JAMPRO pitches local tech companies to large corporates, government agencies

Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) is pitching local technology companies, which together have created a booming tech industry, to local businesses and government agencies.

The local investment promotion agency, on Wednesday, June 18, hosted the JAMPRO Export Max Innovation Pitch Forum, showcasing some of the offerings from players in the local technology industry to large corporations, including GraceKennedy Limited and Jamaica Public Service Company.

According to JAMPRO President Shullette Cox, the forum was spawned by an acknowledgement that the agency faced challenges communicating the services offered by local tech companies.

“It has been a learning process of just understanding what Jamaica’s tech industry is,” Cox shared at the start of the event.

“A few weeks ago, we had a discussion internally and the challenge that we have is that whereas when our promotional teams go into markets, we know how to sell a jerk sauce, we know how to sell Appleton rum, we know how to sell Grace products and Derrimon products and Arc products. Those are tangibles that we have known for very long, but we don’t know how to sell our tech because each product is so unique and different,” she added.

That acknowledgement led JAMPRO to have even more meaningful engagements with local players to improve how to market them both locally and internationally.

For Cox, the Export Max Innovation Pitch Forum serves as the first medium through which local tech companies can promote themselves locally before engaging with international buyers. On this note, the JAMPRO president acknowledged the attendance of Jamaica ICT Authority CEO Anika Shuttleworth and Jamaica Customs Agency’s Chief Information Officer Andre Williams.

“But we also have our partners in the productive sectors of Jamaica…We have our manufacturing companies that, unfortunately, when they think IT (information technology), sometimes we think we have to go overseas and we have to call a company overseas to do work that can be done right here. And so this is really an opportunity for our private sector partners, our public sector partners, alongside our JAMPRO team, to learn more about what Jamaica has to offer in the technology industry,” Cox stated.

“What we want from our partners in public sector and private sector is that the next time you have an IT project, or even an IT project that you have going on right now, we want to share the ideas and the thoughts. And even where it’s not an exact match, and you do perhaps have to go overseas, you think about ensuring that your overseas partner is using a Jamaican partner and that you are helping with some level of knowledge transfer, even where that is required,” she added.

The JAMPRO president also commended the Jamaica Technology and Digital Alliance for its partnership, which helped the agency to deepen its understanding of the tech industry’s players and progress.

She shared further that “one of the really enriching experiences I’ve had as president” is to see the projections of companies in the productive sector versus information technology outfits.

“With traditional exporters, they get to a point where they’re going to say, ‘You know, we have a strategic plan to grow by 20 per cent over the next five years, and for them, that is a big deal because for them, growth, especially in the goods-producing industry, means a lot of investing …It means you’re going to have to buy equipment. You have to employ people. You probably have to build some facilities,” Cox related.

“But it’s not the same way with the tech industry, and so when they talk about growth, it’s like, ‘We want to double profits in a year.’ And they’re very aggressive about it, and they’re not joking,” she continued.

Cox outlined that while the Export Max programmes help local companies to prepare to enter overseas markets, JAMPRO aims to create local linkages opportunities as well. At the Export Max Innovation Pitch Forum, 11 companies providing cybersecurity, data mining, artificial intelligence enablement, enterprise risk management, shipping and logistics, and digital marketing services made presentations. They included DenArthur Analytics, Innovate 10x, Advantum, ThinkNChange, and Adtelligent.

Source: Our Today