The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Information technology (IT) firms yesterday said their will “heavily stress” the importance of business resiliency to every client once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

Philip Darville, SolveIT Bahamas’ managing director, told Tribune Business yesterday that the nationwide lockdown “has affected all of us”. He added: ‘For a technology company this is about looking towards post-recovery. So right now we are pretty much just preparing how to attract new clients, and how to retain existing clients and how to help them bridge the gaps they are currently experiencing.

“But this has all taken us off-guard. This also stresses putting business resiliency at the forefront of every company. So this is a different channel that we will have to promote heavily moving forward. This not only draws the light on the physical aspect of social distancing, but also the importance of business preparedness.

“Every business, no matter the size, must put that at the forefront going forward that this probably won’t be the last time. Whether it’s a hurricane or whether it’s something of this nature, we have to look at making our business dynamic and making our business sustainable throughout events like this.”

Chuck Fox, Foxtech Bahamas’ general manager, added: “To be honest with you, I own my own company and I basically freelance. So it is just me and my wife, who assists me as a tech, and I am pretty much freelance and I am just mobile.

“So I have just cut down the mobile work, but I have some clients that I do website design for. I am getting some website design jobs, and I don’t have to meet them face-to-face. So that is what’s keeping me afloat right now, and I’m just not meeting up with people too much with the computer repairs. But as far as the website design I’m still doing that and I’m doing OK.

“The lockdown is difficult for everybody, because certain people don’t do the same thing I do, and don’t have the opportunity to have their own business and are unable to go and work how they should and provide for their family. It must be difficult. I am grateful for the type of job I have that I can pretty much do most of my work. This is just hard on everybody.”