Industry Government Company The Ministry of Trade and Industry was created out of the former Development Division of the Ministry of Finance in March 1979. It is tasked with identifying opportunities for growth, rationalizing existing policies, and giving broad directions for the economy. Employees 203 (at MTI headquarters) IT staff 5 Annual IT Budget Confidential

In January 2004, the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS), was created to foster a pro-enterprise environment and better customer service for businesses in Singapore. In 2005, additional features were added to the OBLS to allow existing businesses to update, renew, and terminate (URT) their licenses.

Ecquaria and NCS provided the application development and system integration services, using Ecquaria's Service Oriented Platform.

Today, the OBLS profiler allows users to search for licenses they need by selecting the appropriate business activity. If the business requires two or more licenses, the system dynamically generates a single integrated application form. The system then 'intelligently' routes the information to the respective agencies. Applicants pay for all license and related processing fees in one consolidated payment via online credit and debit payment.

Following the submission of the application form, concurrent processing of different licenses reduces the time for the applicant to receive all the required approvals. Once the authorizing agency has approved the application, an e-mail and Short Messaging Service (SMS) alert are sent to the applicant, notifying him of the change in status.

About 260 business licenses that are issued by more than 30 government agencies in Singapore can be found in OBLS. It currently offers 71 business licenses from 19 government agencies, serving the needs of more than 80 percent of startup businesses in Singapore. Out of the 71 startup licenses, there are currently 53 licenses implemented with URT functions, with more to be implemented this year.

Danielle Heng, director of research and enterprise at MTI, noted: "The OBLS is about putting customers first and delivering key services according to their needs and perspectives. The service has delivered more than S$20 million (US$12.6 million) in savings to the business community to date, and reduced approval time from an average of 21 to eight days."

The licensing system has indeed transformed from a regulatory bureaucratic regime to a customer-centric one-stop service.