While announcing a refresh of Singapore’s sector-specific Industry Digital Plans (IDPs), the government said the food services IDP would be the first to benefit from this initiative.
Aligned with the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) for each sector, IDPs provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a step-by-step guide to identify suitable digital solutions and corresponding training programmes to equip employees with the right skillsets at each stage of their digitalisation journey.
To date, the 20 IDPs, across industries, have supported more than 85,000 businesses to benefit from the SMEs Go Digital programme, the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) said.
Inaugurated by Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information, Tan Kiat How, the new food sector IDP, jointly developed by Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and IMDA, will address trends observed in the food services sector, such as the shift in consumer behaviour towards digital ordering, e-commerce and food delivery.
It will also assist food services SMEs to overcome challenges in a tight labour market resulting in increased labour costs, the IMDA said in a statement.
Four new solution sub-categories unique to the food services sector were added to the food sector IDP to support food services SMEs in tapping more advanced solutions to further their digitalisation journey, IMDA said.
They are:
- Connected business suite;
- Service robotics;
- Food waste management; and
- Smart central kitchen management system.
IMDA said the refreshed IDPs for all sectors would have some significant elements.
Digital solutions roadmap
The first would be a refreshed solution suite under the digital solutions roadmap under which digital solutions currently used by SMEs would be refreshed to ensure that the foundational sector-specific solutions for SMEs remain relevant and impactful.
This will entail ensuring that generic solutions targeting areas from the management of documentation processes, resources and finances to human resources and payroll-related matters, are expanded to include more easy-to-deploy digital solutions for newly incorporated SMEs or those that have yet to digitalise to help them start their digitalisation journey, IMDA said.
For SMEs that are ready to scale their digital efforts, the refreshed IDPs will enable them to benefit from integrated solutions.
Apart from streamlining operations within the enterprise through the integration of component solutions, integrated solutions will also allow enterprises to connect more easily with others across value chains and facilitate the use of data analytics to guide business decisions.
The new roadmap on cybersecurity and data protection measures will help SMEs identify appropriate tools and practices that they can adopt at different stages of their digital growth to safeguard their systems and operations from cyberattacks, IMDA said.
To help SMEs overcome the barriers to digitalisation, the Digital Training Roadmap will be expanded to include change management.
The government will update the corresponding digital training roadmap so that companies could tailor their training programmes according to their employees’ needs and ensure that they are able to adapt and confidently use these technologies, IMDA said.
