Innovative products and services

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL SECTOR

Multimedia Collection for the Incentive travel industry

At the media launch, held at Raffles Hotel in Singapore in 1998, the Economic Development Board, the National Computer Board and the Singapore Tourism Board, were unanimous in their praise that Debraneys’ three world-first IT products ‘far exceeded people’s expectations and took them to places they hadn’t believed to be possible’. The award of the Innovation and Development Scheme Grant from the Singapore government that gave financial support to the development of the innovative marketing products that formed the multimedia collection was given the previous year. (1997)

The Internet had just begun. The product suite was designed to support the marketing of Singapore as an incentive travel destination throughout the rest of the world. The multimedia collection consisted of an original CD-ROM of Singapore, linked to a thousand-page website which included a destination services planner containing multiple databases and a unique multimedia trade show presentation. A range of features within these products was also first in the world in both design and usage. Potential clients in marketing offices globally could be taken by a professional travel planner on a journey around Singapore, its hotels, places of special interest and venue sites and link back to relevant group pricing options across different time periods for the future.

FINANCE SECTOR

Accounting firm - Timesheet Submission System

While the product, a Timesheet Submission System for a leading Singapore accounting firm, per se, would not be called innovative, the features that were achieved by Debraneys in this specific product, in the late 1990s, were. The system was used in-house and from any location in the world. It utilized existing hardware, network and email capabilities for delivery of centralized batch processing of reports. All of this ensured low infrastructure costs. The system provided a simple user interface for an important legacy system of their information. It enabled decentralised management of staff reporting and organisational structures. On-demand reviews and authorisation of information was provided. “Work-in-Progress” reports became available in shorter time frames. It readily scaled from 1000 to 1500 users.  

When Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, it was the largest corporate bankruptcy in US history. It resulted in the global legislation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. All international accounting firms were required to ensure their systems were compliant with the legislation. By the innovative and practical building blocks of the Debraneys timesheet submission system, it was possible to transition into incorporating these compliance requirements in a relatively short amount of time, and at a low cost to the accounting firm, ensuring its competitiveness in its sector.

PUBLISHING SECTOR

Directory publishing and e-commerce services

Debraneys designed, built and maintained the original online Singapore Australian Business Council (SABC) website. This offered an online directory and full infrastructure of all online services for more than 300 member companies operating throughout Singapore and Australia. This project was an important tool in educating and transitioning businesses into realising the potential of the new capabilities of digitization and e-commerce.

MARITIME SECTOR

Marine/Shipping/Offshore oil industry – global crew management and vessel movements, technical specification on-line publishing

Debraneys built a system which ran approximately 90 business management modules ranging from on-demand technical publishing to crew management and vessel movements. The system was easy to scale up. Ownership, security and audit modules were invaluable in tracking a widely distributed staff with very different responsibilities. The system directly generated PDF brochures of the highest quality for their marketing activities. The print production costs were reduced while the accuracy of the information increased. The internal IT support requirements were negligible and the hardware to run the entire system was entry level only.

The system directly assisted the company’s goal to comply with the International Maritime Organisation’s safety and documentation requirements as well as assisting the implementation of their internal disaster planning and recovery procedures.

The client maintained that the system delivered everything promised – Internet and e-commerce tools at a realistic price that resolved world-wide, industry specific problems within the marine and shipping industries. And it could support their IT goals in the foreseeable future. The client also commented that they found that Debraneys focus was not strictly IT, that Debraneys listened to, and explored, what was actually needed by all of the users of the system. And found how to deliver that in the simplest way possible.