Top Japanese data solutions firm NTT Data is launching a centre of excellence in Singapore with LeapThought, a New Zealand strategic consultancy. It aims to promote the construction sector’s productivity and flexibility against Covid-19, labor shortages, and supply chain disruptions. NTT Data Singapore managing director Krishnappan Ramanathan told The Straits Times that the center would open by next year, hire up to 40 engineers and concentrate on research and development, advisory services, and business development.

“The aim is to accelerate the digital transformation of the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector in Singapore,” he said.Touching on the potential for NTT Data’s technology to modify the AEC sector in Singapore, Mr. Ramanathan stated he anticipates the complete process from pre-construction to post-construction maintenance becoming more digitized.

This could be done by using systems such as developing information modeling, which taps artificial intelligence to more efficiently plan and design buildings, and virtual design and construction. This is part of NTT Data’s ideas for creating up social infrastructure over South-east Asia, utilizing Singapore as the springboard, and added Mr. Ken Tsuchihashi, chief executive officer of NTT Data Asia-Pacific.

“From Singapore, we are using new digital technology to conduct various proofs of the concept across different countries in South-east Asia,” he said, describing the Republic as Asia’s “digital hub” with its Smart Nation initiative. Amongst other things, NTT Data is included in education and remote connectivity projects in Singapore and blockchain and fintech projects in Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

More currently, it has started a project to save – in 3D for three-dimensional ones – the most fragile items in Asean museums, galleries, and libraries utilizing its Advanced Museum Library Archives Deposit (Amlad) technology. The project will be extended to incorporate heritage items from Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos this year and then to the remaining Asean countries, including Singapore, in the future.

The shape, color, and texture of these items are captured in high definition, and visitors to the Asean Cultural Heritage Digital Archive website can see them up-close, even transforming them around to view them at various angles. An NTT Data spokesman stated the aim was to check such assets from being lost due to disasters, accidents or aging, and protect them for future generations. NTT Data has adopted the Amlad archival system to protect heritage collections at the Vatican, as well as the Japanese Diet library.

The Covid-19 pandemic undeniably has had a bearing on NTT Data’s projected revenue, but Mr. Tsuchihashi sees a silver lining. “Businesses might postpone or hold back some non-essential projects, but on the other hand, they realize they need to be more serious about promoting their digital strategy, and this could have quite a positive impact for NTT Data,” he said. Mr. Ramanathan added: “The conventional way of doing things will be less preferable to newer, more digitized and technological methods.”