Top ICT innovations win $80,000
ConvergenceAsia staff
13/03/2009

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has announced the winners of the inaugural SingTel i.Challenge08 competition, an initiative of the SingTel Partner Programme which seeks to encourage the development of innovative Infocomm Technology (ICT) solutions to address real-life business and industry needs.

The competition, with cash rewards totalling S$80,000, attracted 39 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) from Singapore and the region. Winners are also given the opportunity to work with SingTel to bring their solutions to market.

Allen Lew, SingTel’s CEO Singapore said in these tough times, innovation is crucial. "The SingTel i.Challenge08 provides a platform for ICT entrepreneurs to harness and develop their ideas for the marketplace. Through these innovations, customers enjoy better service and productivity.”

Participants of the competition are required to design solutions that address a set of real-life business challenges based on the experiences of customers and key industry players. The judging criteria include the ease of adoption, user-friendliness, innovativeness and commercial viability of the solutions.

Prizes are awarded in four categories: Consumer Mobile Applications, Healthcare, Logistics and Transportation, and Workplace Innovations. The judging panel for each category includes key industry players and representatives from IDA, sponsor companies and SingTel.

The winning solutions are as follows:

1. Consumer Mobile Application Innovation Award
GTW Holdings is the winner with its HungryGoWhere mobile application, which helps users to quickly locate restaurants in their immediate vicinity on their mobile phones. It also lists current dining promotions and provides over 19,000 detailed reviews to help users choose the restaurant that best meets their needs.

2. Healthcare Innovation Award
The winner is the KOOPrime-CommerceHub consortium with its Mobile Patient Health Record (MPHR) solution where patients can conveniently retrieve essential personal medical records using mobile phones and PDAs. This is particularly useful during medical consultation as it allows healthcare professionals to have a clear and concise view of a patient’s condition and history.

3. Logisitics and Transportation Innovation Award
The winner is Growth Venture, a company that develops mobile platforms, robotics and communication systems. Its intelligent remote vehicle tracking solution continuously monitors the status of vehicles and drivers to allow companies to better manage their fleet and minimise maintenance costs.

4. Workplace Innovation Award
The winner is Advanced ERP, a software company that offers a line of web-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), E-business, media and workplace collaboration products. Its DreamApps WorkSpace solution is an innovative workforce collaboration tool that facilitates the exchange of information and digital content such as blogs, documents, images, sound clips and videos.

Asok Chattopadhyay, Advanced ERP’s CEO said, “As a small company, we need all the help we can get to compete with large multinational corporations. The SingTel Partner Programme i.Challenge08 competition gives our solutions exposure to a large audience and raises the profile of our company.”

Launched in January 2008, the SingTel Partner Programme enables ICT entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality and not be limited by funds and resources. It was established at a cost of S$2.3 million over two years and now has an active membership of more than 130 ISVs.

RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay, IDA’s Chief Executive Officer said, “IDA is encouraged to see the progress of the SingTel Partner Programme. It contributes to the rich environment of the Singapore infocomm ecosystem, which fosters world-class R&D of a wide range of infocomm products, services and solutions and facilitates our local infocomm enterprises in creating market-driven intellectual property.”

The SingTel i.Challenge08 competition is sponsored by Forum Nokia, HTC, Nokia Siemens Network and Research In Motion and supported by IDA and the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF).

For more information, visit www.singtel.com/partner/ichallenge.

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