By Andrew Green, Staff Reporter 
Barrow
JAMAICAN BUSINESSES are undergoing a communications revolution that is driving
new growth at Cable & Wireless Jamaica (C&W), company executives say.Companies
are well informed about new communications technologies and are being driven to
adopt them, said Ian Neita, vice-president for sales and service. He was speaking
at the first C&W sales awards function held recently at the Hilton Hotel in
Kingston.
"The information technology revolution has provided an effective medium
for transmitting voice and data," Mr. Neita said. "That has created
a deep interest in telecommunications."
By linking its branches in a new network, National Commercial Bank (NCB) allows
its customers to carry out transactions conveniently at any branch. Mr. Neita
said "that gives them a competitive edge. They could not compete against
BNS without revamping their telecommunications network."
GREATER FLEXIBILITY
Virtual private networks allow companies and employees greater flexibility
in working arrangements with employees being able to log on to their company
system from anywhere in the world as if they were at their desk, Mr. Neita said.
"We have moved from selling of plain data services to providing design
services," said Robert Whitehorne, corporate sales and service manager.
These include local area network designs, wide area network designs and managed
services, where C&W handles any problems which might arise with customer
networks.
"We can assure a bank that their ATMs will always be up and that their
branches will always be connected to the head office," Mr. Whitehorne said.
Additionally, he said, "the ability to interconnect call centres across
the region is a unique ability we have."
The lines are blurred between C&W (Jamaica) and its operations in the rest
of the Caribbean, Mr. Whitehorne said. "We have a virtual regional team.
It is a strength we have to be able to move human and material resources freely."
In the same way C&W can link companies locally, its position in markets
across the region allows it to link businesses on a Caribbean-wide basis. Mr.
Whitehorne said "we have on the table some big opportunities for call centres
across the region."
With the rapid expansion of the need for advanced company communications solutions
C&W has not been able to keep up with the demand for high speed Internet
access, Mr. Neita said. "It is more expensive but it has great advantages.
Once you use it, you never go back."
Against the background of these developments and the company's new focus on
sales, C&W president Gary Barrow said "the prospects are encouraging,
broadly speaking, in terms of the general performance."
