Bahrain's labour fund Tamkeen conducted a workshop on information and communications technology (ICT) finance scheme awareness for small and medium enterprises.

The workshop was organised for the members of the Bahrain Society for Owners of Private Training Institutes (BSOPTI) under its ICT Finance Scheme. More than 50 participants attended.

The ICT Finance Scheme is an initiative by Tamkeen to promote the ICT uptakes by private sector enterprises in Bahrain in order to transform their businesses and increase their productivity.

This is the pilot phase of the project under which Tamkeen aims to serve 50 enterprises in their ICT initiatives.

Tamkeen operates this scheme in association with two partner banks - Bahrain Islamic Bank and BMI Bank - with a portfolio of BD1 million ($2.6 million).

'ICT and e-business applications provide many benefits across a wide range of intra- and inter-firm business processes and transactions,' said Tamkeen private sector support manager Dr Mohamed Amin.

'ICT applications improve information and knowledge management inside the firm and can reduce transaction costs and increase the speed and reliability of transactions for both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. In addition, they are effective tools for improving external communications and quality of services for established and new customers.'

SMEs usually have limited financial means to make larger ICT investments in their firm due to the lack of financing options and limited or nonexistent budgets for ICT. Tamkeen therefore perceives the ICT Finance Scheme to bridge this financial gap by providing a zero per cent profit rate and up to 25 per cent of discount on the principal amount.

BSOPTI president Dr Lulwa Al Mutlaq hailed the scheme and said: 'Tamkeen has again identified an area where businesses and organisations in the kingdom need to focus.

'This is an area where many organisations have not kept up to date with innovations and changes in IT structures.

'As a representative of the training industry we need to lead in this field. The support and encouragement given by Tamkeen will help us and many others in this vital area.'

The workshop was concluded by an introduction of a case study of an application to the ICT Finance Scheme to showcase how the ICT may be capitalised upon to achieve gains for the enterprise.

Arabic Eastern Training Centre (AETC) volunteered to discuss their experience with the adopted ICT systems through Tamkeen scheme.

AETC managing director Hassan Ali Ahmed said that the centre has faced multiple challenges with its old system, namely, the lack of an integrated CRM, inaccurate data entry and no client interaction through the system.

Hence, AETC considered availing the benefits of Tamkeen's ICT Finance Scheme for implementing the new Online Training Management System which has increased accuracy in AETC operations by providing workflows, he said.

'It has reduced management costs by simplifying the overall management cost with a single operation dashboard and has improved customer relations and satisfaction,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service