insights

he love affair between Ja-maicans and cellular phone technology is no secret; in fact most of us have made our intentions clear to mobile

phone providers by striving to be ahead of the curve when it comes to cellular phones. According to a World Bank in 1998, the population of Jamaica was 2,687,200 just below the number of cell phone subscribers which listed at 2,700,000. These figures would cause some furrowing of the eyebrows if one didn’t know that this small island has three large communication provid-ers fighting tooth and nail for market share. Now, Jamaica is by no means the only third world country out there with a burgeoning cellular phone mar-ket, India and Kenya are two notable examples mostly because of their wide usage but also because of the point of this article…cell phone banking.

There are no readily available statistics on the number of bank accounts active in Jamaica but one would imagine that whatever the number is it could be in-terpreted as the better off Jamaicans having multiple accounts and so forth. Poorer Jamaicans still show heavy reli-ance on informal saving methods such as the ever present “partner” system and the ever reliable ‘First Posturepedic Savings Bank”.

Money kept on hand will always be susceptible to withdrawals by needy partners, mooching cousins etc and yet the hassle of finding a bank to make deposits is somewhat of a hassle es-pecially if you live in rural or inner city areas where banks would have a hard time proving the feasibility of a branch in certain areas.

In India where poverty is rampant and much of the blame has been placed at the feet of inconvenience of saving, cell phone banking technology has become a beacon of hope for those concerned about the perpetual cycle of poverty in the country. The process has taken off in Kenya also where less than one-fifth of the population has bank accounts and less than that have access to the internet yet the ever increasing cell phone population has opened up doors for small farmers and others to do a lot of business using their cell phones and a simple system that involves text mes-sages and something called “mobile money”.

In terms of internet access and bank account holders Jamaica is far better off than the two countries mentioned

but that doesn’t mean that there is no space for such technology. With so many corner shops in the island doing great business with the selling of pre-paid cellular phone minutes it is not hard to envision those same people de-positing money into their bank accounts in the same fashion. Of course, security would be a huge concern but just as the Kenyan system is different from the one in India, the Jamaican mobile bank-ing revolution could be tailored for our particular problems. Fostering a spirit

of saving in Jamaicans could go a far way in improving our economic prob-lems from the inside out, the question thus remains…who first?

THelp jamaica?

could mobile banking

yourmoney ezine

by AndreBurnett

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checklist for a SucceSSful company WebSite

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As the information age plows on, we find that the data we store in our business and at home becomes more and more vital. As such the protection of our information from cyber-criminals and good old fashion Murphy’s Law is essential to ourselves and our customers. Here are some ways to ensure that we rest a bit easier at night.

1. Backing up your files: This might sound like a given but even hard drives can go bad. Use a mix of on-site and remote back-up fa-

cilities to give the best facilities. There are a number of cloud (remote) computing options available nowadays for a minimal price.

2. Protect your files by using a mix of com-plicated passwords and encryption

3. Hosted e-mail security: Using cloud computing to host your company’s email ac-tivities is safer and cheaper than using an on-site appliance.

4. Web Security is serious business: Use the most secure browser available for any browsing that has to be done by you or your

staff. Don’t save passwords in your browsers and speak to your tech person about blocking malicious scripts.

5. Control user admin rights: Not many of your workers need the full gamut of their machine’s capabilities, in fact most malicious software usually gain access to your systems through the non work related activities.

6. Anti-Virus: Don’t skimp on the anti-virus, read reviews and buy wisely.

7. Lock up everything when you leave! Low tech but effective, secure hard drives and lap-tops with sturdy equipment.

THe HomePAge:

The saying “first impressions are lasting” is a cliché because it’s mostly true. Your homep-age should answer the initial questions that a customer will have such as “What do you do?” or “What are you about?”Use your homepage to grab attention and deter your customer from simply clicking

the next link in the list.

“ABouT uS”:

Trust is a hard thing to come by on the internet. Go in-depth about your company’s activities, origin, mission statement, in fact just about everything that makes you unique. This page’s purpose is to impress your customer.

Go all out!

“ConTACT uS”:

This page is essential to con-necting your online presence to your physical presence. Give full details of all your contacts. You can even include a “Google map” with directions to your office or store. Be helpful your potential customer will appre-

ciate it.

Seven WayS of protecting your company’Sinformation

o you remember when Twitter was an obscure social network that no-body really quite under-

stood how it would work or its benefit to small businesses or businesses on a whole? Well, a lot of people still don’t understand Twitter but there are mil-lions that do and there are hundreds of businesses that have made strides in using the social network to their ben-efit. But what Twitter was to 2008, FourSquare is to 2010 and it seems like the new application is providing a more actionable approach for operators of bars, restaurants etc.

“Medusa can benefit from FourSquare because we also gain information about who is visiting, what they’re saying, who has stopped coming and we can even reach out to them via our twitter ac-count.”

Essentially FourSquare is a service that allows users to “check in” at locations they visit using the GPS capability on their smartphones of which there is no shortage of in Jamaica. Once a user has checked in, his friends are able to see that particular update and they are able to read “tips” about that particular venue or just see that a particular hang-out spot is becoming increasingly popu-lar. FourSquare has has given a sort of incentive to exploring one’s surround-ing by implementing a point system and awarding ranks such as “Mayor”(the person that frequents a particular spot the most).

One Jamaican business that has seen the potential of such a service is Me-dusa, a popular hangout bar located in Liguanea in Kingston. Co-owner, Pierre-Omar Solomon has seen the unique po-

tential that such a service could offer to a business that is so heavily dependent on customer loyalty. “We have already started to offer incentives as the mayor of Medusa is awarded a 10% discount on all drinks” says Pierre-Omar, “Medu-sa can benefit from FourSquare because we also gain information about who is visiting, what they’re saying, who has stopped coming and we can even reach out to them via our twitter account”.

To appeal to businesses more, the de-velopers of FourSquare have developed an innovative dashboard that provides a wealth of information about FourSquare visitors to the business owners. “Its bird season right now and we have bird night once a week, our FourSquare users can leave tips that indicate the best flavour to order and so forth,” says Solomon enthusiastically,” In fact, we can put special promotions on FourSquare and once a user checks in nearby they will be notified that a special is going on at Medusa”.

The buzz about FourSquare has been considerable and has been growing steadily mostly because of the readily understood benefits to businesses while appealing to the social nature of people. Pierre and his partners at Medusa have seemingly jumped onto this phenom-enon at its prime stage and it looks set to take off.

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fourSquarerunning

medusa hits

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by AndreBurnett

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