Smart Partnership : Service Delivery via EPF e-Kiosk
Employees Provident Fund

A. Problem Analysis

 1. What was the problem before the implementation of the initiative?
EPF is a social security organization providing retirement savings for Malaysians. Every EPF members has an account and every year, EPF will send its statement to its members. Members can also get their statements by visiting EPF counters at anytime of the year. However, since 2006 EPF has introduced its e-Kiosks where members can get their statements after office hours and over weekends, from EPF branches and participating third party premises. This is indeed a great service delivery for members and EPF as it saves their time – no queuing at the counter, save transportation expenses – no travelling required to EPF office and save cost on staff resources –e-kiosk is a self-service function. The EPF statement is significant due to the mandatory requirement made by Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia) to all financial institutions. The requirement states that the EPF statement is the primary document used by financial institutions to verify the income of its borrowers for loan processing. Financial institutions prefer EPF statement due to its accuracy and timely update. Due to the limited EPF counters and e-kiosks located at its branches and to address the sudden surge in demand for its statement, a collaborative service was initiated by EPF to allow the financial institutions to place EPF’s kiosks at their premises all over Malaysia at their costs. Other than the financial institutions, there are also other parties that request the same to speed up their processes such as hospitals and institutes of higher learning.

B. Strategic Approach

 2. What was the solution?
This project was mooted by Y.Bhg. Tan Sri Azlan Zainol, the EPF former Chief Executive Officer since 2006 and is fully supported by the top management of EPF. With its panel of reliable vendors, EPF collaborated as trusted partnership with 15 major financial institutions and five (5) other third parties including medical institutions and retailers. Currently, EPF has in total 1,342 kiosks in which 145 kiosks are at its branches and another 1,197 kiosks at 20 financial institutions as well as third parties premises all over Malaysia. This allows members to retrieve statements and proceed with their business transaction on the same day.

 3. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives?
The collaboration between EPF and third parties as a trusted partnership gives a win-win situation to all parties. To EPF members, they are able to print their statements ‘anytime and anywhere’. To the financial institutions, they are able to speed up loan processing, and complying with the credit lending regulations. To EPF, we are able to meet members’ requirements without increasing cost.

C. Execution and Implementation

 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
EPF has appointed a panel of vendors to manufacture and install EPF kiosks at its branches all over Malaysia. The kiosk comes in a few designs such as standing tower, mini shape and mobile gadget. Any third parties who intend to acquire these kiosks need to obtain the EPF approval via a contract agreement with the option to purchase directly from any of the EPF panel of vendors. Data integration and installation will be done via a dedicated network once the kiosks are placed at their premises. The third party will administer and maintain the EPF kiosk at its own cost. EPF has the absolute right to terminate the transmission of data if there is any breach of security, e.g. using the member’s data other than the business transaction allowed.

 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
All EPF kiosks are designed by EPF and manufactured by a panel of vendors with multiple layers of security architecture to ensure members’ data remain secured and intact. EPF, the vendor and the participating third parties are committed and established good team work throughout the contract.
 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
Since this is a collaborative effort with third party, the cost associated with this initiative is borne by third party while EPF is responsible for the integration and internal enhancement cost. EPF also set-up a team to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of this initiative from time to time.

 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
The key elements that made this initiative a success were the close collaboration, commitment and teamwork between EPF, vendors and third parties. Secondly, an effective project management approach that comes with quality plan and the ability to understand clearly the project scope. Thirdly, strict structural and application design which complies with the EPF’s ICT security policies is also the key factor. Fourthly, an effective change management and marketing campaigns on the new service delivery. Finally, the strong commitment and support from the Top Management played a vital role in the success of this initiative.

 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
EPF has installed a smart, hassle free and automated system called Kiosks Management System (KMS) to monitor the performance of each kiosk remotely. With this system, there is no need to dispatch a field service technician to do any data-related tasks since all data can be imputed electronically. The system also features a scheduler function allowing the kiosk to run for a specific duration.

 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
EPF is highly concerned about transferring of members’ data via online to third parties. As such, EPF also monitor the kiosks located at third party premises for any fraudulent activities. Our tasks are to ensure data security, network stability and service efficiency by all the kiosks. As precautions, the security architecture is designed with multiple layers of authentications methods to ensure the security elements remain intact. EPF monitors closely and rectifies any system issues through the Kiosks Management System (KMS). Periodic auditing and open discussions are conducted to highlight impacts and mitigate risk.

D. Impact and Sustainability

 10. What were the key benefits resulting from this initiative?
The collaboration has seen tremendous achievements in terms of process efficiencies and operational cost savings. Improvement in the turn-around time for all banking processing as well as to ensure authenticated income documents are effectively available to the financial services and payment sectors. The demand for statement of accounts increases rapidly every year. As at September 2013, 7.1 million statements of account were printed as compared to 6.1 million in 2012. With the introduction of this smart partnership e-kiosk collaboration, there is also a consistent reduction in the over-the-counter statement printing at EPF. This is reflected in the e-Kiosk versus Counter ratio where in September 2013 was 90:10 as compared to 88:12 in September 2012.

 11. Did the initiative improve integrity and/or accountability in public service? (If applicable)
This EPF collaboration e-kiosk initiative is sustainable, easy to adapt for other work-process based system and can be used for other similar work processes involving e-kiosk. The financial institutions and other third parties are using this initiative effectively and efficiently and it is a great help for them to cope with the rapid increase in their business transactions. Improvement is done from time to time to enhance these initiatives and this collaborative innovation has given EPF more impetus to implement more e-services via e-kiosk for our stakeholders and members.

 12. Were special measures put in place to ensure that the initiative benefits women and girls and improves the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable? (If applicable)
It is important to understand the customer requirements and EPF capabilities before project started. Commitment and teamwork between all partners are also important. Clear roles and responsibilities between EPF, vendors and third parties.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Employees Provident Fund
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   NUR AIDA MUSTAFFA
Title:   Transformation Operations and Coordination  
Telephone/ Fax:   03-2616 6324/03-2691 1158
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   naida@epf.gov.my  
Address:   EPF Building, Jalan Raja Laut
Postal Code:   50350
City:   KUALA LUMPUR
State/Province:   KUALA LUMPUR
Country:  

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