St. Lucia NCPC ProTool

The NCPC’s Protool is the first of its kind in the region

The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) is forging ahead with the online version of its productivity measuring tool called the ‘Protool.’ The NCPC is mandate to identify and analyze issues which affect national competitiveness and productivity and provide solutions to policy makers and other stakeholders to positively impact productivity and economic growth. Measuring national productivity is therefore one of the core activity of the NCPC. Productivity is the ratio of actual output to total inputs. It is a measure of the efficiency of production. For businesses, measuring productivity growth is vital as it translates to higher profits and the continuation of business. The Protool developed by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) is a dynamic productivity measuring tool which assesses productivity levels and provides feedback on weak identifiable areas within a firm. Director of the NCPC, Fiona Hinkson indicated that via funding from Compete Caribbean Partnership Facility a product design and development company has been contracted to convert the Protool from its current Exel spread sheet platform to an online application. “So right now we are going into full development into making it an online platform and so we are hoping that early next year we will be able to launch the tool and to be able to encourage everyone to measure their productivity.”FASOVE is the Product Design and Development Company out of Trinidad and Tobago contracted to develop the online version of the protool while improving the customer experience and final output. Ezim Abdool, is an External Director with FASOVE. “What we’re going to do, is we’ve decoded the Exel data sheet and we have our developers figuring out what are these kinds of formulas that people are working on. So we are at step one right now which is actually engaging people with the Exel sheet as it exists right now just to find out if it is actually useful in that form. And at the end of today’s session we found out there are a lot of things that need to be tweaked. So our first goal is figuring out which ones we’re going to tweak, which ones we’re going to leave alone, time and resources permitting, the next step after that is creating a web platform itself.”From November 20th to 22nd consultations were held with a cross section of stakeholders both in the Private and Public Sectors soliciting their feedback on possible improvement to the updated version of the Protool. The protool is an innovative, first of its kind product for St. Lucia and the region. Managing Director for Converge Solutions Inc. Terrance Elliot said using the protool is akin to getting a blood test, analyzing the results and taking the necessary action. “I believe that information is powerful. It is key for business development, so any company looking to assess their performance and project into the future, improve on their operations, it would be something hand in hand, that they need to have at hand as we go through.” Taija Adjodha highlighted that the Protool could be employed effectively within the two businesses she is involved in, Island Adventures, a touring company and Solar Connections, a solar energy firm. “Solar Connections, it will help us in terms of how we move stock and decide what are the problem that are stopping us from meeting goals that we may have set whether it be short term or long term. Island Adventures provides a service, it also helps a company like that where it comes to sales, the customer experience, efficiency, how we use our assets to carry out those services. It would give us a lot of insight into those things and helping our operations overall.”Consultant with Compete Caribbean, Dr. Kieron Swift said Compete is pleased to continue providing support to the NCPC. Compete Caribbean’s main purpose is to promote and stimulate the development of Caribbean economies through supporting the private sector. It is funded by the Governments of Canada and the UK, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. “We assisted in even the establishment of the NCPC, the establishment of a Commercial Court here. We’re currently working on the development of an entire competitiveness agenda whose objective is really to change and to lift a different level the way in which the country functions and punches above its weight at a global level.”The NCPC is hopeful that the online version of the Protool will improve the productivity data gathering by making the tool more accessible to the private sector.

Posted by The National Competitiveness And Productivity Council – St. Lucia on Thursday, November 28, 2019