In the special series part seven staring at the growing start up prospects at Singapore, Michael Stoss from Voice2Choice start up explains the confrontation during the development and practical implementation of new technology to the extent where it can be introduced in the market. SINGAPORE: It has been initiated by the means of bedtime stories and soft toys. During 2007, Mr. Michael Stoss had been working in the Kuala Lumpur situated in Malaysia. He was intending to tell the stories of bedtime to godson who was situated in Germany, but time difference was a big hurdle and very difficult to cope with. On a bright day, Stoss was thinking about the transformation of his original voice as the speaker of fairy tales or bedtime stories. He found that there was no evident solution in form of software.

He again stuck with an idea to create an application in form of soft toys for those children who are hospitalized and enable those toys to speak the in voices of their grandparents and parents. Children who are admitted in the hospital find the soft toys comfortable, but if they hear the toys speaking in familiar voice, it would enable them to speed up their recovery process. Mr. Stoss began to work on the development of application and this technology further evolved Voice2Choice.

WONDERFUL POTENTIAL

Beyond soft toys and bedtime stories, Mr. Stoss further determined the other potential benefits of the application in other areas. He further proclaimed that this software can be used in movie dubbing. He told that the TV shows and movies that run in Germany are mostly dubbed by Actors. Suppose, your movie has a lot of characters, for instance you need 20 to complete your dubbing, you will be requiring 20 while with the Stoss's technology, you will not require so many.

With Stoss's application, you will only need a child, women and a man. With the combination of these three voices, you will be able to make the other voices of characters as well. This will further save the movie company from expenditure of extra money and time. The scenario will be the same with the industry of gaming as well. With the advent technology developed by Stoss, game producers can be offered with the variety of voice variations.

SLIPPING BLOCKS

The theories and ideas can progress the product to the money making road where it can get the assistance from the external agencies. In case of Voic2Choice, a number of sources were offered by the Singapore for help. Technology & Research (A*STAR), the Agency for Science is helping the company under the T-UP proposals. Furthermore, it is the part of the scheme that is offered by the A*STAR to provide the funds in partial as salaries along with the seconding of engineers and scientists to medium and small enterprises. It has further acquired the grant under Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme starting SPRING Singapore.

Under Private zone, the application is being tested by the means of different media and trials along with the videogame producers.

Mediacorp programme for Mediapreneur is also supporting Voice2Choice that further offers seed funding for startups along with the networking, mentoring and working spaced along with the packages comprising attractive media to boost their development and growth.

Mr. Stoss further stated that they have big players behind them such as largest companies of media and Government of Singapore shows sheer trust on the company and it will further help to find the potential partners and investors. But, there exist slippery blocks.

After past 10 years, Mr. Stoss still remain unable to fulfill his dream to make his bedtime stories audiobook for his godson. First challenge that have faced is in the technology as voice has complex nature and shows uniqueness, it can be resembled to the fingerprint. Stoss further added that the elements like accents, rhythm and intonation along with the pronunciation are the core things which are unchangeable.

He further added that he is unable to change the Australian or Scottish accent and convert their voice to be speaking in English. With the underlying technology, pitch is another problem along with the possibilities with limits in order to create high-pitched deep voices. The company also requires the potential investors along with another underlying challenge. Investors are more interested in the profits, the technology is under the further development to yield the better outcomes. To meet the challenges, the company is giving its utmost efforts for research. The description of human voice is based on several parameters, while these parameters are not having yet researched well. Stoss further added that this area needs further research.

Stoss further added that the company needs experts in the technical field such as processing of digital signal. The experts are not easily available and hence are expensive. So Mr. Stoss added that it is a challenge for start-ups. There are several ways in he pipeline that enable the users to determine the technologies according to their needs. Stoss stated that they are intending to create a platform, a mobile application where the users will be able to create and upload their own voices. These two approaches are being utilized to address the investor's challenge so that the company can convince its investors about the working technology and dominated the market.

KNAV, an international grouping for legally independent accounting firm and consulting practice, has made its latest 2 high profile partner hires in the Singapore operations. They had engaged the services of Mr. Wayne Soo as well as Mr. Ethan Ong. KNAV has a global presence in many locations. Some of the countries with KNAV operations are Canada, India, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore, USA and UK. KNAV offers 3 main categories of business services. The first is audit and assurance.

KNAV has a strong audit methodology that is relevant to the business in the areas of financial statement attestation and compliance and internal control audit. It relies on risk based audit methodology to perform an effective and efficient audit. Its audit process also involves understanding various business controls and testing those controls for effectiveness. It has a strong focus on maintaining healthy client relationship while providing top class services. KNAV utilizes the modern tools and information analytics and is able to keep up with the modern times from support given by various software vendors such as Thomson Reuters.

Another key business service offered by KNAV is in the area of tax advisory and tax preparation. KNAV is staffed by highly experienced tax partners leading the tax practice and is able to provide a global tax view for companies' tax needs and queries. KNAV attempts to provide tax solutions to companies from across different industries and will execute those solutions effectively for the client. KNAV tax professionals are well versed with different tax code from multiple jurisdictions.

The final key business service is on the area of business advisory. There are 4 sub business segments. First would be business valuation practice. KNAV will be able to assist in valuing a company's assets and liabilities to provide a meaningful fair value for any business concern that will be useful for any potential acquisition deals. The second would be strategic advisory. KNAV can draft out a comprehensive strategic review plan for the company wanting to implement process improvement procedures and tailored solutions can be offered to better manage the company's operations. The 3rd area is investment banking. KNAV has investment banking professionals ready to execute fund raising documentation. Underwriting services, security offerings are part of the expertise provided by KNAV. The final area is concerning accounting advisory. KNAV has in place a team of competent accounting professionals well versed with latest accounting standards and local GAAP for various jurisdictions. They can ensure your financial reporting obligations are in accordance to companies act and global recognized accounting standards. Accounting is a dynamic topic with constant updates and changes and companies can benefit from KNAV's expertise.

Mr. Wayne Soo is a qualified chartered accountant in Singapore. He is also a Qualified Fraud Examiner and has Fellow membership in six international accounting bodies. Mr. Wayne Soo has immense wealth of experience in the areas of audit, having served for many years with Big Four professional services firm. Other areas of expertise include due diligence, forensic audit and corporate advisory. The client profiles include large local corporations and international companies.

Singapore and India has good economic partnership and trade between the 2 nations have been synergistic. Cross border deals are happening at and increasing pace and volume between the 2 unique jurisdictions and KNAV has to keep abreast with regional developments over at Singapore by roping in talent in order to serve their clients effectively. Many businesses have vested interest in both India as well as Singapore with multiple transactions happening across the countries every day. Managing Partner for KNAV, Nishta Sharma expressed delight in making 2 Singapore partners and will continue to push forward for global integration.

The behavior of consumption and also the online conversations shape the volumes of business transaction. Social media plays it because of the boom of mobile devices and the increasing connectivity of consumers in the Asia-Pacific region. One thing that seems to have no end are the new ideas to create new applications or opportunities to secure new information. It also happens as new solutions to solve the challenges of the constantly growing region cities, the exact calculation of revenue from a new business opportunity and even detect bottlenecks in the supply chain.

The panel member and Harvard Business School visiting professor Tom Davenport said companies that take advantage of this power that big data and analysis have the opportunity to make right decisions, get insights and carry out the necessary adjustments more rápidp strategy their competitors. It is a significant advantage since the market lives in constant change. This type of insight allows companies to realize a significant improvement in its services or products, whether for an individual consumer or a market, may help prices when needed or adjust marketing.

The Singapore Management University in partnership with some institutions, including Carnegie Mellon, held many top jobs using big data in Singapore to conduct experiments in real time. An example is that in shopping centers, consumers can find kiosks with product offerings with special prices to suit them with data that were pickup through the cell phone them. It is possible through the identification of preferences and shopping patterns.

Of course, there are challenges in a diverse region where there is the implementation of large data analysis because real data may have a limitation, especially in emerging markets. However, the panelists believe that the explosion of mobile phone use becomes a current source of unlimited data and has the functionality for many purposes. The data relating to the purchase that is obtained using mobile phones have been used to contribute in determining credit points in a market, and other such data were used to understand and map the traffic patterns in more congested cities.

An executive who wants to deploy these significant data in Asia need to hire people who have high levels of skills in analytics and mathematics and that most of the time we understand that this talent is very rare in today's market, as well as in most world organizations also.

The Universities as SMU created a specialized focus in developing these skills. Panelist Steven Miller, vice chancellor and dean of the School of SMU Information Systems, warned that companies have the need to expand their concept of analysis since they want to make use of these significant data in innovative ways.

"It is not only a person who has a Ph.D. in statistics. This is an individual who has a real understanding of the information can provide to the business," said Miller. "The real problem that exists today in organizations is that the scientists go to until a limited point and business leaders over there, and there is no communication between them. It is important to discuss what is possible because this is crucial to innovation."

Davenport said that this experiment that big data offers can be explored aggressively by companies in the next decade. Big companies will run a relentless series of tests for various markets and segments, and thus will allow customers that they explore different value propositions. Big Data will also conduct a comprehensive analysis of the most accessed social media in this way large enterprises can understand how the various networks of people tend to influence each other when making purchases. Asia-Pacific has the key to the future with this kind of experimental innovation, mainly because it is a diverse region and constantly changing.

Davenport also said that most reputable companies are heading for constant experimentation and carry out thousands of small experiments. It is a culture change for many organizations, but the results will be amazing.

It should shock nobody to find out that, once again, Singapore has topped the list of best places in the world in which to do business.

The Economist Intelligence Unit has been compiling this list for decades and, in the last 7 years, Singapore has been its leader.

The rankings take a number of important factors into account, including politics, openness, efficiency, speed, taxes and the job market.

Despite its small size, Singapore's laws are perfect for people looking to make big investments. The government does all it can to remove the red tape that so many other nations see as essential to managing their economies. This means foreign investment can be done without the tedious bureaucracy demanded elsewhere. Meanwhile, low corporation taxes ensure investors get the most of their money, without having to break off a large chunk for the local authorities.

While Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Sweden all found their way into the top ten, the surprising absence of some of the Eurozone's richest countries from the top ten speaks volumes. A mixture of fall-out from the economic crisis, endless bureaucracy and strict taxation all make the EU a frustrating place to do business, and there is no place for even heavy hitters such as France and Germany in the top ten. The UK, whose capital was once the engine of the world's economy, doesn't even make the top 20, only appearing in 21st position, one spot ahead of Malaysia.

Now after Brexit followed by Donald Trump we will soon need a total revision.

As Jim Rogers, famous US investor who recently moved to Singapore, puts it:

"If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London. If you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York. If you are smart in 2015 you move to Asia. Singapore 40 years ago was a swamp with a half a million people. Now, it is the country with the largest foreign currency reserve per capita of any country in the world. It's got the best education in the world, the best health care in the world. It's astonishing to come to Singapore and see that everything works. Singapore is going to be the financial centre of Southeast Asia, probably Asia and likely to be one of the financial centres of the world."

So, what is it that makes Singapore such an attractive prospect for business people like Jim Rogers? Well, this list is a start:

Singapore is rated 1 by the EIU and the World Bank for ease of doing business. Its economy is considered the third most globalised in the world, plus it is the third richest nation according to Forbes.

Corporation tax is a mere 8.5% up to $300,000 profits and stays flat at 17% for everything above that. There's also no capital gains tax, no inheritance tax and no estate tax.

It's got a superbly well educated, hardworking labour force.

It's very politically stable, with the highest quality of life in Asia.

It's extremely safe, with a focus upon peaceful living and law and order on the island.

It is a very multicultural society, with a hugely diverse population, yet has never suffered any of the race-related unrest issues that are common in many other multicultural countries.