Belize Business Bureau launches new software

Small businesses can now benefit from software designed specifically to suit their needs. The initiative was undertaken by the Belize Business Bureau in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat and is known as the Economic Performance Benchmarking Tool (EPM). According to the agencies, E.P.M. seeks to improve the local and global competitiveness and sustainability of Belize’s small business sector. This morning they told us more about it.

Ram Venuprasad, Adviser Enterprise Development, Commonwealth Secretariat
“We’ve been working in Belize over the last three years to enhance the competitiveness of the small business sector in Belize and this project is one element of that whole thing. The whole programme of assistance is about half a million Belize dollars that we’ve been providing Belize. This particular tool is a very powerful I.T. based tool which help small businesses diagnose where there business operation is at the moment and identify certain gaps and improve in those gaps in their operations, in their sales and marketing and maybe their general management.”

OneydaFlores
“How long did it take you to come up with this software?”

Kevin Hanlon, EPM Software Developer, Commonwealth Secretariat
“The software has been in development now for about five or six years. These last three years we’ve been working in Belize. What we try to do is configure the software so that it works specifically for the businesses that the Belize Business Bureau are going to be working with, so part of the software is a benchmarking facility that will allow businesses to compare themselves against other businesses within sector and will also enable the Belize Business Bureau to monitor the progress of these businesses.”

Misael Flores, President Belize Business Bureau
“Small Business in Belize is important for the economy; that is what drives the economy, the small businesses and the productive sector. The new board of the Business Bureau will be focusing its efforts, in these coming years in implementing member services and try to focus on improving the small businesses, improving their access to tools like these that they on their own will not be able to access.”

The Belize Business Bureau will now be offering this service to its members as well as to other small businesses. For further information contact them at 222-4501.