DBJ partners with Ingenuity Technologies to help transform MSMEs

Melarka Williams, Founder and CEO, Ingenuity Technologies

The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) has named Ingenuity Technologies Limited as its digital transformation partner in the Voucher for Technical Assistance (VTA) programme.

The VTA, which was introduced in 2014, provides grants of up to $200,000 to assist micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in strengthening their managerial and administrative abilities to improve their businesses.

The partnership will drive digital transformation in MSMEs, replacing their manual processes with automation.

“This is actually the greatest need I have seen in my work with SMEs. They tend to rely on manual processes which slow down their operations,” said Melarka Williams, Ingenuity’s founder, and CEO.

MSMEs which operate in the productive sectors such as agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing, and mining; and those in emerging industries like animation and  information technology, may receive vouchers in various denominations to be used to access business support services provided by accredited Business Development Organisations (BDOs).

Ingenuity Technologies is presently the only approved technology company to be added as a BDO under the programme.

In addition to helping them put in place the appropriate digital transformation systems to improve their operations, Ingenuity will also offer consultation services, advising MSMEs on how to implement digital transformation roadmaps to help their businesses stay current in the digital age. Ingenuity will support grant awardees in the following areas:

Automation – Companies can get more done in less time in accounting, marketing and operations, and training by digitizing their manual processes. “Companies that have benefitted from our digital transformation model have utilized the learning management tool, which digitizes training manuals. This makes onboarding new employees easier and saves time,” said Williams. It also saves money.

According to a 2014 article by global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, businesses that have digitized information-intensive processes have cut costs by up to 90 percent and improved service turnaround times.

Companies have also implemented state-of-the-art digital registrations at their conferences and events, and restaurants have used automation processes to update their various daily operations.

Data collection and analytics – Survey information and results can help businesses make better decisions based on customer feedback, for instance. Additionally, analysis of a dataset can reveal patterns and offer business insights which can be used for making business decisions.

Enterprise software development – Many companies still use legacy systems and manual processes that decrease their efficiency and productivity. More up-to-date software solutions enhance customer experience and drives profitability.

Mobile and web app development – The equivalent of having a business card is now having a dynamic website, preferably one that is accessible on any device and is optimized for transactions, as necessary.

Cloud services – More businesses are moving data storage to the cloud to save money. Having  everything backed up on the cloud makes it easy to work remotely as files can be accessed from anywhere, at any time of day.