Jamaica, the third largest of the Caribbean islands, is entering a new era of development, riding on the tailwinds of a digital transformation movement. This thrust comes directly from the government’s policy direction. So much so that Jacky Wright, Chief Digital Officer and Corporate Vice President, Microsoft US Global Technology Leader, recently lauded the country for its progress towards becoming a digital society.

In line with its national development goals,  Jamaica has witnessed concerted efforts from the government to make Internet access available to every household and community.

A National Broadband Initiative to enable Last Mile connectivity across Jamaica by 2025 is afoot, with a special emphasis placed on underserved and ill served areas.

The country has made rapid strides towards supporting a digital business environment. The ICT (Information Communication Technology) infrastructure is relatively advanced. There is the presence of 4G LTE telecom networks.

Smart device availability and penetration are deep enough to buttress 112% of mobile subscribers. To put matters in perspective, this translates to 3.24 million smart devices, according to Hoot Suite data published in early 2019.

Early on the government consolidated all IT support activities for the Government agencies through a centralized organization called eGov, which has had a significant role to play in the digital transformation of Jamaica, currently led by acting CEO Ms Annika Shuttleworth and her team. The Ministry of Finance spearheaded the efforts of digitizing the global procurement process through its GoJEP (Govt of Jamaica Electronic Procurement) portal. Managing the global contractor community has been spearheaded by the PPC, which has made tremendous strides to ensure transparency by digitizing their functions, currently lead by its Executive Director, Lt Cdr (retd.) Paul Wright and his team.

Furthermore, there is a mature financial services regulatory framework, coupled with Entrepreneurship and Innovation which find encouragement from the government, hence Jamaica shows a bright future with its digital transformation vision.

Recently, the government has applied its mind to design a digital transformation support program that benefits micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. This program will support the adoption of technological solutions to improve sustainability. The initiative will advance the MSME sector’s growth in the long run. It will involve the integration of special digitalization business development support. The Industry, Investment and Commerce Ministry, supported by the European Union Delegation to Jamaica and the Planning Institute of Jamaica, is undertaking this initiative.

In healthcare, the Jamaican government has utilized digital health technologies in continuing medical education. Further, it has expended considerable energy to improve access to specialist care with the ECHO model. This has continued through the pandemic response which has been commendable compared to the world order. Argusoft has also been a pioneer in the public healthcare domain and has the recognition of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue its efforts.

Digital Transformation: Charity Begins At Home for Jamaican Government

Most notably, the digital transformation spirit of Jamaica’s government has been underscored by a sense of ‘charity begins at home.’ Their efforts to apply digital transformation to government work, departments, and bodies preceded even the COVID-19-enabled digitization push. At Argusoft, we are privileged to have been offered a vantage point to witness this transformation push first-hand due to our unique positioning as one of the trusted technology partners of various units of the Jamaican government.

Argusoft has had the honor of being selected as the vendor of choice through the GoJEP RFP process by various ministries of the Jamaican Government, working successfully with their IT teams for successful execution of their digital automation initiatives.

Argusoft’s  first major opportunity to contribute to the digital automation vision of Jamaica came about working with the Administrator General’s Department, to help automate the process of administering the estate of those who die intestate, currently led by its visionary CEO Mrs. Lona Brown. The tactical vision of digitizing the Trust and Estate Management workflow was lead by Mr Patrick Wright, CFO, and Argusoft has had the fortune of successfully developing and supporting the TEMS software system, currently in its fourth year of operation, after a successful rollout.

Argusoft has been working with the Public Procurement Commission with their digital automation efforts to integrate all their departments eventually, register suppliers, monitor performance, provide transparency etc, while providing a digital repository, to eventually go paperless. We are working with Mr. Andre Williams, CIO at the Jamaica Customs Agency and his IT team to build the new fully automated  JCA portal.

Working as an extension of eGov Jamaica’s engineering team, we have helped develop applications for various government organizations that include WECare – a Grant management system for the Ministry of Finance and Public service,  Digitization of HOPE (Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment) program for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Transport Authority. We are working with the eGov team to develop the updated version of their payment gateway system, a key requirement for e-commerce solutions in Jamaica.

Challenges in Jamaica’s Digital Transformation Path Ahead

Jamaica’s digital transformation is on the right path. The top five barriers impeding digital transformation?  Lack of technical resources for maintenance and support, lack of technical skill set for continued software development, overall strategy for refactoring, security and Infrastructure are some of the roadblocks.

While all these are very real and faced by everyone on a digital transformation path, an enabling environment needs to be fostered with the help of further government intervention. More awareness will certainly help. For example, 43% of businesses in Jamaica still view digital transformation as a threat, and 41% see it as a challenge. In addition, 32% of businesses are concerned about their ability to execute digital transformation.

A huge challenge to most organizations embracing digital transformation in Jamaica is KT and maintaining continuity. Enabling eGov based teams for L2/L3 support of developed systems going past launch and handover, will help many of the organizations to sustain their systems and maintain continuity.

A good model is the centralized GovTech organization in Singapore, which is working successfully. The government can further aid in this by fostering innovation, incentivizing businesses. They can start at home with their ministries which will determine better success of DT efforts. Argusoft has been helping many clients with an extended team to achieve this in the interim, while training internal teams as they are pulled together, which continues to be a challenge. A grassroots program to train and recruit college graduates in computer science from Jamaican universities could go a long way to mitigate this issue.

Inspiration could be drawn from Estonia (similar in size to Jamaica), which declared the Internet a ‘human right’. 99% of public services in Estonia are available 24/7.

The country has a growing IT startup environment, (something Jamaica should promote to retain talent as well as attract talent, specially because of its proximity to the Americas). The government offers 600+ e-services to citizens and almost 2500 to businesses. They have the concept of an Electronic ID card – some variation of an online passport. This can be utilized to do various things such as sign contracts remotely, Use ID cards for public transportation payments, and pay for parking using a Smartphone, to name just a few. The fruits of such a total e-revolution can be enjoyed in Estonia only because the seeds were sown way back in 1991,  the year the nation became independent. Such a young nation has leapfrogged several levels of progress by single-mindedly deciding to leverage the power of the Internet and digital technologies.

Jamaica is well-poised to sow the seeds of a digital revolution right now, which, if nurtured, can catapult the country into a new era of growth and progress. A future in which digital is going to remain a crucial aspect, for a long time to come, especially in the cities and town areas.

To do this, the government needs trusted technology partners who can deliver at scale and brainstorm unique ways to digitize government services as far as feasible. The government can benefit from the experience of such partners, which ensures that there is no ‘trial and error’.

Argusoft is proud to have contributed to a small extent to Jamaica’s path to a Digital future with our turnkey software solution development, and maintenance/support/continuity/KT thru extended teams. We look forward to further nurturing our long-standing partnership with the people of Jamaica, for the people of Jamaica and eventually by the people of Jamaica, in the years to come.