Prosperity over the last few year has been borne from high energy prices and extensive Government spending, even while our productivity has decreased. We can’t turn back the clock, but we can make the changes necessary to put us back on a growth path.

There is ample evidence to show that Information and Communication Technology use is a key driver of innovation and productivity, even in economies where other sources of productivity gains produce lower returns or have dried up.

A 2001 working paper by Jalava and Pohjola entitled “Economic Growth in the New Economy” found that ICTs enhance a country’s economic growth in three basic ways:

• Directly through the production of ICT goods and services
• Indirectly through the use of ICT in the production of other goods and services
• And the increasing application of ICTs leads to rising productivity

ICTs can help transform societies by improving access to services, enhancing connectivity, and creating employment opportunities through entrepreneurship and new business models.

The World Economic Forum, WEF, realising this transformative impact created the Global Information Technology Report (GITR) in 2001, and the Network Readiness Index (NRI) to help measure and rank the performance of participating countries in the use of ICTs.

Trinidad and Tobago in the 2015 release of the GITR ranked 70th out of 143 countries, placing 8th in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, and 2nd behind Barbados in the Caribbean, who ranked 39th.

A large reason for this can be seen by our rank in the Environment sub-index, where we ranked 89th, which is a measure of the extent to which the market conditions and regulatory framework support entrepreneurship, innovation, and ICT development. The Government clearly has their part to play.

But what is notable that while our ranking on individual usage of ICT is 58th, our business usage ranking is 86th. And our ranking for the Economic Impact of ICTs – a measure the effect of ICTs on the economy through technological and non-technological innovations – is 84th. It means that the private sector and business community are not doing their part either.

Greater investments into ICTs by businesses can help them to grow even in these turbulent times. Small and Medium Businesses, SMEs, are poised to make the most out of ICT investments as they are more nimble and can make faster decisions.

Businesses should, therefore, take the opportunity now, when things may be slow, to implement business improvements. While it seems difficult to spend time and money on improvements with less revenue, when the upturn comes around, it would mean that you are better able to take advantage of it.

Call me today to set up a free exploratory meeting to determine how ICT investments can help you and your business.

This post was written for the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce and appeared in the Newsday Business Magazine on May 5, 2016. It has been modified slightly for this post.

Original article: SMEs stand to benefit the most'">The importance of ICT investments SMEs stand to benefit the most

©2025 Interxect Services Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Now the reply was pleasant and not at all discourteous, but did you really expect me to call around to find out if they had the book? I do try to shop locally and support the local business community, but the world has gone global and businesses should make it easy for their customers to do business with them.

Why was one bookstore able to tell me definitively if they had the book anywhere, nationwide, but the other couldn’t? It’s simple, they had a point-of-sale system that allowed them to do that.

The SME Advantage

Many small to medium businesses (or SMEs) have not taken advantage of the Information Technology advances that exists, for reasons such as cost, lack of expertise, or they are simply ignorant of what is out there. That’s a shame because the small business is in a better position to exploit the advantages of the new technologies than larger businesses.

The advantages that an SME has over a large business:

• They can make decisions faster, and adapt quicker to changes and new technologies.
• The adoption of new technologies is easier because of the smaller workforce and closer involvement of team members.
• Success is crucial resulting in the business owner taking ownership of project outcomes rather than delegating it to others who may have lesser interest.

IT can allow SMEs to run faster, run cheaper, and run stronger, but these businesses need to move away from viewing only the capital investment required and think about the long-term returns.

Some ways that IT can help small businesses:

• Manage your accounting such as expenses, revenues, assets, payroll and cash flow. Using reporting and analysis, you can get better insights from financial data beyond the “bottom-line”.
• Track service provision to customers including warranties and performance. Track the time taken to perform service jobs, and the performance of individuals performing those jobs. You can increase your customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and renewals by taking a proactive approach to servicing.
• Manage and track inventory so that you can determine how much inventory is costing you, the turnaround of items so that you can order only the best performing ones, and even the locations where items may have higher demands so you can allocate your inventory accordingly.
• Measure the productivity of your operations by using metrics such as time to complete individual processes, the costs of those processes and how much resources it takes. You can use this data to then make business decisions as to whether processes can be improved or even eliminated to improve the business’ overall productivity.
• Improve collaboration within the business, with vendors, and your customers.
• Manage your employee information such as time and attendance, vacations, and their job objectives and work performance.

Will these cost money to acquire and implement? Yes, it will, but what is the cost of not implementing it?

The Opportunity Cost

Let’s say to purchase and setup a small business accounting software might cost around $500. However, the productivity gains you made by getting information quickly to pay taxes and knowing and following up with your account receivables saved you $1,000 over three years, plus the insight gained into you best performing services or items improved your profitability by another $1,000.

By not implementing the software, you’ve lost $1,500 over the three years.

This is what economists call the opportunity cost – the cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action.

In the long-run, you can be better off by implementing new IT systems to automate your work processes. It may be hard to put out that initial $500, but you’d have turned that investment into $2000; a 300% return on your investment over three years. What other investment is giving you such returns?

This is why I say that businesses should be thinking about the long-term returns rather than that initial capital cost.

Making the Choice to Invest in IT

All of this is not to say that you should run off and implement everything under the sun. What you should do is to first understand where your business is now, then determine where where you would like it to be and start figuring out how ways that IT can get you there.

That last step is not easy for everyone (and not as simple as I’ve put it), but it can and has been done.

So are you ready to invest in growing your business?

Original article: There's a lot for SMEs to gain if they invest wisely!'">Why Small and Medium Businesses should invest in IT There's a lot for SMEs to gain if they invest wisely!

©2025 Interxect Services Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Some business leaders are okay with that, like my current customers, others, not so much so, as they consider it a risk, in that I can’t provide additional support. But, I don’t resell any hardware or software (at least not yet, and don’t so that happening in the foreseeable future), so there is little to support. What I do instead is evaluate and recommend hardware or software for purchase, and work to ensure that it’s implemented to meet the objectives, whether I do the implementation, or work with other vendors.

Because I work alone, I cannot provide extended support beyond the project life. But what I do is work closely with the in-house team to pass on the knowledge of how the systems work, and how to maintain and operate them. I do this using a combination of hands on training during the implementation, and documentation when the project is completed. Sometimes there are a few calls afterwards, but it dies down soon enough once the team is comfortable with the new systems.

In my experience, my clients, and their team, love this approach, as they get to learn new technologies, and new ways of doing things. And what’s more, is that the business benefits, because as they staff learns, the business itself grows, as the staff is more capable than before.

Many consultants don’t like this approach as they believe that it gives away their intellectual property, and prefer to have support contracts instead. I like to think that I’m expanding my expertise. If my clients know as much as I do, then I better keep learning to keep providing value. Keeping a client ignorant is not providing value, and instead diminishes the relationship that you may have.

Some businesses want to have consultants that they can call at any time and get support, and that’s fine, but that’s not what I do. I often take calls from my current clients in cases of emergency or when they are looking for some advice, as I know how difficult working within IT can be sometimes; however, I cannot guarantee that that can always happen. And if a prospect can’t accept that, then it means that we can’t do business together; there are many other consultants out there who can service you.

However, if you want expert advice, quality work, and staff that will develop to support your growing business, then give me a call and let’s talk.

Original article: And what works instead.'">Why I don’t do support contracts And what works instead.

©2025 Interxect Services Limited. All Rights Reserved.

What’s the sense of purchasing or implementing new IT gadgets or tools – smartphones, tablets, cloud services CRM, ERP, etc – if it is not benefitting your business. New technologies in businesses means nothing if it is not going to either save you money or generate revenue.

Ask yourself, “Is this IT purchase going to bring me a return that is excess of the investment that I am making?”

Take a look at your past IT investments and think what your returns have been. Perhaps it’s time to start making better decisions?

Original article: Your Business Will Thank You'">What you should ask before making that IT Investment Your Business Will Thank You

©2025 Interxect Services Limited. All Rights Reserved.