June 2004 Issue No.10

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?

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.

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.

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.