Digitisation drives job demand in Singapore: Robert Walters

Source: Robert Walters. Click on the
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Robert Walters, the international recruitment consultancy, has found that recruitment in Q2'15 was led by digitisation in Singapore. The findings were part of its Asia Job Index* for Q2 2015.

Said Toby Fowlston, Managing Director, Robert Walters Southeast Asia: "The annual dip in job advertising this quarter did not come as a surprise. What we have seen is a softening in the investment banking market, which has resulted in some banks downsizing and off-shoring to cheaper locations."

Fowlston added that the atmosphere in industries such as marketing and IT remains positive. "Due to the surge in e-commerce and mobile applications, candidates with the relevant skill sets are seeing multiple job opportunities. Hence, senior decision makers need to be more involved in the recruitment process to ensure they make swift assessments to secure the best professionals. Singapore remains the gateway to businesses in Southeast Asia due to its sound infrastructure and will continue to attract multinationals in the commerce industry.”

The key findings of the report for Singapore include:

· More companies have started to increase their investment in digital technology in a bid to stay connected with their clients. As a result, IT job advertisement volumes saw a 10% year-on-year increase with the corresponding demand for skilled IT professionals.

· The growth in the digital space has also increased job advertising by 3% annually for marketing professionals. Talent with sound online experience in e-commerce, social media and consumer media consumption were specifically sought after.

· The decline in investment banking activity has also affected traditionally strong sectors such as accounting and finance as well as legal and compliance. These industries saw a weaker quarter compared to 2014 as seen by the 7% and 8% dip in annual job advertising.

Interested?

View more findings from the Robert Walters Asia Job Index Q2 2015. 

Read the WorkSmart Asia blog post about Robert Walters' views on contracting

*Asia Job Index tracks job advertising volumes for professional positions across the leading job boards and national newspapers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. 

Kodak Alaris launches KODAK CapturePro Software v5.0

Mid-to-large sized enterprises are always searching for ways to boost efficiency and productivity in information management. Scanning and extracting data for use in business processes and exporting information into repositories can be a productivity bottleneck, with serious implications on the cost of back-office operations and customer satisfaction. 

Source: Kodak Alaris.

"As organisations become increasingly dependent on e-business platforms to drive profitability, it’s clear that the remaining paper-based information must be managed more effectively,” said Harvey Spencer, President of Harvey Spencer Associates, a leading analyst firm in the capture software market. “The best way to do this is to convert paper to usable electronic information as fast as possible."

To address the increasing demand for fast, efficient capture solutions, Kodak Alaris has introduced KODAK CapturePro Software v5.0, software that enables businesses to enjoy greater accuracy, efficiency and cost effectiveness within their document scanning processes. Capture Pro Software v5.0 enables users to simplify scanning, automate indexing and enable users to streamline the process of transforming paper into information. Its advanced indexing capabilities automate data extraction and deliver critical information to enterprise content management (ECM) systems and Microsoft SharePoint, as well as business applications.

“With Capture Pro Software v5.0, Kodak Alaris continues to make it quick and easy for end users to scan documents and index information, helping businesses save costs and improve productivity,” said Spencer.

Capture Pro Software has proven impact in many business applications. Examples include:

· A government department that digitises client records in different locations. Case workers can now access records faster, provide better customer service and reduce the risk of fraud.

· A healthcare provider eliminated manual indexing and improved accuracy in the management of patient records. Pertinent data including patient name, ID, time, and reason for visit are now auto-filed in forms. The result is lower costs and error rates, smarter resource allocation and improved patient care.

· A service bureau uses drag-and-drop optical character recognition (OCR) on specific client data to check the database and reduce data entry time by 50%. Capture Pro Software is enhancing the accuracy of data entry by eliminating the need to manually key in data twice.

“Our customers can be found in literally any vertical and horizontal paper-based business application. They use Capture Pro Software to turn documents into shareable, searchable data across their organisation,” said Susheel John, Managing Director, Document Imaging, Kodak Alaris Asia Pacific. 

“With each version, we have enhanced the functionality to address the changing demands of information capture. Based on valuable feedback from our Voice of the Customer programme, we have made a number of improvements in Capture Pro v5.0, including a simpler user interface and several productivity enhancements.”

Key new features in Capture Pro v5.0 include:

· A quick start user interface that allow users to initiate a scan job with a single click. The GUI is more intuitive and eliminates the learning curve for knowledge workers who only occasionally use a scanner.

· Support for Windows 8.1 

· Expanded support of new scanners from Kodak Alaris, as well as additional third-party scanners.

Capture Pro Software earned a 2014 Summer Pick Award from Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI), the world's leading independent evaluator of document imaging hardware and software, in the document imaging solutions category. BLI cited Capture Pro’s breadth of functionality and ease as key selling points, plus the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) feature, which accurately indexed checkboxes on every test document that BLI evaluated.

For a free trial of KODAK Capture Pro Software v5.0, please visit kodakalaris.com/go/capturepronews.