Business Growth
Vital.org’s “Business Growth”(BG) is growing.  It is set up to strengthen Vital.org’s foothold in establishing a shared services culture through demand aggregation for all public sector agencies and achieving economies of scale and workflow efficiency for our existing and prospective users.  The BG team is set to capture more public sector agencies.   Vital.org Shines! talks to its Head, Jason Toh who was formerly from Travel Management (TM), and the Director of Service Management, Ms Ong Poh Poh on BG’s plans ahead.


Jason Toh (JT), Head of Business Growth
 1. Why BG from TM?

JT: Being in TM has allowed me to develop and honed my skills in customer service, business development and project management. After three rewarding years in TM, I wanted a new challenge; a bigger platform that would allow me to utilise these skills. I was also prepared to take on more responsibilities.  Therefore, when the opportunity to lead the business growth unit was presented to me by CE, I thought it was a good fit to my skills and experience and most importantly, I felt confident that I would be able to make a positive contribution to Vital.org in this new role. 

2. What experience you would import from TM to BG?

BG: I believe my experience in growing a new program and securing first-time customers is something that I can bring to the team. In addition, the many contacts that I have established and my understanding of the culture in the different agencies will be valuable when selling or exploring new services with the agencies.



3. Talk about a current project you are handling?

JT: I am working with FS to offer Procurement services as a new service to our public agencies. We are planning to do a pilot with one of the ministries from Sep 2010 before rolling out to the rest of the public agencies by early 2011. This is going to be an exciting project to look forward and will open another revenue stream for us.    

4. What strengths or attributes would you want your team to harness?

JT: I believe a successful business growth team should be able to put forth that extra effort that turns potential clients into first-time customers. When facing with a prospect, the key to selling is not the ability to talk but rather the ability to listen, anticipate and attend to the details. Also being in a small team setting, the ability to work independently as well as part of the team is important.



ong
Ms Ong Poh Poh, Director of Service Management
 1. What new markets / businesses and accounts / service offerings BG hopes to capture?

Key performance indicators for the BG team cover revenue generation, acquisition of new clients, new services being operational and acceptance of new ad-hoc business proposals. Working in partnership with client agencies and understanding agencies’ mission and nature of business, size, complexity and budget, Vital.org is keen to enhance capability in the following existing and new services:

  a) FS-Asset Management Services and HRS-Scholarship Services.
b) Extension of Travel Management Services to government-linked entities.
c) Provision of corporate services to CAS/Ext ACE agencies.
d) End-to-end procurement services where there is consolidation and posting of contracts/purchases into e-GIZ and financial payments via NSF@gov.
e) Consulting/advisory and training services. Specifically in systems and process training in self-service functions and process improvement. Setup and management of shared services for foreign government. Service and performance analytics for service-oriented agencies.
   
2. What is the ultimate capacity of BG?

Working on BG within the Service Management (SM) team, there are Jason, Head BG and Nadiah, Strategist BG. The team of two performs activities required to meet the BG Team Charter:

  a) Develop new business offerings to existing and new clients
  b) Provide new public/government agencies or government-linked entities for new services and existing services
  c) Prepare and manage SPU for new and existing business offerings
  d) Perform project management to on-board clients’ services to Vital.org

When the opportunity arises for BG to create a project full-team to carry out a new implementation and transition to Ops for a specific new service, BG will raise the need to load-balance with additional resource capacity where relevant.

3. Why Jason?

As Head (BG), Jason brings with him experience and strength in business development, contract management and project management. Understanding what is desired of a government shared service centre and familiar with the common needs of ministries, organs of states and statutory boards, Jason is passionate about client engagement and agency partnership. He strives to grow the customer accounts in areas that can benefit from Vital.org’s new services and existing services. With dedication and interest, Jason has the potential to continue to be a valuable asset to the Vital.org management team.

4. How will BG strengthen Vital.org’s positioning as the Govt outsourcer?

As the Government outsourcer of administrative shared services, Vital.org is well-positioned to ensure value-added shared services are identified and leveraged at WOG-level. Specifically, where there are services that offer demand aggregation that bring about efficiency gains, economies of scale and skill to partner agencies.

Equally important is the need to put in place the resource and competency capacity required to bring about large value-add at WOG-level. Potential growth areas such as consulting/advisory and training services surrounding process improvement and end-to-end business solution provider is key to strengthen Vital.org’s position as the government outsourcer.

5. What are the areas of change BG will introduce to Vital.org?

With the primary focus on service delivery of administrative functions at WOG-level, Vital.org will continue to operate as a traditional back-office typed centre of shared services. In terms of service engagement, this model continues to work alongside close and consistent partnership with client agencies and system owners.

In parallel however, business needs and changing demand are likely to call for Vital.org to evolve into a more ‘business process outsourcing’ – oriented role. As long as benefits to the critical-mass at WOG-level remain strong, Vital.org is prepared to consider the next level outsourcing model. In addition to basic ops service delivery, this model expects Vital.org to move towards full ownership and accountability for a brand new end-to-end business solution covering people, process and technology.