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Daphne Ng, CEO and Co-Founder of Dedoco

“Technology is the core of the digital economy. Working in a male-dominated industry where women only make up around 30% in STEM, it’s critical to have representation in a sector where I see the future of work headed. The rapid digital advancement of our world provides an abundance of opportunities, which is why I want to help drive diversity in this field.

“Growing up in a family business environment, I understood the importance of guidance and leadership from early on, which also laid the foundation of my journey to becoming the CEO of a technology start-up.

“Furthermore, I want to keep encouraging women to pursue careers in technology, which is why we launched a Girls-in-Tech (GIT) Hub in January of this year. It’s a forum for inspiring, nurturing, and mentoring the company’s female employees to cultivate an empowered team.”

Full article: https://dynamicbusiness.com/topics/small-business-resources/women-in-business/ating-the-bias-the-glass-ceiling-effect-and-its-impact-on-women.html

For many of us, we often refer to achievements and success in our own vocation as our life’s work. For Daphne Ng, Co-Founder and CEO of Dedoco, she chooses entrepreneurship as her life’s work.

Growing up in a family that ran a business in the travel and hospitality industry, Daphne watched her family toil endlessly to meet the needs of their customers. As a child, she remembered contributing in the smallest of ways – such as by obediently, handing out flyers near escalators at every NATAS fair.

“Booking vacations online was not the norm back then, so all vacations were booked via a tour agency. Agencies were responsible for every aspect of the tour, from booking the flight, and right down to their itinerary meals,” she recounts.

Nurtured in such a familial environment, it is little surprise that Daphne spent her formative years learning the ropes of business, management and finance – topics commonly discussed at the dinner table...more

1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

I am the Co-Founder and CEO of Dedoco, which I established in early 2020 with my other co-founder/CTO Dr Ernie Teo.

Dedoco stands for ‘Decentralized Document Connector’ and we are a blockchain-based, digital document workflow platform with clients in the government, banking, professional services and real estate sectors.

Currently, we have offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. I have been in the technology space for 5 years now, and prior to that I was in corporate banking for 8 years.

2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

I am a morning person and my brain is most active in the mornings. Hence my one-down meetings with my team leaders and division heads are usually in the mornings.

The rest of the day is usually packed with business lunches and meetings, and my team has access to my calendar which is open for them to check and book my time.

I also try to do lunchtime yoga or pilates twice a week, as the studio is a walking distance from my Robinson Road office.

3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?

Dedoco was born during the COVID period in March last year and hence remote working was the default mode for our team in the beginning.

Hence we are very adept with a hybrid work model, where we allow our team members the flexibility to work remotely and/or do collaborative work in the office – whatever works best for them and their tasks. Similarly for me, I work on the go, wherever and whenever.

4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

To me, it’s about being balanced mentally, emotionally and physically. Work takes up 70% of our time and hence it’s important to do work that keeps us spirited, motivated and happy. I love the intensity and adrenaline of running a fast paced start-up: chasing deals, over-achieving, dreaming higher and always reaching for more.

But at the same time, I also love having fun and setting aside time for social activities with my friends over food, good whisky and great conversations. In short, I believe in having full control over your time and doing whatever makes you happy.

5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?

Since COVID, I have been more consistent in my art endeavors, which is also an avenue for me to de-stress. Every weekend, I do acrylic and abstract painting, as I build up my collection of artwork for commissioning. My current two passions: Dedoco and Art.

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Full article here: https://balancethegrind.co/interviews/daphne-ng-co-founder-ceo-at-dedoco/

Singapore Personal Access, better known as Singpass, is the trusted digital identity that allows Singapore residents to easily and securely access over 1,400 government and private sector services both online and in-person.

Aren't you tired of bringing stacks of documents when you need to verify your identity? Is the cost of mailing lengthy contracts back and forth between businesses eating at your pockets?

With the new and improved Singpass, users may log in to digital services, authenticate their identity at counters, digitally sign papers, and more.

The Government Technology Agency (GovTech) is in charge of Singpass, ensuring the utmost security regarding your document data and personal information.

But where does Dedoco come into this?

Dedoco is a digital signing and document platform based on the concepts of Privacy, Trust, and Security through a decentralised, end-to-end capability, as we strive to be more than just a digital signature solution.

Our solution is designed to improve efficiency and compliance while also ensuring document security and data privacy.

Our decentralised architecture is unique in that we don't keep a copy of your papers on our systems or have access to them. Our smart contracts, which include both automation and tamper-proofing functionalities, allow you to create and control business operations from start to finish.

With the comprehensive cybersecurity measures of Dedoco and the certification authority of SingPass, we combined the industry best practices into one user-friendly experience for all.

Sign with Singpass

The Singapore government is moving towards becoming a smart nation. This has become especially important in the emergence of social distancing measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In July 2020, GovTech unveiled the “Sign with SingPass” feature, which provides SingPass users with the use of secure electronic signatures. It follows the launch of the “SingPass Face Verification” service.

These new services are part of the National Digital Identity (NDI) Smart Nation strategic national project, which aims to build a trusted digital identity ecosystem for citizens, public agencies and private sector companies.

As recognised under Singapore’s Electronic Transactions Act 2010 (ETA), electronic signatures are the functional equivalent of "wet-ink" signatures.

The ETA provides for the legal recognition and use of electronic signatures, with the fulfilment of these requirements:

• There must be reliable assurance about the integrity of information in the electronic record, from when it was first made in until its final form.
• Where the electronic record is to be provided to a person, it must be capable of being displayed to that person.
• It must comply with any additional requirements relating to electronic records specified by GovTech.
  

What are the Benefits of Digital Signing in Singapore?

The use of electronic signatures can greatly improve productivity and save time and money, especially in these cases:

• Signatures from multiple parties are required, such as a shareholders’ or directors’ resolution.
• Several of the required signatories are situated overseas, where you would traditionally mail the documents back and forth.
  

Electronic signatures also heighten security.

You may wonder: 'Isn't my physical signature the most secure way to sign?'

That may be the case if you are the one signing, of course.

However, forgeries are the biggest weakness in physical signatures, such as the case of a person who forged his company director's signature and submitted a false cash payment application form. Both the company and forger were penalised as a result.

Hence, the Singapore Government promises security for SingPass users with these features:

• Two-step verification for more than 100 services that involve sensitive information. When users perform sensitive transactions, a one-time password will be sent to users' mobile phones or generated through a token.
• Users will receive SMS or e-mail notifications when anything is changed in their accounts or profiles, such as password resets.
• All electronic signatures via SingPass are encrypted, and a person's identity is validated against the Government's database at the point of signing.
  

Meanwhile, Dedoco's platform sets itself apart from other solutions by ensuring that we have none of your sensitive and confidential documents on our servers.

Our 'check hash' feature assists in validating the document's integrity by ensuring that it is the original version. Any modification to the document will result in a new hash, rendering it tamper-proof.

There will be no way to misuse your electronic signatures.

Can Electronic Signatures be Used for Everything?

There are certain exclusions for the use of electronic signatures in Singapore. The following cases are excluded from the ETA and therefore cannot be electronically signed:

• Wills
• Any transferable document or instrument that entitles the bearer or beneficiary to claim the delivery of goods or the payment of a sum of money, such as documents of title, bills of exchange, promissory notes, consignment notes, warehouse receipts etc
• The creation, performance or enforcement of an indenture, a declaration of trust or power of attorney, except for implied, constructive and resulting trusts
• Any contract for the selling or other disposition of real estate property or any interest in such property
• The conveyance or transfer of any interest in real estate property.
  

These cases still require traditional signatures to be considered legal and binding.

Electronic Signatures with Dedoco

Now that we've covered the basics of SingPass and some features of Dedoco, we invite you to explore all we offer on our platform, starting with Sign and Verify.

Dedoco is one of Singapore's most trusted application providers, with clientele from governments and public sectors, HR and recruitment, financial services, corporate secretary, and accounting and audit firms.

If you have any more questions about how Dedoco works, our Frequently Asked Questions page may be able to help. Otherwise, you are always free to contact us.

Imagine this: the bank has just approved your company’s loan applications and issued offer letters. Your directors need to sign them but they’re out of the country. This means the start of a laborious process involving the couriering of physical documents and multiple rounds of verifying versions and signatures, right?

Not anymore, says Daphne Ng, co-founder of Dedoco that was launched last March. The company uses technologies such as distributed ledger to provide document management and digital signing solutions. It does away with manual processes such as delivering physical documents and chasing for wet-ink signatures, increasing efficiency and savings.

With Dedoco, a company can transmit digital documents quickly and easily through a preferred cloud storage solution or via Dedoco’s peer-to-peer encrypted file sharing method. Documents can be checked in real time, anywhere. And clients are assured of privacy as neither Dedoco nor unauthorised parties can view or change a document.

Security is further reassured with the company’s Sign with SingPass digital signature service for safer, speedier online transactions. Also, unlike traditional methods of document management, Dedoco continually evolves, adding the latest advancements to its technology stack as they occur.

“We started Dedoco from listening closely to our customers’ pain points. These always involved dealing with wrong document versions and security issues, like not being able to ensure documents and signatures were tamper-proof,” says Ng, who is a former banker.

It offers tiered application programming interface (API) integrations for enterprises and tiered subscription plans designed to accommodate everyone, from budding entrepreneurs to mid-cap companies. The former makes up about 90 per cent of clientele, and its key clients hail from the government, financial services and the real estate sector. ERA Realty, for example, recently adopted its electronic document solution.

“The professional services sector, which includes accounting and corporate secretarial and legal services, is also a major vertical for us, thanks to the sheer volume of paperwork that benefits from digitisation,” adds Ng.

You could say the tech entrepreneur, whom Fintech Magazine named one of the Top 10 Women in Fintech 2019 (APAC), has business in her blood. Her family built and sold one of Singapore’s top travel agencies. Ng recalls being involved as early as in primary school. She would hand out flyers by the escalator.

Ng spent almost a decade with DBS, HSBC and Mizuho, where she specialised in trade finance. She left because of her entrepreneurial instincts and Singapore’s burgeoning fintech scene. “I had the single motivation to immerse myself in the technology space as this is where I see the future of work and the importance of a digital economy,” she says.

Ng currently sits on the boards of the Singapore Fintech Association, SGTech and the Singapore Computer Society. She also serves as a mentor with NTUC Women’s Committee.

“We are going towards a 100 per cent digital vision, and it will likely come faster than before in the next decade. Consider this: we recently conducted a market sizing and the untapped market in South-east Asia alone will be worth approximately US$300 billion (S$397 billion) in the next four years. This presents a huge opportunity for us.”

To meet this demand, Dedoco, which already has offices in Jakarta and the US, will expand its Singapore office and set up another as well as partnerships in Hong Kong this year. Ng is driven to succeed. “I want to take Dedoco global and become an index for secure document transactions globally.”

Original article: https://www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg/lifestyle/dedoco-daphne-ng-document-management-interview/

Property firm ERA Realty Network is introducing digital signatures for tenancy agreements, becoming the first company in the private sector to pilot the recently launched Sign with SingPass service.

The move will help its agents save time, as they will no longer need to meet property owners in person for signatures, and also minimise physical contact amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

It will also benefit property owners who are based overseas.

ERA announced the initiative at its Q4 Career Advancement Day yesterday to recognise its top performers.

"ERA is in full support of the Government's initiative to build a trusted digital ecosystem as we move towards an increasingly efficient and convenient Smart Nation," said ERA Singapore chief executive Jack Chua.

Sign with SingPass supports digital signatures on all major platforms such as DocuSign, iText, Netrust, Adobe, OneSpan, Dedoco, Tessaract.io and Kofax.

ERA is using Dedoco's digital document solution.

The Sign with SingPass service, developed by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), allows businesses to securely verify electronic signatures, which can be adopted for more legal and business documents that previously had to be signed physically.

By clicking on a document ready for signing on a computer within the digital document platform, a unique QR code will be launched.

Users then call up the SingPass Mobile app on their phone and launch a function to scan the QR code to initiate a signing request.

The signature is encrypted and linked to the signee, whose identity is automatically validated against the Government's database at the point of signing.

At the same time, the SingPass Mobile app will scan the user's face or fingerprint to authenticate and complete the digital signing process.

"The SingPass Mobile app will scan the user's face or fingerprint to authenticate and complete the digital signing process. Confidentiality is maintained as the documents cannot be transferred between these platforms and GovTech. Instead, only an encrypted, random code representing the signed document will be transferred."

Confidentiality is maintained as the documents cannot be transferred between these platforms and GovTech.

Instead, only an encrypted, random code representing the signed document will be transferred.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is also piloting the technology for the digital signing of property caveats.

Private-sector organisations keen to use Sign with SingPass can register their interest at https://go.gov.sg/sign. The service is free for now.

Speaking at yesterday's ERA event, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee urged the real estate sector to take charge of and push ahead with digitalisation efforts to better serve customers.

"To survive and do well in a digital era, (property agencies) will need to ensure that both your real estate professionals and your technical teams, who build and support your digital platforms, receive the necessary training," said Mr Lee, who is also Minister in-charge of social services integration.

"Likewise, individual property agents must take charge of your own learning, and be proactive in upskilling yourselves."

ERA is also launching a WhatsApp-based chatbot, which calls up project information such as the number of available units for agents who need to input only a few keywords.

Previously, the agents had to contact the salesmen in charge of a specific project, or search for the information themselves on ERA's mobile platforms.

Original article: https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/era-homes-in-on-digital-signatures-for-tenancy-deals

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