Business
JAM | May 20, 2022

AD-IT Digital Ltd becomes DBJ BDO partner to provide services to MSMEs

/ Our Today

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Basil Bingham, of AD-IT Digital.

Barely two years old, AD-IT Digital is already looking to expand after making an impact on Jamaica’s digital landscape and after it was approved by the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) to provide services to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

What this means is that the company, founded in April 2020 by Basil Bingham and Traves Smikle, is now
able to, through the DBJ, help businesses looking to compete in the digital space, navigate the process of
digital transformation and seeking assistance with software development.

AD-IT also helps their clients with visual identity development, brand development, digital marketing and digital coaching.

“This is a passion project for us as it aligns with fulfilling our social responsibility of fostering national
development,” said Bingham.

That said, the demand for their services has prompted an immediate need to expand.

“As it stands right now, we have a relatively small core team – highly skilled, highly experienced, highly
qualified but as the demand grows we will definitely be looking at new hires. We are planning on
starting an internship programme as well to have fresh talent in training on the way we do things and be
able to offload some of the insurmountable amount of work that we have been getting,” Bingham said.

The interns they are planning to hire must have the skillsets to work effectively in the digital space whether it is software and web development, mobile app development and design and digital marketing.

“Primarily, people who are well versed in the digital space because right now, even events are online,
commerce is online so, in order for us to meet that demand, personnel that we onboard they have to be
proficient in order to fit into the type of work environment that we have established,” Bingham said.

With a clear demand for their services within the Jamaican business environment, especially among
small businesses, AD-IT Digital, has now formalised a partnership with the DBJ in February, which it
believes will help them do even more.

“Right now, we have a few clients, small businesses, that are trying to compete in the digital space and you find that they don’t understand how to even start, but in order for their businesses to survive, especially since the pandemic, they would have had to implement some digital marketing and advertising strategies, branding techniques, establishing a particular brand identity and appeal to the online market because it is no so direct where you can say ‘Hey, I have this product and this is what the product does and I will sell you the product,” Bingham explained.

“That reach is limited and now the space is so competitive where the people in the market that they are competing against, who have larger and smaller businesses, can out-perform them having that digital reach, especially on the side of e-commerce, being able to access online payments or providing online payments to their clientele, faster money.”

Bingham referenced the Jamaican Government’s JAM-DEX initiative, the Central Bank’s digital currency programme which, he said, is a step towards providing online commerce.

“Through this partnership with the DBJ, we are able to reach more medium and small enterprises and
ensure that they can scale up to the point where they can more easily access loans, grants, and establish
themselves as corporations of the future that will impact national development,” he said.

Bingham said the business community has been very receptive to the services AD-IT Digital is offering and they have been reaching out via social media and the DBJ.

“You can tell that a lot of people are grateful for the opportunities that going digital will offer them. We
have to be setting appointments; people want to know how they can access the digital space, how can it
benefit their business and they are trying to set appointments and set as many consultations as possible,
and even if the client doesn’t get approved they can get a sense of direction and how to process… ,”
he explained.

“We have a client; she has her grocery store operating from home. However, her reach is limited and
she is not seeing the profitability that she would like, so she has asked us to establish her independently
owned online store where her clients can pay online and have their deliveries made.

“We have another client with a similar business model that sells meat and we are building a mobile application where her clients can order their meat and have it delivered. There is very little cash transaction, for security and safety.”

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