According to a report by Jamaica Observer, Jamaica has tremendous potential for becoming the next document storage hub in the Carribbean. This is evidenced by the success of Archway Caribbean, a company that specializes in document storage, management, and shredding. Archway was founded in 2007.
St.James, Jamaica-based firm, Archway Caribbean is currently engaged in the domestic market, but it plans to expand to the U.S. and elsewhere in North America.
Reports say that the idea of a nearshore destination like Jamaica for outsourcing information storage has a cost advantage over faraway locations like India. Although outsourcing to India has been a standard practice over the last ten years or so, companies are going to be interested in the proximity to the U.S. that Jamaica offers. It costs a bit more – a few cents in U.S. dollars or the equivalent of $1.50 Jamaican currency – to store information in Jamaica. However, when looking at the big picture of outsourcing, it would make more sense to have company information closer to home. Jamaica will be able to cash in on this concept when physical documents are converted into digital information.
Nearshoring emerged as a top outsourcing trend in 2009. Archway specializes in retrieval, storage and shredding of documents and also provides services in email management, scanning, disaster recovery solutions and server backup and storage.
Storing crucial company information is relevant in the current economic climate, particularly when it comes to legal disputes. This also gives companies the chance to focus solely on its core competencies. It can also save on operational costs, provide better security and efficiency and better business continuity. It will be easier to retrieve information or paperwork from Jamaica than it would be from India.
The public, finance, legal and retail sectors are highly paper-intensive in comparison to firms in industries that rely on digital information. Managing Director of Archway, David Holland says Archway could offer significant improvements in efficiency over its competitors elsewhere. The document storage industry is huge and Jamaica is well-poised to tap the multi-billion dollar industry.
Holland told the Caribbean Business report that records management has been outsourced for more than sixty years to the U.S. As a near-shoring destination, Jamaica as a near shoring location is an excellent alternative to India and for U.S. firm to decrease costs by offshoring records and document management,” added Holland.
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