Chris Cargill (left) and Christopher Reckford of Innovative Corporate Solutions

Business partners Brian Chung and Chris Cargill who hold a combined 33 per cent stake in Innovative Corporate Solutions - in which they share ownership with information technology experts Christopher Reckord and Neil Abrahams - plan to leverage that company to create solutions for their other business interests.

Chung and Cargill are owners of the popular nightclubs Asylum, Quad, and Christopher's; as well as fast food delivery service, 925-Jerk; Digicel dealerships; and CD manufacturing company, Island Stitches.

"We realise that we do have good synergies to put all of our experiences together," Cargill told the Business Observer. Apart from consolidating the accounting packages, Cargill believes that technology could be used to enhance customer experience at his nightclubs.

Cargill and Chung pumped $20 million into the IT firm, that was formally launched in December last year, saying that they wanted to diversify into a business that was on the cutting edge of technology.

"This is a business that Brian and I are looking at as a business of the future and a business that we're going to put a lot of effort in and grow," he told the Business Observer.

The duo's first involvement in the industry dates back to 2001 when they opened a Digicel dealership in Tropical Plaza and took over another in Sovereign Centre, both in Kingston, the following year. In November 2002, they established a 48-seat-outbound telemarketing company, but in May 2004, leased it to Teleservices Direct - a US company that operates a call centre in Montego Bay.

Cargill and Chung own the 33 per cent stake in Innovative Corporate Solutions through Victory Communications, operated by the duo and another partner, Marlon Creary.

Innovative Corporate Solutions currently employs 27 persons. It operates from Blaise Industrial Park on Constant Spring Road which also houses two of Cargill's and Chung's other businesses, 925-Jerk and Island Stitches.

Christopher Reckord, chief executive officer of Innovative Corporate Solutions, told the Business Observer that the company had more than 100 clients, including such household names as SuperPlus Food Stores, National Housing Trust, the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), and JAMPRO.

However, the majority of the clients are in what Reckord describes as "the mid-market arena".

Victory Communications, which manages the Digicel stores, plans to consolidate the entire organisation - Nightime Entertainment, Victory Communications, 925-Jerk - into one accounts package.

"We are planning to set up a practice around business solutions, and that's one of the first impacts on the whole organisation - to benefit from the financial and accounting software package," explained Reckord.

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