Jamaica Opens Incubator to Help BPOs Gain Traction

Jamaica has opened another plug-and-play facility, refining a model that has drawn dozens of foreign BPO firms to the island over the past decade.

The new facility, called the Informatics Park Incubator, is located in Portmore, a city in the parish of St. Catherine. As the name “plug-and-play” suggests, companies can move in, connect to ready-made infrastructure, and start working almost immediately — without spending months on setup.

“We provide everything except the people,” said Gloria Henry, vice president of BPO at the Port Authority of Jamaica. In simple terms, the incubator comes fully equipped with technology, furniture, equipment, high-level security systems, PCI compliance for payment processing, and employee amenities.

The project was made possible through collaboration between several organizations. The Inter-American Development Bank provided financing for construction, the Kingston Free Zone installed the HVAC and technical systems, and the Global Services Association of Jamaica supplied computers and servers.

According to Gloria Henry, one company is already operating in the facility, and discussions are underway with another potential tenant. Companies can stay in the incubator for as short as 90 days or as long as 18 months. The goal is not to keep them there permanently, but to help them transition smoothly to a long-term location, usually inside one of Jamaica’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Henry told Nearshore Americas.

The process is straightforward. Once a company completes registration at the Companies Office of Jamaica, it can move into the incubator. During its stay, the Port Authority helps the company obtain an SEZ license and find permanent office space.

This incubator model is not entirely new to Jamaica. The country first experimented with similar facilities in the late 1990s through a partnership between Jamaica Digiport International and the Montego Bay Free Zone. That early incubator closed in 2004. The concept was revived more successfully in 2015 with support from the Inter-American Development Bank and the Global Services Association of Jamaica.

Since 2015, around 15 companies have used the incubator system, and nearly all of them successfully moved on to permanent facilities. The Montego Bay incubator is much larger, with 220 seats, while the new Portmore facility is smaller, offering 84 seats.

The model also benefits existing BPO companies. They can use the incubator to test new campaigns or services without committing to long-term leases, which reduces risk when experimenting with new ideas.

Rising up the value chain

Jamaica’s BPO sector has grown steadily despite occasional setbacks from hurricanes. The country is now the largest BPO hub in the Caribbean, employing between 40,000 and 50,000 people and generating close to $1 billion in annual revenue. The total workspace dedicated to BPO operations across the island has expanded to more than three million square feet, according to the government data.

The government is now focused on moving the industry up the value chain — from basic voice support to higher-skilled services such as data analytics, compliance monitoring, complex customer engagement, and knowledge-based processing.

At the launch of the Portmore incubator, Delano Seiveright, Minister of State for Industry and Commerce, emphasized this shift. Jamaica is also strengthening its infrastructure and regulations. The country has adopted global PCI-DSS standards for payment security, and its Data Protection Act includes several key elements of Europe’s GDPR. These measures have allowed Jamaican BPOs to handle sensitive work such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) monitoring and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes.

A similar upgrade is happening in healthcare outsourcing. The government has started training workers in ICD-11 medical coding, and some local BPOs are now managing revenue cycle operations for U.S. hospitals — from patient registration to final claims processing. Training is also expanding into telehealth support and care management for chronic conditions.

“Healthcare is our niche area,” Henry added. “We are hopeful of seeing many Jamaican BPO companies serving this sector.”

Workforce development programmes, supported by the HEART/NSTA Trust, are likely create a steady pipeline of trained talent in medical office administration and digital health services. This allows companies that start small in the incubator to grow quickly into larger, specialized operations.