LV SMU Publication: The Business Times, p 26 Date: 29 November 2007 Headline: Giving services industry a boost

industry a boost New courses in Service Science are in line with the iN2015 goal of producing 'techno-strategists', writes AM IT ROY CHOUDHURY

N A move that will give a fur- ther boost to the robust servic- es industry in Singapore, the Republic's three universities will start offering courses for Service Science, a new mul- ti-disciplinary research and ac- ademic discipline, in collabora-

tion with IBM. The courses will begin from the ac-

ademic year starting in August 2008. Different departments of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Na- tional University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management Universi- ty (SMU) signed separate memoran- dums of understanding (MoUs) with IBM Singapore yesterday for this pur- pose.

The MoUs cover Service Science curriculum development and re- search exploration with IBM, leading to the full programme called Service Science, Management and Engineer- ing (SSME).

Speaking to BizZT, IBM Singa- pore's managing director Teresa Lirn said Service Science complements, rather than replaces, the main disci- plines that contribute to knowledge about service.

"Service Science is a new academ- ic discipline that integrates aspects of established fields such as computer science, operations research, engi- neering, management sciences, busi- ness strategy, social and cognitive sci- ences, and legal sciences," she said.

Ms Lim noted that 40 per cent of thc world's labour forcc, 15 '. now cm- ployed in the services sector, com- pared with 38.7 per cent in agricul- ture and 21.3 per cent in manufactur- ing.

She added that despite this global shift towards a services economy, there was until recently no concerted effort or formalised educational pro- gramme to nurture services profes- sionals and researchers. "SSME is an urgent call to action to develop a sci- ence of services."

According to IBM, the services sec- tor in Singapore comprised 138,700 establishments in 2005. A total of 1.07 million workers were employed in this sector.

IBM signed the MoUs with the NTU College of Engineering, NUS School of Computing and the Institute of Systems Science (ISS) of NUS, and SMU School of Information Systems.

IHM has designated Jim Spohrer, director of Service Research, and Paul Maglio, senior manager, Service Systems Research, both from the IBM

IBM's M s Lim: Businesses expected to invest more to make innovation in services more systematic

Almaden Research Centre in San Jose, California, to lead 1BM's collabo- ration with the university faculties and ISS, Ms Lirn said.

The collaboration includes the re- view of existing curricula, develop- ment of new courseware and case studies, and defining areas for service research.

Ms Lirn noted that the MoUs are part of a larger push by IBM, the three universities and 15 organisa- tions, supported by the Infocomm De- velopment Authority of Singapore (IDA), to collaborate to push the fron- tier of service innovation through Service Science education, research, talent development and collaboration with government, academia and in- dustry.

The IDA, together with Avaya Sin- gapore, DBS Bank, IBM Singapore, Singapore Computer Systems (SCS) and Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) are sponsoring talented stu- dents who are keen to pursue info- comm and SSME-related courses through the National Infocomm Schol- arship (NIS).

"The scholarship aims to identify and nurture a group of talented stu- dents for a career in infocomm," Ms Lirn said, adding: "Together, the six organisations have pledged their sup- port to sponsor up to 38 new scholar- ships from 2008, enhancing next year's NIS."

The companies in Singapore which have expressed their support for Service Science and SSME include Avaya Singapore, Cisco, DBS Bank, Fuji Xerox Singapore, Intel Technolo-

gy Asia, the Land Transport Authori- ty, Lenovo Singapore, OCBC Bank, Or- acle Corporation Singapore, Pow- erSeraya Ltd, Singapore Airlines, SCS, Singapore Power Ltd, SingTel and United Overseas Bank Ltd.

"The collaboration with the univer- sities aims to develop a new breed of service scientists and service entre- preneurs who understand service sys- tems, are trained to enable efficient and systematic approaches to service delivery, and serve as catalysts for service innovation in organisations and for various industry sectors," Ms Lirn said.

According to her, SSME-trained graduates will likely enter the work- force as solution designers, consult- ants, engineers, scientists and manag- ers.

"After gaining practical experi- ence across multiple industry sectors and with rapidly evolving technology tools and solutions that transform businesses and institutions, they will then go on to be successful entrepre- neurs, executives, researchers, and practitioners, with a solid grounding in theory and best practices in design- ing high-value service solutions," Ms Lirn added.

IDA'S new chief executive, Rear-Admiral (NS) Ronnie Tay, noted that the introduction of the SSME pro- gramme by IBM and the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) was a timely one for Singapore.

"It's aligned with the iN2015 (intel- ligent Nation 201 5) masterplan w h e r e n u r t u r i n g a pool of 'techno-strategists' is critical in help- ing to achieve the vision of an intelli- gent nation, global city powered by in- focomm," Rear-Admiral Tay said.

Developing a multi-disciplinary in- focomm workforce ready for the serv- ice-based economy will certainly en- hance Singapore's status as an info- comm hub, he added.

"The efforts by industry leaders like IBM and the IHLs are most en- couraging."

IBM's Ms Lirn added that given the importance of services as a key growth driver in Singapore, business- es are expected to invest more to make innovation in services more sys- tematic.

"Greater and more open collabora- tion among the academia, govern- ment and industry will also lead to ini- tiatives to capture the vast quantities of service data being generated by the business world every day, and lever- age them for research which is the seedbed for generating new service value and innovation," Ms Lirn said.

Source: The Business Times O Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction.