IBM in Singapore An Overview IBM in Singapore An Overview
IBM in Singapore An Overview 2 60 years of making Singapore work better IBM has always had a strong heritage of making substantive contributions to communities in which we work and live, including Singapore. Since IBM began operating in Singapore in 1953 with just three employees, our presence and investments in Singapore have grown many times over in size and variety. We have also actively aligned both our business and corporate citizenship activities to the national agenda including improving liveability and sustainability in urban environments, cultivating futureproof skills and talents, and helping to build inclusive communities. In doing so, our efforts and contributions have been recognised by both public and private organisations, including most recently being awarded the Distinguished Partners in Progress Award for 2012 by the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB). Today, IBM continues to make strategic investments in Singapore as part of our globally integrated enterprise strategy to deliver higher value to clients. These investments are fully aligned with Singapore s vision to transform from a manufacturing- to a service-based economy including a S$90m manufacturing facility for IBM s System z mainframes and high-end POWER systems, the Smarter Cities Research Collaboratory, a S$47m Asia Pacific Cloud Computing Data Centre, and a Global Services Integration Hub to provide decision-making and response around services engagements for our clients around the world. In helping Singapore leverage Data as a new natural resource, IBM set up in August 2012 a Supply Chain Analytics Centre of Competency to build the nation s bench strength in data analytics, a critical capability for unlocking the decision-making power of data. In April 2013, IBM also collaborated with the National University of Singapore (NUS) to jointly establish the NUS Centre for Business Analytics to build long-term, world-class capabilities to support Singapore s strategic economic focus on business analytics. As a corporate citizen, IBM is active in serving the local community. In 2012, Singapore s Jurong Lake District was a grant recipient of the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge. The grant has allowed work by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, EDB and partner agencies together with a team of IBM experts on innovative solutions to enhance Jurong Lake District as a smart, sustainable and connected district. So, while IBM Singapore approaches its 60th year with no small measure of pride, we do so with an even greater quantity of optimism. For this year marks the beginning of the future. A future that holds enormous promise for both IBM and Singapore as we are uniquely positioned to deliver the benefits of Data a vast new natural resource. Together, we can create economic and societal value of unlimited potential to help Singapore advance its national agenda of transforming into an intelligent nation and global city of excellence. Janet Ang Managing Director IBM Singapore
IBM in Singapore An Overview 3 Building cities of tomorrow Smarter Cities: As one of the most advanced cities with extremely high demands placed on its urban infrastructure, Singapore serves as an ideal Living Lab for smarter cities. The country also hosts the biennial World Cities Summit through which IBM continues to own the Smarter Cities agenda with participating global government leaders and industry experts by showcasing insights from over 2,000 smarter cities projects worldwide, and demonstrating how these smarter cities are leveraging technology to make better decisions, anticipate problems, and coordinate resources to operate effectively. Smarter Environment: Another initiative that leverages Singapore as a Living Lab for smarter cities is the IBM Smarter Cities Research Collaboratory (Collab), which was established in 2010 to collaborate with government agencies, universities, institutions, and enterprises to jointly work on solving real-world urban problems. In 2012, the Collab announced a partnership with the National Environment Agency to focus on improving environmental services related to air, weather, and public health by applying and harnessing advanced analytics to enable predictive insights and effective response to poor air quality, significant weather events, dengue outbreaks, and early detection of potential health management issues such as food poisoning incidents. Smarter Transport: IBM also continues its longstanding collaboration with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to make Singapore a global leader in public transport. In recognition of IBM s contributions, LTA awarded IBM the Land Transport Excellence Award for Best Collaboration Partner in 2012. In addition to earlier successes such as the Traffic Prediction Tool, which predicts traffic flow in the Central Business District with an accuracy rate of over 85 percent, LTA was also an early collaborator of the Collab, working closely with the research team to develop new solutions that will enhance Singapore s land transport system. Powering Singapore enterprises, sustainably and intelligently SmartCloud: IBM s 11th global Cloud Lab and Asia Pacific Cloud Data Centre were launched in 2010 and 2011 respectively in Singapore to provide businesses with solutions and services to harness the potential of cloud computing. To help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) retailers accelerate adoption of cloud computing, IBM worked with Cnetric - an IBM business partner - to help them deliver a better online shopping experience for their customers. Smarter and Greener Computing: One of the world s greenest supercomputer made by IBM can be found in the Nanyang Technological University s High Performance Computing (HPC) Centre, which was built to support complex research projects. The centre implemented ASEAN s first IBM System x idataplex cluster which maximises performance with a unique water-cooled technology using IBM s Rear Door Heat exchanger. This eliminated the need for computer-room air conditioners, and resulted in a reduction in electrical consumption by more than 30 percent when compared with the standard precision cooling system found in most supercomputers. Other such smarter and greener data centre designs are also showcased at the IBM Systems Technology Group Benchmarking Centre that has been designed at Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.5. This is 33% lower than the average PUE of Singapore data centres.
IBM in Singapore An Overview 4 Nurturing a future-ready workforce Since 2008, IBM has partnered with various institutes of higher learning (IHL) such as the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Institute of Systems Science, Singapore Management University, Nanyang Technological University and the local polytechnics to integrate Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME) into their academic curriculum. Today, thousands have been SSME-trained. To build world-class analytics capabilities that will help Singapore leverage Data as the new natural resource, IBM collaborated with NUS to jointly establish the NUS Centre for Business Analytics to help students and mid-career professionals gain the latest skills in business analytics and prepare for high value jobs in the future. The Centre will begin offering a new Master of Science degree programme in Business Analytics in August 2013. To jumpstart the pipeline of analytics talent in Singapore, IBM is also recruiting 20 mid-career professionals through the IBM Business Analytics and Optimisation Masterclass & Exprenticeship programme. Another collaboration that is helping to nurture a future-ready workforce, is the Enterprise Social Business Centre of Excellence launched in 2012 by IBM and the NUS Institute of Systems Science. The centre aims to catalyse the transformation of Singapore s workforce to leverage social media platforms to improve productivity, connect for innovation and create communities for competitive advantage. As part of IBM s ongoing skills-building programme for IHLs, we also launched the Student Innovation Challenge to encourage a spirit of innovation among tertiary students. Beyond IHLs, IBM also has a deep commitment to the entrepreneurial community. Since launching the IBM Global Entrepreneur initiative in 2010, IBM has helped launch more than 500 new businesses in key areas such as green energy, healthcare and transportation. More recently, SmartCamp Kickstart ASEAN was also launched to identify early-stage entrepreneurs who are developing business ventures that align with IBM's Smarter Planet vision. Creating impact in our community through skills-based service The Corporate Service Corps (CSC) programme was set up by IBM to help solve complex socioeconomic problems in less developed countries. Since the launch of the programme in 2008, 17 employees from Singapore have been deployed to countries such as China, India, Romania and South Africa. An outgrowth of CSC is the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge, a three-year, 100-city, US$50 million philanthropic initiative that funds in-person engagements by teams of top IBM experts, who study and then make detailed recommendations addressing locally important urban issues. Singapore s Jurong Lake District (JLD) was one such city, where IBM will explore innovative solutions to enhance JLD as a smart, sustainable, and connected high-density district marked by better delivery of municipal services, more citizen engagement, and optimised use of resources. To help advance the smarter buildings agenda in Singapore, IBM also worked with the Singapore Green Building Council and the Ministry of Education to launch Project Green Insights. The project helped to raise awareness of energy efficiency with schools in Singapore by allowing them to track power usage, and reduce energy and maintenance costs by analysing data captures and transmitted using IBM s cloud-based solution. IBM s Celebration of Service also proved that skills-based service can be done on a large scale. In Singapore, over 2,000 IBMers participated in more than 170 community projects, contributing in excess of 13,700 volunteer hours.
IBM in Singapore An Overview 5 Expanding our globally integrated enterprise footprints Since IBM began operating in Singapore in 1953, our presence and investments in Singapore have grown many times over in size and variety. The pace of investments took off in 1991 when IBM was awarded Operational Headquarters status by the EDB. This cemented Singapore as a regional centre for IBM, and drew other important regional missions including the IBM Asia Pacific Treasury in 1996, and the Singapore Trading Centre in 1997. Also established in 2012 is the IBM Supply Chain Analytics Centre of Competency, which brings together the region's supply chain expertise to develop global software and hardware supply chain solutions based on business analytics technologies. The centre aims to help clients in retail and industrial sectors gain greater insight from big data, further drive operational effectiveness and efficiency and connect to digitally savvy consumers. Today, IBM continues to make strategic investments in Singapore as part of our globally integrated enterprise strategy to deliver higher value to clients. In 2012, the first of a new generation of multisolution client centres was launched in Singapore. The US$50 million IBM Client Centre is part of a network of global client centres designed to provide an integrated environment where IBM experts collaborate with the ecosystem to address the growing demand for the complex capabilities required to help organisations optimise their business processes and decisions. The Centre also serves as an innovation hub for smarter solutions in high-growth industries, and will focus on industry solutions for government, natural resources and telecommunications by convening global industry and IBM experts to explore and develop innovative solutions, execute proofs of concept and pilot customer solutions with the aim of creating new and applicable industry solutions. Another investment aligned to Singapore s national agenda for high-value services is the Global Services Integration Hub, which is set up as one of IBM s only two worldwide strategic epicentres providing leadership and decision-making in end-toend process engagements in the services business globally. IBM s sole high-end server manufacturing and fulfilment operations facility for Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle-East and Africa is located at the IBM Singapore Technology Park. The Park, a recipient of the Green Mark Gold Award by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore for its energy and water efficiency, features several innovations to conserve energy and improve manufacturing processes. It is also home to the Singapore IBM Trading Centre, which procures system hardware from OEM suppliers on behalf of IBM s manufacturing partners. It is the only Buy/Sell centre for IBM globally. The centre was awarded Pioneer Service status by EDB in recognition of IBM s leadership in developing e- commerce in the region.
IBM in Singapore An Overview 6 Awards and recognition #1 on the Top 20 Most InDemand Employers in Singapore by LinkedIn (2013) Bagged a total of seven awards at the 9th Singapore Human Resources Awards including recognition for best practices in talent management, retention and succession planning; corporate social responsibility; learning and human capital development; and HR communications and branding by the Singapore Human Resources Institute (2012) Singapore HEALTH (Helping Employees Achieve Life-Time Health) Award Platinum by the Health Promotion Board for outstanding workplace health initiatives (From 2008-2012) Work-Life Excellence Award by the Tripartite Committee on Work-Life Strategy (From 2008-2012) Outstanding Industry Partner Award by Nanyang Polytechnic (2012) Distinguished Partner Award by Institute of Technical Education Singapore (2012) Land Transport Excellence Award for Best Collaboration Partner by Land Transport Authority of Singapore (2012) Singapore Environmental Achievement Award in recognition for our long commitment to environmental leadership and sustainability, our technology innovations for the green data centre and smarter buildings as well as our outreach to schools and the industry for energy efficiency by Singapore Environment Council (2012) World s Most Attractive Employers Award by Universum (2012) Ideal Employer Award for Singapore, Engineering & Business by Universum (2012) Distinguished Partners in Progress Award by the Economic Development Board of Singapore (2012)