Japanese Delegation visit to eCop by SITF/STB

In collaboration with our friend and member, Singapore Tourism Board and eCop, organised a company visit for our Japanese counterparts and put together a study trip.

Our friends from Japan, http://www.tdi.co.jp/index.htm, a listed company in Japan, provides bio-metric and face recognition security solutions among others.

The objectives for this study trip are to attract Japanese companies to Singapore and the TDI has also expressed interests to learn about Singapore’s advanced IT environment. This is also a chance for cultivation of relations between Japanese companies andSingapore iLEs.

This visit allows eCop to share with TDI about eCop suite of solutions.

The presentation was also punctuated with a lively Q&A session with the help of a Japanese translator.

Our Japanese friend also had a chance to take a short tour of eCop's SOC facility that features a state-of-the-art monitoring system.

We look forward to a fruitful outcome from such delegations in the future and wish our friends a good and enjoyable time in Singapore!

SITF/eGov Industry Briefing for Egypt Mission Trip...

Seated in the cosy conference room of SITF House, members and friends of the secretariat gathered to listen to Leo, the Business Development Director of SITF sharing his findings in a recent study trip to Egypt.

The purpose of this briefing session is to gather our members and friends who have the intention and interest for a piece of the action in the Egyptian market.

Concerns and questions were being raised about this mission trip about their economy and the potential projects available. In addition, members are also keen to explore potential alliances that can be forged.

The networking and refreshment session always put a smile on the faces of our members and friends of SITF.

The evening came and went...SEC Chillout Night @ Wine Arcade - Branding Strategies..

SEC has done it again!

This time round, we had the opportunity to invite Jacky Tai, Principal Consultant from StrategiCom, a B2B branding specialist to share with us about branding in the current volatile and uncertain market.


Jacky shared with the audience about the 10 Rules of Branding and how some aspects of branding could be so simple that iLEs might overlook!















In addition, Jacky has also written a book titled, "Killer Differentiators", available in most major bookstores, audience are encouraged to get a copy to get more insights in brand building strategies.


Members and non-members in a networking session and of course, the good wine that goes along with the hearty meal!

eGov Chapter: Walk Like Egyptians II…

Following the successful discussion and hosting of our friends from Egypt back in Jun 2008, SITF and eGov Chapter is glad to catch-up with our friends again from the land of the pyramids!!

The delegates from Egypt comprised of government officials and business delegates from cyber security segment. However, this time round, the delegates were lead by Dr. Sherif Hashem Executive Vice President of ITIDA.

In our joint effort with IE Singapore, and the support of our members, the dialogue session had an overwhelming turnout and the followed-up discussion was warm and fruitful for both parties.















Mr Pang, Chairman of eGov Chapter received our guest with a warm welcome.

The theme this time round is to explore collaboration in cybersecurity.

The dialogue session ended with a buffet lunch, courtesy of IE Singapore, our Egyptian friends and SITF members had a good opportunity to network and explore business opportunities in cyber security partnerships.

Another area to look out for is the business contracts that would be dished out by the Egyptian government, the potential partnerships and contracts the secretariat could be facilitating is currently valued at over 70 million Egyptian pounds or S$18.5 million.

Day 2

The secretariat also had a chance to host Arabian cuisines lunch for our Egyptian delegates and members of SITF.

SiTF Volunteer Day 2008 (V-Day 2008) - S$70,888 was raised towards the President’s Challenge 2008

Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) held its 6th V-Day on 16th August 2008 at Telok Ayer Hong Lim Green Community Centre. The V-Day flag-off event was graced by Guest-of-Honour, RADM(NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts.

We were also honoured to have RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) to join us and witnessed the success of this event

Ms Tan Yen Yen, the Organising Chairman of SiTF V-Day 2008, gave a warm welcome address to kick-off the day’s event while RADM(NS) Lui Tuck Yew delivered an opening address and awarded tokens of acknowledgement to all sponsors and participating companies in the volunteer work.

Through the generous sponsorship and donations of our partners, members and friends, SITF raised S$70,888 for this year President’s Challenge 2008.

V-Day also garnered almost 200 employees (including family members) from SiTF member companies to visit and provide voluntary services at 10 Volunteer Hosting Organisation (VHOs).

Some of the activities planned for that were:

- SiTF joined by its members, CBL Data Recovery, Kelly Services, and Orange Business Services, took the children from the Asian Women's Welfare Association (AWWA) School to lunch at McDonald and on a Duck Tour ride
- Hewlett-Packard Singapore also brought the children from Spastic Children’s Association of Singapore on a Duck Tour ride
- Siemens Pte Ltd to provide logistical aid to the Handicap Welfare Association for their flag day
- BT Frontline Technologies took up Voluntary services at St Hilda’s Community Services Centre

The event was an unforgettable day for all where we banded together to bring cheers to our less privileged friends. Volunteers were treated with the performance from MINDS and this had sent cheers to the volunteers and friends alike.

SiTF V-Day 2008 Fundraising Auction Dinner at Xi Yan – 30th July 2008

Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) has been driving corporate citizenship initiatives such as Volunteer Day (V-Day) for the infocomm community in Singapore for the last 6 years. In support of this year's Volunteer Day 2008, SiTF organised an exclusive fundraising auction dinner at Xi Yan, a private dinning restaurant, on 30th July 2008 to raise fund from auction of exquisite art pieces and private wine collection of premium wines.

The evening started with a cocktail reception where the guests mingled and acquainted themselves with new and old friends. At the same time, art pieces and vintage wines were on display for appraisal before the auction.

The dinner was formally kicked off by Miss Tan Yen Yen, 1st Vice Chairman of SiTF and Chairman of SiTF V-Day Organising Committee with a brief welcome speech. Over the course of dinner, our guests were treated to a banquet of delectable yet creative concoctions. Whilst everyone savoured and indulged in each platable dishes, our performer Julian Cheong with her rich and melodious voice gave an entertaining rendition of familiar retro tunes.

The auction followed shortly and our guests who were enjoying the 14-course feast did not forget to do their part for charity. Bids came fast and furious. Many art pieces and all the vintage wine were snapped up in no time. Julian also contributed her bits for charity by providing humorous descriptions to some of the abstract art pieces to much laughter from the guests.

The highlight of the evening was the auction of a song sung by none other than SiTF’s Chairman, Mr Pek Yew Chai, 1st Vice Chairman Ms Tan Yen Yen and 2nd Vice Chairman, Mr Frank Koo. Amidst rousing cheers and applauds, the singers took the stage and serenaded the crowd with a ballad “Killing me softly with his song”. For the performance, the trio raised another S$2,800 to add to the coffers.

The night ended with more than S$50,000 raised from the bids which would be donated to the President’s Challenge 2008 at SiTF V-Day Kick-off on 16th August 2008.

SITF/IDA/Sun Microsystems ODP Sharing Session on 20th Aug 2008

SEC had the opportunity to jointly organize with IDA & Sun Microsystems for a sharing session about the iLIUP & ODP initiatives.

The sharing session was held at SITF and targeted at smaller group of iLEs.

Arena Zhang, from Sun Microsystems ODP Manager, who is based in Beijing, China, and Allen Lai, Regional Manager, gave a presentation of how iLEs could tap into Sun’s expertise for their venture into the flourishing China market!

In a joint effort by IDA, Louis Lam also provided an overview to our SEC members how the government is providing support to our iLEs in this collaboration.

These programs are efforts that we would want to share with our members so as to assist them and give them a boost in their internationalization efforts!

Another sharing session is being planned and would be made available to our SEC members at a larger capacity targeting at around March 2009. So, do look out for this in our newsletter!

Enterprise IT 2008

Enterprise IT returns to Singapore Expo from 17 - 20 June 2008, continuing its growth as a notable IT enabler, critical to the success of both Asia Pacific-grown and International IT service providers that are keen to capitalize on the massive market potential.

As information technology develops at rapid speeds, rules and practices that determine success are constantly being rewritten. CIOs & traditional managers alike are increasingly turning to IT solutions to help bring their businesses to the next level and Enterprise IT is the one-stop sourcing platform that matches the right enterprise solution to the evolving needs of your business.

As the premier infocomm industry group in Singapore, the SiTF — with a membership of almost 400 corporate members comprising MNCs and local companies — is making its strongest representation ever in this year’s Enterprise IT show. Our Singapore Pavilion in CommunicAsia, which have a total of 31 companies, has a 50% increase of local companies showcasing their innovations and services under the brand “Infocomm Singapore”.

That the event has become a major springboard for local ICT companies to gain visibility and to reach high potential markets locally as well as overseas is undeniable. Not only does Enterprise IT provides greater brand awareness for the participating companies in Singapore, it is also part of this major platform where industry leaders and innovators converge annually to keep updated on the latest trends, buyers and sellers forge new ties and renew old ones, and above all, the great opportunity for new and old players alike to launch their products and services to the world.

It is upon this belief of close collaboration and cohesion that the SiTF aims to help boost the reach of local companies to the region, and to help raise the overall ICT profile of the industry.

Visit from Mongolian delegates – 10 June 08

A warm welcome to our guests from Mongolia

SiTF Members and Secretariat welcomed our guests from the Ministry of Finance, Mongolia on 10th June 08. Amongst the delegation were Mr Demid Dovdon, Director, IT Division, and Mr. Oyun Darikhuu, Director, Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ministry of Finance.

Mr. Eddie Chau, SiTF Councillor and SEC Chairman, kicked-off the session with an introductory of himself and SiTF members to the delegation team. Mr. Gary Tan, SiTF Secretariat, then gave a brief presentation on SiTF and its charter.

What can we do for Mongolia?

To get to know more about the local industry, four speakers representing Asiasoft (S) Pte Ltd, Elixir Technology Pte Ltd, Netrust Pte Ltd, and 3i Infotech Asia Pacific, gave a short presentation of the organization, their products and solutions.

The delegates from Singapore and Mongolia continued to network and mingle. By exchanging name cards, a win-win situation was potentially built as SiTF members looked to explore the options available to them in Mongolia. Ending the session on a pleasant note, Mr. Demid and Ms. Ho Semun exchanged a token of appreciation.

With hope of future collaborations, SiTF wishes participating members and delegates from Mongolia all the best!

For more photos, visit our gallery!

The Day We Walk Like Egyptians - 19 Jun 08

SiTF eGov Chapter is honoured to have the opportunity to host our friends from the land of the pyramids!

The delegates from Egypt comprised of government officials, head honchos of Egypt MNCs, businessmen and people from the Egyptian media. His Excellency Dr Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) lead an entourage to an ICT sharing session with SiTF.

Egyptian Delegates

With a population of 80 million people, Egypt is an emerging market strategically positioned in the Middle-East. In addition, with its close proximity to Europe, it is also a preferred gateway to the EU market.

Dr Kamel also highlighted to SiTF in the roundtable dialogue session some of the benefits the Egyptian government has to offer for Singapore businesses and companies to setup shops in Egypt. Such as:
· An abundant of Arab speaking talent pool in their IT workforce
· Low and attractive staffing cost
· Liberalisation of telco industry to foreign players
· 33 million of mobile phone users
· Internet penetration rate of 13%
· Egypt as BPO destination

Dr Foong, Chairman of eGov Chapter gave a welcome speech and introduced to our friends more about SITF and eGov Chapter.

With free flow of foods and drinks, our Egyptian friends and SiTF members had a good opportunity to network and explore business opportunities.

iX Conference - 18 June 2008

The much anticipated iX Conference 2008 was held on 18 June 2008 (Wednesday), 8.30am to 5.30pm at Suntec Singapore. A total of 400 participants attended the conference.

RADM (NS) Ronnie Tay, CEO of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Pek Yew Chai, SiTF Chairman

The conference was opened by Pek Yew Chai, SiTF Chairman, who gave a warm welcome to all the participants. Next, RADM (NS) Ronnie Tay, CEO of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) presented the iN2015 Business Forum. He shared the updates on the latest national infocomm initiatives such as the Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastructure (NGNII) and programmes for the various sectors that will provide new possibilities and opportunities for Singapore and the industry.

Following that, Paul Slakey, Enterprise Director (Asia Pacific & Latin American) of Google, gave a creative presentation on Cloud Computing. He explained how Cloud Computing complements iN2015’ programmes by increasing capacity and capabilities that leverage on our Nation’s current infrastructure. Paul’s presentation was one of the highlight that received resounding feedback from the delegates.

Leslie Loh, Chairman of NextVIEW Group ended the first half of the conference with his presentation on “Growing a Successful Software Company”. He shared his experience on how he built his company, and growing it to the level that captured the attention of international players.

The participants were then escorted to the concourse where they were treated to a sumptuous lunch buffet. Other than the delightful food and drinks, the round table seating arrangement also facilitated discussion greatly. Participants enjoyed the relaxing networking over lunch and prepared themselves to the exciting series of Panel Sessions in the afternoon.

Sumptous Lunch Buffet

Virtualization Panel

The afternoon panel sessions which were brought to the audience by Fuji Xerox kicked-off with the Virtualisation panel. As the hottest subject in 2008 and beyond, the speakers shared their views and perspectives on this revolutionary and growing technology area. The speakers were Brian Higgins, Channel Director – Pacific, Citrix Systems, Aman Dokania, Director & General Manager, Hewlett-Packard APJ Infrastructure Software BU, Hewlett Packard, Jim Lenox, General Manager, ASEAN and India, VMware and Frank Feldman, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Red Hat. The discussion was facilitated by Raju Chellam, Vice President (Asia-Pacific-Japan), AMI-Partners Inc.

Software as a Service Panel

The second panel was on Software as a Service. Participants learned the developments of this new technology through the insightful presentations of the speakers and the interactive Q&A session. The speakers were Mark Glikson, General Manager (APAC Developer and Platform Evangelism), Microsoft, Frank Koo, Managing Director, Oracle Corporation Singapore, Lim Seng Kong, Vice President (Global Accounts), SingTel and Andrew Leong, Regional ISV Market Development Manager, Sun Microsystems Inc. The moderator who led the discussion was none other Brian Prentice, Research Vice President, Gartner Advisory.

Service Oriented Architecture Panel

Lastly, Tom Hutchinson, SOA Evangelist, IBM ASEAN lead the discussion on Service Oriented Architecture. Participants were introduced to a technology which encourages the creation of multiple business services that can be easily composed together to support business processes. The speakers were Kenny Goh, General Manager, SOA Fusion Middleware, Oracle Corporation, ASEAN, Ong Whee Teck, Partner, Technology Consulting Lead, ASEAN, Accenture and Gary Wong, Chief Architect, iLog Singapore. With that, the conference came to a close at 5.30pm.

We believe that this has been an enriching and meaningful session for all and we would like to thank our sponsors: Fuji Xerox, IBM, HP, Oracle and iCell; IDA; our speakers and participants who have made this a successful event. We look forward to meeting you at iX Conference 2009!

For more photos, visit our gallery!

SiTF InfoSecurity talk @ NYP

SiTF Security & Governance Chapter (SGC) held its first series of National Education Event at Nanyang Polytechnic on the 4th June 2008, 2pm to 5pm. Over 200 students in their second and final year from Diploma in Information Technology and Diploma in Business Informatics attended the event.

Mr Wong Loke Yeow
Chairman, Security & Governance Chapter (SiTF)

The session was opened by Mr Wong Loke Yeow, Chairman of Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), Security & Governance Chapter (SGC). He shared with the students on the role and responsibility of SiTF, SGC and the importance of information security. The session was very well received by the students as they actively participated in the quiz being asked upon them.

Mr Thomas Lim
CEO, COSEINC

The second presentation was from Mr Thomas Lim CEO of COSEINC. He talked about the undeniable fact of vulnerabilities in our software and systems. As such, it is critically necessary that all software should be tested before they are operationally deployed or continually tested on a periodical basis even after they have been operationally deployed. The students are given a first hand look in the importance of their future jobs.

Q & A Session

The education event ended on a high note when Mr. Fang Wai walk away with a ticket, which worth $300, to Symposium on Security for Asia Network (Syscan) 2008 by providing a perfect answer to the question of the day.

For more photos, visit our gallery!

Meet the Members Session – 22 May 08

Welcome to Cisco

A meet-the-members session was conducted on 22 May 2008 (Thursday), 2pm to 5pm, at Cisco, Capital Tower Floor 28, Learn 1 & 2. For the first time this year, SiTF members were invited to network with the Council and Execute Committee members. About 100 participants attended the networking event, together with 20 new members showcasing their products.

Mr Craig John Gledhill, SiTF Membership Chairman

The session was opened by Mr Craig John Gledhill, SiTF Membership Chairman. By giving a quick update on what SiTF has done and is going to do, Mr Craig reaffirmed to the members that joining SiTF is the right choice – the correct decision to move their own businesses forward. Members would have a better understanding of the charter of SiTF and how they can leverage on SiTF after the whole session.

Support from the IDA Team

Next, Mr P Ramakrishna, Director of Industry Development Division, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), presented and lent his support to SiTF. Touching on the joint initiatives between IDA and SiTF, he reiterated that SiTF represents the voices of the industry. He said, “IDA has worked very closely with SiTF in terms of sharing our views about what is important in the industry.” This statement shows the strong ties SiTF has with the government body.

The various chapters of SiTF then sent a representative from the Executive Committee to give a short update of their chapter’s objectives and upcoming events. Members can now look forward to the many interesting events that would not had been available had they not join SiTF.

New members showcase their products

After the various presentations, the attendees were given time to visit the various exhibitor booths put up by SiTF's newest members. These new members were given the opportunity to showcase their products to the attendees, boosting their product awareness and sales.

Delicacies from Mum’s Kitchen

The attendees also got to enjoy a wide spread of refreshments while they network. Under a more relaxed condition, attendees casually chatted about work and various business opportunities.

Lucky draw winner!

The event was wrapped up with a lucky draw. Mr Foo Jong Tong, SiTF SOAC Chairman, drew the three lucky winners each walking away with prizes courtesy of the event sponsor, Dicota. The first prize goes to Mr Ravi Nair from Oracle Corporation Singapore. With that lucky draw, the event was brought to an end. Watch this space as SiTF plans for the next Meet-the-Members session in November 2008!

For more photos, visit our photo gallery.