Construction Middle East: Arabian Civil Engineers by GineersNow GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 014, Sau | Page 24

Innovation is Key
[Written by: Prime Mech Tools Ltd. Marketing Team]
Start-ups have been the latest
trend and internet phenomenon
thanks to the help of multiple
crowd
funding
and
selling
platforms. But one of the newer
emerging companies in the power
and distribution sector started the
company with just a simple idea –
utilizing an idea from the west and
linking it with the manufacturing
potential in the east. This
company’s name is Prime Mech
Tools Ltd (PMT). One of the key
players in the company is the Asia
Distribution
Office’s
Sales
Manager, Billy Chan and he shares
his side of the story how PMT gets
to where it is in the short two years.
Billy Chan described his working
career as a continuous learning
curve that got him involved in a lot
of industries, but yet he still picked
the utilities sector as his foothold.
As a fresh graduate from a Civil
Engineering degree back in 2005,
22
Construction Leaders • April 2017
he landed his first job at the
Utilities Department of University
of British Columbia, Vancouver,
Canada. It was a short contract job
that required him to create a
database of the inventory and to
assist in drafting and documenting
the details and specification of the
cables within manholes around the
university. During that time, he
daydreamt about how to create a
system that would be easy to
maintain and at the same time
could send live report on the
distributed
power
and
the
condition of the cables. He
believed that innovation is the key
to push the boundaries of current
workflow. However, his idea never
became a reality as he lacked in all
different
fronts:
fundings,
supports, and connections. He
explained, “It was really just a
dream: like when someone clicks
on a manhole on a map, the 3D
layout of the manhole with cable
details and condition would
appear. It could be very similar to
the current VR trend but applying
to the utility sector.”
The next big role he had was in
2008 when a software company
approached him. This company
creates Civil Engineering Software
for the transportation sector. He
was invited to be with a team of
five in the project management
group. Knowing only minimal
about the transportation sector
from text books, Billy knew the
learning curve would be steep. The
work requirements were also very
different as consulting engineering
is required to provide solutions to a
problem; yet project management
within a software company would
require him to be the bridge
between users and the software
engineers. Billy didn’t think too
much then as he always believed
that innovation can drive the future
and
there
are
unlimited
possibilities with software. He
continued
to
explain
that
throughout his time at this
software company, his key roles
included stating program criteria,
going to exhibitions to promote
and greet users plus hosting
classes to teach fellow engineers
how to use the software.