By Anthony Morgan

Stakeholders involved in the development of the Government’s new E-Commerce National Delivery Solution (ENDS) have sought to allay fears over the safety of the new digital platform.

Concerns have been raised about the solution, which started with a pilot in Portmore, based on experiences with another government portal, JAMCOVID, where several security breaches were recently uncovered by a tech journalist in the US.

Spokesperson for ENDS, Christopher Reckord

However, Spokesperson for ENDS, Christopher Reckord, told Kaliah Reynolds on Taking Stock that the software team has been working to ensure a similar fate doesn’t reach ENDS.

Lessons from JAMCOVID 

“We’ve learned from other situations happening before. You heard about vulnerabilities with JAMCOVID so we ensured that this was secure from the beginning; we brought in tech experts around security from the get go and they’ve tested every step of the way. The reports were handed in to ensure that all the risks and vulnerabilities that were exposed were in fact addressed,” said Reckord.

He said the public should be assured of a safe product, especially as it is being powered by a number of existing software programmes including WiShops from e-payment provider, WiPay.

Through the WiShops solution, several unbanked vendors, such as pan chicken operators, were easily integrated into ENDS. The system works in partnership with a local financial institution.

Collaborative Effort

“Everyone is just chipping in right now to say let’s solve a national problem and try to create a new ecosystem which can facilitate a number of businesses and a number of new revenue opportunities around delivery and ecommerce all happening by the way cashless,” said Reckord.

  “Christopher Gayle, built a software called Get There where tech allows the track and trace of vehicles and Wipay came in to help build out the registration portal. We pulled everything in the mix and created ENDS,” he added.

Country Manager at WiPay Jamaica, Kibwe McGann said his company was ready for the collaboration and has also denounced any hesitation regarding the security of the solution.

Country Manager at WiPay Jamaica, Kibwe McGann

He said a lot of the skepticism will have to be met with digital literacy training, especially for persons who aren’t tech savvy.

“As more people come on, it will catch on like wildfire,” he said. “We were contacted and made aware of the problem and we assisted in building the platform… in addition to answering the questions of how do we ensure that the platform is secure, how do we ensure that if policemen pulled over people during curfew, that they can be identified,” added McGann.

No timeline for national rollout; pilot expanded

At the same time, Reckord has pleaded to the public to understand that the solution remains a work in progress, hence it is not yet rolled out nationally.

He failed to give a timeline for national rollout. However on Holy Thursday, an announcement was made of an expansion of the pilot project to Montego Bay, St James and Kingston, for the Easter weekend. A review of the pilot should be made in three weeks.

“We’re all trying to solve a problem together. We’ve jumped out of a plane and are building up to releasing the parachute; just work with us and help us to open the parachute before we hit ground,” said Reckord.

Meanwhile, Reckord said ENDS was not designed to sideline smaller delivery players. He reasoned that the team had to go with taxi operators within the geographical plain of the pilot as none of the other existing vendors outside of the area had operations in Portmore.

“We had to try and figure out a way to add the taxi operators into the solution as they know the [Portmore] area like the back of their hand, and turn them into our version of Uber Eats,” he said.

These existing delivery services can however register for the solution when it is expanded.

Fee structure 

According to Reckord, the test ENDS environment does not charge any fees to anyone. However, the various service providers have their own fee structure for their operations so fees will vary for the customer depending on which delivery agent they choose.

Merchants using existing e-commerce platforms and eComm providers also have to negotiate their own fees. 

The public can register to use the solution via ENDS.gov.jm. It’s understood the team has also been working on a mobile app. Discussions are also underway with the Central Bank about a top up voucher payment option.

The voucher solution would see persons trading physical money for virtual cash from payment vendors to use on the ENDS system. However, regulations will need to be put in place before that aspect becomes ready. 

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