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National Service Portal
MINDEF Systems Organisation
Singapore

The Problem

MINDEF Systems Organisation(MSO) is a division under the Defence Management Group(DMG)for the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), Singapore. The key role of MSO is to help MINDEF enhance organisation performance by establishing management systems that help MINDEF/Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) to shape corporate priorities. The National Service Portal has been driven by MSO, in collaboration with the private sector, since its conception in 2000 to better serve the NS population.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Singapore’s national defence was founded on a conscript army. Each male citizen is require to serve 2 years of full time national service (NS), and a subsequent 10 years of in-camp-training (ICT) or reservist training cycles, with each training cycle lasting one to few weeks. The reservists, known as NSmen, form the backbone of Singapore’s national defence. Numbering 300,000, they take up various posts in the Army, Navy and Airforce alongside regular soldiers. Engaging these NSmen is thus of strategic interest to MINDEF/SAF in maintaining the defence capabilities of Singapore.

The National Service Portal (NS Portal) has presented convenience and ease of transaction to the NS community by amalgamating all NS information and services on a single platform. With 114 electronic services and 18 mobile services (as at Nov 2006), the portal has emerged as the preferred medium of transaction for the NS population. This is evident from the track record of consistently having more than 90% of our e-services achieving above 80% usage, and with 90% of the users indicating that they are satisfied with the portal.

The move away from manual counters to the online channel had also moved the organization towards administrative excellence. On top of streamlining administrative processes, operational efficiency is also increased with most of the transactions made over the electronic channels, and manual channels being migrated over to the portal.

In spite of the challenges involved as being one of the first movers to operate a government service website on a public-public collaboration model, the ability to deliver a rich array of services spanning across both public and private offerings was testimony that the move was a sound one. With citizen-centricity in mind, collaboration efforts with other public agencies e.g. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to develop integrated services were aimed at present greater convenience to the users. This relentless pursuit to continually engage and deliver quality services to our NS population has allowed Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) to forge ahead as one of the leading ministries in the e-Government Action Plan (I & II).

Having surmounted the challenges of providing both service richness and quality, MINDEF then pressed on to undertake an even greater challenge – engendering a positive NS experience and building bonding. By introducing community building features such as My Unit, the portal has successfully established itself as a meeting place and platform for interaction and to foster bonds amongst the NSmen. Enhanced personalization features which filter and present only relevant content and services connect the NSmen on a more personal level and also save them time to navigate through the myriad of information. With MHA onboard, the NS Portal now presents a single gateway to all NS information and services, regardless of whether the NSman belongs to Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Singapore Police Force (SPF) or Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
1 April 2001 – Launch of the first-generation MIW Portal (www.miw.com.sg) with 42 e-services. With the establishment of the MINDEF e-Service Centre (MeSC), eight previous hotlines were consolidated into one easy-to-remember number, 1800-eMINDEF (1800-3646333) that was manned round the clock by Customer Service Officers (CSOs). An additional channel, the Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) application was also set up to provide added convenience for NSmen to transact with MINDEF without having to speak to a CSO.

1 May 2006 – Successful transition to NS Portal (www.ns.sg). The new portal hosts 114 e-services, supplanted by attractive lifestyle contents, bundled offerings, personalisation and community building features to enhance the services brought to the NS community and foster closer bonds among the NSmen. Leveraging on new media and technology, the portal attends to the need for increased mobility by offering 18 services via the mobile channel. The new NS e-Services Centre 1-800-eNSNSNS (1-800-3676767) also replaced the MINDEF e-Services Centre.

6 Nov 2006 – Launch of the unified NS Portal. With its launch, the portal now serves all members of the NS community from SAF, SPF and SCDF. This extends the possible user base of the portal to close to 400,000 servicemen.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The concept of a portal for the NSmen was conceived in September 2000 as a strategic initiative (known as the MINDEF.com initiative) to position MINDEF in the New Economy and transform the way MINDEF interacts with the NS community. Launched on 1 April 2001, the MIW (“My Internet World”) Portal was primarily focused on making services available electronically through the Internet and call centre. Working in collaboration with vendor Green Dot Internet Services (GDIS), the portal started off with only 42 e-services. By the end of the 5-year contract, the portal boasted some 100 over e-services and close to 300,000 registered users.

In the bid to remain competitive and offer the highest value per dollar spent, a new tender was called in 2005 with National Computer Systems (NCS) Pte Ltd clinching the deal as the new vendor for the portal. A new business model was developed with “Pay-to-Operate” and “Pay-to-Perform” components to ensure that while quality services are delivered, the vendor is also incentivised and given the flexibility to constantly innovate. At this opportune time, the idea of a unified NS Portal was conceived with the recognition of the potential synergy and the value that can be generated to the NS community by the collaboration between MINDEF and MHA. The objective of this portal was to bring all NS (SAF, SPF and SCDF) services under a single umbrella to better serve the NS community.

The new NS Portal with MINDEF services was launched successfully on 1 May 2006. With the new partnership, MINDEF also recognised that providing basic functionalities and convenience was no longer sufficient to meet the increasing expectations and we had to stay ahead of the expectation curve by focusing on customer centricity and service integration. This inspired MINDEF to work closely with NCS to provide greater personalization and usability, seamless content and service integration through bundling of commercial and public services, as well as enticing our customers with exciting leisure and lifestyle content. The rise of digital media e.g. 3G also signaled an opportunity to explore new channels to engage our customers. Adopting a phased approach, MINDEF studied the feasibility of offering existing e-services on the mobile channel and has rolled out 18 mobile services to date, supplanting the existing 114 e-services. The MHA services were migrated over subsequently in Oct 2006, and the NS Portal was officially launched in Nov 2006 by Minister for Defence, Mr. Teo Chee Hean and Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, A/P Ho Peng Kee.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The initial value proposition of the MIW Portal was geared towards the basics of providing quality and functionality. As such, the main objectives were to:

1. Create a MINDEF internet portal that is the preferred mode of access for all MINDEF/SAF services and to explore and establish new (virtual) channels of communication between MINDEF/SAF and NSmen.

2. Bring about a change in mindset within MINDEF/SAF process owners and service providers to innovate, review and enhance their processes and backend systems to provide a straight-through, efficient and integrated process environment leveraging on internet technologies.

Having attained much of what it set out to achieve, the challenge for the new NS Portal was to look beyond providing online services/ convenience and shifting the emphasis to explore customers’ end-to-end needs and engendering a positive NS experience. With MHA onboard, the focuses on ‘customer centricity’ and ‘end-to-end services integration’ hence shaped the core of the NS Portal’s strategy. With the new positioning, the 3 key objectives are to:

1. Deliver an end-to-end, customer-centric and personalized portal for access to all MINDEF/SAF and MHA/SPF/SCDF e-services.

2. Promote a ‘self-help’ environment whereby NSmen and other users of NS Portal are empowered to search and locate information and services conveniently via various channels (Internet, IVRS, SMS and mobile access).

3. Develop the NS Portal as a one-stop community of interaction and knowledge-sharing portal where NSmen can bond and build their own communities, or participate in their unit’s discussions.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Governed by the clear vision and objectives, the following key strategies were developed:

1. Promoting personalisation and self-help to constantly improve customer experience and satisfaction:-

The portal empowers users by advocating user self-help and thus reduces operating costs by shifting the dependency away from call centres. With personalization features, the portal identifies a user’s profile upon login and presents content which is relevant to them (e.g. MINDEF users would only see MINDEF e-services upon login). Based on preferences, users can also receive customized alerts e.g. Reminder for attending Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT).

2. Providing more end-to-end services and integration of MINDEF and MHA e-services with other commercial and public offerings across the value chain:-

Combining MINDEF’s domain knowledge of the NS population with the innovative spirit and best practices of the private sector, the portal is able to offer a unique blend of public and commercial offerings. This seamless integration of government and commercial services offers the NSmen with a radically different but gratifying experience. A good example would in the event of an NSman applying for an Exit Permit online; he would also receive a merchant’s alert offering him travel insurance to cover his trip outside of Singapore. On top of that, membership privileges stemming from partnerships with merchants (e.g. product discounts, promotions) can also be enjoyed by the NS community as registered portal members.

3. Proactively engage the NS community and implement IT and non-IT services to enhance the interaction, knowledge-sharing and community-building:-

With the rise of new media and mobile technology, the mobile channel is harnessed in addition to expanding the range of e-services available, to reach out to a wider population and to provide a fast and convenient way for users to conduct their transactions. Cognizant that sensing the pulse of the NS community was a vital step to fulfill their needs at each stage of their NS cycle, the portal also hosts various feedback channels e.g. polls and forums. Knowledge sharing and community building are also facilitated by community building tools as such “My Buddy Link-up” and “Our Photo Gallery” in My Unit.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
By moving services away from counters and manual forms to the online channel, administrative and operational efficiency had improved vastly. For the NS populations, considerable time and efforts were also saved on traveling and queuing up at counters. This also meant that officers who were previously attending to administrative matters can be freed from the cumbersome paperwork to focus on the core business of national defence. The portal has also gone beyond purely serving NS needs to look into better attending an NSmen’s needs holistically and providing a positive experience. Instead of visiting the portal to perform solely NS-related transactions, the NSmen’s personal needs are also met at the same time with the bundled services, merchants’ promotions and lifestyle content available on the portal.

While the portal exists only as an online platform, it has acted as the catalyst to revolutionize and drive a mindset change across MINDEF/SAF in the way we dovetail our administrative processes and engage a inherently different generation of NSmen who are IT-savvy and possess a diverse and higher set of expectations. This will greatly contribute to the objective of engendering a positive experience and instilling commitment in our NSmen to the nation’s defence.

The successful launch of the NS Portal with MHA onboard also meant that instead going to different websites for NSmen in different services, the entire NS community can now identify with a single portal with a unified branding for all their NS needs. This success would also shape the NS Portal as a platform for even further collaboration with other ministries in line with the iGov2010’s “One-Government” vision.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
A one-stop gateway to all NS information and services, the challenge is to continually deliver greater value to uphold the level of service. Over and above introducing more e-services attending to the varied needs of the NSmen, a phased approach is adopted to avail more e-services on the mobile channel. Continual engagement of the NS community remains yet another key focus in the portal’s development and various ideas are being explored e.g. Inter-camp gaming tournaments to promote interaction and bonding.

As a first-mover to leverage on the private sector’s innovativeness and agility, MINDEF had been invited to share with various ministries (e.g. MOE, MFA) on key success factors and lessons learnt. This public-private collaboration model had since been widely adopted by government agencies, including the running of the My-e-Citizen and the Moving House portals.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The greatest challenge was to develop the best portal to both meet the needs of the NS community, as well as one that will set industry standards. In designing the portal, considerable thought had to be given from architecture, software applications, hardware setup, business processes to the portal’s branding. With the reach the portal spanning across a diverse population, including the public and employers of the NSmen, there also exist considerable challenges in reaching out and attending to the needs of the portal users. To ensure that the needs and expectations of the users are duly met, usability studies, focus groups and surveys were conducted extensively across the NS populations. Coupled with the changing profiles of the younger generation of NSmen, regular customer sensing and continuous fine tuning were performed to keep pace with new and increasing demands.

Growing the portal as a preferred mode of transaction and interaction for all NS servicemen also calls for extensive efforts in user awareness and education. Regular camp briefings and marketing campaigns were held to both educate and update users on new features to be introduced in the portal. To instill a sense of ‘ownership’ and giving users a say in what they see on the portal, surveys and focus groups are conducted to gathering feedback and comments for many of the portal’s enhancements.

The NS Portal initiative, embodying a paradigm shift in the way we serve the NS community, brings with it the need for change management. An organizational-wide effort in process re-engineering and consolidation of backend systems had to be performed to support and enable this move. Careful thoughts had to be put in manpower reallocation brought about by reduction of paperwork and manual processes. With MHA coming onboard to work on developing the unified NS Portal, it increases the complexity in maintaining a holistic view. The business process also has to also take into account the complexity of the contractor NCS Pte Ltd working with more than 60 stakeholders (most of whom were MINDEF agencies), and meeting their varied requirements. Working groups formed held regular meetings to ensure that the needs and requirements were aligned and that the change management process runs parallel in both ministries.

Valuable lessons were also learnt from the transition of MIW.com to the NS portal, including the need for good communications and rigorous contingency planning, as well as being well-prepared to handle issues related to login and data privacy.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   MINDEF Systems Organisation
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Tan Chin Keong
Title:   Project Director  
Telephone/ Fax:   +65 63736460
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   tan_chin_keong@starnet.gov.sg  
Address:   5 Depot Road, Defence Technology Tower B, #18-02
Postal Code:   109681
City:  
State/Province:  
Country:   Singapore

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