KnightFox Executives Discuss Jamaican ICT in Palisadoes Interview

Jamaican ICT companies often provide services to international clients where maximizing the island’s advantages and overcoming its challenges feature strongly in strategic goals. There are many success stories. One of these is Knightfox App Design, creators of Loop News, the leading news app across the Caribbean with over 1 million downloads. We spoke with Egbert von Frankenberg, CEO and Robert Ainsworth, CTO to get a better understanding of the dynamic regional industry.

Palisadoes: ICT is a large foreign exchange earner for many economies. In what ways has this been possible in Jamaica?

Egbert: Jamaica has a growing ICT sector and in particular a growing number of call centers, which is encouraging. Yet call centers are not providing a highly skilled labour force so Jamaica is losing out on larger revenue opportunities from fostering software development as a foreign exchange earner.

Palisadoes: The recent growth of the overall industry is encouraging. How would you describe its overall health?

Egbert: In my opinion the industry needs further assistance and support. There is a “buzz” around ICT in Jamaica but the question remains on the quality that is being produced and can it compete globally. There is an increased need for ICT in all sectors of the economy but do we generate enough innovation and contribute to brand Jamaica yet? I believe we still need to nourish our talent pool to reach a critical mass and that leads to sustainability in the ICT sector.

Palisadoes: How do Jamaican developers perform compared to other nations and how is this measurable?

Robert: Performance is a topic with many variables that come together. If you look at it on a national level then I would also look at the work ethic as a variable in performance. This extends to coding ethics that govern how you write code. For example, the use of  object oriented methods, code comments for ease of understanding by others, the ability of the code to handle large numbers of users or systems, in other words, scalability. We found that developers sometimes struggle with software architectures and code that is not sustainable. But all this comes with experience and good practical mentorship.

Palisadoes: A constant economic concern in Jamaica is the impact of the brain drain to other countries. A recent Gleaner article describes an ICT knowledge gap, but a brain drain implies good skills. At what levels is this discrepancy the greatest and why?

Egbert: From our observation the brain drain is just a lot more noticeable in a small country like Jamaica. The pool of highly talented developers is small to begin with and the lack of opportunity makes them leave. This in turn makes it more difficult for the industry to deliver quality products at international standards. The pool of quality front-end developers is certainly the smallest. We agree with the statements made by Mr. Marsh and Dr. Marr that Jamaica must foster the software industry aspect of the BPO sector as it would bring beneficial foreign returns and allows the talent to stay in Jamaica.

Palisadoes: How can the ICT industry help to counter the brain drain in its sector? What has been done in the past and was it effective?

Egbert: I cannot speak to the past but the most important aspect is to build the industry and create opportunities. If we, the business leaders and the government can create a steady deal flow, which will provide adequate employment that is compelling and challenging, the brain drain can be stopped and reversed if we are able to position Jamaica better against other outsourcing countries in the software sector.

Palisadoes: What are your international clients expecting when they outsource software development to Jamaica?

Egbert: Clients expect the same quality they are used to from other outsourcing countries. There is a level of quality and timely delivery that is expected in the industry no matter where the development team is from. We are competing on a global scale and this is serious business. We must look at other countries and derive a competitive analysis so that we can steer this sector to prosperity. At Knightfox we have spent the last 2 year finetuning our operations to deliver products that our international clients are accustomed to.

Palisadoes: How do Jamaican companies market themselves to be considered by international companies?

Egbert: In our experience, the best way is to highlight the benefits that come with a Jamaican service provider. For example, our European clients value the timezone difference because our workday starts roughly 2 hours before theirs end. This is perfect timing to have a status call and then commence work in the Caribbean and have results ready for when the Europeans go back to work the next day. North American clients share the same time zone, culture, language. Some of our team members even received their education in the US and Canada, which speaks to a level of trust in our abilities to deliver. We found that those are the key benefits to our international clients and has helped us gain recognition and referrals.

Palisadoes: There are many cases of Jamaican companies interacting with their local customers via the Internet. How successful have they been in expanding these software services to an international clientele within and external to the Diaspora?

Egbert: There is no real difference than communicating via the net with local customers. There are many tools for code sharing, versioning, beta testing that are available online and can be utilised. However, one must be aware of the cultural differences with the overseas clients. For example when we have a conference call with our Austrian clients the call must be made on time and because there is no chance of having face to face meetings it is better to “over-communicate” and write that extra email.

Palisadoes: Describe the software development best practices used by your company to ensure manageable and maintainable projects that are delivered on time.

Egbert: We have reached a point where we spend quite a bit of time on planning before each code sprint and discuss the tasks within the team. The communication has helped to identify pitfalls in advance and structure applications correctly from the start without cutting corners because of deadlines. On the other hand there is also a bit of education needed on the client side. We have become fairly strict on scope creeping because that is more likely the cause for delivering a project late and over budget.

Palisadoes: How should software engineering students prepare their technical skills to enter the industry?

Robert: Practise and dedication are the foundation. It boils down to wanting to learn how code should be written by understanding programming methodology. They should think about how applications should be structured. Don’t be afraid of learning something new. Be ambitious! The biggest challenge for us is to find good iOS developers. There is a real shortage in Jamaica.

Palisadoes: How do these skills differ when working for companies with a primarily Jamaican clientele versus companies with an international focus?

Robert: To be successful with international clients means paying attention to detail. Frontend development and clean design is very important to international clients. Aesthetics must be looked at and understood to be as important as the functionality an application has to do.

Palisadoes: What do you desire in the soft skills of graduates?

Egbert: The most important skill for us is honesty. Honesty is the root of all important soft skills in software development for us because we need to know when you are struggling to perform and need help, we need to know that your timeline and estimates for a project are kept. It is also important that you are honest to yourself and know yourself and your abilities, which can be affected by false confidence in yourself and you are working on a project that is beyond your actual capabilities. So for us, honesty is the foundation to good communication, time management, quality and productivity.

Palisadoes: Is there a viable career path in ICT for Jamaican students leaving university? How does this affect the perceived quality of graduates?

Egbert: We encourage students to find careers in the ICT sector. The industry must become a viable part of the Jamaican economy but it will take some time to build the critical mass of skilled developers. In general Frontend development must be the focus as the talent pool in that area currently is underdeveloped. It is safe to say that 8 out of 10 projects we get from international clients requires frontend developers.

Egbert and Robert’s ICT insights are interesting, as are yours. The Palisadoes Foundation is always willing to discuss the opinions of Jamaican ICT professionals around the world and help the promotion of the industry through the Jamaican Diaspora. Contact us if you’d like to express thoughts.

RealDecoy Sponsors the Palisadoes Foundation’s 2017 Calico Challenge

Kingston, Jamaica: March 1 2017 – RealDecoy Inc. announces its $5000 (US) sponsorship of the Palisadoes Foundation’s second annual Calico Challenge.

Geoff Waddington, Executive Vice President at RealDecoy, stated “We are pleased to announce RealDecoy’s sponsorship of the 2017 Calico Challenge. It is our hope that RealDecoy’s support will serve as an example for other companies interested in growing Jamaican talent to compete in the global technology industry. The Calico Challenge concept provides great real-world experience for these students and we are happy to contribute as both a mentor and sponsorship organization.”

“Organizations are taking a new approach to develop the competitiveness of homegrown Jamaican IT. Our cross-border collaboration unites private sector and industry groups to augment an already strong talent base by exposing it to rapid development cycles and large scale collaboration,” said Peter Harrison, President of the Palisadoes Foundation, “We are proud that RealDecoy and the Jamaica Computer Society have expressed their faith in our vision and encourage others to sponsor this worthy cause. ”

The Calico Challenge is a summer work study program for computer science students in Jamaica. Each selected student works on enhancing open source software used internationally under the guidance of a Jamaican mentor. Calico was conceived by the Palisadoes Foundation in conjunction with the Jamaica Diaspora Technology Task Force. There has been close technical collaboration between the Foundation; the University of the West Indies (UWI) Department of Computing, Mona; the UWI Computing Society; and the University of Technology IEEE Students Branch to identify open source projects, student sub-projects and mentors.

The Palisadoes Foundation is confident that the Calico Challenge will make a lasting difference in the lives of these Jamaican students and the Jamaican economy. Further, the nature of open source programming and the IT industry ensures that their successes will be felt globally. The foundation is excited to be able to work with RealDecoy to provide this unique opportunity to homegrown Jamaican talent.

More information can be found on the Palisadoes Foundation website: http://www.palisadoes.org.

About RealDecoy Inc.

RealDecoy (www.realdecoy.com) is a business technology specialist that helps B2B and B2C organizations maximize their investments in e-commerce, site search and data insight. It’s also become a global authority on site search. RealDecoy applies proven best practices to help customers get their ducks in a row with Oracle Commerce On-Premise or Oracle Commerce Cloud, as well as Oracle Commerce Guided Search and Experience Manager (once known as Endeca). The company established its Jamaican office in 2007.

About the Palisadoes Foundation

The Palisadoes Foundation, LLC (www.palisadoes.org), is a non-profit organization established in 2016 and registered in California. It was conceived by a group of Jamaican technology professionals interested in assisting in the continued development of new and existing technologies in Jamaica. The Palisadoes Foundation’s mission is to improve lives by educating the Jamaican workforce in high growth Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields using sustainable programs that will in turn expand and diversify the Jamaican economy by making the IT service sector a major contributor to the country’s exports.

About the Jamaica Diaspora Technology Task Force

The Jamaica Diaspora Technology Task Force is a group of expatriate Jamaicans interested in assisting in the continued development of new and existing technologies in Jamaica. It is a member of the Jamaica Diaspora Movement.

Students Start Testing a Mobile App for Jamaican Taxis

The work of the Palisadoes Foundation continues in preparing for the 2017 Calico Challenge. Today we interview Agyei Masters, a UTech student who is leading a small volunteer student team to create a pair of open source mobile apps for Jamaican taxis and their passengers. There are plans to integrate it into the Calico Challenge’s infoset project, and who knows, maybe these apps will be included in our 2017 efforts.

Here is what Agyei has to say.

Palisadoes: Tell us a little about your technology interests.
Agyei: I am currently pursuing a BSc in Computing, Minor in Enterprise Computing at the University of Technology. Formly a Student of the St Vincent Grammar School in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
I am also a Full-Stack Developer at Project Grapevine do work with a local Start-Up called The Vinelist.

Palisadoes: How did the idea for the app originate and what made you want to pursue it?
Agyei: The idea originated from a paper done by a former schoolmate, Charles Dean to create an intelligent urban transportation system in Jamaica, based on the Internet of Things. The intelligence I wanted to see was the ability to make me decide whether I should wait on the bus that goes straight to school, or should I just take the longer route on a normal bus heading to downtown. Which would be faster?

Palisadoes: Tell us about your student team.
Agyei: There are about five Collaborators on the project so far. Most are from UTech’s IEEE Student Branch, of which I’m a member, some other computing students and one student from the UWI Computing Society who was already a participant in Calico previously.

Palisadoes: What progress have you made so far?
Agyei: So far, we have created our first very basic “Alpha” version, which allows a rider to follow their favorite driver. We are looking at ways to test it thoroughly.

Palisadoes: What do do you expect from the app when it’s ready to be launched?
Agyei: Our main objective is to collect driver data and make that data readily accessible to the public, so they can wait less, and reach their destinations quickly and safely. This would also be interesting to transport companies. As you can see, we are working how to gather useful data for everyone.

Palisadoes: What challenges do you foresee?
Agyei: One challenge that we foresee is that drivers may reject using the app because they don’t want to be tracked. We hope that they see the greater benefit to using it however. They will know where the passengers are and hopefully it will lead to less congestion on the roads at popular pickup spots.

Palisadoes: How receptive have students been to the idea?
Agyei: Students are excited about the idea because it’s a problem they want to be solved. Students also have been contributing features that they would like to see as well.

Palisadoes: What technologies are being used?
Agyei: For the alpha version we used Native Android SDK to develop the app for the drivers which we are calling DoRoad. The rider app, OneStop, uses Cordova and the Ionic Framework. We used Google’s Firebase to store the data collected, and we are planning to migrate it to Infoset, a database created by the Palisadoes Foundation’s Calico Challenge last year.

Palisadoes: What kind of help do you need?
Agyei: Currently we need assistance getting drivers to test the platform, or someone who is always on the move.

Palisadoes: How does your product compare to international services such as Uber and Lyft?
Agyei: Our product has similar features to Uber and Lyft. It shows a driver’s current location on a map. Jamaica has unique challenges. We respect Uber’s model, but we are trying to let originality play its part.

How confident are you that your app will be a hit with customers?
Agyei: I am very confident that this will be a hit to customers. I know for certain that many passengers have the same issue I have when waiting on transportation in certain areas. I see it every day going to and from school. I believe that they will make great usage of the app.

Palisadoes: Are there any other projects that you plan to work on after completing this?
Agyei: Yes. I am planning to develop an app for errands to be done through crowd sourcing. There are other project ideas that I have but they need refining.

Palisadoes: Any advice you’d like to give students who plan to take up such projects?
Agyei: Doing projects like these is a great way to get experience with app development, but before rushing striaight into app development and trying to learn frameworks, they should try to learn the basics of the language they choose first. It is a common mistake I see some students making, trying to learn angularjs with no previous knowledge of JavaScript on which it relies heavily.

Peter Harrison Discusses the Calico Challenge

Peter Harrison, president of the Palisadoes Foundation was interviewed about the Calico Challenge by the Jamaican American Club. Listen to what he has to say about Palisadoes, the Calico Challenge and life in Silicon Valley.