In the June 2021 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Simone Pasmore and Ian Mitchell, the panel discusses: automation for business operations: what does it really cost; and e-commerce and local and regional trade, barriers and opportunities.

 

This episode is also available in Apple iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify and on Stitcher!

A major imperative for businesses in today’s environment is to leverage all opportunities and avenues through which greater efficiency, improved effectiveness and increased sales can be realised. However, the opportunities and avenues that can be explored are varied, and to some degree, will depend on factors such as, the country, the industry and target market.

In the Caribbean region, it could be argued that businesses are not only subject to external constraints, but also self-imposed ones. However, they all can hinder the degree to which a more efficient, effective and profitable operation can be realised – though self-imposed constraints may be considerably easier to remove, than challenges over which businesses have little or no control.

The tension between limitations internal to a business and those external to a business underpin this month’s Community Chat. However, do meet our guests and the topics that will be discussed.

 

Introducing our guests and their topics

Simone Pasmore

Simone Pasmore is the Chief Executive Officer of Webstylze, a web and mobile applications development firm, which also offers social media, search engine optimisation and content development services. It is headquartered in Barbados, along with an office in Florida. In addition to being CEO, Simone’s areas of expertise include, data science, artificial intelligence, web development, and app development, to name a few.

Although we know that increasingly, the world is moving towards automation, many businesses, particularly small businesses, have been hesitant, and even resistant, to integrating automation. In many instances, the big concern is cost: it is so expensive to implement; but it can also be quite intimidating for business owners who are not very technology savvy. However, Simone is challenging businesses to also consider the cost of NOT automating, and led us in a discussion on, Automation for Business Operations: What does it really cost?

 

Ian Mitchell

Ian Mitchell is the Managing Director for eMagine Solutions Inc., which is based in Saint Lucia, and offers a broad range of website and mobile application-related services. Ian and the eMagine Solutions team is in the process of launching a Caribbean online marketplace, Shopfront, through which individuals and businesses can showcase and sell their services and/or products.

In working with clients over the years, and in order to set up Shopfront, Ian has done a deep dive into e-commerce in the Caribbean. He has thus become even more aware of the needs Caribbean businesses are facing, some of the niche opportunities that exist, along with the broad range of challenges that continue to hinder e-commerce development in the region. Typically, the focus on e-commerce tends to be on the systems to support payments, but that is only part of equation, especially where goods are concerned. The other part is fulfilment of orders and the associated logistics to deliver goods to customers, which drove the discussion on, e-Commerce and Local and Regional Trade: Barriers and Opportunities.

 

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Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits: S Pasmore; I Mitchell; Gerd Altmann (Pixabay); Tumisu (Pixabay)

Music credit: Ray Holman

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez