E-Government

Massive expansion of cities driven by urbanization and migration of people from rural areas in several countries in the Asia Pacific region creates mega cities that are beset with environmental issues, resource management concerns and pressure on infrastructure. Identifying and overcoming these issues with efficient planning and optimum utilization of technology has become increasingly relevant in such scenarios. Volatile growth of cities has far-reaching implications – cutting across industries – which demand cities to be both smart and green.

Good urban planning and management is a major determinant of the city’s growth. Smart cities are an evolved state of urbanization where application of technology integrates diverse individual entities such as buildings, utilities, authorities, infrastructure and industries.

The proven successes of our many e-Government initiatives have demonstrated that a highly digital and connected government can provide effective and efficient operational support across the city council and related regulatory organisations apparatus and more importantly, raise process transparency and organisational accountability across the entire government service.

Singapore

CORENET – Construction and Real Estate Network

An example is Singapore e-Government Initiative “CORENET – Construction and Real Estate Network”, where the regulatory framework for its real estate and construction is characterised by on-line electronic submission, processing and tracking of applications and publication of building codes and regulations combined with email alerts of updates and changes pushed to the industry professionals within a day of its gazette.

Involving 16 Government Agencies from 9 different Ministries, CORENET re-engineered the then-fragmented business processes of the real estate and construction industry into a unified Many Agencies, One Government platform and delivered these strategic competitiveness for the Singapore Government:

80 percent reduction in total time to secure construction related permits/licenses
73 percent reduction in number of application forms from 845 (physical) to 231 (electronic)
US$150 million per year in hard cost savings on operational expenses
US$ 1 billion per year estimated savings in investor risk and capital financing cost
E-Government Excellence Distinguished Award 2013 for Shared Systems and Services bestowed by Singapore Ministry of Finance and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
World Bank Citation 2009 of CORENET as instrumental to Singapore’s No. 1 ranking in its Doing Business Survey

Nova Group brings to you a wealth of consulting and system implementation expertise acquired by our staff members through hands-on project experience that are valuable and not easily replicable. With a focus in delivering practical domain-specific solutions for the Infrastructure Planning Authorities, Nova Group has a range of fit-for-purpose solutions that address the end-to-end business requirements of the Infrastructure Planning Authorities and the Construction and Real Estate Industry, with rapid and efficient implementation as one of its key goals.

The FORNAX™ ePlanCheck System is the World’s First Automated Plan Checking System to perform automated conformance checks on digital plans submitted by architects and engineers against building and related codes and regulations. Apart from relieving the regulatory authorities from the time-consuming and potentially error-prone tasks of manually checking individual plans for non-compliances, it allows for more consistent interpretation and application of the rules stipulated in the codes and regulations.

Architects and engineers are empowered to validate their designs in terms of regulatory conformity and are able to correct / amend non-compliant aspects of their design prior to submitting to the Authorities. Because plan checking of the submitted designs make up the bulk of time taken within a regulatory department, the combination of such proactive industry action and automation on the part of the Authorities means an overall dramatic shortening of the time taken to process and approve a permit application.

FORNAX™ ePlanCheck implements automatic code compliance check against two major domains – Architectural and Building Services – in areas like:

Architectural

Building Control Regulations
Barrier Free Access (Accessibility) codes
Code of Practice for Fire Precautions in Building
Household and Storey Shelters Codes
Building Control Regulations for Public Housing
Provision Of Parking Places And Parking Spaces
Code of Practice on Environmental Health

Building Services

Fire Codes for Building Services Systems
Code of Practice for Manufactured Gas Pipe Installation
Code of Practice on Surface Water Drainage
Code Of Practice For Water Services
Code of Practice on Sewerage and Sanitary Works

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Automated Regulatory Compliance System

The traditional process of building plans submission and approval is laborious and often fraught with challenges due to the huge number of building by-laws, sometimes cryptic interpretations of the regulations and the need for trained experts to decipher the layers of information contained in the plans. Thus, it is no surprise when oversights are common and seeking final approval is usually a protracted journey. In light of public expectations and accelerated development, approving authorities can no longer depend on manual methods but instead rely on technology to improve on efficiency.

The Holy Makkah Municipality (HMM) of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has commissioned a project to implement an Automated Regulatory Compliance System (ARCS) that will automate the checking of building plan regulatory compliance submitted to the municipality, a move that promises to revolutionize the construction industry.

The ARCS is a portal-based system that complements the permitting process in HMM for the purpose of a comprehensive automated plans review. The implementation of ARCS will deliver significant benefits to HMM, namely:

Provide a unified, co-ordinated and integrated approach to building plan reviews to enforce consistency in interpretation of building codes as well as transparency in the approval process
Facilitate code compliance self-review by consultants
Make possible a consolidated and holistic view of each submission; assisting in better decision-making and approval process

ARCS implementation is based on Nova’s own proprietary software, FORNAX ePlancheck, an automated building plan checking expert system.

Malaysia

Integrated City Management System

Putrajaya, the new Federal Administrative Centre is the most majestic and technologically advanced city in Malaysia.  As the new seat of government, Putrajaya will house all federal ministries, departments and agencies.  Together with the public offices, residential and commercial properties sit on the 4,581 hectares of lush greenery and man-made lakes reflecting on the national pride and independence.

To better manage the physical planning and growth of the city, Nova was commissioned to implement SUMBER-PUTRA, an enterprise-wide system that allows the authority to support urban planning and provides functions to manage the business processes related to the development & management of the city.

From a system perspective, SUMBER-PUTRA encompasses centralized critical security features, document management and business process automation to support e-Submission, development of Master Plan and Urban Design Guides, application decision update, land management and registration of titles, billing and collection of monies owed to the Authority and property valuation.

Benefits reaped from this project includes:

Significant service level improvement – processing time for Layout Plan was reduced from 12 to 4 weeks
Real time notifications of approval status
Centralized database avoids data duplication and minimizes file losses/misplacements
Reduced cost – elimination of printing plans and reports for physical submission
Standardized business processes and automation of standard computations
Consistent standards based on international standards that manages the convention in which CAD drawings are created

 

Singapore and Brunei Darussalam

Integrated Land Transport Information System

Our novaCITYNETS’s Integrated Land Transport Information System (LTS) is to facilitate a “One-Stop Non-Stop” Portal for all relevant stakeholders on all Land Transport Department (LTD) related matters, covering import and export of vehicles, vehicle registration, vehicle licensing, driver licensing, vehicle inspection, and enforcement.

With LTS, relevant e-Services are made available to the general public and business users (like Motor Agents, Banks and Insurance Firms) to perform applications and enquiries via the internet.  LTS also serves as an “End-to-End e-Processing System” for LTD and other authorised Government agencies. As the centralised platform that manages all Land Transport related matters, LTS is able to extend relevant unified accurate data to interested stakeholders based on their business needs and security clearance.

Built based on PAVO™ Collaborative Framework, which is renowned for large scale e-Government implementation due to its robust security management and ease in adoption, LTS is able to serve all its stakeholders anytime anywhere with user friendly features and access to their authorised functions, data and documents.

The key benefits of a centralised LTS are:

Support e-Government initiatives through a web-based and open architecture, which allows more efficient interactions between LTD, its employees and stakeholders by electronic means
Allow public to quickly gain information on the current safety standards and regulations at all times and from anywhere
Issue Secured Driver License and Vehicle License to eliminate forgery and fraud activities
Manage and log inspections of vehicles and accidents to maintain the level of safety and standard
Provide accurate and up-to-date records on all Land Transport related matters (e.g. Vehicle Information, Vehicle Ownership Information, Driver Information)
Sharing of information with authorised stakeholders
Provide Traffic Law and Regulation Enforcement with instant and up-to-date information
Enhance the management of revenue collection
Achieve a paperless environment

Singapore

Legal Aid Management Portal System

Back in 1958, the Ministry of Law of Singapore setup the Legal Aid Bureau (LAB), in order to provide a means of equal access to justice for individuals with limited financial means. The services provided to bona fide cases can be categorized into 3 areas, namely:

Legal Assistance – drafting of various legal documents including wills, deeds of separation, deed of severance of cohabitation and deed polls
Legal Advice – provision of advice on questions about Singapore laws and procedures,
Legal Aid – legal representation in court proceedings for a wide range of civil matters – divorce, adoptions, claims for maintenance, custody of children, wrongful dismissals, tenancy disputes, monetary claims, motor and industrial accident claims and estate/trust matters.

Processing of application for legal aid and subsequent service rendering in LAB then were by and large manual with dependency on paper forms. Processing each of these involved sharing of paper documents by different individuals. As expected, physical file movements resulted in longer turnaround time and greater reliance on clerical staff. With physical case folders, it also meant that LAB officers are unable to access to case information simultaneously.

Recognizing these limitations and the need to improve client services, LAB selected novaCITYNETS to implement the Legal Aid Management Portal (LAMP) based on PAVO™ Collaborative Framework, novaCITYNETS’ own application framework product.

PAVO™ was designed to improve the office productivity by managing electronic documents and supports business processes/collaborations within and between departments. PAVO’s unique Case Management module ensures that users are always a point-and-click away from an organized and holistic view of all information related to a single case.

LAMP supports the access of electronic case folders and processing for all LAB users comprising of legal officers, interpreters, legal executives, customer service officers, stenographers and other clerical staff, each group with defined access rights for only designated functions, documents and information.

With this fully automated system, the bureau staff finds performing their day-to-day work a breeze. Customer satisfaction has also improved with LAMP.

Singapore

Enterprise Legal Management System

The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) plays a pivotal role in enhancing the rule of law and strengthening the efficiency and integrity of Singapore’s legal system. In carrying out its prosecutorial functions, AGC seeks to promote a just criminal system by pursuing a fair and impartial policy in the prosecution of offenders.  As the Government’s legal adviser in all aspects of public administration law, criminal law, international law, legislation and law reform, AGC is able to provide a vast array of legal expertise for the good governance of Singapore.

In its endeavour to roll-out a state-of-art management system to accomplish their organization objectives, the AGC awarded novaCITYNETS a contract to supply, deliver, install, test and commission a fully operational Enterprise Legal Management System (ELMS).

While ELMS is to replace the manual process of managing and administrating legal matters in AGC, it is also the intent of the AGC to leverage on Information Technology to increase employee productivity, efficiency in management of data, information and knowledge across the five legal divisions and two supporting divisions.

ELMS is a single Matter Centric Collaboration Platform with an integrated view of information to support the fundamental changes in sharing of legal knowledge and collaboration on legal processes among partners and client agencies in a paperless environment.