Real Business In The Clouds

Many great business ideas are trumped by the reality of high capital costs; arguably one of the biggest barriers for micro, small and medium sized enterprises.  However, evolving technology has provided a solution for entrepreneurs who have their feet on the ground but business in the cloud.

The term cloud computing simply refers to the sharing computing capabilities of a large network of computers connected to the internet.

The ‘cloud’ offers a wide range of advantages, most notably of which is cost effectiveness.  Entry into the cloud is relatively cheap and maintenance costs are generally low.  Because the real computing power resides off site, only the most basic hardware is required to execute complex tasks.  On a related note, maintenance tasks are in effect outsourced, freeing the business owner from staffing costs yet ensuring reliability.

Finding capital is certainly a challenge, but finding capital on short notice is even more difficult.  However, cloud services are scalable on a dime.  Entrepreneurs can scale up fairly quickly, adding increased capacity as needed.  Additionally, a seasonal business need not carry the cost of expensive infrastructure during slower periods as cloud conversely allows businesses to scale down with little negative impact.

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The very nature of the cloud ensures mobility.  A young business often has to move to customers. This can be a challenge if data and data processors are back at the office, but the cloud makes data accessible anywhere internet is accessible.

By exploiting the sheer range of cloud based services available, business managers can truly maximize savings.  Storage, servers, phone, security and even software are all available through the cloud.

Even a small business generates a large quantity of data.  Physical storage is costly and hard to manage.  Access to physical storage may also be restrictive.  Further, physical storage requires backup; yet another cost.

There was a time that maintaining an email server required an expensive investment in both hardware and software along with an IT team to manage and maintain.  Today, cloud based email services virtually eliminate those costs while providing a high level of reliability.

Cloud can also be used to replace traditional PBX systems.  In addition to removing hardware costs of an expensive, static and hard to upgrade piece of hardware, cloud based phone systems can offer features and functionalities not previously available.  In effect, even the smallest enterprise can present a professional appearance to clients, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

Even some business software can be migrated to the cloud.  The purchase and/or annual licensing of expensive accounting, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software for individual team members can be replaced with a low monthly subscription.

In effect, capital resources can be deployed to profit centers.  There are however, some issues to consider before making the transition.  Whether one, or several, cloud service providers are engaged, executives must be aware of terms which affect data privacy, access, ownership and security.

Cloud service suppliers must adhere to strict privacy policies to protect clients.  They should provide reliable service 99.999% of the time (referred to as the five nines) while being well equipped to ward off a variety of malicious attacks.  Ensure that the contract does not transfer the ownership of the data to the supplier or a third party.  At the end of it all, the business owner should own the data, regardless of where it is stored.

All things considered however, the cloud enables the transformation of ideas into real business.

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Columbus Mentors Tech Entrepreneurs

“Challenge us!  We see ourselves as innovators and we are anxious to demonstrate,” was the declaration by Columbus Business Solutions senior executive Jenson Sylvester to the finalists of the Startup Weekend Jamaica competition at a private gathering on November 7, 2013.

Project Agro, Audio Pi and Popup Shop emerged as the winner and runners up respectively from the technology entrepreneurs competition hosted by ConnectiMass and supported by Columbus.  As part of Columbus’ on going support for the young entrepreneurs, the information, communication and technology (ICT) service provider offered free business consulting and mentorship.

Aisha Robinson, Jeanette Lewis, public relations manager at Columbus Communications, operators of Flow and Columbus Business Solutions, Jermaine Henry, Ingrid Riley, founder of ConnectiMass and Dmitri Dawkins take a peek at the PSOJ 50UnderFifty DVD presented to the young tech entrepreneurs by Columbus Communications as inspiration for pushing forward with their businesses. Robinson, Henry and Dawkins whose teams took the top places in Startup Weekend Jamaica, were hosted at the Columbus Communications office recently to discuss strategies for developing their businesses.

ConnectiMass founder and Caribbean technology expert Ingrid Riley welcomed the involvement of a regional player.  In her address to the three groups of young business aspirants, Riley noted that Columbus has moved “beyond the grin and grip sponsorship to really get involved,” for the benefit of the participants.

Indeed, it was easy for Columbus to get involved.  Sylvester, who was a judge of the Startup Weekend Jamaica competition when it was held in October, noted that he was impressed with all the presentations.  “All the projects,” he noted, “required internet connectivity, hence a natural pairing.”  In fact, Columbus offers the fastest available internet in the region with commercial speeds of up to 100 Mpbs.

Third place finishers, Popup Shop relies most heavily on internet.  The app provides both consumers and merchants with easy accessibility to goods and services in real time at convenient locations.  Runner up Audio Pi is hardware based and seeks to set a new standard for how devices communicate starting with speakers while the winning project, Project Agro leverages RSS and SMS to disburse consolidated orders to small farmers in the field.

As each project outlined their concept, Columbus executives identified services that could boost their productivity, performance and potential profits.  The most notable services included cloud hosting, cloud voice, display advertising and teleconferencing.  Further, leveraging Columbus’ regional network across eight islands in the Caribbean, Columbus executive John Clear noted that the company could provide the traditional networking support as well.

Clear aptly closed out the meeting held in the state of the art conference room of the Columbus Corporate Headquarters echoing the challenge Sylvester laid out.  Clear said, “Put pressure on ICT service providers to be more creative in their service delivery because your growth is our growth.”

Each of the three projects is poised to grow the local tech sector in early 2014.

Top Caribbean Tech Entrepreneurs Globalise Their Pitches

Tech entrepreneurs from Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and St. Kitts and Nevis seeking to ‘go global' assembled on the rooftop of the Digicel Headquarters in Kingston for an intense two day workshop in mid-November.

The group were all finalists in the pitchIT Caribbean business pitch competition for web or mobile businesses held earlier in the year.  The workshop falls under the World Bank’s Entrepreneurship Programme for Innovation in the Caribbean, EPIC, and its Caribbean Mobile Innovation Programme.

Carlette DeLeon participates in a lively discussion with Jennifer Raffoul, tech entrepreneur behind Made In The Caribbean and Patrick King, Distribution Director, Digicel at the recently concluded pitchIT Caribbean Workshop in Kingston, Jamaica. Photo credit: Collin Reid

Entrepreneur-in-Residence, infoDev Group and Workshop Facilitator Angelique Mannella noted that the ‘deep dive’ workshop sought to illustrate, “technical improvements that the entrepreneurs can have in their business and also help them prepare for speaking to investors”.



"Every innovation in the world started with an idea,” noted Marie Legault, Councilor and Head of Cooperation for the High Commission of Canada in Jamaica in her presentation to the startups.  The Canadian Government provides $20 million to support the regional programme to boost economic growth.  She advised the participants to maximize the time they have with the experts making presentations.

Following several hours of immersive training, the entrepreneurs refined the pitches for their business ideas and made presentations to the panel of experts that led the workshop.  The pitches were evaluated based on their likelihood to attract three types of investors: venture capitalists, angel and corporate.

VentureOut Challenge Jamaica winner Grik.ly was determined to be the most likely to receive venture capital funding, Trinidad based Interact XL was determined to be most likely to attract an angel investor while compatriots Made In the Caribbean was assessed most likely to benefit from a corporate investor.

Startup Weekend Jamaica winners Project Agro, Barbados developers SimPlify and CariOLA from St. Kitts and Nevis received honorable mentions in each of the three categories respectively.

Workshop Facilitator Angelique Mannella making a presentation at a two day 'deep dive' workshop for regional tech entrepreneurs from the pitchIT Caribbean competition.  The workshop was hosted by Digicel in Kingston, Jamaica.  Photo credit: Collin Reid

While none of the tech entrepreneurs participating have launched all are in various stages of development in preparation for 2014 rollouts.

Christmas Tech Shopping Tips - Entertainment

The perfect Christmas gift is something the recipient will love and treasure everyday while still being affordable for the giver.  Tech gifts are perfect for Christmas, if chosen wisely.

There are countless gift options in a wide range of categories for the novice to the savvy including:

• Entertainment
• Mobile Computing
• Gaming
• Home, Car and Personal
• Connectivity

Entertainment
Jamaicans live to entertain and be entertained.  We like movies, TV and especially music and we like it all loud enough to entertain the neighbors not just next door, but down the block as well.  Thanks to Courts and Flow, it may well be a merry Christmas.

From the affordable to the luxurious, headphones, component sets (stereo systems) and flat screen TV’s are all great gifts.

Courts offers a range of iSound headphones to suit every taste.  Trendsetters like Beats by Dre.  Another option is House of Marley headphones; they are environmentally friendly, have great sound quality and are inspired by the life and legend of Bob Marley.


Just about everyone can use a good set of headphones so that they can enjoy their music, podcasts, audio books or really just about any sound, privately.   But when being really loud is actually the preference, a component set can deliver clear sound across a room, or across a neighborhood, if desired.

Clearly, sound quality is the first and most important determining factor, but also consider enhanced features like iOS docs for seamless iPhone, iPod or iPad integration, USB playback of music on flash drives and wireless connectivity via Bluetooth or WiFi for cord free streaming to remote speakers.

A flat screen TV is a sizable gift - from 16” to 60” - but a well received one.  To compliment the wide range of component sets at Courts, the retailer also has on display a wide range of TV’s.  Samsung is the hot brand, with Sony and LG also offering excellent options.

Forego the expensive and unnecessary 3D options and look for smart TV’s with internet connectivity, popular apps pre-installed and USB playback to transform the TV into a large photo album.

For bonus points, get USB drives as stocking stuffers.  And like batteries for toys on Christmas morning, consider giving the gift of connectivity and HD cable.  After all, what is the point of having an HD TV without HD content or having a smart TV that doesn’t have internet access.  Thankfully, both issues can be solved with gift certificates from Flow.

Tech 4 Life airs every Wednesday morning at 8:15 am on RJR 94 FM.