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The right mix

11/3/2009

Enabling environment attracts forensics firm

By Randy Howard

AN attractive tax structure and a depth of human resource talent and capability has resulted in Barbados being chosen as the home for a forensics ballistics firm that is looking to become the number one provider in the world.

Pyramidal Industries Limited, has decided to make this island the country from which the company will launch its attack into the forensic ballistics market, bringing technology that is far beyond anything that is currently available.

Speaking to the Barbados Advocate from Ottawa last week, CEO and President Mike Barrett, stated that the company was incorporated here about 15 months ago, and that business activities commenced in July 2009. He noted that all activity will originate from Barbados, as there is no other branch set up as yet.

Barbados’ tax-efficient structure and human resource pool were cited as influential in the decision to set up the company here.

“The tax structure and the tax treaties that are in place with Canada and the US are very attractive from our point of view,” Barrett said. “That also allows us to keep our price competitive. If we were paying 40 per cent the Canadian Government then that’s 40 per cent more that we’d have to tack onto our price, but we don’t have to do that now so we’re very well priced.”
He went on to state that the other reason is that of all the islands that they looked at, Barbados probably had the best selection of qualified technical people.
“There’s a university right on the island and although a lot of countries may have a few good people, the depth is here in Barbados and that why we chose here,” he said.
In addition, he pointed to the fact that relative to the other islands, airline connections are great everywhere in the world.
Barrett stated that in the long-term they expect to have a full staff complement of about 100 persons, most of whom they hope to source in Barbados.
“We’ve already started collecting resumes, but obviously the triggering event for that is going to be sales,” he indicated.

Forensic system

According to Barrett, Pyramidal Industries produces computerised analysis systems for forensic ballistics.

“Essentially it’s a giant filter; you enter all of the cartridge cases that you find in shootings and hopefully one day you’ll be able to connect a couple cases doing this, and that could either lead to finding the perpetrator or give you more clues to help you find them”, he explained.

The system, which was slated to be finished at the end of October, is being marketed, with prospective clients in the Persian Gulf and Europe, and the CEO argued that the rate at which they will be able to secure the level of sales that they desire really depends on a couple things, the most important being the motivation of the country.

However, Barrett is confident, noting that there has been a trend recently of countries looking to get rid of the old systems because they haven’t been kept up to date.

He made the point that up until a few years ago there wasn’t even another viable option, noting that there are essentially six providers of these systems in the world, including Pyramidal.

One of these six providers includes a company based in Canada that Barrett previously worked for, which he argued has not made any advances in technology for more than a decade.

Encouraging response

Last week the system was showcased in Germany, and Barrett stated that he was pleased with the interest that was shown.

“I thought it was hugely successful and very positive. We had a number of technical people there spending a lot of time at our booth, and they seemed to be asking the types of questions that you would ask if you were seriously at looking acquiring a system or replacing the one you have.”

The CEO pointed to the differences that exist between his product and those already on the market.

“It’s the only system in the world right now that uses a 3D correlation; some of them have 3D imaging, but all the correlation is done on a 2D image. The major competitor, my old company, their images have 300 000 pixels in it, we’ve got about 12 million, so it’s a whole different order of magnitude”, he said.

He also went on to state that their “resolution is about 2 microns, and to put that in perspective the average human hair is about 100 microns, so we’ve about one-fiftieth the diameter of a human hair, so that’s very fine.”

He argued that the other thing that distinguishes them from everybody else is their service plan, stating that where as most companies have a one level plan, they have five levels that range from zero cost, if you have your own Information Technology personnel; up to the platinum level service where there is a two-hour response time.

Indices

as of close 9/15/2009


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