Expensive computerisation projects

I heard about companies spending several tens of million dollars in computerisation projects. This is far too expensive. Most of the money goes towards paying consultants to advice on workflow and customisation of system.

My friend, who worked in a large insurance company, told me that they spend more than 100 million to computerise their operations and the new computer system is still not working well. This is mind boggling. The money comes from the bonus of their policyholders!

Sometimes, I wonder if the board and top management is happy to spend so much money and if they are preapred to consider a lower cost option, if available. I believe that a large organisation can cut its computerisation budget by 50%, if they adopt a sensible approach towards computerisation. Apart from the cost savings, they will also be able to implement the new system more quickly, have less hassle and a higher chance of success.

But first, they must be keen to explore this possibility. If they prefer to spend big budget, there will always be the opportunity to make a big splash.

Tan Kin Lian

Resort World Sentosa

I attended a company dinner held at the conference center in Resort World Sentosa recently. This is my first visit to Sentosa after the integrated resort opened. Here are some photos (for the benefit of those who have not yet visited the resort).

I was quite surprised to see that the place was quite attractive and there was a large crowd in the hotels and shops. I did not enter the casino (as I refused to pay $100), so I don't know if it was very crowded inside as well.

Goh Keng Swee - The Star

Read this article by Seah Cheang Nee published in The Star, Malaysia. The writer was previously the editor of a newspaper in Singapore. He has a good knowledge of Singapore's history.

Web consultation (skin problems)

A skin specialist plans to set up an innovative service to provide consultation on skin problems through the internet. Details are shown here.

I am helping the specialist to find out the market acceptance for this type of service. Please participate in this survey.

UPDATE
I receive only 6 reponses. I hope to get more responses to refleclt a more reliable sample. Please participate.

Interacting with customers on feedback

I have posted articles on my experience as a customer interacting with a few large organisations (i.e. CISCO, Starhub, DBS and Singapore Airlines). CISCO took the trouble to contact me and talk to me. I did not hear from the other organisations.

Standard Chartered Bank

Dear Mr. Tan,
I have 4 banks personal account. I wish to highlight that SCB service is the best. I have encounter some transfer fund issue last year and due to the error of the bank. The SQ manager called me and followed up with a apology letter thereafter sending a wine hamper to my house.


I visited the branch in Tampines and Raffles Place, their staff is very attentive during my opening account and applying credit card I like their recent launch of internet payment of credit card to other bank credit card bills. This save me a lot of time rather issuing a cheques or queueing at the AXS machine for payment.

Further more, I can just do bill payment post dated before the due date once I login to the account. This can reduce oversight of payment and incurred interest fee and appealing process. I hope other local bank can think out of box rather than limited the credit card payment from their own bank.


I have also compared all the internet banking service, so far SCB is the simplest and easy to get transaction done within a few minutes.


FT

My comments
Well done to Standard Chartered Bank. I also observe that they did not sell any of the credit linked notes that caused losses to the bank customers. I like their advertisement on their commitment to look after the welfare of their customers. It sets a good goal for them to live up to.
 

MRT Circle Line

This is the display panel on the MRT train running on the Circle Line. It shows the time for most of the way. The display changes to the name of the station only close to arrival. This is not useful.

A useful system is: show the name of the next station and the side that the door will be opening. It should appear immediately on leaving the previous station.

Most commuters already have a watch and mobile phone that shows the time.

MRT NS Line

There are two systems to dispaly the name of the next station for trains on the North South line.

The display panel show the station name in words and also indicates the side where the door will open.

The lighted route map shows the lights for the stations that have passed.

Both display systems on the train has been out -of-order for over two weeks. See the photos.

I find the light route map to be unnecessary. The display panel should be sufficient for this purpose.

 A simpler system is less costly and less likely to fail.

Excellent service recovery by CISCO

I posted a blog to share my bad experience with replacing a faulty videocam. I received an e-mail from the customer advocacy senior manager of CISCO asking to talk to me. We had a conversation at the arranged time. He listened attentively and positively to my experience and suggestions. He found several of the suggestions to be practical and useful and will be implementing them.

From my past experience, this is one of the rare occasions that the customer service manager is interested to listen, and really listen, to the customer. I hope that this excellent example of service recovery will be emulated by other organisations. Well done to CISCO.

I also hope that CISCO will act promptly to simplify its process to make it easy for its customers to submit their feedback and claim for replacement of faulty products.

Tan Kin Lian

Why we should identifying ourselves as souls?

Extract from Tommy Wong's book, "Wisdom on How to Live Life"



Tom: What is the problem identifying ourselves as the body?
Guru: If we identify ourselves with the body only, then we won’t want the body to die because when the body dies, it’s also the end of our beings.
Tom: Yes, that’ll be a problem, because we don’t want to lose our beings.
Guru: Exactly! So the problem is after we’re born, there is no way not to die.
Tom: Sounds like we’re at a death trap. Is there any way out?
Guru: Humans are blessed beings. So how can the Divine lay a death trap for us?
Tom: But the body will die, and there is no way out!
Guru: Bingo, the secret is that we’re not the body.
Tom: Oh yes, you said that we’re the soul and not the body.
Guru: Well remembered!
Tom: How will that help us?
Guru: If we identify ourselves as souls and our souls continue to live even after the death of our bodies, then we’ll not be too concerned with the death of our bodies.

Tommy Wong



Tommy Wong's book can be purchased online here.

Customer Service Portal

I am developing a customer service portal for big organisations to put up their general enquiry form. This allows their customers to provide brief details of their queries and for the customer service officer to call the customer with the answer. This will reduce the waiting time at the call center during peak hours. It will also improve customer service. More details of this portal can be found here.

This portal can be used by many organisations. The customer will find it easy to contact many organisations at the same portal and be familiar with one standard interface.

Tan Kin Lian

SMS Response

If you wish to receive responses by SMS to a promotion, contest, event, registration or other activity, you can try this service. It is low cost and easy to set up. It can be used by a business or an individual.

Calling NTUC Income

Here is my experience in calling NTUC Income during a busy period. There was no pressing of button and irrelevant messages, so there is no hassle for the customer. I am told that I have to wait 3 minutes for my call to be attended. This is better than being put on hold for an unspecified period.  They also provide an option for the call center to call back the customer, which is a good feature.

I decided not to wait and to call back later, when the call center is free.

Easysearch Portal

There are several applications on this portal of general interest to the public. Try it.
http://www.easysearch.sg/Apps.aspx

Outsourcing

Many jobs in the private and public sector has been outsourced during the past decade. In the past, these organisations employ clearners, security guards and technicians and paid fair wages relative to the other "core workers" in their organisations. The workers are protected by the collective bargaining of wages in the organisations.

After outsourcing, these organisations were able to reduce their operating cost. The contractors who won the jobs were able to employ foreign workers or re-emply the retrenched workers at lower wages or to work for longer hours. This is a key contributor for the stagnation of wages in Singapore during the past decade.

The customers do not benefit much from the reduction in cost. Most of the benefits accrue to the shareholders and top managers of these organisations. This accounts for the widening gap between the high and low income earners.

While wages remain stagnant, the cost of living continues to increase. This makes life very difficult for many Singaporeans.

I hope that our top leaders will realise that this is a bad trend and that outsourcing is a source of this problem. To correct this situation, there should be a minimum wage for all workers and that the public sector should set an example by insisting on an expected standard of service and be willing to pay fair fees for outsourced work.

Tan Kin Lian

Restructuring of company

I know of a manager who recently lost his job (after 11 years) due to a change in top management. The new management wanted to resctructure the company (which is an excuse for bringing in his buddies) and asked him to leave. He was offered only 3 months of salary for 11 years of service. The retrenched manager had no option, but to accept this poor package. His termination was not due to poor performance, as he had received a good testimonial from the previous CEO (who has since retired) for his 11 years of service.

This is a need for better protection of workers (including managers) in Singapore from unfair employment practice. The law should provide a fair rate of retrenchment benefit for termination due to reasons other than poor performance.

Tan Kin Lian

SIA Krisflyer website

I spent more than 1 hour to reset the PIN for my Krisflyer account. I called the call center more than 5 times and got the assistance of the staff who was helpful and patient.

However, the website behaved erratically and baffled me and the staff. The problem with the website was worsened by the "security measures" introduced to "protect the interest of the customer". Actually, these measures were not necessary and made the website difficult to use. It also made it difficult to change the PIN. Some of these measures are:

a) freeze the login for 24 hours after 3 wrong entry of the PIN
b) verify the date of birth and IC (when the server record was wrong)
c) require the new PIN to be activated within 1 hour of being sent.
d) the website showed different information to me and to the staff who was assisting me.

The staff sent me a total of 4 new PINs to login after the earlier PINs did not work.

This video shows about 5 minutes of the 1 hour episode.

Experience on call centers

I have created some short videos (less than 5 mins) on my experience in calling the call centers of a few large organisations.

They can be viewed here:
http://www.easysearch.sg/videos/

I hope that the large organisations can understand the frustration and difficulty of their customers in navigating through their automated system, and in listening to irrelevant messages. They should simplify the system to make it easier for their customer to talk to a customer service officer. They should also provide an option in the website for the customer to submit a form and for the call center staff to call back with the answer.

I was quite surprised that the calls were answered quickly for SIA, DBS and Starhub. The customer service officers were helpful and competent.  Well done.

Tan Kin Lian

Take early action

An edited version of this letter was publised in the Straits Times on 19 May.

Editor, Forum page
In his letter “Do your checks before investing in land abroad”, Dr. Tan Tee Khoon gave a good description of the mode of operation of land banking schemes. He said “Potential investors may be misled about the prospects of obtaining planning permission or redevelopment”.

While investors should follow the advice of Dr. Tan in doing their checks before making such investments, there is also a need for the authority to play its part.

When the seller knowingly misrepresents a product that is sold to the public, it can be considered as “cheating”. When the cheating involves a large sum of money and many victims, it is necessary for the authority to investigate the complaints and gather evidence to charge the perpetuators in court.

It is better to take early action, before more victims fall into the trap. It is difficult for the public to be savvy in detecting misrepresentations in statements that are published in documents or advertisements.

We read about similar cases in other countries where action is taken by the authority to close down the operation of companies that are suspected of engaging in fraudulent activities. There is also adequate media publicity to warn the public about these operations.

I hope that our authority in Singapore take the appropriate action to prevent more people from being caught in these schemes.

Tan Kin Lian

Calling SIA Call Center

I called the SIA Call Center to enquire about my Krisflyer points. The experience with the call center was quite satisfactory. The waiting time was short. The automated messages was still frustrating, but not as bad as other large organisations.

However, the experience with the Krisflyer website was quite bad. Read this report.

Tan Kin Lian