Improve public service delivery through intelligence and analytics

By Allan Tan | Aug 26, 2009

During The Premier Business Leadership Series conference presented by SAS, I met some very interesting executives including Thomas H. Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor of I.T. and Management at Babson College, Tan Boon Huat, Chief Executive Director of People’s Association, and Carl Rajendram, Chief Executive Officer of ISM Insurance Services Malaysia.

My earlier discussions with vendors like Hyperion (now part of Oracle) and Business Objects (acquired by SAP) have led me to believe that business intelligence (BI) is all that is needed in order to understand customers and predict the future.

At the same time, my limited understanding of customer relationship management (CRM) put me under the notion that most BI implementations are strictly in business situations with relatively high customer interactions, such as banks and retail stores.

I could not be farther from the truth.

Gregory Wong, head of public sector at SAS Asia Pacific, notes that public sector organizations are rapidly catching on and, in some aspects, taking the lead with the innovative usage of business analytics. 

While Davenport explained that business analytics is not an exclusive preview of private enterprises, it was Tan who made it clear just how relevant analytics is even in the public sector by using the People’s Association as an actual use case.

Tan Boon Huat

“The People’s Association (PA) aims to bring together all who call Singapore home through activities that promote social cohesion and harmony, and a bridge between the people and the government. We’d like to think that our member base is close to five million people,” said Tan Boon Huat, Chief Executive Director of People’s Association.

Tan may not like to admit it but Singapore is a melting pot of cultures and languages with Chinese, Malay and Indian being the three dominant groups. The government’s open and active policy of encouraging people from different countries to come and make Singapore their new home has seen the Island nation flourish even in tough times. This diversity is a chief challenge for the PA as it tries to create and sustain social harmony amidst a diverse growing population.

Creating programs that encourage a community among this diversity is a hit and miss according to Tan. He is hoping that using tools such as BI and business analytics (BA) will help the PA achieve more hits than misses.