Salesforce Consulting in Singapore

Singapore is two and a half hours ahead of India, which leaves about six and a half hours of shared working time every day. GeekMidst works with Singapore teams remotely from India; we have no office, staff or phone number in Singapore. English is one of Singapore's four official languages and the language its laws are drafted in, and it's the language we work in. Prices are agreed per proposal.

For Singapore teams, the questions that come up first are usually about SMS: who you can text, when you must check the Do Not Call Registry, and how quickly opt-outs must take effect.

Working across time zones

Singapore Time is UTC+8, with no daylight saving.

Data and privacy rules to plan for

The Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA), amended in 2020, is regulated by the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC). According to Allen & Gledhill, maximum penalties since 1 October 2022 are 10% of Singapore turnover for organisations with more than S$10m turnover, and S$1m otherwise.

• Consent is the default basis. The 2020 amendments added deemed consent by notification and a legitimate-interests exception, and both need a prior assessment. A checkbox in Salesforce won't prove that assessment, so keep it on file.
• Breaches. Notify the PDPC within 3 calendar days of assessing a breach as notifiable, meaning likely to cause significant harm or affecting 500 or more people. Tell affected individuals as soon as practicable.
• Transfers. Under the Transfer Limitation Obligation, overseas recipients must be bound to a comparable standard of protection, for example by contract. Consider it for any vendor that accesses your org from abroad, including us.

The Do Not Call Registry

The DNC rules cover marketing voice calls, SMS and fax to Singapore numbers:

• Check the registry before sending, unless you hold clear and unambiguous consent.
• Offer an opt-out through the same channel, and act on it within 21 days.
• Identify the sender in text messages.

In Marketing Cloud, that usually means a DNC check before SMS sends, a consent field that records its source, and an opt-out sync that runs well inside 21 days. The DNC rules don't cover email; our understanding is that bulk commercial email falls under the separate Spam Control Act. Check with your legal adviser on both.

Salesforce data residency: Hyperforce Singapore

Singapore is a Hyperforce hosting location in Salesforce's Infrastructure and Sub-processors document, and Salesforce announced general availability there for December 2021. Check product by product, because Salesforce doesn't host every service in every location.

Services teams in Singapore ask us about

• SMS and mobile messaging with DNC checks and opt-out handling
• Data 360 consulting for one customer profile across channels
• Personalization consulting
• Integration with commerce and payment systems
• Marketing Cloud managed services

Industries

We haven't researched Singapore's sectors for this page, so we won't generalise about them. Our industries hub shows the sectors we write about.

Sources

• PDPC: Do Not Call Registry and your business
• PDPC Advisory Guidelines, Chapter 8 (PDF)
• Salesforce Infrastructure and Sub-processors (PDF)
• Salesforce: Hyperforce launches in Singapore
• Allen & Gledhill: PDPA penalties from 1 October 2022