Dutch Ng, CEO, i-Sprint Innovations
In today’s digitally enabled world, Identity and Access Management (IAM) plays a critical role in any enterprise security plan, as it is inseparably linked to the security and productivity of companies. Digital identity is a significant component of any organization’s digital strategy. It ensures the delivery and security of systems, data, and applications. On the contrary, IAM is a framework designed for various business policies, processes, and technologies to manage digital identities. Dutch Ng is the Co-founder and CEO of i-Sprint Innovations, a leading solution provider in Securing Identity and Transactions in the Cyber World.
A Remarkable and Well-versed Career
Dutch is a visionary leader and is instrumental in providing strategic leadership in business development strategy and product directions. He has been in the IT industry for over 25 years and plays a key role in managing the financial and business performance of i-Sprint. Throughout his career, Dutch has held many senior management and executive-level positions for high tech companies and took on various challenging and operational roles with regional responsibilities. His vast operational experience has helped him to develop a wealth of practical and hands-on experiences in managing critical operations from professional services organization, administration, and finance to customer care operations.
Prior to his entrepreneurial venture, Dutch spent four years in Citibank Regional Asia Pacific Technology Group, where he was responsible for implementing and deploying technology solutions for the bank offices across 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region. Besides managing the global operation of i-Sprint, Dutch is also contributing his time and experience to support industry activities. Currently, Dutch is also the Chairman of the Cybersecurity Chapter at SGTech, a Singapore premier IT federation representing the industry interests to work with the relevant government agencies. He is also a member of the Technical Work Group for Cybersecurity at WorldSkills Singapore to bring Singapore’s IT industry to the global scene.
Dutch recalls the initial stage of development of i-Sprint in the year 2000. It was a particularly challenging period where the team had to develop a new solution to the IAM problem, whilst sustaining the operation of the company. To support research and development in the creation of their IAM solution suite, i-Sprint Innovations started off doing integration jobs for companies. Through these projects, the team learned more about the different multitude of problems and preferences of companies experienced in the area of IT deployment, which further emphasized their desire to create a platform for consolidated IT services.
Having been a competitive bodybuilder at a very young age, Dutch sees the importance of determination, perseverance, and discipline in achieving a set goal. He continues to uphold these values in his approach to entrepreneurship and life as a whole.
For Dutch, being an entrepreneur also means one needs to be able to multi-task and function as a jack-of-all-trades at times. At i-Sprint, Dutch has tackled several different roles—moving between disparate fields such as Infrastructure Architecture, Operations, and Sales. Dutch is instrumental in providing strategic guidance on corporate technology and security policies, network infrastructure, technology platforms, business applications, products, and service strategies. He believes that the key to keeping the ship sailing is trust.
i-Sprint: Redefining Cyber Security Solutions
i-Sprint’s vision is to be the world-class Solution Provider in Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution that enables individuals, organizations, and societies to build trust and identity assurance for powering huge productivity gain through digital identity and identity of things—The Force of IdentityPlus—to accelerate and extend the Circle of Trust. Over the years, i-Sprint has developed its own unique IAM solution suite—AccessMatrix suite to provide on-premises and cloud deployment solutions. The product coverage has also been extended to protect the mobile platform via YESsafe Mobile Security Suite. i-Sprint’s Digital Identity Suite has been deployed to help clients implement a seamless Omnichannel platform to engage with their customers.
Dutch’s response to COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a huge toll on the global economy and industries around the world. Due to the effects of the pandemic, i-Sprint has adopted an approach by using solutions such as virtual meetings, webinars, digital marketing to engage and reach out to their customers.
i-Sprint leverages Three Tone Approaches to handle their customer relationship
Web Tone: By its online presence and printed content, the company provides one-way communication about the product and company information to its customers.
Dial Tone: This provides both inbound and outbound communication with its customers. Customers can call or send email to the Sales Hotlines to request information.
Face Tone: Once the needs have been qualified, the sales organization arranges for a face-to-face discussion if possible or set up an online web meeting to communicate with the clients.
Illuminating Budding Entrepreneurs
Dutch believes that it is always good to have a dream and be passionate. Advising someone who is just starting, he says, “Believe in yourself, trust that you can make it happen. Be passionate about the work you care about. Have a vision, know where you want to be/achieve.
He further implies that one must build the right team to succeed in business and a single contribution is not enough. “Learn from your mistakes, don’t be afraid to fail, fine-tune your plan, and execute. Give back to society—be a giver, share, and contribute back to society.
Writing the Future
“I am looking forward to the future that I can allocate more of my time to give back to society. This includes providing mentorship to students in IT/Cybersecurity courses on their future/career direction (build talent for the ICT industry), mentorship to new startup company entrepreneurs, volunteering my time at some associations to help promote technology adoption and security awareness,” expresses Dutch.
