From Data Silos to Intelligence: Enhancing Service Delivery in Singapore

Singapore’s public sector has made impressive strides in digital transformation, primarily by using technology to deliver more innovative and efficient services to citizens. With the digital economy contributing 17.7% to GDP in 2023 and 99% of all transactions between citizens and the government now being completed online, it’s clear the nation is well on its way to a thriving digital future.

But as data stores continue to grow and technologies like AI become more mainstream, it falls on agencies to upgrade their systems and keep up. Those still working with fragmented and unstructured data will find it harder to meet the rising demands of millions of citizens.

One thing remains clear: Data silos hamper collaboration, slow down decision-making, and limit the full potential of AI and analytics.

This blog explores how Singapore’s public sector can leverage data intelligence to connect fragmented datasets and enhance service delivery. By prioritising smart outcomes, agencies are better positioned to transform operational data into strategic assets — driving greater efficiency, responsiveness, and meaningful stakeholder experiences.

The Path to Data Intelligence: What Organisations Need to Overcome

Harnessing data intelligence doesn’t end with adopting the latest analytics tools or expanding storage capacity. The real difficulty lies in tackling persistent data dysfunctions: the issues that often remain even after transformation initiatives.

To move towards efficient and intelligent outcomes, agencies must first address four key categories of data challenges:

1. Fragmentation

Many organisations store data across various databases, systems, platforms, and departments — each with its own structure, access controls, and formats. This fragmented landscape makes it difficult to consolidate information and gain a holistic view of operations. Without proper integration, decision-makers are left with partial insights that require additional time and effort to piece together. This slows down response times and reduces organisational agility.

2. Invisibility

Unused information, known as dark data, often remains hidden from analytics and decision-making processes. This typically happens when data is unstructured, stored outside data warehouses, or not integrated into analytics workflows. Dark data can come from various sources, including emails, documents, system logs, and even deserted legacy platforms. When this data stays buried, organisations miss opportunities to uncover trends, optimise operations, and make timely, data-driven decisions.

3. Inconsistency

Data comes in all shapes and sizes — with different formats, systems, and update cycles. This kind of diversity, especially common in the public sector, makes it challenging to align datasets for meaningful analysis. The problem becomes even more pressing when real-time insights are needed. Inconsistent data that isn’t properly processed can lead to misinformed decisions and operational delays.

4. Poor Quality

Poor data quality resulting from duplicate records, missing fields, deleted entries, or incorrect values undermines the reliability of analytics. Redundant, outdated, and trivial (ROT) data erodes trust in insights and can lead to flawed strategies. Ensuring data integrity is critical for building a strong foundation for intelligence-driven decision-making.

The Power of Data Intelligence: What Organisations Can Achieve

The value of digital transformation lies in how data is used to drive meaningful outcomes. With cloud platforms providing secure and scalable infrastructure, agencies gain the ability to tap their data in a smarter, more effective way — enabling quicker decisions, greater operational efficiency, and more responsive public services.

Here’s what public sector organisations in Singapore can achieve when empowered with data intelligence:

Improved Efficiency with Intelligent Data

In many government agencies, valuable information is often stored across data silos, making it hard to access quickly. By integrating data sources and applying intelligent search powered by AI, organisations can streamline workflows, reduce manual effort, and deliver faster, more accurate results. This not only improves productivity but also frees up staff to focus on higher-value tasks.

Case in point:

A legal department in Singapore boosted its efficiency by implementing Avepoint’s Intelligent Case Retrieval System (ICRS) powered by Amazon Kendra and AWS Comprehend. This tool enabled semantic search and contextual analysis, guiding staff to the most relevant legal cases quickly. As a result, research time was significantly reduced, decision-making was accelerated, and teams could concentrate on insights rather than manual data retrieval.

Better Foresight with Predictive Planning

The public sector constantly faces increasing pressure to anticipate needs and respond proactively. Whether it’s planning healthcare resources, managing transport flows, or preparing for environmental risks, timely insights are key. By consolidating data from various sources and applying analytics or machine learning, agencies can uncover patterns, forecast trends, and make smarter decisions ahead of time. This leads to better resource planning, improved service delivery, and reduced risk.

Case in point:

A leading educational institution in Singapore partnered with AvePoint to modernise its data infrastructure using our custom-built Predictive Insights (PI) and Unified Data Platform (UDP). By leveraging AWS DataSync and Application Migration Service, the institution consolidated 20 years of legacy data from nearly 300 disparate sources into a unified Data Lake. This enabled the use of AWS SageMaker to uncover patterns and forecast trends. The generated data insights support decision-making by helping minimise student attrition, profile potential graduate employment outcomes, and improve student attendance.

Personalised Citizen Services

Citizens today expect services that are not only efficient but also tailored to their needs. To meet these expectations, agencies must go beyond traditional service models and tap into data-driven insights. By combining multiple sources of operational and behavioural data, organisations can personalise interactions, anticipate user needs, and deliver highly responsive services. This results in more satisfying experiences for the public — whether it’s renewing a license, accessing legal support, or receiving healthcare.

Case in point:

A Singapore-based arts organisation partnered with AvePoint to launch a cloud-based Recommendation Engine powered by AWS. By centralising customer data from multiple sources, the organisation was able to analyse user behaviour and preferences more effectively. This allowed them to tailor event recommendations based on shared interests, event popularity, and past transactions. With visual insights generated through Power BI and Tableau, the platform now anticipates user needs and delivers highly responsive, personalised experiences. As a result, the organisation attracted over 200,000 new visitors and saw a significant boost in engagement across the local arts scene.

Empowering Public Services with Data Intelligence

Singapore’s public sector is at a pivotal moment. Data, if properly managed and connected, can drive smarter decisions, faster services, and more resilient governance. With the right cloud strategy, agencies can activate real-time insights and deliver citizen services that are secure, scalable, and AI-ready.

Explore how AvePoint supports Singapore’s public sector with secure, scalable solutions for collaboration, data governance, and digital transformation — built to work seamlessly with AWS. 

With these solutions, the country's public sector can deliver faster, more connected services for everyone.