The Central Provident Fund (CPF) serves as the key social security scheme for Singapore workers. my cpf is CPF Board’s holistic service framework that leverages on ICT to educate and empower 3.15 million citizens to plan for a secure retirement. Developed with citizens’ inputs, it embraces the concept of “Service by Life Events” - packaging the Board’s services according to citizens’ life stages instead of individual organisational schemes. my cpf also weaves different leading technologies into a suite of integrated services to provide personalised services to citizens anytime, anywhere, using their preferred platform. With my cpf, cost per transaction is now as low as S$0.13 (US$0.09).

The vision of my cpf is to educate and empower citizens to plan for a secure retirement through efficient and personalised services delivered according to their preferences.

my cpf was implemented with the following objectives:

1)       Use InfoComm Technology to educate and empower citizens to make informed decisions about their CPF savings.

2)       Provide convenient access to personalised information cost-effectively.

3)       Move customers from manual service to self-service.

4)       Deliver service in a customer-centric rather than an organisation-centric manner. 

The goals of my cpf are to keep citizens better informed of their retirement planning needs, as well as improve the customer satisfaction with the Board’s service. The achievements of my cpf are listed in the “Impact & Transferability” section.

The CPF is a fully funded social security savings scheme and its mission is to help Singaporeans save for a secure retirement. Working Singaporeans, together with their employers, contribute a percentage of their monthly income to their accounts. This money can be used for housing, healthcare, insurance and investment before retirement. When CPF members retire, they would receive a monthly retirement income paid out from their own accumulated CPF savings. The CPF Board has more than 3.15 million members, with balances of S$135 billion. 

CPF Board’s schemes and services are often concurrently relevant to members at the same life stage.  However, before the introduction of my cpf, members had to sieve through different information scheme-by-scheme, and were not shown how participation in one scheme affected the others.  Therefore, when buying a house, a CPF member may not know that he has to be insured under the Home Protection scheme (HPS), a mortgage-reducing insurance, before the housing instalments can be deducted from his CPF.

Transactions were largely manual i.e. a member would need to visit the CPFB or call us to get a printed copy of an application form, fill it up and post it to us. There was also no educational information to help members plan their retirement.  

On the other hand, Singapore’s population is aging quickly like most developed countries. Life expectancy has risen from 75.3 years in 1990 to 79.9 years in 2006. Today, over 380,000 (8.5%) of our population is over 65 years old.  By 2030, those above 65 will number 800,000, and only 3.5 persons will be supporting one elderly. 

Living longer means greater financial needs in retirement. Though CPF savings are mainly for retirement, CPF members can use them for other purposes such as buying a house, paying for medical insurance, etc. under the CPFB’s 15 schemes and services. How CPF members use their CPF savings during their working lives will impact their retirement savings.  

As a custodian of Singaporeans’ savings, we therefore believe that our role extends beyond simply administering the CPF savings. We have to help citizens make informed decisions on the use of their CPF monies at different stages of their lives for a secure retirement cost-effectively. As Singapore has a high home internet penetration rate of 71% (Source: The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, latest update as at November 2006), we realised that our efforts should be focused on the internet and other e-services, yet cater to the minority who are not e-savvy.  

Some of the ICT tools and services that citizens have benefited from the my cpf portal (www.cpf.gov.sg) include: 

1)       my cpf life events: my cpf embraces the concept of “Service by Life Events”. That is, to package the CPF Board’s schemes and services in complete yet easy-to-read online guides according to the major life events of Singaporeans, instead of running each scheme and service in isolation. Citizens are shown how decisions made on these schemes and services at each life event could affect their overall retirement savings.  The twelve life events include Starting Work (when CPF contributions start), Buying a House, Making Investments, etc. all the way till Reaching 55 (the age where CPF members can start making withdrawals) and Managing Retirement. By selecting the most relevant life event, citizens are able to access pertinent and targeted CPF information at a current stage of life. This delivery of services by citizens’ life events rather than organization-centric schemes ensures that we are customer-centric in our approach. 

2)       Online calculators: There is a full suite of 31 specialised calculators for citizens to compute personal information and even make projections of their ability to meet future retirement needs. For example, with the Housing Affordability Calculator, they are able to calculate the prudent amount of CPF they should use for housing and how housing loan repayments would impact their respective CPF retirement adequacy. 

3)   Microsite: Retirement Ready @ my cpf (www.retirementready.sg) is a one-stop portal where citizens can learn and plan for their retirement in a visually-pleasing and engaging environment. To make the subject of retirement planning appealing and attractive to the younger generation, we consulted them and developed Retirement Ready using an interactive resort concept that provides bite-sized modules using simple layman language.   

4)       Interactive games: The interactive games aim to allow citizens to learn about retirement planning and CPF schemes in a fun and yet educational way. Our Voyage of Life game is especially popular with younger Singaporeans who are future CPF members.  In fact, it has been used in competitions in the polytechnics and technical education institutes. 

5)       Personalised my cpf Online Services: These include personalized messages (My Messages) tailored according to the citizens’ profile from our  Customer Relationship Management System (CRMS), a consolidated statement (My Statement) of all their transactions, and My e-Concierge, a breakthrough from the mindset of 1-form-1-application.  Instead, a free text format submission that does not have pre-defined fields like conventional forms allows citizens to transact more easily online. My e-Concierge is in fact the first free-for-all e-application form in Singapore’s public service.  

Using these tools and services, citizens can make better decisions with their CPF savings. To complement our effort in public education, my cpf also uses technology strategically to offer leading-edge services to customers cost-effectively.  

Using our CRMS, internally named iCARE, we are able to log all customers’ profiles, participation in schemes, feedback, transactions and correspondences with us. As such, we have a holistic view of our customers as well as their needs and preferences. By understanding these, we are able to develop and provide proactive customised my cpf services, delivered predominantly via our e-services. Such personalised online services have encouraged the citizens to move from manual to online self-service.  On the other hand, the non IT-savvy are not neglected, as we also have service channels to suit them. These form part of our “Different Strokes for Different Folks” strategy. 

In implementing my cpf, innovative and new technologies are constantly being integrated into existing systems and technologies for inter-operability and scalability. For instance, the Board makes use of mobile technology to serve citizens who are constantly on-the-move. These citizens can login to the mobilePAL (mPAL) service from their mobile phones to check their accounts and perform transactions. They can also go to any of the close to 500 island-wide kiosks to make payments and perform transactions. If they have further queries, they can call our Internet Protocol (IP) Call Centre to seek clarifications. 

Citizens who have access to the internet can self-serve anywhere they have access to an internet PC and use the full suite of services like my cpf Online Services, e-Appointment, retirement planning tools and calculators. If citizens encounter any problems online, they can seek help using the e-Helpdesk facility and our Customer Service Officers (CSOs) can assist them through the use of remote “same screen access” technology. Alternatively, if they wish to search for the answers themselves, they can use the search function in our portal named “Ask Us”. “Ask Us” uses a natural language processing technology to allow users to type their questions in full when conducting a search. Instead of returning answers by matching keywords, “Ask Us” returns with answers that matches the questions. In addition, online demonstrations of our electronic services are also available to guide citizens in performing their transactions. 

For citizens who prefer face-to-face service, they can make an appointment to see our CSOs through the e-Appointment system. They can choose their preferred date and time slot from our portal or via our Call Centre and be served within 10 minutes of their appointment times. They are also reminded of their appointments via SMSes (Short Messaging Services) through their mobile phones. We also have a special Club 55, where senior citizens aged 54 and above are given priority face-to-face service. For others waiting in queue, their waiting time could also be shortened as we have mobile-Ambassadors (m-Ambassadors) serving them. The m-Ambassador Service uses wireless technology to enable our CSOs to serve using Ultra Mobile Personal Computers (UMPCs). With Wireless@SG service (Singapore’s nationwide free internet access service based on wireless zones) complemented by nationwide wireless broadband subscription, we are effectively able to serve our customers anywhere in Singapore, be it malls, Community Clubs, homes for the elderly or disabled, and even private homes. By making our services mobile, we are now able to deliver our services to our customers, which is a departure from the conventional way of having customers come to us. This m-Ambassador Service therefore allows customers to enjoy the same service experience they receive at the service counters, without having to visit our Service Centres. This is especially useful to the elderly, disabled or underprivileged customers – saving them a trip to our offices.   

The Biometric e-Counters employed at the Service Centres are also unique and innovative, as it eliminates the need for customers to pre-register before using our e-service. A special card reader will check the authenticity of the citizen’s Identity Card (IC). Next, the citizen’s fingerprint is compared with the image in their IC.  This makes the solution immediately accessible for all citizens and eliminates the high cost of storing and securing biometric data. 

my cpf also provides various services for employers, self-employed and business partners.  For example, employers and self-employed can learn how to transact with the Board via interactive online classrooms and make e-submissions using the mPAL service from their mobile phones. Business partners can also make use of the my cpf portal to obtain the necessary information and submit applications. The full range of services offered by my cpf is diagrammatically summarised in Annex A. 

By leveraging on the strengths of different technologies, my cpf is able to reach and deliver consistent and high quality services to our citizens 24x7 anywhere in the world in an efficient and effective manner. This, in-turn, helps the Board achieve its goals of helping Singaporeans to make informed decisions on using their CPF savings, as well as achieve high customer satisfaction.

Any organisation can adopt the concepts within my cpf. These include:

1)       Leveraging on ICT to provide personalised and convenient services

2)       Being customer-centric and consulting customers in developing services

5) “Bridging the Digital Divide”

my cpf is unique because it was developed with our customers, for our customers. Continued engagement with Singaporeans, and an insight into the evolving demographic profiles in Singapore, led to this innovative retirement planning service that can continue to evolve to meet their needs.  

As a trusted custodian of Singaporeans’ savings, we believe that our role extends beyond simply administering their CPF savings to being a guiding partner throughout their life journey. What also differentiates the Board’s retirement planning advice to Singaporeans is that they know it is truly altruistic and without profit motive, unlike commercial entities. 

We therefore educate Singaporeans using relevant platforms to make informed decisions on their CPF monies. To complement these educational programmes, we also make use of the latest technology to develop a host of customised and cost-effective delivery channels. This makes my cpf superior as it not only educates, but also offers personalised services to Singaporeans. 

By being innovative in its ICT use, my cpf is able to address the needs of customers at the opposite extreme of IT savviness. Those constantly on the move and at the forefront of IT adoption can make use of our mobile and e-services wherever they are.  This group of self-helping customers will relieve our staff from dealing with mundane transactions, thus allowing them to focus on more complex issues and helping those who are not e-savvy.