To address common challenges faced by SMEs in focused sectors and localities, SME Centre@SICCI engage businesses and associations in group-based upgrading projects designed to resolve pain-points and enhance productivity.
Besides offering targeted support through workshops and advisory services, we also help SMEs access relevant government assistance for their growth and upgrading needs.
We have identified the need to manage and assist the following industries with productivity and capability enhancement through digitalisation and adopting the right certification to stay relevant in the changing business landscape.
Little India Business Model Transformation Masterclass
Electronic Shelf Labelling
Managed Service Providers – Industry Standards
Managed Service Providers – Industry Standards
Singapore Pawnbrokers’ Association
Employment / Domestic Worker Agencies
Security Services
We work closely with SMEs to deepen their capabilities and enable them to scale further. Meet our Business Advisors today for a free one-to-one consultation!
The Singapore Pawnbrokers’ project is spearheaded by the Singapore Pawnbrokers’ Association (SPA) to help its members modernise their operational systems and enhance their Anti-Money Laundering/ Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks.
SME Centre@SICCI understands that embracing technology is not only about staying competitive now, but also about future-proofing pawnbrokers in Singapore for unforeseen challenges and uncertainties. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of automation and remote services, making digital presence essential for maintaining operations during unforeseen disruptions.
On 30 May 2024, we conducted a workshop briefing at SPA’s headquarters, featuring an opening speech by the association’s President, Mr Ivan Ho PPB, who emphasised the importance and benefits of digitisation in the industry. The project is ongoing, and we have received positive responses from members eager to embark on this digital transformation.
The project was a solution customised for employment/ domestic worker agencies through the combined contributions/ efforts led by the Association for Employment Agencies Singapore (AEAS), Employment Agencies (EAs), DotSG Solutions (the solution provider) and SME Centre@SICCI.
It was designed to equip agencies with knowledge and tools to streamline their operations, reduce paperwork involved in applying for foreign workers permits and collaborate with government agencies. The time taken to complete these manual processes were significantly cut down after the project, boosting productivity and allowing greater bandwidth for businesses to explore other value-adding activities to grow their businesses. The required manpower hours for these processes were greatly reduced to under an hour (about a 75% to 80% increase in productivity).
Upon project completion, there were 18 employment/ domestic worker agencies who benefited from the solution and 14 of them successfully applied for Enterprise Singapore’s Enterprise Development Grant.
The Little India Business Model Transformation Masterclass Series was designed to empower SMEs in Little India to thrive in today’s dynamic market environment. Targeting brick-and-mortar businesses, the series offers in-depth sessions on Digital Transformation, Finance, Marketing and HR. The masterclasses were aimed at business owners and key decision-makers as they provide actionable insights and practical strategies tailored to the unique challenges faced by these SMEs.
Conducted over four weeks from July to August 2024, each session will feature expert trainers and hands-on activities to ensure participants can immediately apply their learnings. This complimentary series also fosters networking opportunities, encouraging collaboration within the Little India business community.
Security Agencies typically face challenges in managing their human resources and payroll processing. In a typical agency, each security officer has different hours of work, different overtime schedule and different forms of allowances. Coupled with various forms of advancement that is arranged by the company, the current human resources management systems (HRMS) in the market do not provide the flexibility to automate these adjustments.
With the introduction of SACE 2020, SAs are now expected to track these changes accurately and provide documentary evidence to show their capabilities. However, many SAs still do not have these capabilities yet. Thus, SME Centre@SICCI has found and decided to address this gap. Up to current, there are 60 SMEs onboard this project meant for empowering and enhancing the HRMS in the security sector.
The Electronic Shelf Labelling (ESL) project is an ongoing tailored initiative from SME Centre@SICCI for cafes, bakeries, and convenience stores/ mini-marts aimed at boost productivity, streamline manpower management, and ensure precise and prompt execution during price adjustments. The ESL project automates updates of price tag across sales floor for all products, ensuring new pricings can be reflected as quickly as within a minute. By minimising or eliminating traditional paper price tags in the business, saved manpower and resources can then be reallocated to enhance overall operational efficiency.
