Wong Munmun
Assistant Director
Household, Income and Population
My team compiles data on a range of socio-demographic indicators in the areas of marriages and divorces, births and fertility, and households. I had the opportunity to be seconded to MOH during my time with DOS. During my short stint in the COVID-19 Medical Operations Task Force (Chief Data Office), I supported the containment efforts for migrant workers’ dormitories by processing medical and operations data and liaising with cross-functional teams to digitize conveyance and discharge processes. This experience allowed me to explore and learn about the different areas and functions of the public service learn new statistical software and make new friends along the way. I also learned to adjust to a new work environment, which includes working with new team members and adapting to a different work culture. These skills have given me the confidence to handle challenging deadlines while maintaining a positive attitude now at my current role in DOS.
Prior to this, I was involved in the development and operations of the largest national survey - Census of Population 2020, where I developed various modules to streamline the survey operations. I discovered the importance of being a good team player and effective communication. This has helped me in my role later at MOH when I had to collaborate and communicate confidently with colleagues from other teams. To fresh graduates considering a career in Statistics, I advise gaining as much experience as possible, seeking out mentors, being proactive, asking questions and maintaining enthusiasm!
Tay Junwen
Deputy Director
Input-Output Tables
I am a National Accounts statistician. My main role is to produce high quality statistics and analysis related to the Supply and Use Tables (SUTs), Input-Output Tables (IOTs), as well as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). I had the opportunity to be attached to Grabtaxi Pte Ltd for 1 year under the Talent Attachment Programme. During my attachment with Grabtaxi Pte Ltd, I was a Data Analytics Manager in the Operational Excellence team. The dedication of the team to improve the organisation’s performance was what most memorable to me. They are open to new technologies and ideas and are willing to put in hours to upgrade the skillsets of the staff. It was a good opportunity for me to find out how private companies leverage data to formulate policies and strategies. After my attachment to Grabtaxi Pte Ltd, I have applied what I have learnt by looking into applying Python and Machine Learning techniques to improve operational efficiency in DOS. I am also working with internal stakeholders on digitalisation initiatives and promoting cross-divisional collaboration efforts in driving process improvement/ automation, bridging skills gaps for the operations teams.
There were transferrable knowledge which I have acquired in DOS that helped me when I worked in Grabtaxi Pte Ltd. Data analytics and statistical knowledge gained in DOS help me transform and translate data into insights for the layman. I was able to put my Tableau knowledge and communication to good use, serving various business teams with weekly insights and trend analysis. Programming skillset also enabled me to pick up other programming languages more quickly to support automation efforts. I enjoy the fact that I am able to employ my analytical skillset and working with numbers in my work, as well as seeing how my work can be linked to various policy and economic studies.
Know more about the interesting projects that our Subject Matter Experts are involved in
Visual Statistics & Analytics (VISTA)
Visual Statistics & Analytics (VISTA) is a central platform available on the government intranet for public sector officers to access a wide range of statistics and interactive visualisations.
VISTA supports government officers in the self-discovery of statistical data insights and facilitates policy research collaboration among agencies.
VISTA is a whole-of-government platform supporting agency digital transformation and self-discovery of data insights for informed policy making. It has a data visualisation portal with AI/NLP powered visual analytics tools, which offer easy-to-use and intuitive user interface for officers to conduct data analyses without the need for advanced coding skills. The VISTA platform also offers a self-service application where officers can compute aggregated statistics and/or perform deep dive studies through regression and correlation analysis. Generated results are automatically checked for confidentiality.
DOS is continuously looking for innovative ways to support government officers in their data journey leveraging latest technology in AI and NLP.
How DOS’s Data Tools are Helping Businesses Make Data-Driven Decisions
DOS has launched the Data for Businesses webpage which provides data tools containing curated and contextualised data from different agencies. These tools aim to empower businesses to make data-driven decisions with insights covering three broad themes, viz. (1) customers, (2) Industry, and (3) business performance. They were developed in collaboration with key partner agencies and enhanced based on businesses’ feedback during pilot testing.
Businesses are in constant pursuit of better customer insights to elevate customer experiences. The data tools on customers provide information and insights on customers’ demographics, household consumption patterns and trends of online shoppers. By supplementing their own customer data with information from these data tools, businesses can gain enhanced insights on their customers for their business planning purposes.
Having a strong understanding of the industry helps power business strategies. Businesses can obtain industry-specific information on business performance, costs, and labour market situation from the data tool. These insights can help augment businesses’ own market research to provide a more holistic view of the industry. Lastly, businesses are provided an improved experience in effortlessly benchmarking their performances against their contemporaries using a benchmarking tool built with are contextualised and personalised data.
These data tools, by providing businesses with more insights on their customers, industry and business performance, empowers them to make data-driven decisions.
Click here to explore DOS's Data Tools and here to read up more (pg 12).
Adoption of Digital Technologies for the Compilation of Price Statistics
For the compilation of Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Indices, price data are collected regularly by the Division through various survey modes e.g., postal and email enquiries, e-survey, online extraction, administrative data and fieldwork. The price data are then compiled into indices and price trends analyzed, before dissemination to the public. The objective of this project is to leverage on technology to automate routine processes on price collection, data compilation and generation of reports to improve work productivity and minimize survey burden on respondents.
Web-scraping has been adopted to automate the extraction of price information directly from respondents’ websites for data-collection. The sending of data requests to respondents via email have also been integrated with the computerized systems. For field operations, handheld devices are deployed to aid field officers in the data capture with on-the-fly data validation checks and transmission of the data directly into the relevant databases without further need for data entry. Open source tools such as Python scripts are also used to help automate the compilation of routine reports. The embracing of technology has led to time savings, improved productivity and reduced respondent burden.
DOS constantly explores new ways to tap on the latest digital technology to reduce workload on data collection/compilation and improve work productivity. Watch this space as more details of the project will be shared when available!