About half (53 per cent) of all SMEs here believe that adopting technology would increase productivity.

But a third (32 per cent) feel that technology has no impact on business growth.

These seemingly opposing attitudes were revealed in the the 2006 Annual SME Development Survey released by the DP Information Group.

They are attitudes that Mr Edwin Chow, director of technology innovation at Spring Singapore, wants to change.

'We want to reach these companies and show them that technology does drive productivity up and push costs down,' said Mr Chow, 34.

Pest management firm Origin Exterminators uses the Bugbite application in its operations. -- Photo/ LESLIE GOH

Spring also targets to reach the 62 per cent of these small players who are unsure of how to strengthen their capabilities in technology.

SMEs are businesses with at least 30 per cent local ownership. If they are in manufacturing, they should own less than $15 milllion of fixed assets. Service companies should not have more than 200 staff.

Together with agencies like the Economic Development Board (EDB), Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), Ministry of Education (MOE) and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), it has led the charge to get SMEs to be more competitive by using technology.

Its Technology Innovation Programme (Tip) launched last year in August is backed up by a $150 million fund set aside for five years.

It is what Minister for Trade and Industry Mr Lim Hng Kiang calls the 'first holistic government initiative developed with SMEs in mind'.

The programme covers not only IT, but technology products and processes.

Under TIP, three initiatives have been launched.

One is the setting up of innovation centres to provide technology, expertise and advice.

The second is to allow SMEs to get experts attached to them to develop their own innovation capabilities.

And the third is an outreach programme to educate SMEs through conferences, seminars and the media.

The aim is to get SMEs to develop a competitive edge through the use of technology.

In top form

Since its launch in August 2006, some 250 companies have expressed interest in Tip, and 45 have received support.

One such SME is printing company SC International.

Based in Singapore, the 106-strong company with revenues of $9 million last year needed an integrated system to consolidate its workflow and take care of its accounts and logistics.

Managing director Almond Ko, 48, revealed that the company invested $200,000 in an SAP system with funding from TIP.

He expects the new system to reduce costs by providing online real-time data on all aspects of the business - sales, purchases, production and finance.

Another Tip participant is Alliance Webhealth which has developed an innovative web-based health screening tool www.myhealthscanner.com.

By spending 20 minutes working through a series of questions, users can be alerted to potential health risks before the onset of any of the 27 medical conditions such as cancer, heart diseases and diabetes that the health scan covers.

The project took 15 months and $500,000 to complete, said managing director Dr Barry Thng, 40, and senior physician Dr Goh Tiong Jin, 43, who both led the project.

As it is geared towards Asians, the two believe their scanner has set a new benchmark in health screening. For example, it makes use of Asian BMI ratings.

Dr Goh now wants to take the scanner to a regional audience.

Local pest management company, Origin Exterminators uses the Bugbite application to automate its operations.

The solution developed by software solutions provider Emerio lets them maintain customer information, schedule appointments and allows field agents to update information using PDAs through an Internet browser over a WiFi or Bluetooth connection.

But the benefits to the staff of 65 have been enormous - from more efficient vehicle scheduling to better tracking of pest problems.

And the pest company has won clients like pharmaceutical giant Merck and has developed expertise in managing pests such as the tree-defoliating Rhesela caterpillars.

But initiatives like TIP alone are not enough to get companies to innovate.

"The common thread among companies who have gained support from us is management," said Mr Chow.

"We've found they are open-minded, keen to learn and ready to try new things."

Technologies SMEs can adopt

• Virtualisation

  What it is: A technology that allows a single server to be used as multiple machines.

  The virtualisation software creates multiple operating systems (OS), each capable of running its own application.

  How it is useful: If one application were to crash, all other applications can still run.

  The virtualisation software will isolate the rogue app and protect other OS and applications.

  Example: A company may use different virtualised environments to run its accounting, database and personnel systems. If the database system hangs, accounting and personnel can still run without any hitches.

  Alternatives: Blade servers are computers with multiple CPUs, and each can run its own OS and application. Although they are good candidates for using virtualisation, using blades requires some level of expertise.

• Business Intelligence

  What it is: Business intelligence (BI) is a broad category that includes technologies and applications to gather, store and analyse data so that companies can make better business decisions. BI activities cover decision support, query, online analytical processing (Olap), statistical analysis, forecasting and data mining.

  How it is useful: BI is often used in cross-selling, so companies maintain the competitive edge.

  Example: Using BI, Amazon.com can recommend to customers interested in a Star Wars DVD that they check out Star Wars posters or the movie soundtrack.

  Alternatives: Traditionally, companies use business analytics to query information from company transactions to find out patterns and trends in business.

• Business recovery

  What it is: An organisation can continue to function after a disaster - from a flood to a bomb explosion.

  Typically, business recovery of IT resources includes the procedures and processes it puts into place to make sure that important servers, systems and data can be recovered so that the business can still run.

  How it is useful: Business recovery is as critical as backups, and all organisations should have a recovery plan in place.

  Example: When the earthquake hit Taiwan in December last year, many businesses could not send out or receive e-mails. In cases like this, using faxes or mobile text messages would be the best solution. So, companies which had this fallback in its business recovery plans, could get their operations up and running again quicker.

  Alternatives: Some companies have duplicate IT environments set up - but this is just a different strategy for putting business recovery into practice.

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