View - Singapore Technologies Engineering

We must take globalisation seriously. We expect toexport more and sell more outside of Singaporethan in Singapore. We must send our best overseas.staff development in ST Engg, and as animportant step in building an e-communitywithin the company.We need to encourageand help our employees move towardsthe new economy with confidence.Weneed to help them be more conversantwith Internet technology, to be able toaccess the wealth of information in theInternet world.The Internet could thenbecome a tool for training and retrainingour staff.We want them to stay relevant,competitive and more employable in thenew economy.As a Group, we want to build ane-community within the company whereknowledge is shared among all employees.There is a wealth of knowledge within theorganisation, some of which may neitherbe documented nor shared; it may beresiding in the minds of various individuals.We want to be able to harness and sharethis knowledge.We want to build ane-community where problems, issues andtechnical challenges are posed and shared,and others in the community can contributeand share their experience andknow-how.We want to build a livelye-community where our people can discussissues, solve common problems, and evendevelop new ideas through sharing knowledge,experience and ideas.The $2,500 help we offered follows anearlier $400 that we gave to each staff topurchase IT products or attend IT courses.This is part of our efforts to increase the e-literacy of our staff and to get everyone onboard our e-community. Sometimes it is achallenge of the mind rather than anythingelse, and we want to give our staff theopportunity to break that feeling that theycan’t do it. Recently there was an articleabout a 60-year old lady who went for ITtraining. If the 60-year old lady can do it, Ithink our employees can do it too.Q8: The recent expansion of the Internetand the “new economy” has affected businessesin all industries and will continue to havesignificant impact on business models andmarket structures going into the future. Howis ST Engg positioning itself for thischange?The objective of our e-initiatives is to leverageInternet technology as an enabler to help us creategreater customer satisfaction and to improve our costcompetitiveness vis-à-vis our competitors.TPH: We have embarked on variouse-initiatives in the last couple of years.Weare clear about what we want from oure-initiatives.We are not a dot-com companyand we do not intend to become one – thatis not part of our core business.The objectiveof our e-initiatives is to leverageInternet technology as an enabler to helpus create greater customer satisfaction and“stickiness”, and to improve our costcompetitiveness vis-à-vis our competitors.Such measures would help to ensure ourlong-term competitiveness and revenuestream.We recognise the need to be an earlyadopter of new technologies and new businessmodels in order to stay ahead of competition.Over the past couple of years, wehave developed and continuously improvedour Customer Relationship Managementsystem, Supply Chain Management systemand Enterprise Resource Managementsystem. Under our e-procurement initiatives,our tie-up with Freemarkets’ reverseauction marketplace provides an excellentexample of how significant cost savings canbe achieved through our e-initiatives.Q9: In terms of ST Engg culture, whatwould you want to see?BSF: A free flowing, fun loving, excitingand challenging place to work, play andto grow; seeking to conquer the worldtogether; stressful yet relaxing, supportiveyet demanding, teaching and learning,creating and innovating while showingrespect for one and all.46 • visionq&a • 47