Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are being encouraged to adopt a digital-first mindset.
Speaking at a recent ‘Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) Virtual Biz Zone’ session, Country Manager at Inova Solutions Jamaica, Jermaine McDonald, said a digital-first mindset means there is full integration, adaptation and use of technology, processes and people.
“A digital-first mindset transforms and drives value for your employees, and also for your customers. Employees are the ones who represent you, and your customers will determine true value, based on not just the product and or service but also their experience with your employees. So, you want to be able to provide the tools that they need to be most effective and productive and that will drive value, not just for your business but for your customers as well,” he explained.
Mr. McDonald encouraged MSME operators to conduct research before integrating a new technological process into their operations.
“Typically, when you have multiple technologies to choose from, you want to choose the right one that actually aligns with your processes and way of doing business. Technology is an enabler, it is not the magic pill in the sense that once you have the technology you don’t have anything to worry about, but it is actually meant to tangibly improve services and product delivery to customers,” he noted.
He recommended the automation of processes within business operations as a part of the digital-first mindset.
“Let us try to get those manual processes to be now automated, such as the approval of sick leave, verifying a product, marketing efforts, and feedback from customers. It allows you to leverage the team that you have and it will help you in the areas that you don’t have enough staff. You can, instead, rely on tools like artificial intelligence to be able to do things that would take four or five persons to accomplish,” Mr. McDonald said.
The session was held under the theme, The Changing Nature of ‘Workspace’ and ‘Workplace’.
The JBDC is the Government’s business development agency that assists in the sustainable creation and development of MSMEs in Jamaica.
Source: JIS
