Developing Digitalisation Roadmap for PCM Sector

With its potential to increase productivity and efficiency and reduce costs, digitalisation has gained currency in a business environment adversely impacted by COVID-19. Working with Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and ASPRI, the Infocomm Media Authority (IMDA) has developed a digital roadmap for the Process Construction and Maintenance (PCM) sector, providing digital solutions and training requirements for each stage of companies’ business growth.

To help IMDA finalise the roadmap, two interactive online validation workshops were held in the last week of July. The first was organised by the IMDA for Productivity Council members on 27 July 2020 to gather inputs from industry professionals on the roadmap. Three days later, on 30 July 2020, a second validation workshop was held for ASPRI members.

In his opening address for the validation workshop for ASPRI members on 30 July, Mr Danny Chua, Lead of ASPRI’s Digitalisation, Innovation & Technology Adoption (DITA) Workgroup and Secretary of ASPRI’s 13^th Executive Council, urged ASPRI members to be forward looking and embark on the digitalisation journey, taking one step at a time. He asked them to set aside short-term Return on Investment (ROI) concerns, so often difficult to measure, for higher productivity and lower business costs in the long-term.

The workshop dispersed into three groups, each facilitated by an IMDA representative where they sought to better understand industry challenges while gathering the thoughts and feedback of ASPRI members on the following proposed three stages of technology adoption.

The discussions lasted for about an hour before all three teams regrouped into the main meeting room where industry practitioners enthusiastically summarised their respective group discussion. Cost, ease of implementation and clients buy-in were cited as key considerations for companies’ technology adoption.