PCS, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Shipping Association of Jamaica, was established in 1981 as the primary supplier of information technology services to the Jamaican shipping industry.

With burgeoning competition and constantly changing technology, the company has been visionary in implementing changes and adopting systems to ensure its survival and viability for the long haul.

"PCS is currently undergoing a strategic review in order to leverage its current infrastructure and skills base to earn additional revenues by providing additional services to the local shipping industry and to look for opportunities to partner with Jamaican and regional companies outside of the shipping industry," explains general manager, Roger Lewis.

"We are also looking to increase our product and service mix as the opportunities arise and we want to partner with international providers of industry-leading products and services to ensure that our customers have access to the best the market has to offer," Mr. Lewis adds, noting that a re-engineering exercise had been completed to ensure that the company has the type of skills that customers are demanding.

REFURBISHING INFRASTRUCTURE

For the past few years PCS has concentrated its efforts on refurbishing its hardware and software infrastructure. This has resulted in some applications being re-developed to increase user-friendliness and a $30 million capital investment to upgrade network devices and servers.

With 23 employees and two locations in Newport West, St. Andrew, PCS currently provides outsourcing and software services to the shipping industry and is especially focused on application hosting, systems development and maintenance, hot site (back-up) services, Internet and network services. Its technical capacity includes AS400, Intel Servers and Windows-based systems.

While PCS has the advantage of being in close proximity to customers, the management is convinced it will take much more than this to effectively serve customers and provide customer satisfaction.

"Our customers are very demanding and this keeps us on our toes. They expect us to look for trends in the shipping and IT industries and recommend new technologies that can help to improve the efficiency of their operations. They also expect a quick resolution of any technical problems they may have," observes Mr. Lewis.

MEETING EXPECTATIONS

He notes that in order to meet the expectations of customers "we have to get very close to them, understand their operations and suggest solutions that will meet their objectives". This strategy has been crucial in the company's operation.

"For our major customers we have a zero down time agreement, as any failure in the IT infrastructure can lead to millions of dollars in lost man hours," says the General Manager, who indicated that being proactive in its infrastructure development helps the company to meet this high standard.

PCS has always aggressively pursued the acquisition and utilisation of the industry's leading technologies and over the years the company has played an integral role in the technical development of the shipping industry. Its efforts have included:

Sourcing, implementation and hosting of the Cosmos terminal operation software suite for the Kingston Container Terminal,

Application hosting for 30 companies,

Implementation of a 24x7x365 technical support infrastructure to support its customers operations,

Development and maintenance of software applications for 20 companies,

Development of e-manifest software for customers to meet the requirements of the Customs Department,

Implementation of a real time (hot back-up) facility that will allow customers to switch to a remote site in case of disaster,

Implementation of industry-wide Internet services,

Providing network installation and administration services,

AS400 business continuity services.

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