Singapore Management University wins at Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards 2026

The SMU Lost and Found App replaces manual paper-based logging with an automated system.

Singapore Management University won Automation - Education in the Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards 2026. The university developed an in-house digital platform to transform how lost items are managed across its campus.

Losing personal items often causes significant frustration for students and the public. Before the implementation of this digital solution, the journey of a lost item involved multiple manual steps. Security officers and finders filled out detailed hardcopy forms for every found object. This manual process took up to ten minutes for complex cases like backpacks containing multiple items. Staff then manually entered these paper records into a central spreadsheet for tracking.

The reliance on physical logs created several challenges for the Office of Safety and Security. Vague descriptions or illegible handwriting frequently slowed down the matching process. Staff spent considerable time flipping through documents to verify ownership, whilst photos of found items could not be attached to the paper records. With up to 300 items logged in a busy month, the administrative burden remained high.

Singapore Management University addressed these inefficiencies through a deep partnership between the Office of Safety and Security and IITS. The resulting SMU Lost and Found App uses computer vision and automated matching to revolutionise the user experience. Finders now snap a photo of an item, and the system automatically tags and cross-references it against lost reports in milliseconds.

The impact of the new system was immediate. Documentation time dropped significantly, as staff now log items in under 60 seconds. Users lodge lost reports online via a QR code instead of visiting a security counter. Since its implementation in May 2025, the system has recorded 80 claimed items, averaging eight successful returns per month.

Staff hours previously dedicated to manual logging and physical searching were reduced by approximately 75%. This allows personnel to focus on higher-value campus security tasks whilst improving data integrity and security protocols. The time-to-return duration also dropped from days to just a few hours in many instances.

The Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards is the most prestigious awards programme for technological innovations, recognising exceptional companies in Singapore that are riding the digital disruption wave and leading the technological revolution and digital journeys of their respective industries.

The Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2027 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in pursuit of technological innovation, please contact Danica Avila at +(65) 3158 1386 ext 217 or [email protected].