Sigmacol

We create access to employment for people who lack opportunities in the labor market and connect them with companies that need specific skills in supply chain and operations, leveraged in technological tools, by training people in the body of knowledge that will transform the processes of the companies to increase their performance. Our solution can positively impact millions of Spanish-speaking people by developing in them the skills that allow companies to close the gaps between their needs and their current learning curve.

Unemployment is at a record level on the continent. In Colombia specifically, according to DANE, data from July 2021 shows that the occupancy rate is 51.8%, from which it can be inferred that the informality rate is 48.2%. The unemployment rate is at 14.3% as of July 2021. The population that we want to impact with our solution is represented by the 48.2% of informality, and knowing that not all of them are going to participate in our solution, we therefore believe that our focus is on the 18-49 age range represented by a population of approximately 23.3 million.

Among the factors that contribute to the lack of employment opportunities are restricted access to:
• Technical and higher education, due to its high costs, and without focus on supply chain and operations.
• Knowledge about technology.
• Acquisition of the necessary technology to study.
• High unemployment rate.
• Low paid jobs.
• High dropout at the primary, secondary and higher levels, which generates adults of working age without the necessary preparation to enter jobs that generate value in companies or to undertake with high impact.
• Households with mothers head of the family who cannot study since they need to work to maintain their home.

Create a technological platform that allows finding the appropriate match between the needs of companies and soft and hard skills of people to fill vacant positions or fulfill the required jobs through the provision of services. Our solution is developed on a database of soft and hard skills needs of companies segmented by industry and business process that connects through an algorithm with a base of people with the skills required by companies. The algorithm can evaluate through artificial intelligence and machine learning, the most appropriate match according to the profile between company and person and alert companies about the person with the highest qualification to perform functions through the existing contract modalities in Colombia, including the provision of services. This approach will help many people to define the studies to be carried out in order to qualify for a vacancy or meet the requirements to provide high-value services in a company from anywhere in the country. This objective is supported by our school of supply chain management, which has developed a body of knowledge for all the functions of the value chain of companies to fulfill the jobs of the future.

Create a technological platform that allows finding the appropriate match between the needs of companies and soft and hard skills of people to fill vacant positions or fulfill the required jobs through the provision of services.

Our solution is developed on a database of soft and hard skills needs of companies segmented by industry and business process that connects through an algorithm with a base of people with the skills required by companies. The algorithm can evaluate the most appropriate match according to the profile between company and person and alert companies about the person with the highest qualification to perform functions through the existing contract modalities in Colombia, including the provision of services. This approach will help many people to define the studies to be carried out in order to qualify for a vacancy or meet the requirements to provide high-value services in a company from anywhere in the country or the world. The solution will use artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to recognize needs, skills and create the most appropriate perfect match between company and person. This platform will meet its objective supported by our school of supply chain management and operations, which has developed a body of knowledge for all the functions of the value chain of companies, both manufacturing and service provision, and to which we incorporate knowledge in technology and soft skills to fulfill the jobs of the future.

We are addressing the TPrize 2021 challenge through the availability of a body of knowledge for the development of skills that will allow people between the ages of 18 and 49 to access good jobs through all contracting modalities in Colombia and the region by applying algorithms to find the correct match between companies and people. We consider a very vulnerable population between 18 and 29 years of age, considered as the young people that the country must prepare to lead the society of the future in Colombia and the world.

We have developed a business model for education that has been operating for 8 years, focused on people who need to certify their technical skills and experience and who are studying programs in English. Since 2019 we have developed our supply chain management school in Spanish, designing programs and certifications that have been completed by people of different levels and companies in 3 countries. Through an alliance, we have incorporated programs in statistical analysis, programming languages and intermediate and advance levels of MS Excel, so people to solve complex problems in companies, with the knowledge acquired in our school.

We need to develop the application that, through an algorithm, will be able to match people and companies to close the gaps in opportunities for good jobs. We believe this development can be done in 3 months by having the resources that TPrize will assign us in this competition.

Our solution has a holistic approach when it comes to provide a match between enterprises and people for supply chain and operations needs and skills. We will be the go-to source for companies wanting to fill the gap in their learning curve with people that will be preparing in our school to get just the right skills that will be applied in companies to increase their performance. We subject our students to constant evaluation so they can apply the knowledge in the value chain processes. As the current trend in supply chain jobs increase all around the world, we will develop more technology to be applied to process management in order for our professionals to be more productive and their respective companies more resilient and effective. We will ask the companies using our technology to assess their financial performance once our professionals start implementing their knowledge. As we get data from improved financial performance in companies, our solution will be known deeper in the market and we expect to gain the preference of companies to change the way their learning curve is acquired.

Our business model relay on technology, first to deliver education in supply chain management for people that want and need to obtain better opportunities in the job market, not limiting the origin in terms of careers or previous jobs. This is delivered through our online education platform, created on Moodle. WE have categorized our training in different areas and the body of knowledge and resources have been uploaded in the platform and delivered as self-paced study. We also have live online programs scheduled through the year. The second component, which we want to develop with the resources received from TPrize is the data mining algorithm to identify the associations between the enterprises needs and people skills through a clustering approach. We will also include record linking and fuzzy matching algorithms in order to power the matching function of the technology.

Our solution uses a widely accepted technology based on Fuzzy Matching and Record Linking for Python. You can see an example in the following link https://pbpython.com/record-linking.html. We use a similar technology in our ASCM (Association for Supply Chain Management) account, to match mentors with mentees to establish a relationship to guide young professionals in the supply chain world. This cannot be shared as the ASCM account is only for members. We re working on a demo, so as this time of submit the application for the TPrize is not ready yet.

At the moment of this application, we are risking our business model, so we trust anyone reading these lines is conscious enough to respect what has been described. We will explore the application of blockchain in order to reduced risks for the use of our technology, like:

• Personal data leakage.
• Security on transactions and results of the matching.
• Enterprise information leakage.
• Security breach from outsiders, non-registered in the matching application.

We will use part of the resources received from TPrize to register brands and intellectual property.

People served with our spanish speaking online training platform: 30.

Projected people to serve in one year: 1,500.

Projected people to serve in five years: more than 10,000.

We aim to impact millions of people in the coming years. This enourmus task can be done by segmenting our plans in paid services and tuition programs as part of our corporate social responsibility strategy as we want to be inclusive and give people with low income and no resources the ability to attend our programs. We will look for partnerships with big companies to accomplish the social programs. We will develop a network of people that can help us build the trust in the markets we want to operate in.

As we seek to serve people from 16 to 49 years old, we see a potential market of 223 million. However our serving goal is based in the following numbers:

One year from now: 223,000 people representing 0.1% of the potential market.

Five years from now: 1115,000 people representing 0.5% of the potential market.

We will seek the support from investors in order to penetrate the markets we plan to enter in, develop and execute marketing plans and epand our education offering so our maatching algorithm can be more effective with the need of enterprises.

Sales through different channels.

% of growth of our database segmented by companies and people.

% of new products introduction to measure the increase in our education offering.

% of growth in users of our education platform.

Conversion rate of prospects.

Employment rate of people graduating from our School.

Full-time staff: 2

Contractors: 10

Other workers (consultants): 3

Carlos Perozo, Supply Chain Solutions SAS CEO.

Manufacturing and Supply Chain professional with 20 years of professional experience in the Oil & Gas and Service Industries in different countries, with working knowledge in all areas of the supply chain. Has been leading Supply Chain Solutions SAS to grow and position its business in Colombia and has an ambitious plan to make the organization grow exponentially by transforming its business model.

-Yvonne Marcano, Supply Chain Solutions SAS Legal Representative.

With more than 8 years of working knowledge and experience in the Telecommunications industry, it has been fundamental in the strategy of the organization working very closely with the CEO to resume a new business model.

- Diego Espítia - SCM Consultant.

Expert in configuring and implementing highly competitive, profitable and efficient supply chains through the application of the "Supply Chain Operations Reference Model" model (SCOR) of APICS.

-Alvaro Angel - SCM Consultant.

Supply Chain Management expert, with more than 35 years of experience in all areas of supply chain in different industries and countries. A valuable asset from which to leverage Supply Chain Solutions SAS education and consulting strategy.

My team is always looking for feedback from customers and prospects in order to provide relevan information to strategey development. We are lways looking at trends identified in different markets and presented in different reports to use them as input for product development.

My approach is inclusive. We are all from different countries (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, México, Brazil). We have a pool of partners and consultants that are called based on their skills and assigned to projects involving people from different countries. With other solutions we have serve more than 8 countries in Latinamerica keeping also partnerships with companies from the US and Canada.

In my past experience in the Oil and Gas Industry, I have worked in 7 different countries and visited many more so I have learned from different cultures and love the idea of evolving for good as a society worldwide. Loving learning and interacting with people from different cultures and backgrounds have help me grow as a human being.

It is our commitment not to discriminate by any reason when interacting with our team and the public and it will be in our backbone and values to conduct businesses in an ethical manner.

We are applying to TPrize 2021 because we believe in overcoming the challenge presented by the TPrize team. The barrier between the companies needding talent and the people that need to develop skills in order to get better job opportunities can be tore down. We are living difficult, volatile and uncertain times that can be overcomed only with better education and preparation for the jobs of the future in an inclusive way. No matter what the expertise, background or culture of a person is, we want everyone to have an opportunity in this world, and education is the base. The rest is done with the help of technology, like our solution to match enterprise needs with people skills.

We need help in scaling and accelerating our online platform solution. We need a partner that provide funds to execute marketing plans and the expansion of our client base, hiring software developers to make our solutions more robust and be integrated. 

MIT, MIT Solve, Virgin Unite, Amazon, Walmart, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Venture Capital companies, Angel Investors to provide knowledge and funds to scale and accelerate our business model.

Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Warren Buffet to receive mentoring in scaling and keeping the business sustainable.