The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian software developer yesterday said it is “difficult to compete with free” after the Customs Department provided small brokers with a similar product that can integrate with its electronic goods clearance system at no cost.

Clyde Symonette, Information Specialists Ltd’s (ISL) managing director, told Tribune Business that his Single Window Management (SWIM) software is “superior” to any rival and was offered to Bahamian Customs brokers prior to the Government-imposed mandate that they digitally connect to its Electronic Single Window (ESW), or Click2Clear, system.

Mr Symonette said: “We have developed a package that, given the set of circumstances that were being enforced, we had a solution to the problem that arose. We had that solution before the problem arose and we still have that solution.” Customs, though, is now providing the necessary software solution for free to small brokers who

Asked if this had cost him business opportunities, Mr Symonette replied: “That was never our concern. That was always a Ministry of Finance initiative, and was never our initiative. It doesn’t matter to me. The integration system that they had given out, they said that they would produce a free version, and that’s what they said they would do and that has nothing to do with me.

“We continue to get customers coming in, but it has tapered off a bit. But no matter how good the system is, nothing is better than free. No matter how much time it saves you, the genuine logic is, not only in The Bahamas but across the world, nothing isn’t free. So it’s difficult compete with free.”