June 2004 Issue No.10

Lead Story

EMSD Technology Exhibition
Technology and Innovation : High Performance for Tomorrow
     

Officiating at the opening ceremony are (from right) Mr Roger Lai, Director of EMSD, Mr Francis Ho, Permanent Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology (Communications and Technology), and Mr John Chan, EMSD Deputy Director/Trading Services of EMSD.
 

EMSD held its first-ever technology exhibition on 26 and 27 April at the Hong Kong Central Library for colleagues in the public and subvented sector. Mr Francis Ho, Permanent Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology (Communications and Technology), officiated at the opening ceremony and congratulated the EMSD on a successful event.

The event aimed to showcase EMSD's capabilities in the innovative application of technology, and how those applications can save costs and boost productivity for customers and other public and subvented organisations. The exhibition featured four zones: the Environment, Information Technology, Hi-Tech and Health Care, each with a variety of topics, case studies and demonstrations.

The exhibition was well attended and received good feedback from customers and visitors. It also generated many follow-up enquiries and discussions on the implementation of the technologies.

The Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services, Roger Lai, said in his opening address that technologies have influenced our services so much that perhaps it is time for us to give ourselves a facelift?

 

Time for a “Facelift”

Mr Lai elaborated on EMSD's “facelift” including a new focus on becoming the IT and high technology partner for its customers.

“Following the worldwide trends of convergence between electronics, IT and communication, our capability has also extended into the telecommunication and IT areas. We would like to show you how we are able to harness and apply the latest technologies to help customers with innovative solutions - solutions that make their operations more efficient and cost-effective,” said Mr Lai.


Mr Ho noted in his remarks that he was very impressed by the exhibition and the team that put it together. He said EMSD was truly forward looking, and well positioned to take on a more active role in providing technology solutions to the government.


One of the themes of the exhibition and the concurrent seminars was how to leverage  EMSD's successful internal experience in work process re-engineering and change management in the past eight years to help clients do more with less in their operations, under tight fiscal constraints.

 
Mr Roger Lai, Director of EMSD strikes the
keynote at the opening ceremony.
 
Environment, IT, Hi-Tech, HealthCare

Visitors found the booths interesting and inspiring. The Environment Zone focused on energy management opportunities, also highlighting our indoor air quality service and renewable energy possibilities for Hong Kong in the future. The Information Technology Zone took visitors through a wide variety of IT applications in the workplace such as e-HRM, e-DMS solutions and data centre services. The Hi-Tech Zone showcased some of EMSD's successful projects and new technology applications such as Radio Frequency Identification Technology, as well as exciting applications in remote imaging and monitoring. The Healthcare Zone focused on various technology applications in healthcare engineering, patient monitoring systems, and special retrofit measures to fight SARS.

Concurrent seminars were held on six topics, including indoor air quality, energy saving measures, wireless technology and applications, IT solutions, change management and service improvement initiatives. Some topics such as energy management proved highly popular.

 
Investing in the Future

What happens after the exhibition?  Voicelink talked to Mr. John Chan, Deputy Director / Trading Services for his views on the way forward.

“Our technology orientation has taken shape over the past few years in response to customer demands for IT services and hi-tech solutions to boost their operational efficiencies,” said Mr Chan. “Under the current economic climate, helping clients achieve cost savings and higher efficiencies via innovative application of technologies is a top priority.”

We shall sustain our efforts in offering value-creating solutions for customers using technology, and further investing in the Corporate Computer/Enterprise Resource Planning system, data centres, the upcoming multi-functional customer support centre, and a high speed network under planning. We are well positioned to become our customers' hi-tech and IT partner,” said Mr Chan.


Our staff members exchange ideas with a guest.
Wide Range of Visitors
Senior officials and colleagues from numerous government departments and public and subvented organisations attended the event. These included the various  universities, Vocational Training Council, Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education, Hong Kong Eye Hospital, Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, and Po Leung Kuk, etc.
 
Exhibit Highlights
Visitors and customers have expressed great interest in these exhibits:
 
Electronic Document Management System (e-DMS)

This is an excellent solution for document management for government departments. It integrates readily with Lotus Notes for easy and timely access and sharing of documents, and saves paper. Our Automated Workflow Solutions also work in conjunction with e-DMS to help speed up business processes and boost productivity.

Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID)

RFID identifies, locates and tracks a person or object by means of radio frequency communication, using radio frequency tags on which data is stored. Line of sight is not required, scanning distance is flexible, bulk scanning is possible, read rate is high, and data in tags can be updated. RFID offers exciting application opportunities such as tracking of library books, tracking of patients and equipment in hospitals, airport baggage tracking, and location positioning in fire services training.

Visitors give their full attention to every demonstration.
 
Remote Imaging and Monitoring
This enables clients to monitor facilities irrespective of weather conditions and access difficulties arising from flooding, landslides, traffic congestion or sheer remoteness. Using wired or wireless network, and renewable energy in remote locations with no power supply, the technology enables clients to access data and images via pagers, mobile phones, PDAs, desktop or notebook computers anywhere, anytime. Recent applications include crocodile surveillance, slope works monitoring, subway flooding pre-warning, and weather data acquisition.
 
Energy Management Opportunities (EMO)
EMOs enable energy savings and reduction in greenhouse emissions. EMSD has helped clients save over $40 million in annual energy bills via various EMOs. These begin with “level one” solutions such as simple house-keeping in the workplace that involves no cost, to “level two” solutions including various retrofits that involve a small cost, up to “level three” solutions that involve significant investment but substantial energy savings.
 
EMSTF e-Portal
Our e-portal is a series of websites, each tailor-made for one customer department to enable e-delivery of EMSTF services. With the e-portal, clients may access their password protected E&M engineering facilities database in EMSTF maintained venues, anywhere, anytime. They can also send us an email anytime requesting a quote for specific services, reporting faults or asking questions. It also co.ntains an overview of EMSTF's engineering capabilities and the sharing of special project experiences
 
Demonstration of body temperature scanner.
 
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