ISSUE 17 English繁體简体
THEME STORY: The Inevitable Adevnt of E-payment
ISL Column                         


ATAL Engineering Group (ATAL)


ATAL


Company Background

Founded in 1977, ATAL is a leading electrical and mechanical (E&M) engineering service provider headquartered in Hong Kong. Over the past 45 years, ATAL has provided a wide range of multi-disciplinary and comprehensive E&M engineering and technology services for customers from public and private sectors. The business of ATAL encompasses building services, environmental engineering, information, communications and building technologies (ICBT), as well as lifts and escalators. ATAL’s operations span across Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, the United Kingdom and the United States. ATAL’s parent company, Analogue Holdings Limited, is listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in 2019 (Stock Code: 1977).

As one of the leaders of the E&M industry in Hong Kong, ATAL has taken part in many large-scale local projects, including Hong Kong’s first organic resources recovery centre, the sewage treatment plant in Hong Lok Yuen, the border crossing biometric identification system for Hong Kong International Airport, intelligent buildings for Hong Kong Science Park, the tunnel access control system for Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation, the re novation of Central t o Mid-Levels Escalator and Walkway System, the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong railway as well as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge project, and the like. For this broad scope of business, ReportNOW provides ATAL a convenient and cost-effective tool for generating e-forms and reports, thus leading to the age of digital transformation.

From Outsourcing to No-Code Platform: The Magic Key to Save Cost and Time

In order to guarantee the progress and maintain the quality of engineering and maintenance services, ATAL has to regularly conduct site inspection and collect data for analyses and reports. Traditionally, the making of reports was done manually. The entire procedure was very tedious and involved a great amount of time and human resources. Before introducing ReportNOW, ATAL considered to outsource the relevant tasks to other local I&T companies. However, after receiving the quotations, the management believed that outsourcing is not cost-effective in the long run. Eventually, ATAL turned to ISL and adopted ISL’s ReportNOW platform.

Compared to other “low-code” platforms available on the market, ReportNOW is a “no-code” platform where users are not required to be equipped with any kinds of coding knowledge. To customise a form and report, what they only need to do is to directly drag and drop the elements to the interface. Even without any professional IT background or assistance from software developers, staff from ATAL can still easily produce reports with ReportNOW after a three-day training. As for more complex forms and reports, ATAL staff spent only two to three months acquiring the knowledge and have thus far produced more than 30 forms and reports, which are mostly used for collecting and analysing projects’ data. Practically, ReportNOW is a simpler and more convenient platform than the traditional means or outsourcing for ATAL to create reports. It can effectively save time and cost, particularly the development cost for hiring developers and IT consultants.


New Reporting System under Work From Home Arrangement: The Pathway to Digital Transformation

In the context of digitalisation and development of smart city, industries including E&M industry have been undergoing digital transformation. Over the past two years, the uncertain pandemic situations have brought numerous enterprises to focus on digitalisation of their business. For ATAL, innovation is always one of the core values of the company. Generally, the reports for maintenance services follow the same format and requirement, in which its repetitiveness paves the way for the digitalisation of the operation process. Since the introduction of ReportNOW, the field technician can submit the report and data directly through mobile device or tablet to the database without the need to submit the handwritten forms and reports in person.

This reporting system, on the one hand, facilitates the “work from home” arrangement during the hard times under the pandemic. On the other hand, this remote reporting system also helps management and backend staff acquire the project data and keep up with the project status and progress timely. Proper decision for management can thus be made easily. In this light, ReportNOW digitalises the entire reporting process and reduces the repetitive and time-consuming procedure of data inputting. Using ReportNOW, ATAL can optimise its allocation and use of resources through improving the daily operation, hence enhancing the overall efficiency of their services.

As we shall see, ReportNOW is the newest tool for ATAL’s pathway to innovation. It is not only about time saving and cost saving, but also fosters the company’s progress towards digital transformation of the business, with a view to catching up with the trend and continuing to be the leading “smart” E&M company in Hong Kong.