanded suite of multi-tenanted private cloud, hybrid cloud and cloud professional services capabilities.

In FY2013, we introduced Unified Communications-as-a-Service in Asia Pacific to deliver seamless communications and collaboration services. The pay-per-user solution is cost-effective for enterprises, and its rich media collaboration tools allow for faster decision making, leading to greater productivity.

We joined the Bridge Machine-to-Machine (M2M) alliance, and can now provide MNCs with quick worldwide deployment of connected devices and machines. This delivers an uninterrupted platform, allowing MNCs in the retail, electronics, transportation, health, energy and manufacturing sectors to connect and exchange information more cost effectively.

For MNCs in the shipping industry, we introduced VoiceLink, an award-winning innovation that allows crew members to connect with loved ones through Facebook and e-greetings, and gain access to the latest news. For enterprises in the retail industry, our Video Analytics-as-a-Service solution converts videos into real-time data. This helps retailers better understand shopper behaviour and manage their storefronts.

For SMEs, we introduced our new cloud-based Fibre Broadband Security Suite, which protects the IT networks of SMEs from online threats. This suite is unique as it intercepts and eliminates security threats in the internet cloud before they even have the chance to reach a company's IT network. We are also working with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore to help SMEs manage their home-based workforce and increase their productivity through technology solutions and services.

Our award-winning myBusiness portal for SMEs in Singapore has expanded its capabilities. With the new group buy function, SMEs gain economies of scale and enjoy deeper discounts. The portal was also improved with an experts online section, where SMEs can gain business insights from industry practitioners.

For governments, we led efforts to establish Singapore as a regional computing hub. We worked with the Singapore government to offer G-Cloud, bringing an entire nation onto the cloud with one of the most efficient and secure public service systems worldwide.

We are also working with Singapore's Ministry of Education to deliver a web-based interactive mother tongue language portal that uses cloud-based voice analytics technologies to help students from primary to junior college levels improve their mother tongue language skills.

CREATING SAFER, SMARTER CITIES

As the world becomes more connected, enterprises and government agencies are incorporating new technologies into a complete service delivery network for their customers. At Group Enterprise, we help shape future urban cities that respond to the needs of customers, citizens and city administrators.

Our Solutions for an Urbanised Future (SURF) initiative was developed for that purpose. Utilising new technologies such as big data and analytics, M2M communications, sensing technology, social networking and mobility technologies, SURF aims to enhance services in education, healthcare, transport and other key industry sectors. These new technologies complement and enhance our solution offerings to customers. Since introducing SURF in 2012, we have made good progress towards this vision.

In Singapore, we participated in various Call-for-Collaboration projects with the government, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and effectiveness through our intelligent platform of automated sensors and aggregated information, which allow analytical insights and complex event processing in real time.

In China, we are providing e-government solutions across various provinces and cities. We have also identified potential development areas in smart education campuses, digital hospitals and intelligent transport systems.

To further develop our data analytics capability, we collaborated with the Institute for Infocomm Research, a member of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore, to build our business intelligence capabilities for harnessing enterprise data for actionable, timely and predictive insights.

ENHANCING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Enterprise customers require their operations across different locations to be interconnected. They also prefer to have a single point of contact regardless of where they are or which office they are from. To enhance our global customer service delivery commitment, we introduced the one-stop Technical Assistance Centre. The centre is a single point of contact for our customers' IT and communications support across the region for faster post-sale support. We also introduced a web-based portal for customers to manage and track the status of reported incidents.

Our customer-centric culture and absolute focus on an enhanced customer experience are pursued relentlessly, and we are inspired to always do better.