Voice-automation technology for the public service helps WholeTree secure The Enterprise Challenge (TEC) grant.
In early 2004, WholeTree Technologies Pte Ltd developed a breakthrough technology – multilingual voice applications that can be used to automate enterprise processes such as customer service.
The technology, however, was still very much a prototype. WholeTree needed to put it to the test.
“We heard about The Enterprise Challenge (TEC) from a business partner who had secured the TEC grant,” said Managing Director Mr Chow Yen-Lu. “We decided it was the way to go – to see if our technology had commercial potential.”
WholeTree approached TEC, which is under the Public Services Division, Prime Minister’s Office to learn more about the criteria and type of projects TEC funded.
More than Innovative Technology
Having a prototype helped greatly as WholeTree was able to demonstrate the workings of its technology. The officers-in-charge of the TEC grant recognised the potential – with WholeTree technology, the public sector can voice-automate mundane and repetitive call centre tasks.
WholeTree’s technology met the “innovative” criterion for the grant, but there was still the “piloting agency”, application form and business plan.
Searching for a Piloting Agency
WholeTree needed a public agency to pilot test the technology (“piloting agency”). To pave the way for WholeTree to meet this criterion, TEC connected the company to a few public agencies.
WholeTree diligently pitched its technology to several healthcare organisations and hospitals. After months of hard work, WholeTree bagged Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) as the piloting agency.
TTSH saw the potential of WholeTree’s technologies in automating:
- Call-transfers
- Paging services
- Telephone enquiries
- Outpatient appointments
- Emergency activation of hospital staff
If WholeTree’s technology proved successful, TTSH would benefit tremendously. Its call centre would be freed of simple and repetitive tasks which consumed about 80% of the call centre’s resources.
The Application and Business Plan
Having secured a piloting agency, WholeTree moved on to the next step – putting together the application and business plan to show that the technology was commercially viable beyond the pilot project.
“The application had many parts,” said Mr Chow. “We worked with TTSH on the pilot project costs, plans, milestones and benefits; and knocked out the business plan ourselves.”
8 months after securing TTSH as the piloting agency, WholeTree completed the TEC application form and the business plan. The newly minted business plan had all the necessary ingredients such as market analysis, value proposition, marketability studies and intellectual property protection.
The documents were promptly submitted to the TEC panel for approval.
“The TEC officers were very helpful and assisted us greatly,” said Mr Chow who is grateful for the healthy dose of guidance on the application process.
A Successful Pilot
The application was approved within a few months. In 2004, WholeTree’s project received the “TEC Innovator Award” at the PS21 ExCEL Convention.
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