FUJITSU POWERS DIGITAL PUSH

Jamaica’s drive to modernise decades of paper-based government and business records is getting a fresh boost, with Fujitsu Caribbean opening a specialised digitisation centre in St Andrew capable of turning old documents into searchable data that can be used in digital systems and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The new Digitisation Operations Centre, dubbed “The Engine Room”, is already supporting major public-sector projects, including the conversion of vital records held by the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) and documents linked to the National Land Agency’s e-titling programme. Mervyn Eyre, CEO of Fujitsu Caribbean, said the facility is designed to go beyond basic document scanning by converting information contained in paper records into structured digital data that can be searched, analysed, and integrated into applications.

“It’s not just the image of the document. It’s all of the data that can then be ingested into applications to support transformation of organisations and ultimately society,” Eyre said during an interview with the Jamaica Observer following the unveiling at the company’s Holborn Road offices on Wednesday. Minister Audrey Marks is given a guided tour of Fujitsu’s recently launched Digitisation Operations Centre located at the company’s Holborn Rd offices in New Kingston.

She is joined by Mervyn Eyre (left), CEO of Fujitsu Caribbean and permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Rocky Meade (right). (Photos: Garfield Robinson) Pointing to Fujitsu’s work with entities such as the Registrar General’s Department (RGD), Eyre said this provides an example of how the company has helped to digitise vital records, including birth, death, and marriage records dating back to 1935, while converting information contained in the documents into searchable data. He said the same approach is now being applied to the National Land Agency’s e-titling programme, as Fujitsu digitises records associated with the land-titling process while supporting the development of automated workflows around them.

The St Andrew-based facility utilises high speed scanners capable of processing up to 70 pages per minute, while using technology and AI tools to extract information from typed and handwritten documents. “These are not easy jobs,” Eyre said, noting that accuracy is critical when dealing with names, property records, and other s…