In the last 3 months, engineers from HTX’s Civil Defence Programme Management Centre built 8 applications on Microsoft’s Power Platform for use by frontline SCDF officers.
Team members from CDPMC. (First from left) Kavan Tan, Engineer, Frontline Mobility; Tan Song Beng, Deputy Director, C2 and Frontline Mobility; Roi Tai, Head, Frontline Mobility; Jasper Ho, Engineer, Frontline Mobility and Lim Zhi Hao, Lead Engineer, Frontline Mobility (Photo: SCDF)
In the last three months, engineers from HTX’s Civil Defence Programme Management Centre (CDPMC) have been building a series of applications on Microsoft’s Power Platform for use by frontline officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). During the 3-day period from 22-24 May 2023, the SCDF, CDPMC, and Microsoft held a “Be a Digital Frontliner” event to share with more than 300 SCDF attendees how these applications “complement and augment SCDF’s daily operations and boost efficiency.”
Opening address by DC Ling Young Ern, Deputy Commissioner (Future Technology & Public Safety), SCDF (Photo: SCDF/Facebook)
Following the SCDF’s 2021 digital transformation study which established the goal to “digitalise operational processes and build a digital workforce to better serve the community,” DC Ling Young Ern, Deputy Commissioner (Future Technology & Public Safety) noted in his opening address during the Digital Frontliner event that the SCDF has been exploring “various means and ways of developing solutions to tackle the challenges faced in our daily operational and administrative processes.”
DC Ling shared that he was “a little bit apprehensive” when CDPMC first suggested using Microsoft Power Platform to develop these solutions, but “after several months of working with HTX colleagues and really going deeper into how these apps work,” he now thinks that “we see a very good outcome. And really, it is feasible even for these apps to replace some of the existing systems that we have.”
DD Tan Song Beng briefing COMR Eric Yap, Commissioner SCDF, on the newly developed apps (Photo: SCDF)
HTX and SCDF senior management having a hands-on session to develop apps (Photo: SCDF)
What especially impressed the SCDF was that the CDPMC team was able to leverage Microsoft Power Platform to develop multiple applications in just three months since February this year. During this short span of time, CDPMC developed a total of eight apps in collaboration with SCDF. In addition, about 200 SCDF frontline officers were onboarded to use the new apps, with a further outreach to 4,000 SCDF personnel, and the use of the apps has led to numerous positive reviews on improved productivity. In addition, the use of Microsoft Power Platform to build the apps allowed CDPMC to avoid potentially spending at least $20 million in development/tech refresh costs. Instead, less than $50,000 was spent on building the new apps.
The first four apps were developed in-house by CDPMC. The first app was the Food Indentation and Consumption App (FICA), which is used by the Civil Defence Academy and National Service Training Centre Cookhouse to track the daily indentation and consumption of 3,000 meals on-the-move and in real-time. The second was the Responders Functional Fitness Test (RFFT) app, which allows the recording of the participants’ results for data presentation, retention, and analytics. The third was the Building Inspection Appointment Booking (BIAB) app, which is a systematic booking system for Building Owners and Fire Safety Officers to arrange building inspections more effectively. The fourth was the Basic Task Manual (BTM) app, which functions as a one-stop portal to store all BTMs – functional operational procedures expected of frontline teams – for frontline officers to access via mobile devices on-the-go.
Team members from CDPMC with product managers from SCDF, LTC Sakhubai Ramanathan, Head Logistics, Corporate Services Hub (West) and Md Rashid Talib, SAD TFTD (Informatics), Transformation & Future Technology Department (Photo: SCDF)
Aside from the abovementioned four applications, there is another app, the Automatic Check on Product Listing Scheme, which was developed jointly with SCDF. This app automates audit checks on installed product lists submitted for Temporary Fire Permit (TFP) / Fire Safety Certificate (FSC) by Qualified Personnel.
Three other apps that were shared at the Digital Frontliner event were the product of co-sourced development. The first was the Automated Duty Assignment (ADA) app, which automates the assignment of fire rescue specialists to the SCDF appliances based on their appointment and skillset. The second was the Regimental Duty Roster (RDR) app, which automates regimental duty rostering for non-frontline officers and allows these officers to view their assigned regimental duties and to be able to swap their duties with one another on-the-move. The third was the Interactive Troubleshooting App (ITA), which is a guided troubleshooting tool for issues related to vehicle maintenance.
Given the positive feedback from the SCDF users, SCDF and CDPMC will continue to work together to develop more apps. DC Ling shared that: “Together with HTX, we’re quite confident that we will be able to achieve what we want to do and even more, as we train more officers to be aware of the potential of the systems and to discover new workflows and processes that can be digitalised using these apps.”