Brunei - One number for non-emergency services planned

THE newly launched 144 call centre is just the beginning of a more extensive universal call centre for non-emergency services, to be achieved within an eight-year target.

The 144 call centre is a collaborative project between the Department of Electrical Services (DES) with private sector agencies; BAG Networks, DST Group, TelBru and Microsoft, to have a universal telephone number for the DES, instead of the separate telephone numbers for each district.

In a press conference after the launching of the universal call number, 144, for the DES, CEO of BAG Networks Haslina Hj Mohd Taib said that the organisation hoped to extend the scope of the call centre to a wider area of non-emergency services, similar to the 311 non-emergency phone number - a source of all government information and non-emergency services - used in New York, the United States.

The public and private sector partners are setting an eight-year mark to achieve this target. "Hopefully, we can achieve it in less than eight years," Haslina said.

She revealed that the current 144 number for electrical services is a pilot project for an enhanced management of services, which will be extended to other goverment agencies in the future. The project is an effort by both the public and private sector to improve the response and efficiency of services in order to boost the development of the country, she added.

Permanent Secretary (Downstream and Power) of the Prime Minister's Office, Hj Jamain Hj Julaihi said, the DES is looking at the possibility of implementing the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system into the 144 call centre, to monitor problem areas in electrical services. This system will allow transparency on the processes for both the department as well as the customers, through sharing of information between both parties. It also records information of the caller and the types of complaints made.

"In the next 2 years, we will have a SCADA system which will be able to pinpoint the problem areas without people calling. Right now, we are relying on information from people to see where are the problem areas," he said. The system used for the 144 call centre will bring about standardised processes of resolving issues related to electrical services, and this will be applied to the non-emergency services telephone numbers.

The Brunei Times

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