Digital change is our domain
Thales in Singapore is at the cutting edge of smart tech. Its technologies incorporate many of the hottest buzzwords of the moment, terms like AI, cloud security, human-machine interface, smart cities.
Thales is a French-headquartered multinational on the Fortune 500 Global listing that designs and builds systems for aerospace, defence, transportation, space and security markets in over 56 countries. In Singapore, Thales is historically a key player in aerospace, defence, ground transportation, with a strong pedigree in research & technology. However Singapore Country Director Kevin Chow sees a digital shift taking place.
"Customers are transforming. They want to access information in real-time, everywhere, for everyone, in a secure manner, to increase staff productivity and for better business outcomes," Chow shares. “For both our civil and military clients this implies the need for smart solutions that are failsafe.”
"Mastering the entire security chain through our technology and systems is a fundamental prerequisite for a digital world." He adds, "Our vision is to be a key partner in our customers' digital advancement and transformation."
Here's a live example. A system looks at incoming cruise ships at a secure port, and at the behaviour of passengers disembarking. How can we predict the crowd's swell and flow? How can we deploy agents to the right places at the right times? And how can we protect this information in transit and yet make it available to all staff?
At the crossroads of such vortices of complexity, where security interplays with cloud-managed data flows, control involves a multitude of parameters.
The solution requires multiple technology bricks. "For this scenario, we use big data and AI to create a digital twin of reality," explains Chow. "Imagine there are 500 people coming off a ship. Precise behavioral data from the cruise centre operator gives characteristics to individual passengers in the simulation. Unique behaviours enable customer profiling, which in turn, help operators forecast crowd flow patterns 30 minutes or more into the future. The predictive capabilities from this tool are invaluable for any operator wanting to optimise their operations.”
"Most of the time it's with end users that we engage," says Chow. "Digging deep is speaking to everyone along the chain. We call it understanding concept of operations. We learn about our customer's constraints, their hopes, their dreams, their pain points. It helps us design better systems."
Thales in Singapore, with its workforce of 700 strong of the country’s sharpest minds, applies modus operandi of design thinking before it even gets to work on solutions. "We don’t assume anything. We use a systematic method of design thinking," says Chow, "Innovation, prototyping with our customers, and digital transformation will follow.”
Digging deep into and mastering complexity is at the centre of Thales' expertise. With innovation and technology driving digital, the Singapore team boasts some of the brightest minds working with Singaporean customers ranging from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to Singapore Airlines to the Singapore MRT, as well as key partners in the defence sphere. Above all, a fearless and rigorously innovative research culture will undoubtedly enable Thales to take Singapore’s digital transformation to the next frontier.