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Ministers of Government, Invited Guest, Members of Staff
We are delighted to host this Cocktail Reception this evening to launch our new
Corporate Identity.
About a year ago, Mark and I met with Dr. Basil Springer at Grand Barbados to ascertain
whether the shareholders of SCL would be interested in selling their interest in the
company to us. He indicated that he believed that such an interest existed in selling the
company but that he wanted to see that any new owners would carry on the mandate or
vision that he had tried to establish for the company some twenty-three years ago.
We indicated to him, that, not only were we interested in carrying on the mandate but that
we believed that the company was poised for its 'second phase' as we approached the
new millennium.
About six months later, after several telephone calls and much planning, I returned to
Barbados and Mark and I, having formed our own company, M and S Holdings Ltd.,
made a formal proposal to the Board of Directors of SCL to purchase the company.
In doing so, we recognized the tremendous obligation we were undertaking, since
SCL had established a recognizable brand name in the regional market and carried with it,
substantial clients and a cadre of staff and associates.
In undertaking such a task as this, and given the size of our investment, we immediately
did two things. We took soundings from family, friends, and business associates across a
wide cross section of areas and also formed an advisory team to perform our due
diligence in preparation of our business plan, mission and vision of the new entity.
This transition team, consisted of accountants, financial analyst, legal counsel, human
resource management and public relations consultants, who as you all know, don't come
cheap, BUT, we were cognizant of our responsibilities as the new shareholders of the
company, that in order to complete this transaction, we would have required the
necessary professional advice and help, in executing our plans.
As entrepreneurs we certainly understand the difference in cost between starting your
own company, free of debt but without any clients or product base from which to start the
business or the option to 'leap frog' into the market with a venture such as this, having to
input significant upfront working capital in order to ensure the success of the business.
Our next major step was to exchange a letter of intent with the Board of SCL setting out
the terms of the transfer of shares. With this in place, M and S Holdings took effective
management control of Systems Caribbean Ltd. from the 1 August 2000 pending the
completion of the Share Purchase Agreement between M and S Holdings Ltd. and the
shareholders of the company.
Since then the task before us has been one of stabilization, restructuring, injection of
working capital and implementation of an aggressive business plan that will lead the
transformation of the existing company from a products oriented company to a services
company, where the emphasis is on the quality of our resources, our ability to understand
our customers and our ability to implement and provide quality solutions. This is why, we
now say, that we are PEOPLE CENTRED, CUSTOMER FOCUSED AND
QUALITY MANAGED ™.
As publicized, we will be changing our name to Systems Consulting Ltd. This change of
name is simply a repositioning of our branding as a services company. We see
Systems Consulting ™ as a 'regional company with global reach' and as such, as we prepare
ourselves to compete in the international arena, whether via the Internet, as a result of
globalization or the impact of the WTO, we do not want to be limited by our size or
geographic location. In addition, we are pleased to announce the start of a new company
called SCL Systems International ™ Inc. that has been created under the International
Business Company (IBC) act, to offer outsourced services for clients in the North
American and European Union markets. We are mindful of the fact, that not all off-shore
clients are looking to set-up business in Barbados but that a large number of them are
looking and may well benefit from a strategic relationship with a Barbadian company as
long as it is able to provide quality resources, competitive pricing and meet delivery
objectives. To this end, we have already started this process by joining the Canada
Barbados Business Association and being part of their recently concluded road show to
the Canadian cities of Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. In addition, we hope to work
closely with the Barbados Investment and Development Corp. (BIDC) and other strategic
alliances both here and in these markets at developing this new line of business.
The new Systems Consulting™ will continue to be an Information Technology and
Management Consulting organization, committed to excellence, delivery, performance
and quality. Although, Information Technology services has traditionally accounted for
eighty (80%) percent of the company's gross revenue, our management consulting
services has provided much of the company's branding and image through our market
research unit and involvement in many regional projects in the area of institutional
strengthening. We, therefore, will continue to offer both services, since we see them as
complimentary in our strategy to deliver 'end to end' business solutions.
In refocusing the new company towards a services company we have established two
main divisions, Information Technology Services and Business Development Services.
The reason for this is to separate the business development, marketing and client account
management from the delivery of service. By creating these new areas of concentration,
and having them staffed with the right people, we will be able to be much more proactive
and responsive to servicing our customers and clients and meeting agreed project time
frames.
Furthermore, within each of these divisions we have created vertical business units in
order to allow us to streamline our way of doing business.
Within the Business Development Services Division, which, is headed by Mark, we have
placed the Market Research, Sales and Marketing, Management Consulting and Training
business units.
We will continue to expand our market research group by increasing the services offered
to include trend analysis, competitive intelligence, demand forecasting and expansion of
our omnibus surveys. We are also in the process of looking at a strategic relationship with
an international market research group to further enhance our techniques and methods in
this area and with a view to joint representation within the Caribbean region.
As stated previously, we have decided to separate our client account management from
our delivery units and I am pleased that we have secured the services of three ably
qualified, young and energetic persons as Sales and Marketing Executives. This team, of
whom two persons are already on board, will begin the tasks of offering our products and
services to clients. These Sales and Marketing Executives will cover the industry sectors
of Financial Services, Government, NGOs and Utilities, and Consumer Products, Retail
and Hospitality.
Although the tourism and hospitality sectors are the largest revenue earners within our
region, the company has never actively pursued this market. We intend to fully exploit
the opportunities within this sector by offering business solutions both at the client level
through the delivery of our products such as Accpac, Micropay and customized solutions
and at the regional level by seeking to work with regional representative bodies towards
long term solutions aimed at increasing the competitiveness and capability, primarily in
the areas of information systems for marketing and yield management.
Like any other company in the business of providing information technology services,
training and re-training of resources is not only a requirement but an absolute necessity in
order to maintain competitiveness and to stay technologically up to date. We are
heartened by the recent efforts of Government, the Center for International Services and
the Center for Management Development not only in providing conferences such as the
recently concluded e-commerce conference, but in the stated IT skills training that is
schedule to start soon.
We at SCL will initiate our own training program, primarily aimed at training in software
project management and the new technologies, in order to enhance and improve the
capability of our software experts in the region. We hope that within the next year we can
launch this program and to have our course schedule displayed on our website.
These areas as I have described, form the core revenue generating activities of the
Business Development Services division.
Within the Information Technology Services division, we will also have four vertical
business units each reporting into a Vice President.
The first major change here has been to separate the support services from the delivery
component i.e. programming enhancements and maintenance. In so doing, we have
established a Product Services unit whose primary responsibility will be installation,
implementation and support of our products such as the National Insurance Management
System (NIMS), MicroPay Payroll, and the ACCPAC Accounting products.
The success of these products will be critical to the new organization.
As a result we have begun a dialogue with the National Insurance and Social Security
departments in the eight regional countries where our product is installed with a view of
creating a business partnership aimed at the long-term support of this critical system. We
will be hosting as early as the first quarter of next year (2001) a seminar to discuss with
the Social Security groups issues such as those arising out of the Caricom Council of
Ministers meeting, whereby our social security systems should be able to accommodate
the Caricom mandate that allows the free movement of skilled nationals and that these
persons should be able to retain there pensions and social security benefits irrespective of
there domicile within the region. In addition, we have had request from our OECS
partners about the use of the system to manage the implementation of National Health
Information Systems. It is therefore important that we view this group of clients not only
as critical but also as business partners and seek to help them deliver the best possible
solutions to their clients.
Our flagship payroll system MicroPay, is used by some three hundred (300) clients and
whereas, we have just released a new version, we have begun the process towards the
reengineering of this product to meet the many variations in customer requirements and
our varied customer portfolio. We will begin a total rewrite of this product on newer
technologies and to make it web enabled, to allow us to support our clients faster and
better than we do at present. In addition, our new product will hopefully provide a
seamless integration to the Accpac accounting system. We are excited by this opportunity
that, would allow this product an enviable place within the market.
Our Accpac accounting group has won for the second year running, the prestigious
ACCPAC International Business Partner of the year Award for the Latin America and
Caribbean region and were recently presented with the award at the ACCPAC International Annual Business partner conference. This group of dedicated professionals
will lead our drive to dominate the region as ACCPAC solution providers. In so doing we
will shortly be strengthening this area with a qualified accounting professional, to provide
a more complete service. By this we mean that instead of stopping at installation,
implementation and support of this product, we will now be helping our clients in setting
up their entire systems, such that our exit strategy will be to leave not just the installation
of ACCPAC products but an integrated Accounting Information System which will
enable clients access to better management information for decision making.
The new SCL will again have a heavy concentration on software development as we seek
to provide our clients with complete business solutions. Our concept is simple, that our
clients should stick to their core business and what they do best and outsource the
services such as software development, testing and change management to practitioners
and experts like ourselves. In so doing, we are in the process of retooling our staff, to be
able to deliver solutions in e-business strategy and design, data warehousing, data
mining, customer relationship management (CRM), web application development and
enterprise resource planning (ERP).
We have also identified further services in the area of Network and Infrastructure
management, primarily in the areas of project design, project management and support.
This is but a brief glimpse of our new portfolio, which, you will be reading about, shortly
in our new corporate brochure. However, I hope we have excited you about the new path
that Systems Consulting™ has begun to pursue. We see ourselves as expanding in three
ways, strategic alliances, expansion of our services and acquisitions where possible. Our
concept, is that there are no competitors, not because we which to be cheeky as the new
guys on the block, but rather by our openness and willingness to embrace other business
partners in alliances which will result in providing win/win solutions for our clients and
those with whom we partner.
We have also begun the process of trademarking our brand such as SCL,
Systems Consulting, and our slogan People Centred, Customer Focused and Quality Managed
and to look at the overall protection of our Intellectual Property rights.
Ladies and Gentlemen, our vision of Systems Consulting™ is that of a global
organization able to transcend the traditional market space created by geographical
location and to embrace the e-market space created as a result of globalization
positioning ourselves as bridge builders between the traditional and new economies.
In closing, I would just like to pay tribute to the members of staff who have been dealing
with our transition period admirably, and whereas, change is inevitable, Mark and I
would like to thank each of you for your patience, understanding and support. We would
also like to welcome our new staff members who have accepted to be part of this vision
we are building. By the end of next January (2001) we expect SCL's staff complement
will be around forty-two (42) persons. Prudent, measured incremental growth, in parallel with innovation and excellent delivery
of service will be the hallmark of our success.
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