The development of Digital Jersey is a lot of things. What it is not is a huge, hyped opportunity for us to be the biggest and best ICT centre in the world. Why would we even want that? We aren’t Silicon Valley and we never will be. We simply don’t have enough people with the right skills and no amount of effort, even if we set up a ‘Google-esque’ university campus with primary-colored beanbags, is going to make us a Digital City. Even ignoring the impracticalities of this aim, this is not the right style for Jersey. We are a small, beautifully formed and located, financially and legally expert island with a great tax rate. We don’t need big ideas; we need good ideas.

What Digital Jersey could and should be, is a sensible, targeted strategy for us to build a sustainable, economically beneficial industry. To do this, we need money (more than is currently allocated), spent on skills and education, outsourced research and advice, and very targeted marketing that is scaled and focused appropriately. Instead of being the centre that takes high risks to create new digital businesses, we should use our existing skills to be the place that digital businesses move to once they start making money, after they have been incubated. In the same way we have been picky about the banks that we allow to set up in Jersey, we need to be careful to maintain the standards of quality that have held us in good stead. We are an attractive destination and we must continue to attract, choose and develop winners, without high footprints or the requirement for hundreds of graduates.

The recession has made everyone nervous, but this is not the time to panic or become uncharacteristically risk taking we don’t need evangelists, we need pragmatists. We need to be innovative and smart, but understand we are never going to be like Silicon Valley or Cambridge, but something different, something new.

Mark Loane founded C5 Alliance in 1999, a company that now provides the most experienced, skilled and qualified IT consultants in the Channel Islands, delivering advanced business solutions.

As the CEO of C5 Alliance, Mark has overseen the fulfilment of numerous system migration projects which have included the supply of strategic and technological direction, software development and business process re-engineering. He has also provided strategic guidance for the provision of ICT to local government and a range of organisations within the offshore Financial Services and Legal sectors.

Born in Jersey, Mark has worked in the IT Industry for over 25 years. He is passionate about the IT Industry and has made a significant impact in attracting, nurturing and retaining emerging technical talent locally, giving C5 and other Island companies a qualified and experienced resource pool to draw from in future.

IOD Digital Jersey