Registry invests in open access
The Hong Kong Companies Registry has unveiled plans to build a multi-million-dollar system to archive its records electronically and update its information technology infrastructure.
When the first phase of the system is launched in November next year, it will allow Internet-based searches. A second phase will add electronic application functions.
From January to the end of July, the Companies Registry had nearly one million requests for information - usually from people seeking to verify a company's history before choosing to do business or extend it credit. The present system is seen as time-consuming, labour-intensive and error-prone.
Morris Choy, business manager for Kodak (Far East), which was awarded a HK$20 million contract to turn about 80 million frames of microfiche data into digital format, said: 'Typically, right now, you have to go to the search centre and ask for the retrieval of the microfiche, and the company registry will duplicate the microfiche for you, and when you go back you need a microfiche reader to look at the information.'
Hewlett-Packard's consulting division has been awarded a HK$28-million contract for the systems integration, as well as for supplying servers, storage units and about 300 workstations.
It also won a 10-year contract, worth an annual HK$10 million, to maintain the system and establish a back-up site which can be used in case of a disaster.
This takes the project cost up to HK$148 million.
The project is one of several large system upgrades announced this year by the government. Last month, the Inland Revenue Department awarded Atos Origin a HK$45-million contract to create a centralised database for its documents.
The Land Registry has announced plans to digitise its records and put them on the Internet for easier searching.
As at the end of last month, the Companies Registry listed 508,055 local firms and about 6,600 overseas-based companies with local offices.
HP regional director Casey Poon said the registry had already automated some of its systems but company records such as registration applications were still submitted on paper and scanned on to microfiche.
'The difference is all the automation has been around text. Now they handle the images,' Mr Poon said. The main software to be used for content and business process management will come from FileNET.
After the completion of the first phase, applications will still be submitted on paper but then automatically entered into the digital database to be available for online searches. Companies will also be able to update their information via the Web. The second phase, to be completed at the end of 2004, allows companies to register online.
The registry aims to save HK$52 million a year in operating and staff costs once the project is complete. At present it has 400 employees.
The Kodak document conversion project will image and index each page separately.
The work will take place in Hong Kong, though Kodak has already started operations at its Shenzhen imaging centre which will service the rest of the region.
The Land Registry project, awarded to HP earlier this year, may lead to lower fees charged to the public for title searches.
The new system may also lead to a staff reduction to 500 people from 520, according to Registrar Kim Salkeld.
The government is pursuing a strategy of outsourcing as much as 80 per cent of its IT needs in an attempt to increase efficiency and boost the local technology industry.
