| MFA
seeks only the best deals |
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If you plan to travel
overseas from Singapore, will you purchase the
air ticket here or from another country? Do you
know where to get the best deal? If you often call
overseas, do you look out regularly for the best
telephone rates offered?
These may be some of the questions that a prudent person will ask
to get the best value for his money. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MFA) is no exception.
Under the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP), MFA sponsors more
than 3,000 foreign participants from over 100 countries to attend
training programmes and study visits in Singapore.
The areas of training include economic development, port management,
urban development and environmental management.
Besides hotel accommodation and daily allowance, air tickets form
a major component of the SCP budget. MFA spent over $450,000 on air
tickets for SCP participants in FY 2002.
When the Economy Drive in MFA started in April 2002, one of the first
targets was to find cheaper air tickets for SCP participants. In
the past, the practice was to procure the air tickets in Singapore.
However, market research showed that discounts on airfares are only
offered in the country of origin. For example, the best discounts
on airfares for flights from Vientiane to Singapore are obtained
in Vientiane, not Singapore.
MFA informed the Overseas Missions (OMs) in the countries where the
participants come from to purchase the air tickets from there. As
a result, MFA saved about $500,000 in FY 2002.
International Direct Dial (IDD) rates have been tumbling since the
entry of new IDD operators in Singapore. A simple scan of the rates
of IDD operators in Singapore reveals that the differences can be
quite substantial.
As officers in MFA Headquarters regularly communicate with officers
in OMs by telephone, it makes sense to compare rates and choose the
most economical operator. This practice has enabled MFA Headquarters
to save up to $7,000 a month.
Modern communication technology has opened up new ways to further
reduce the cost of international telecommunication.
One of the ways is voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In general,
it means sending voice in digital form in discrete packets rather
than in the traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public
switch telephone network. The main advantage is that VoIP technology
enables the user to avoid the tolls charged by an ordinary telephone
service provider. That means making calls overseas without IDD charges!
How is this possible in MFA’s case?
Well, those who have travelled overseas on official trips will know
that accessing Lotus Notes emails via dial-ups can be quite a pain.
The connection speed is simply too slow.
To enable officers stationed in OMs to get around this problem, MFA
set up a Secure Wide Area Network (SWAN) by leasing dedicated land
lines from the respective countries. Most of MFA’s OMs are
linked to SWAN. When connected to SWAN, the personal computers of
MFA’s overseas officers function as if they are in MFA Headquarters.
The problem with limited bandwidth becomes non-existent!
MFA’s SWAN has the potential to accommodate VoIP. MFA is currently
conducting a trial using VoIP through the SWAN to tap on unutilised
bandwidth, especially at times when data traffic is low. If the trial
succeeds, MFA officers can then save on IDD charges.
The OMs are also doing their part to reduce expenditure. Frequent
travellers know that the IDD rates in some countries are very much
higher than those in Singapore. One of these countries is China.
MFA’s embassy in Beijing started a WITS project in early 2003
to get its staff to use SingTel’s International Calling Card
for making calls to Singapore. This simple idea has reaped substantial
savings for MFA. |
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| By MFA |
