A WIT named OASIS was in the limelight at the PS21 ExCEL Convention 2002 as well as the National Innovation and Quality Circle Carnival 2003. The team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MFA) Consular Directorate developed a system that is now being used by MFA Headquarters and its overseas missions to manage consular cases effectively and extend timely assistance to Singapore citizens abroad.

Every year, over 30% of the Singapore population travel overseas for pleasure, work and study. It is inevitable for some of them to encounter difficulties in foreign countries.

The Consular Directorate is responsible for assisting our citizens overseas. It normally handles no less than 10 cases daily. The cases range from the loss of passport to the loss of life.

Problems with old manual system
To achieve MFA’s vision to be always ready to help Singaporeans at anytime and anywhere in the world, our consular officers continually explore ways and means to improve our case management system.
One problem they encountered was that the old manual system for maintaining records and retrieving information was not able to cope with the large volume of cases.

OASIS took up the challenge of addressing this problem. The team members began examining the problems in the existing filing system. They found that the manual system hampered MFA’s ability to maintain up-to-date records and staff could not retrieve information expeditiously.

In the worst case scenario, when the case officer is away attending to some other matters, the covering officer has great difficulty accessing the relevant records and responding promptly to citizens who require urgent assistance.

After identifying problems in the old system, OASIS worked with their colleagues from the Information Management Directorate to conceptualise and develop the Consular Case Management System (CCMS).

A new system with many uses
CCMS is an online system that stores consular cases in a central database and allows officers at MFA Headquarters and overseas missions to share the same information.

With CCMS, searching and retrieving past cases is easy and fast, and there is no need to file any hardcopies. More importantly, the system enables MFA officers to interact with other public agencies via emails, which are automatically captured.

CCMS also incorporates various consular standard operating procedures and related information that can help our officers to handle difficult and sensitive cases. It also highlights some model cases for training new consular officers.

Enhancing service and efficiency

CCMS stores consular cases in a central database which allows officers at MFA Headquarters and overseas missions to share the same information.

Our officers at Headquarters and theoverseas missions are now using CCMS to manage consular cases and they find it useful. They are now able to respond to 90% of consular cases in less than four hours.
The system also eliminates the need for the tedious process of maintaining monthly consular statistics. This is because CCMS electronically transfers all the figures into a statistical database, which was also created by OASIS.