GSAJ Assisting Technology Focused MSMEs To Grow

The Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ) is positioning local technology focused micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to maximise on their niche for growth in the global services sector (GSS).

“We see where business process outsourcing (BPO) is growing steadily, and global analysts project that it will continue to grow at about four per cent per annum,” said GSAJ President, Gloria Henry, at a JIS ‘Think Tank’ on January 16.

“We expect that the growth we are looking forward to will come from the technology companies. They are small but they are very agile, dynamic and excited about the growth. The Association, in working to increase the variety in process outsourcing, is positioning the MSMEs for growth,” she added.

Ms. Henry also spoke of the Association’s plans to reposition Jamaica in the global services sector to offer 60 per cent BPO services and 40 per cent knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services. This will be a shift from the present situation of 80 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.

The president said that work to move the technology focused MSMEs up the sector’s value chain has already started and companies are taking advantage of the assistance.

“Last year, we launched a programme called Scale up the Value Chain. We hired a consultant through funding from the Inter-American Development Bank to help these small firms digitise their operations. We are helping them to create a road map that will help them to expand their services, so that those that are primarily in the domestic market can begin to export,” Ms. Henry said.

“We are also helping them to understand what is required for them to tap into the global value chain. We are happy to say that 20 firms responded to the call,” she added.

Beginning February, the 20 firms will pitch proposals to a panel of judges from which 10 will be selected to benefit from the digitisation of operations and the creation of tailored business roadmaps.

“This will help them access higher value services in the global market chain,” the president said.

In support of this move, GSAJ Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Knightfox App Design Ltd., Egbert Von Frankenburg, said Jamaica needs to make full use of its location.

“We are strategically positioned in Jamaica, as we are the nearshore market to the United States economy, but also, we are in what I call the ‘hedge shore’ of the western European market,” he said.

“If you look at the clients we have in western Europe, they prefer working with companies in the Caribbean, because of our cost-effective services and also because we are seven hours behind.

So, when they outsource a product to be worked on overnight to the Caribbean, by the time they wake up in the morning, the product would be complete,” he noted.

The GSAJ, formerly the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ), is a 70-member group that represents the interest of the information and communications technology and the outsourcing sectors, which include BPO, KPO and information technology outsourcing (ITO).