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106 Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise

robust, scalable architecture. For example, all servic- information, almost as fast as those who accessed the
ing branches were equipped with scanners; moni- information in the office.
tors were changed to 20 inches; PC RAM size was This allowed Income to view a summary of each
upgraded to 128 MB; and new hardware and soft- customer over different products and business areas.
ware for application servers, database servers, web As a result, cross-selling became easier, and cus-
servers, and disk storage systems were installed. tomer service could be improved. Simplified work-
Furthermore, the LAN cables were replaced with flows cut policy processing time and cost by half,
faster cables, a fiber-optic backbone, and wireless and greatly reduced the time required to design and
capability. launch new products from months to days.
In addition, Income also revamped its business Additionally, the systems allowed for online sup-
continuity and disaster-recovery plans. A real-time port of customers, agents and brokers.
hot backup disaster-recovery center was imple-
Sources: Melanie Liew, Computerworld, July 2004; “NTUC
mented, where the machines were always running Income of Singapore Successfully Implemented eBaoTech
and fully operational. Data was transmitted immedi- Lifesystem,” ebaotech.com, accessed November 2008; Neerja
ately on the fly from the primary datacenter to the Sethi & D G Allampallai, “NTUC Income of Singapore (A):
Re-architecting Legacy Systems,” asiacase.com, October 2005.
backup machines’ data storage. In the event of the
datacenter site becoming unavailable, the operations
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
could be switched quickly to the disasterrecovery
1. What were the problems faced by Income in this
site without the need to rely on restoration of previ-
case? How were the problems resolved by the new
ous day data.
digital system?
Moving to a paperless environment, however,
2. What types of information systems and business
was not easy. Income had to throw away all paper
processes were used by Income before migrating
records, including legal paper documents. Under the
to the fully digital system?
new system, all documents were scanned and stored
3. Describe the Information systems and IT infra-
on “trusted” storage devices - secured, reliable digital
structure at Income after migrating to the fully
vaults that enabled strict compliance with stringent
digital system?
statutory requirements. Income had to train employ-
4. What benefits did Income reap from the new sys-
ees who had been accustomed to working with paper
tem?
to use the eBao system and change the way they
5. How well is Income prepared for the future? Are
worked.
the problems described in the case likely to be
As a result of adopting eBao Life System, about
repeated?
500 office staff and 3,400 insurance advisors could
Case contributed by Neerja Sethi and Vijay Sethi,
access the system anytime, anywhere. Staff members
Nanyang Technological University.
who would telecommute enjoyed faster access to

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