PUBLISHED ONMay 06, 2020 6:00 AMByJoey LeeKimberly Anne Lim
Amid the fuss over which services are essential during the Covid-19 pandemic, less contentious is the good work that charities such as the Singapore Children's Society do in the community.
But keeping their services running has been a challenge for many of them, albeit in a different way. While the rest of Singapore forges ahead with various Smart Nation initiatives, the non-profit sector has been struggling to pick up the pace.
For Children's Society, that meant hard-copy case files and frequent visits to the office to update their shared drives - not a good idea during a pandemic.
Enter iShine Cloud, Singapore Pools' non-profit IT cloud service.
Not always about giving money
With limited manpower and financial resources, many charities lack proper IT support and often outsource their computing needs to external vendors.
At the same time, these charities collect and handle a large volume of sensitive data in order to understand their beneficiaries better and also process donations. Currently, such data is usually stored in servers within the charity's IT network and may not be backed up regularly, leaving it vulnerable to cybersecurity threats.
Digitisation is therefore paramount, and to address these challenges, iShine Cloud was set up by Singapore Pools to leverage its technological capital and benefit this underserved community.
These days, corporate social responsibility has taken on a tech spin, and for Singapore Pools, corporate philanthropy extends beyond monetary donations.
It includes volunteering time and expertise, and leveraging on relationships with corporate partners to embark on a meaningful cause.
Andrew Lim, the ASEAN head of markets for Cognizant — one of Singapore Pools' corporate partners — said that platforms like iShine Cloud provide non-profit organisations with all the benefits of a commercial situation such as improved efficiencies, remote access and increased mobility in a secure environment, but at a rate that maximises their finite resources.
Andrew said: "Since this is already aligned to what we do for our customers, we feel like by contributing our time, effort and professional skill set, it will better enable non-profits to benefit."
One mother's dream
For Yip Yuen Fong, iShine Cloud's executive director, this is personal.
After seeing her son struggle with a heavy backpack when he started primary one, she made it one of her life goals to transform the way people live with the help of technology.
While waiting for the school bus to arrive one morning, the young boy saw his mother preparing to go to work with a laptop and asked why he couldn't do the same.
Looking at her child, Yuen Fong replied that she would make it happen one day.
True to her word, she later helped to develop a programme in her previous job that created digital content with teachers and developers, so learning came alive with video and audio to help students with more difficult concepts.
Fast forward 15 years, e-textbooks are common, National Servicemen are using iPads and every polytechnic or university student works on a laptop.
Now, she's set her sights on helping charities with her expertise.
Case study: Singapore Children's Society
One charity that iShine Cloud currently works with is Children's Society, which aims to protect and nurture children and youth of all races and religions, especially children, youth and families in need, via its 12 service centres islandwide.
Before engaging iShine Cloud, Children's Society had a small IT team handling data that was stored in a decentralised way. This means that all information had to be saved at individual centres and it was challenging to manage things at the organisational level.
Working from home was also an arduous undertaking, according to Joy Lim, Director of Children Outreach @ Children's Society.
"Whenever we needed to work on documents at home, we would need to download them, bring them home, bring them back again to the office with the changes and then upload them into our system," she explained.
Some staff members, including Joy, even chose to lug around hard copies of case files and reports to avoid the inconvenience of updating them in the office's shared drive.
The iShine Cloud platform offers two clear advantages: it ensures that the organisation's information is hosted in a secure, reliable environment and allows information to be readily accessible.
This means that staff members could refer to case notes on the go without compromising security.
Data from different centres is stored in Singapore Pools' data centres, with regular backup, cybersecurity monitoring and a disaster recovery site that will ensure continuity in operations.
Besides taking a weight off their shoulders (both figuratively and literally), the new system has also been a lifesaver during this global health crisis.
Since mid-February, Joy's team has been operating on a split-team arrangement, a precautionary measure made possible by their increased flexibility to telecommute.
"It's what we needed for this season.
"With the help of iShine Cloud we were able to transit to our business continuity plan smoothly and with great ease," said Joy. "Not being bound to a physical space, we are able to continue serving our beneficiaries while following the precautionary measures as advised by the government."
For Yuen Fong, whether it's making learning more engaging or keeping a charity running smoothly amid a pandemic, it all boils down to one thing: improving lives with technology.
"Do not push technology for technology's sake. We should always come from a problem-solving standpoint, how technology helps us to solve problems.
"Otherwise, we are just slaves to technology."