tTech Limited Looks for Recovery After Setbacks
Our Today | September 23, 2022
Jamaica-based managed IT services provider tTech Limited has approved the retirement and re-election of directors Hugh Allen and Tracey-Ann Spence, as well as the appointment of new auditors, Crichton Mullings, from its previous providers Ernst & Young.
The moves were among four resolutions approved by large majority during tTech’s annual general meeting (AGM), held September 15 at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston.
During the AGM, 2021 was lauded as a triumphant, yet trying year for tTech; a sentiment conveyed throughout the addresses by tTech Chief Executive Officer Christopher Reckord and Finance and Administration Manager Hortense Gregory-Nelson.
During his presentation, Reckord reported on tTech’s team welfare, activities and achievements as well as company operations and market conditions for its products and services.
One of the triumphs magnified by the CEO to shareholders was the company’s 15th anniversary celebration, as he stated that “we are extremely grateful to have gotten to 15 years, especially because it is said that not many businesses get to five years and only a few even get to 10”.
Deciding to forfeit the celebratory events for its 15th anniversary, tTech instead channeled its funds to several charitable initiatives to provide necessary resources to fortify students throughout the year whose education was affected by the pandemic.
The TechCon Conference and Expo, organised by tTech, was one of the major activities undertaken by the company annually and the tech industry event was another major highlight, lauded by the CEO.
The well-supported conference, which took place on April 12 to 13, brought together a line-up of eminent local and international business, commerce and technology specialists as guest speakers and presenters on pertinent topics.
The conference, according to Reckord, “provided attendees with a unique opportunity to network and facilitated a lot of knowledge exchange regarding digital transformation, cybersecurity and other topics that remain relevant to the local and regional business landscape”.
He continued, saying “we are actually still working on opportunities that came about from the event due to various interactions we had and calls that enquiries that were made to us after the event”.
“We have bolstered our portfolio to include a range of advanced security solutions and services in light of this.” – Norman Chen, Executive Director for IT Security
Norman Chen, executive director for IT Security, furthered this point, stating that “we are in a lot of talks with companies regarding data protection and we have throughout the year seen and made use of a lot of opportunities that have resulted from increased online work activity”.
He continued: “We have bolstered our portfolio to include a range of advanced security solutions and services in light of this.”
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Jamaica saw tTech pushing to facilitate business recovery and transformation among its existing and potential clients, as well as its partners.
Although the company’s revenue for the year ending 2021 was up, the financial results were less than stellar.
Gregory-Nelson reported in her presentation to shareholders that the company recorded revenues of J$392.2 million, which was an increase of 9.1 per cent compared to 2020, but incurred only J$8.2 million in net profit for the year, which was 63 per cent less than in 2020.
Gregory-Nelson stated that “unfortunately, we had some inventory write-offs that we had to do in the year and other difficulties, which affected our profits tremendously”.
Speaking on the difficulties, Chen asserted that “although there were other notable setbacks which dampened our financial performance – like delays in delivery of equipment due to the supply chain issues being experienced globally that we needed to complete some projects, we are still committed to finding new ways of maintaining operations during these shifts in the local business landscape”.
He said the the team is confident, the outlook for 2022 remains positive and the activities will contribute towards the improvement in its results.